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FOXE'S 



BOOK OF MARTYRS: 



A COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF 



THE LIVES, SUFFERINGS, AND TRIUMPHANT DEATHS OF 

THE PRIMITIVE AND PROTESTANT MARTYRS, 

IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. 



WITH NOTES, COMMENTS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 

BY REV. J. MILNER, M.A, 

/ 

ASSISTED BY ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM LEARNED AND EMINENT MINISTKRS. 

® $cfo antr Cormtrtf station. 

WITH AN ESSAY ON POPERY, AND ADDITIONS TO THE PPvESENT TIME, 

BY REV. INGRAM COBBIN, M.A. 

/ 



LONDON: 

AVILLIAM TEGG AND CO., 85, QUEEN STREET, CHEAPSIDE. 
PARTRIDGE & OAKEY ; AYLOTT & JONES, PATERNOSTER EOTY. 

GLASGOW: WILLIAM COLLIXS; R. GRIFFIN AND CO. 
EDINBURGH & LONDON : JOHNSTONE & HUNTER. 

1851. 






GIFT 
POL. JAMES S. CHIUDER9 
^^ UULY ZS, 1944 






p«y 



PREFACE. 



Foxe's Martyrs are among our earliest recollections ; and their 
spirit-stirring incidents rivetted our eyes to their pages in our 
earliest childhood. Here we see " the great things that faith can do, 
and the great things that faith can suffer." Here we behold, in 
fact, what Bunyan has so admirably described in fiction ; here is 
Faithful again suffering and dying; here are graphically described 
the reacting in all parts of the world, and in our own country in 
particular, of the awful tragedies of Jerusalem, in which the Saviour 
of men was put to death, and the proto-martyr Stephen followed 
his holy example, dying by wicked hands, as a witness to the truth. 
Here in particular are seen anew the men of modern ages of 
whom the world was not worthy, " who loved not their lives unto 
the death," and whose cry mingles with that of the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they 
held : " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost not thou judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth }" These are 
they arrayed in white robes; these are they which came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb. * 

Here is "the patience of the saints," showing the influence of pure 
Christianity upon the mind, and the triumphs of the real believer 
over the world. These sufferers truly believed the word of God, and 
received it " not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of 
God, which effectually worketh in them that believe." To them, 
houses and lands, wealth and honours, friends and relations, not 
even the dearest ties on earth, nor life itself, were of any estimation 
when set in competition with their love to the Saviour ; and they 
practically illustrated in their end, the doctrine of their Divine 
Master, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
worthy of me ;" while they now reap the reward promised by Him 
who is " faithful and true." " And every one that hath forsaken 
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil- 
dren, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, 
and shall inherit everlasting life," Matt. xix. 29. 

The present times especially call for the multiplication of copies 
of such a work as that of Foxe. Every one can understand facts, 
though every one may not be capable of following up a chain of 
reasonings. And "facts are stubborn things," which no subtilty 
can evade. The papists point us to paganism as the persecutor of 
the saints, but Popery is but paganism under a mask ; and while it 



IV PREFACE. 

mingles paganism with its Christianity, it has the heart and spirit 
of paganism. It is to be hoped that " the man of s>in" has arrived 
at the period when his strength is decayed : but perhaps his dying- 
struggles will be the most violent, and they may not be short or 
few. He is losing much of his power in lands which he has hitherto 
ruled with a rod of iron, but he is aiming to redeem his losses in 
distant regions of the globe, and is obtaining subtle entrance into the 
British Isles. Under the cloak of Jesuitism and the mask of 
Puseyism, the inveterate foe of God and man is diligently at work, 
and may at length boldly show his face even in high places. The 
increased circulation of such a work as this may greatly assist in 
defeating his plans, and in throwing a fence around our common 
Protestant faith. 

Rome indeed is ashamed of her own acts, and never admits that 
she is a persecutor. Hence Foxe, and all other writers who have 
published her crimes, are denounced as liars. It is in the creed of 
Jesuitism, for expediency's sake, to aver anything or deny anything. 
And if we are to believe the statements of the papists, those who 
have suffered as martyrs, have not suffered by the hands of the 
church, but of the civil power, to whom the church has always con- 
signed them, that they might be punished "according to law." In 
the teeth of fire and fagot, they have represented themselves as 
merciful ; and the sanguinary murderers, glutted with the blood of 
the saints, have dared to assume the name of the meek and lowly 
Jesus. Let them tell us that there have been Protestant persecu- 
tors ; there have, to their shame. But persecution is not inherent 
in Protestantism, while in Popery it is an essential ingredient; and 
where ten have perished by the hands of Protestant persecutors, in 
times of darkness and ignorance preceded by Popery, whose example 
they copied, ten thousand have perished by those of the papists. 

Let us, then, hold up the inhuman system to merited execration. 
Let parents teach their children, and children teach their children, to 
dread and to oppose this " abomination of desolation," and to shun 
this "pestilence that walketh in darkness." By aiding to circulate 
this work they will be doing an essential good ; and by the light 
issuing from the flames of the martyrs' funeral piles, they may help 
to scatter the darkness which is gathering around. 

This edition, already improved by the able hands of the Rev. 
J. Milner, and by original communications from other learned and 
eminent ministers, will now be continued to the present time, and 
furnish the most complete as well as the cheapest Book of Martyrs 
which has yet been published. 

Camber well, May 20, 1848. 



ESSAY ON POPERY 



Protestant writers often seem to take up the pen rather in self-defence 
than as assailants of Popery ; or, at least, they do not think of assailing 
it till it has assumed an imposing posture, and threatened their faith by 
its daring advances. Such is the relative position of Popery and Protes- 
tantism among us at the present moment, though in many other countries 
the former is on the decline ; and every true servant of Christ is called 
upon to use his best efforts to repel the artful destroyer. 

Though apologies are offered for truth, truth needs no apology. We are 
accused by Papists as schismatics and heretics ; but the so-called schism 
consists in separating from their church, and not from the church of Christ; 
and our heresy is shunning their tradition, and not the word of God — the 
only standard of truth and infallible guide of our judgments. Whatever 
does not come from the fountain of truth in doctrine, and whatever does 
not accord with the practice of the primitive church before the Fathers 
wrote, or human creeds were invented, or Popish councils assembled, 
should be avoided as we would avoid the most destructive pestilence. 
On these grounds would we warn against Popery as the moral Upas-tree 
— to come within the atmosphere of which is to inhale the most deadly 
poison for the soul. The limits to which this Essay is restricted, require 
us to plunge at once into the heart of the subject, without further intro- 
ductory remarks : — 

The Church or Rome is erroneous in its doctrines. The Papists, 
with us, believe (1) in original sin, its defiling and ruinous nature, its being 
entailed from one child of Adam to another; but for the cure of this they 
have, as they imagine, a special remedy, which is baptism, " rightly 
administered according to the forms of the church :" in which ordinance 
the merits of Christ are applied, and thus what was contracted in genera- 
tion is cleansed away by this sort of regeneration ! The same doctrine is now 
notoriously enforced by the semi-papists who have started up in the church of 
England — a doctrine which at once sets aside the need of a change of heart, 
and deludes thousands with the idea that they have by this ordinance 
been made Christians, instead of having only received " an outward and 
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace," which if they do not after- 
wards possess, will cause them to fall short of that qualification which 
fits for the kingdom of heaven. 

(2.) The doctrine of Justification lies at the root of the tree of life. With- 
out an entire faith in the merits of a better righteousness than our own, we 
can never be saved. So conscious are mankind of guilt in the sight of 



vi ESSAY ON POPERY. 

God, that all the world have virtually at least acknowledged it. Infidels 
themselves, in moments of danger, have trembled at the thought of eternity, 
and have even prayed. " How shall man be just with God?" is a ques- 
tion of the utmost moment; yet, deceived by the arch-adversary, men have 
ever been ready to prefer a religion of external forms, to a religion of the 
heart— an outside, to an inside cleansing : a religion in which they fancy 
there is much merit, rather than one in which they must be indebted 
wholly to Divine grace. Popery panders to this lust of pride. One 
article, among many others on the subject, by the council of Trent, the 
indisputable standard of popery, says, " If any one shall affirm that good 
works do not preserve and increase justification, but that good works 
themselves are only the fruits and evidence of justification already had, 
let such an one be accursed." If justification is to be preserved by us, 
then the justification wrought out by Christ is, at best, but a precarious 
justification; and if we can increase it, then it is incomplete justification. 
If we appeal to the Bible standard, the question there occurs, " It is God 
that justifieth; who is he that condemned) ?" But popery is a jumble 
on this great doctrine ; it makes Christ to do part and the sinner to do 
part, and undervalues the efficacy of the atoning blood and all-sufficient 
righteousness of " the Lord our Righteousness." Thus one of its 
acknowledged standard authors says, " These penitential works, he [the 
papist,] is taught to be no otherwise satisfactory, than as joined and 
applied to the satisfaction Jesus made upon the cross ; in virtue of which 
alone, all our good works find a grateful acceptance in God's sight." 
Here is the most complete confusion. A man's works must be joined 
and applied to the satisfaction of Christ; and yet it is in virtue of Christ's 
satisfaction that our good works can be acceptable to God ! If we ask 
how far the efficacy of Christ's atonement extends, we are told that it 
extends to all mortal sins, as if there could be any sin not mortal, and 
exposing us to eternal death ; but then there are sins from which we 
must be justified by our own deeds, venial transgressions, which prayers, 
fastings, almsgiving, penance, and purgatory may in the end remove. 
While many poor souls are deluded by this doctrine of mixed justification, 
partly by Christ and partly by the sinner himself, the Roman Catholic 
church, by working on the pride of the human heart on the one hand, 
and on the fears of trembling souls on the other, derives no small advan- 
tage from these misnamed meritorious labours and toils. 

Moreover, in addition to his own good deeds, the papist can help 
himself from the stock of others, who need to perform them no longer! 
Those saints who have lived such immaculate lives, that they have done 
more than their duty to God and man, and have got safe to heaven with 
a treasure of works of supererogation to spare, are kind enough to allow 
the pope for the time being to assign to such as he thinks proper " a 
portion of this inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their respective 
guilt, and sufficient to deliver them from the punishment due to their 
crimes!" This doctrine was first invented in the twelfth century, and 
modified and embellished by St. Thomas in the thirteenth. To suppose 
that a sinful creature, who is bound to love God with all his heart and 
soul and mind and strength, could with his sinful nature perform more 
than is here required, is one of the most preposterous ideas that ever 



ESSAY ON POPERY. vii 

entered into the mind of man. The belief of such a doctrine is " the first- 
born of delusion;" it need be answered but very briefly from the words of 
our Divine Lord himself, " When ye shall have done all those things which 
are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done 
that which was our duty to do," Luke xvii. 10. And could we serve and 
worship God incessantly, with the purity and ardour of the burning seraphs 
around the eternal throne, we should still do no more than our duty. 

(3.) Absolution is a power presumed to belong to the popish priesthood. 
By this the priest pronounces remitted the sins of such -as are penitent. 
The council of Trent and that of Florence declare the form or essence 
of the sacrament to lie in the words of the absolution, " I absolve thee 
of thy sins!" According to this, no one can receive absolution without 
the privity, consent, and declaration of the priest : therefore, unless the 
priest be willing, God himself cannot pardon any man. They found this 
doctrine on John xx. 23 : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Had 
the words implied power to pardon sins, still that power could not, from 
this warrant, go beyond the apostles on whom it was conferred, as was 
the power of working miracles. But we see no such power claimed. The 
apostles preached the forgiveness of sins to those that repented and 
believed, (Acts iii. 19, etc. ;) and in all cases their theme was the same, " Be 
it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins," Acts xiii. 38. It was, there- 
fore, no more than a declarative absolution, assuring sinners that " He 
pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly 
believe his holy gospel." No power here belongs to the priest; it is God 
only who can forgive sins. 

(4.) Indulgences. Nearly allied to the doctrine of absolution, is the power 
of granting indulgences, or " a remission of the punishment due to sin, 
granted by the church, and supposed to save the sinner from purgatory." 
With all his absolution, the good papist stops short of heaven at last ; 
for the moment his breath is out of his body, he enters purgatory. But 
the keys of heaven being committed to St. Peter, and the popes in 
succession, they can unlock the gates, and let in the vilest sinners that 
ever corrupted the world ! For various prices souls may be redeemed out 
of purgatory, and any one may make his friends a present of a plenary 
remission of all sins ! This is too ridiculous to merit notice, but for the 
awful delusion with which it is connected. The popish priest having 
asserted his power to forgive sins, poor souls who give credit to his 
assertion are naturally anxious to obtain pardon from him. But in order 
so to do, he requires that to him they should make confession. 

(5) Purgatory must here be noticed. It has been defined as " a place 
in which the just who depart out of this life are supposed to expiate certain 
offences, which do not merit eternal damnation," Now, all sin is sin ; 
and every sin is "the transgression of the law," 1 John iii. 4; and sin, 
then, must merit death, " for the wages of sin is death," Rom. vi. 23. 
Nor does the Scripture tell us anything about the wicked being in 
punishment for a limited time, or even going to an intermediate state, or 
passing from hell to heaven. It tells us that the duration of the misery 
of the wicked is like that of the happiness of the righteous, which is for 



vin ESSAY ON POPERY. 

ever, Mark ix. 44; 1 Thess. iv. 17, etc.; that the good go instantly into 
the paradise of God, Luke xxiii. 43, Phil. i. 23; and that the wicked 
as instantly lift up their eyes in torments — torments from which escape to 
heaven is rendered impossible by an impassable gulf, Luke xvi. 26. 

There are two scriptures on which the papists found their doctrine 
of purgatory, Matt. xii. 32, and 1 Pet. iii. 18 — 20. The language of the 
former is a strong mode of expressing the unchangeable punishment of 
him who sins against the Holy Ghost. " It shall not be forgiven him, 
neither in this world, neither in the world to come." But it does not 
warrant us to say that any are forgiven in the world to come; and 
St. Paul assures us, " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is 
the day of salvation," 2 Cor. vi. 2. The second passage must be greatly 
wrested if we attempt to make anything more from it than what appears 
on its very face. Christ, who by his Spirit inspired Noah the preacher of 
righteousness, preached to the antediluvian sinners, now, and when the 
apostle Peter wrote, confined in the prison to which all unbelievers are for 
ever consigned. This doctrine of purgatory is, however, in harmony with the 
other parts of the popish creed, as it evidently leaves the work of pardon 
through Christ incomplete, and leaves even the best to make atonement 
to justice in another world ! 

(6.) The sacrifice of the mass is one of the peculiar doctrines of popery. 
For not believing in this, many a one has been sent by the papists in a 
chariot of fire, to join " the noble army of martyrs." The mass is similar to 
what Protestants call the communion service. High mass is the same 
thing more lengthened and showy. In the early ages of the church, the 
congregation was dismissed before the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
none but the communicants being allowed to remain. The officiating 
minister said, " Ita missa est/' and the congregation Withdrew; hence in 
process of time arose the name. The mass is held to be a true and 
proper sacrifice for sin ; and a sacrifice for the living and the dead ! 
Here again is a reflection on the merits of the Divine Redeemer, and a 
vile anti-scriptural doctrine, the work of human invention. When Christ 
died on the cross, his work was " finished," John xix. 30; and the apostle 
assures us that " by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 
sanctified," Heb. x. 14. Besides, a sacrifice must have a victim; but at 
best it is but the commemoration of the offering of the one only and spot- 
less Victim — " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." 
Every time that mass is offered, Christ is insulted and dishonoured. 
There is no praise to the mass, any more than to human merit, given by 
the redeemed in heaven; but their song is, " Worthy is the Lamb that 
was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honour, and glory, and blessing," Rev. v. 12. 

(7. ) Transubstantiation is closely connected witli the preceding 
doctrine. A momentary glance only can here be taken of this leading 
article of popery. In the Romish church the belief of this doctrine was 
often made a test of the faith of an individual, and was admirably evaded 
in those memorable lines of queen Elizabeth : — 

" Christ was the word that spake it ; 
He took the bread, and brake it ; 
And what that word doth make it, 
That I believe and take it." 



ESSAY OX POPERY, ix 

Revelation is often above reason ; as, for example, in describing the nature 
and existence of God: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst 
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? " Job xi. 7.' Revelation 
is not contrary to reason, nor contrary to common sense; but nothing can 
be more absurd than the popish pretence of making a bit of wafer to be 
the body of Christ, which body, in that case, has been multiplied like th* 
loaves and fishes, and eaten over and over again in all places, for many 
ages to the present time! And the words on which this doctrine is 
founded are known to every scholar of the humblest pretensions to 
mean no more than " this represents my body." A man must want 
common sense to suppose that Christ really gave his body to his 
disciples, when he administered the last supper, and yet that the same body 
was afterwards crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. 
The bread is bread that the priest gives, and the wine is wine; and what 
pretence soever he may make, he can make nothing more of it. 

Having thus briefly touched on the leading doctrines of Popery as its 
ground-work, the due notice of which would furnish matter for volumes, 
our space will only admit of a rapid glance at its practice: — 

I. The Church of Rome is arbitrary in its discipline. There 
is laxity enough among its priests, but woe be to the poor laity that fall 
within its power, even if they be monarchs on their thrones. All must 
lick the dust before the sentence of popes, councils, cardinals, inquisitors, 
and priests ! Operating on the peace of whole nations, the curse or 
excommunication of the pope has unseated the monarch on his throne, 
and sent the potentate on his knees to ask the restoration of his crown ! 
It will be sufficient to mention the cases of Henry IV., emperor of Germany, 
and of king John of England. Penances the most absurd and degrading 
have been submitted to by the slaves of popery, for which there is not 
the shadow of authority in the word of God, and which could never in 
their nature show real sorrow of heart, or make the least atonement for 
sin. What can be the real benefit derived from repeating continually 
as many Ave Marias, Pater-nosters, or Credos, as the priest may deter- 
mine? from walking barefoot? from licking the dust? consigning the 
penitent to a hair-shirt, or obliging or advising the poor devotee to inflict 
sharp castigations on his naked body? 

II. The Church of Rome is presumptuous in its claims. Its popes, 
besides claiming to be successors of St. Peter, claim to sit in the seat of 
God himself. The man who has suffered himself to be called " Dominus 
Deus Noster Papa' — " Our Lord God the Pope" — is surely the apostate 
of Scripture, who, " as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 4. No being, how great soever he 
may be supposed to be, can forgive sins, but God only, Mark ii. 7 ; 
but this the bishop of Rome and his priests, authorized by him, claim 
as their prerogative. With great artifice they will pretend that this is 
ultimately the work of God; but with the most presumptuous assumption 
they dare to teach their deluded votaries that it is the work of the pope 
and the church ! The catechism of the council of Trent declares that the 
Almighty has given to his church the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 
and that the penitent's sins are forgiven by the minister of religion, 



x ESSAY ON POPERY. 

through the power of the keys. The arrogance that presumes to dispose 
at pleasure of heaven itself, may easily be supposed to claim no inferior 
power on earth. Hence the bull of pope Sixtus V. against Henry, king 
of Navarre, and the prince de Conde, claims an authority which exceeds 
all the powers of earthly kings and potentates. " And if," says the bull, 
*' it find any of them resisting the ordinance of God, it takes more sum- 
mary vengeance upon them, and hurling them from their throne, debases 
them as the ministers of aspiring Lucifer, whatever may be their power, 
to the lowest abysses of the earth !" Acting under this supposed autho- 
rity, pope Pius V. excommunicated queen Elizabeth, asserting that " him 
God hath constituted prince over all nations and kingdoms, that he might 
pluck up, destroy, dissipate, overturn, plant and build !" In fact, the 
claims of popery for its head, have gone so far as to attribute to the 
pontiff all power in heaven and on earth; and it has been asserted that 
" the pope could do all things, sin excepted;" that " the sentences of 
God and the pope were one ;" that his " indulgence remitted even the 
punishment of hell;" and that " no appeal could be made from the pope 
to God, because he is the Christ of God!" Accursed apostasy! where 
a sinful man, whose carcase must soon pay the forfeiture of sin, and rot 
in corruption, the best emblem of his own church, presumes to claim the 
homage of mankind, and the prerogatives that belong only to Deity ! 

III. The Church of Rome is iniquitous in its practices. And 
what else is to be expected from a church which gives permission to do 
whatever is sinful. The daring sale of indulgences by Tetzel, when they 
excited the abhorrence of Christendom, was publicly condemned by the 
nuncio of pope Leo X. Tetzel, in his zeal to raise money for the holy see, 
probably went further than it was thought prudent to express so publicly, 
for he even asserted that any one might be permitted to commit the 
grossest debauchery, and offer violence to the holy Virgin herself, and be 
forgiven by the power of the pope, whose arms were equal to the cross of 
Christ! But after the death of Tetzel, a. d. 1519, a list of fees to the 
people for absolutions, dispensations, etc., was published in Paris, a. d. 
1520. Absolution for fornication in a church was to be obtained for 
nine shillings; for murdering a layman, seven shillings and sixpence; for 
killing a father, mother, or wife, ten shillings and sixpence ; for a priest 
keeping a concubine, ten shillings and sixpence ; for a layman keeping a 
concubine, the same sum ; and for other crimes the mention of which 
would but defile these pages. " Such is the celebrated tax-book of the 
Apostolic Chancery, the publication of which stamps the church of Rome 
with eternal infamy." This publication was indeed, at last, partially con- 
demned, but not till it had been a hundred years in circulation. 

But let us see if the holy popes have been more holy than their doc- 
trines, licenses, or agents. No ; a worse set of men never corrupted the 
earth. From the time of Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, to the 
latest period, the popes have been more or less of abandoned principles. 
There have been covetous popes, proud popes, profane popes, unchaste 
popes, dishonest popes, murdering popes, all of whose names and characters 
may be seen in any impartial history of these pretended representatives 
upon earth of Him who was " holy, harmless, and undefiled!" 



ESSAY OX POPERY. 3H 

As were the popes, so we must expect to find the priesthood. The 
'' forbidding to marry," a gross mark of the man of sin, has led the popish 
clergy to practise all kinds of iniquity with greediness; and the secret 
interviews, at the confessional, with females of every class and character 
afford facilities for the indulgences of forbidden propensities, of which 
the priests have not failed to avail themselves. Facts in abundance 
could be related to justify this charge, but it is not pleasant to dwell 
upon them, and they are too well known to require reference to authorities. 
The monasteries and nunneries have been often described as the seats of 
iniquity; and, in fact, the latter were no better than brothels, of the very 
worst description. In the days of Henry VIII., when these monasteries 
were fully explored in England, the abbots, priors, and monks kept as 
many women each, as any lascivious Mohammedan could desire, and their 
crimes renewed the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah! 

IV. The Church of Rome is cruel in its spirit. Those who are 
conversant with its writers know the hatred which it breeds towards 
heretics. The council of Trent, besides anathematizing all the great 
doctrines of the gospel, consigned their defenders to eternal torments. 
" Cursed be all heretics," cried the cardinal of Lorraine, at the close of its 
last session ; and " Cursed ! cursed ! " responded all the prelates. " Cursed ! 
cursed ! " echoed back the lofty dome of the old cathedral of Trent. 
Never had there been so much cursing " in any other synod, since the 
world was made." Here, too, the pages might be filled with specimens 
of this spirit. But let it suffice to remark how different from the spirit of 
Jesus, when he reproved his disciples for wishing to call down fire from 
heaven to consume the Samaritans : " He turned, and rebuked them, and 
said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of," Luke ix. 55. 

Carrying out her principles, the popish apostate has deluged the earth 
with the blood of her victims. The murders committed by queen Mary, 
and by the Irish papists, are facts too well known in history to be denied. 
Hundreds of martyrs have perished at the stake, thousands in dungeons, 
and millions form the aggregate of unfortunate Protestants, that have 
fallen under the bitter spirit of popery. Papists have imitated Saul of 
Tarsus, when he was the messenger of death to Damascus, and haled 
men and women, committing them to prison ; and are the fac-similes of 
those persecutors whom our Lord warns his disciples to expect : " Yea, 
the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God 
service," John xvi.(J^ Torturing, shooting, hanging, strangling, burning 
alive, starving to death, — in short every variety of suffering that diabolical 
ingenuity could invent, has been employed to glut the infernal appetites of 
the demons of the papacy ! Among these the holy fathers of the inqui- 
sition have shared no inconsiderable part, and have become " drunk with 
the blood of the saints." Spain and Italy have been the slaughter-houses 
for the Protestants. Nor are the barbarities of popery confined to those 
lands ; at the present moment their horrid cruelties are not unknown 
in Sclavonia, and bordering countries. We may say of these blood-thirsty 
men, as Jacob said of Simeon and Levi, " Instruments of cruelty are in their 
habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their as- 
sembly, mine honour, be not thou united !" Gen. xlix. 5, 6. 



xii ESSAY ON POPERY. 

V. The Chuiich of Rome is worldly in its policy. Its object is to 
gain dominion; to get a footing in every court; to direct the affairs of 
kingdoms and empires ; and to accumulate wealth. The Jesuits, though 
at times expelled or pretendedly so from Rome, have been its awful emis- 
saries to augment its power. The intrigues and deceptions of these men 
would fill volumes, and the conveniency of their creed to deny or affirm 
anything, or assume any profession as it may serve their purpose, is too 
well known to need recapitulating here. These men have at times as- 
sumed so much that every papal state has alternately ejected them ; and 
large numbers are now in this country — doubtless many under false colours 
— waiting the most favourable opportunities to corrupt the rising generation, 
and, as far as possible, restore the dark days of former ages. The Jesuits 
are unchangeable. So is Popery. And to show that these observations 
are not without being confirmed by facts, one sufficiently strong may 
here be quoted. After thi Reformation had been carried a considerable 
length in the minority of king James VI. of Scotland, it was in danger of 
being overthrown by the artifice of the duke of Lennox, a papist and a 
creature of the Jesuit court, who had acquired undue ascendancy over the 
young king. The ministry of the church were alarmed, and more especially 
when they saw several Jesuits and seminary priests arrive from abroad, 
and by the open revolt of some who had hitherto professed the Protestant 
faith. They warned their hearers of the state of things. Lennox at once 
publicly renounced the popish religion. But the jealousy of the nation 
was revived and inflamed by the interception of letters from Rome, grant- 
ing a dispensation to the Roman Catholics to profess the Protestant tenets 
for a time, provided they preserved an inward attachment to the ancient 
faith, and embraced every opportunity of advancing it in secret. This 
discovery was the cause of originating the national covenant. 

Confession is of most important use in establishing this dominion over 
men, and even over states and cabinets. Every member of the family is 
inadvertently made a spy. Every secret is known to the confessor. The 
king and the subject become alike the slaves of the church ! Such a 
machinery is one of the most profound pieces of policy that could ever be 
employed by arbitrary states. Entering into the deepest recesses of the 
human bosom, it brings to light every hidden thing, and at once assumes 
the control of every heart. Thus have papists learned to rule the world ! 

VI. The Church of Rome is selfish in its motives. There is nothing 
in it noble, expansive, or benevolent. While it calls itself the " Catholic" 
church, it is the most sectarian of ali churches, shutting from heaven all 
that do not enter within its pale. It never teaches its votaries to wish 
"grace, mercy, and peace" to any but those of its own community. 
If the most lovely Christians in the world are not papists, they cannot 
offer up for them the benevolent wish, " Grace be with all them that love 
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 

Whatever the church teaches, or whatever it does, doctrines, sacraments, 
discipline, all are made to operate in filling her own gaping coffers, ever 
crying, " Give, give ! " Idolatrous as she is in other matters, money is her 
chief idol. Her churches have been notorious for accumulating wealth, 
and so also have her convents and monasteries ; and the contrivances for 



ESSAY <Xn t POPERY. xiu 

that purpose have been most subtle and successful. The doctrine of pur- 
gatory, in particular, has been a mine of wealth to the church. By con- 
signing good and bad to that indescribable yet horrible state, and keeping 
them there at the pleasure of the keys, mass upon mass has been heaped 
up mountains high, like Ossa upon Pelion ; so that the poor deluded re- 
latives of the departed have exhausted their money and patience in raising 
the golden ascent, by which to scale the heavens with more facility ! 

Without going back to the disgusting period which called forth the 
Reformation, it is sufficient to state, that these vile sources of revenue are 
still especially made productive at certain periods. The Jubilee bulls 
every twenty-five years call the faithful to Rome by promising " a plenary 
indulgence, remission, and pardon of all their sins." In Spain, a lucrative 
traffic is driven in this article of papal merchandise. Four bulls contain- 
ing special indulgences are annually sent thither from Rome, which are 
bought by almost all the Spaniards, at prices suited to the condition of 
the purchasers. One bull gives plenary indulgences to commit what would 
otherwise be a mortal sin, by eating various articles of food during Lent. 
Another relates to frauds on property, allowing the guilty participants to 
retain it under certain qualifications. And what is called the Defunct 
bull obtains a plenary indulgence for any dead person, if his soul should 
happen to be still in purgatory ! But no release from purgatory without 
money ! Not a single mass nor pater-noster can be offered up for a poor 
sinner without money ! And the pope and the priest will allow the soul 
to suffer all the horrible torments which in their books and pictures are 
described as inflicted on the impenitent through countless ages, unless 
they have money to turn the keys, and release the poor victims from 
their misery. Truly, the " spirit of Popery" is the spirit of the evil one 
— " the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." 

VII. The Church of Rome is idolatrous in its worship. The wor- 
shipping of any creature, how exalted soever he may be, or the likeness of 
anything " in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath," is idolatry. The 
Virgin Mary, the popes, the saints, the very bones of the saints, have been 
and are the objects of papal idolatries. So much homage is paid to the 
Virgin Mary that it has been well observed by a modern deceased writer, 
that it looks as if the papists thought that there were four subsistences in 
the Godhead, the Virgin Mary being the fourth. The " One Mediator," 
" Jesus Christ the righteous," is lost in the crowds, or rather the clouds of 
petitions offered up to the Virgin. This idolatry has no seeming authority 
anywhere in the Scriptures but in the angelic salutation, " Hail ! highly 
favoured, the Lord is with thee ! blessed art thou among women ! " and 
Mary's words, " From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed," 
Luke i. 28, 48. Blessed rather signifies " happy;" and not a word is here 
respecting worship to be offered to Mary by future generations. But " it is 
a favourite mode of declaiming amongst Roman Catholic divines," says 
Fletcher, "to represent Jesus Christ as far more willing to listen to the 
prayers and intercession of the Virgin, than to those of other saints. The con- 
sequence of such representations is obvious. More prayers are addressed 
to the Virgin in the Roman Catholic Church than to any other saint ; and 
in some services there are ten Ave Marias for one Pater-noster." One 



xiv ESSAY ON POPERY. 

exhortation in the Catholic school-book is, " Have recourse to her in all 
your spiritual necessity ; and for that end offer to her daily and particular 
prayers." The same book says, " She is most powerful with God to obtain 
from him all that she shall ask of him. She is all goodness in regard to 
us, by applying to God for us. Being mother of God, he cannot refuse 
her request; being our mother, she cannot deny her intercession, when 
we have recourse to her. Our miseries move her, our necessities urge her ; 
the prayers we offer her for our salvation bring us all that we desire." And 
St. Bernard is not afraid to say, that " never any person invokes that 
Mother of mercies in his necessities who has not been sensible of the effect 
of her assistance." The prayers to the Virgin in the Breviary are generally 
known ; they are in harmony with the above declarations. 

The following are a few of the appellations of the Virgin : Holy Mother 
of God ; Refuge of Sinners ; Comforter of the Afflicted ; Queen of Angels, 
of Patriarchs, of Apostles, of all Saints; Mirror of Justice; Seat of Wis- 
dom; Mystical Rose; Tower of Ivory; House of Gold; and others equally 
extravagant. In the former, the honour due to Father, Son, and Spirit 
is given to a mortal — to the Virgin Mary ; and the latter are too ridiculous 
to require comment. Popery is the same now as it was in the dark ages 
of the church; and the worship of the Virgin is still one of the favourite 
tenets of Romanism, as shown in the following extract from an encyclical 
letter of Pius IX. — "In order that our most merciful God may the more 
readily incline his ear to our prayers, and grant that which we implore, let 
us ever have recourse to the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, 
the immaculate Virgin Mary, our sweetest mother, our mediatrix, out 
advocate, our surest hope and firmest reliance, than whose patronage 
nothing is more potent, nothing more effectual with God /" 

VIII. The Church of Rome is absurd, ridiculous, and blas- 
phemous in its pretensions. These absurdities and blasphemies are 
so numerous, and so notorious, that a few only need be selected; and on 
these it is unnecessary largely to expatiate. 

(1.) Transubstantiation is one of the most notorious absurdities of their 
doctrine. A greater insult was never offered to the human understanding. 
A wafer and wine are transformed by the priest into the real body and 
blood of Christ; and though eaten and drunk millions of times, still it is so 
transformed, eaten, and drunk. Truly, Catholic priests must be knaves, and 
those of their community who really believe this absurdity must be num- 
bered amongst the most silly of fools. The latter deserve pity, the former 
only to be ranked with the greatest and most dangerous rogues in society. 

(2.) Relics have brought no small revenue to the churches in which they 
have been deposited ; and these have rivalled each other in the absurd in- 
ventions of popery. At Rome are the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, en- 
cased in silver busts set with jewels ; a lock of the Virgin's hair ; a phial 
of her tears; a piece of her green petticoat; a robe of Jesus Christ, 
sprinkled with his blood ; some drops of blood in a bottle ; some of the 
water which flowed out of the wound in his side ; some of the sponge ; a 
large piece of the cross; all the nails used in the crucifixion; a piece of the 
stone of the sepulchre on which the angel sat; the identical porphyry pillar 
on which the cock perched when he crowed after Peter denied Christ; the 



ESSAY ON POPERY. xv 

rods of Moses and Aaron, and two pieces of the wood of the real ark of 
the covenant ; — this is Rome in the nineteenth century ! We might fill 
columns with relics of sacred bones, beards, hair, etc., but we must 
desist. In the church of the Escurial only, in Spain, there are no less 
than eleven thousand of these ridiculous impositions on the credulity of the 
weak and superstitious. The most extraordinary efficacy is ascribed to 
some of these relics, greatly benefiting the churches which have the good 
fortune to possess them. 

(3.) Patron saints are another happy invention to bring in grist to the 
mill. For the accommodation of the worshippers, there are in many 
churches altars belonging to a variety of these. These eminent saints are 
many of them doctors of high repute. St. Anthony cares diseases; St. 
Anthony of Padua delivers from water ; St Barbara protects against 
thunder and war ; St. Blass cures the throat ; St. Lucia, the eyes ; St. 
Nicholas helps young women to husbands ; St. Ramon protects the preg- 
nant ; St. Lazaro serves the purpose of a nurse in giving childbirth ; St. 
Polonia preserves the teeth ; St. Domingo cures the fever; and St. Roche 
guards against the plague ! 

(4.) The Agnus Dei is a wonderful little article. It is made chiefly of 
virgin wax, and has the image of the Lamb of God on it. The pope con- 
secrates the Agnus Deis the first year of his pontificate, and every seventh 
year afterwards. It is the object of much devotion ; for, kept about the 
person, it preserves from spiritual and temporal enemies, from the dangers 
of fire, water, storms, tempests, hunder, lightning, and sudden and unpre- 
pared death ; puts devils to flight, takes away the stains of past sins, and pro- 
duces other extraordinary benefits. 

(5.) Pardons. The marvellous ways in which these might be obtained 
were published in 1517, in a work entitled the Customs of London. Some 
of these were as follows : — In St. Peter's at Rome, beneath the image of 
our Lord at the door, was one of the pence that God was sold for, the 
looking upon which obtained each time fourteen hundred years of pardon ! 
Beholding a cloth made by our Lady, and exhibited on the Lady-day 
Assumption, obtained four hundred years of pardon! All who sat in 
Pope Accensius's chair obtained a hundred thousand years of pardon ! 

(6.) Miracles must be classed among popish absurdities. St. Raymond 
de Pennafort laid his cloak on the sea, and sailed thereon from Majorca to 
Barcelona, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, in six hours ! The 
miracles of other saints are of a like kind. The story of the house of our 
Lady of Loretto being carried through the air from Nazareth by angels is 
another prodigious absurdity. The priestly juggle of the annual liquefac- 
tion of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples is well known. Nor are these 
miracles yet finished : Prince Hohenloe recently revived them in Germany, 
and the Earl of Shrewsbury has attested a new one in Italy. How unlike 
are these " inventions" of Popery to the miracles of Christ and his apostles, 
which were wrought before the world, attested by competent witnesses, 
designed to confirm their mission, and were all free acts of benevolence. 
The " Miracles of Popery" may be dismissed by writing simply beneath 
them, " Lying wonders !" 

(7.) Pilgrimages have for ages been of great repute in the Church of 
Rome. Tribes emerging from barbarism may through this delusion have 



xvi ESSAY ON POPERY. 

become acquainted with the blessings of civilized life; but that pilgrimages 
should be undertaken in the nineteenth century is another proof that popery 
loves darkness rather than light. A famous shrine of the Madonna, near 
Leghorn, is constantly visited; and the Dominicans have lately found an 
image of the Virgin there, which has brought their order into great repute. 

IX. The Church of Rome is insulting to the word of God. It is 
too notorious, that in all countries where popery prevails, the Bible is not 
permitted to enter. If some favourable opportunities for its access are 
embraced, it is soon again interdicted. The darkness of popery cannot 
bear its light. Numerous proofs could be brought forward that the word of 
God has always been hated and destroyed by popes and priests. The 
church substitutes numerous inventions for Scripture authority. Hence 
its pope, falsely called the successor of St. Peter, who never was at 
Rome ; its seven sacraments, two only of which are found in sacred 
writ — baptism and the Lord's Supper ; hence its purgatory, pilgrimages, 
images, and other absurdities. Though Christ has left the command, 
" Search the Scriptures," and apostolic authority records another, " Let 
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," the church of Rome 
takes the greatest pains to keep the people in ignorance, and prevent the 
clear shining of this light. If it had free course, it would soon consume 
all her false doctrines, and shame all her absurdities and wickednesses. 
Nothing is hated more by popes and priests than the Bible, and the Bible 
Society. Against the latter a tremendous bull was thundered forth by the 
pope only as recently as the year 1824. If the Bible is occasionally 
found in circulation, it is grossly interpolated, its phrases are adapted to 
the inventions of the popish church, and its price too high for general use ; 
and indeed, from the ignorance of the people in papal states, but few 
could use it. Even then the authority of the church is paramount to 
everything, and nothing is to be believed in the Bible if it is not believed 
by the church ! The Bible, God's book, is fallible; the church of Rome, 
its head, is infallible ! 

X. The Church of Rome is inimical to freedom. To the present 
moment popish rulers, under the guidance of their priests, have suppressed 
knowledge, fettered the press, prevented free inquiry after truth, and the 
labours of Protestants. Papists claim everything for themselves in free 
countries ; but popish countries allow no such liberty to Protestants. 
Truth is not afraid of papal error, but popery fears the truth. How 
numerous have been the martyrs in old France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, 
and other popish countries. And where now is the liberty of worship in 
most of them? They domineer over the minds of men, and chain both 
their consciences and their understandings with fetters of iron. Books 
adapted to enlighten the mind are excluded, while fabulous accounts of 
the saints are abundantly circulated. Catechisms indeed they have, but 
they altogether omit the second commandment. Everywhere in the 
churches you are urged to pray for the dead, and to drop a little money 
for masses for their poor souls in purgatory; but no effort dare you make 
to enlighten the living. In all the nations where the Reformation burst 
forth, it was extinguished by persecution and the inquisition. 



ESSAY ON POPERY. xvu 

XI. The Church of Rome is unholy in its influences. Its breath is 
poison to morality. Its doctrines are calculated to encourage men to sin, 
because they can always obtain ghostly pardon. From its bosom spring 
a generation of the worst infidels, disgusted with its fooleries and enormities ; 
and who, for want of better light, confound superstition with religion. Its 
trickeries and crimes which have occasionally been brought to light, have 
made hosts of genuine unbelievers. The practices discovered in its monas- 
teries — often sinks of vice — and the lives of many of its clergy, have all aided 
to make men secret infidels, where they have not been weak enough to 
become dupes. Religion and pastime have been mingled together to 
defraud the people. The Sabbath may be desecrated by the covetous 
dealer or the mountebank; and the songs of the opera be listened to after 
the chants of the church. The fourth commandment is set aside, like the 
second, and papists defy the moral authority which says, " Remember the 
Sabbath day to keep it holy." The scenes of commerce, pleasure, dissi- 
pation and vice, which abound in continental cities on the Sabbath, mark 
them at once as under the dominion of " the man of sin." 

XII. The Church of Rome is comparatively modern in its 
origin, principles, and customs. Its antiquity is often a boast of the 
advocates of popery; but if antiquity stamped excellency on a religion, 
then Paganism and Judaism are older than Popery. The church of Rome, 
however, boasts of its antiquity without cause. The question has been 
proposed by the papist to the Protestant, " Where was your religion before 
the days of Wickliffe?" " Where V was the reply ; " why, where yours 
never was — in the Bible." Primitive Christianity bears no resemblance to 
popery. We find there no popes; no cardinals; no monks, nor nuns; no 
holy wafer, nor holy water ; no baptism of bells, nor canonization of 
saints ; no mass, nor giant candles ; no chrism, nor cross ; no repeating of 
Pater-nosters nor Ave Marias ; no saints' days, nor popes' jubilees ; no 
plenary indulgences, nor purgatories; no bulls, nor inquisitions; in fact, we 
find nothing like popery, except what is under the ban of heaven, and 
doomed to everlasting destruction : the " man of sin — the son of perdi- 
tion, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God. — That Wicked, whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the bright- 
ness of his coming : even him, whose coming is after the work of Satan, 
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness 
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of 
the truth that they might be saved," 2 Thes. ii. 3, 4*8, 10. The Bible further 
delineates Popery with unmistakeable accuracy : " Now the Spirit speaketh 
expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; 
having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received 
with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth." " And 
there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked 
with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment 
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters : with whom the kings 

c 



xviii ESSAY ON POPERY. 

of the earth have committed fornication. So he carried me away in the 
spirit into the wilderness ; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured 
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour ; and decked in 
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full 
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication : and upon her forehead 
was a name written Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of 
Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the woman 
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs 
of Jesus : and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration. And 
the angel said unto one, Wherefore didst thou marvel ? I will tell thee the 
mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the 
seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; 
and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition," 1 Tim. 
iv. 1—3; Rev. xvii. 1—8. 

Every part of Popery corrupts Christianity, and its corruptions have crept 
into its church by degrees. The Bible was not proscribed till the fourth 
century — this proscription was a novelty ; the idolatry of popery did not 
commence till then — this was another novelty ; the clergy were not for- 
bidden to marry till then — another novelty. Infallibility was not claimed 
till the seventh century ; the service was not performed in an unknown 
tongue before that time ; purgatory was then introduced. Transubstantiation 
was not introduced till the eighth century. Half- communion was not 
begun till the eleventh century. Priestly absolution and excommunication 
were powers not claimed till the twelfth century ; nor till then was it 
determined that there should be seven sacraments. The sacrifice of the 
mass, the worship of the host, and auricular confession, were established 
only in the thirteenth century. Tradition did not make its claims before 
the sixteenth century. Thus it appears that popery is a monster of slow 
growth, and all its parts have not been perfected till within a few centuries. 

Such is the church against whose iniquities, doctrines, and practices the 
martyrs protested, and sealed the truth with their blood. It is heathenism 
new-modelled, and Christianity foully corrupted. It is doomed to perish, 
but yet struggles for existence. Its throne totters, but many hands yet 
strive to hold it up. Its subtle agents are at work to renew its influences 
in this land of martyrs. The Jesuit, like a sly serpent, creeps into every 
hole and corner. The " slimy viper" stealthily crawls into our families, 
schools, colleges, universities, and senate. We trace its existence under 
the mitre and the cassock ; we see it polluting the pulpit and the press. 
We should beware of its corruptions in innovating ceremonies creeping 
under the Protestant altars, and in leading articles published in our most 
popular newspapers. If we would not again fall a prey to the reptile foe, 
let us learn dexterously to handle the sword of the Spirit, which it cannot 
resist ; and let us say to each other, as Jesus to his disciples — Watch ! 



LIFE OF THE 



REV. JOHN FOX, A.M. 



It is seldom we are deeply interested in the works of an author, 
with whose personal and private history we have no desire to be ac- 
quainted. The few instances in which this may be the case regard 
writers of acknowledged fiction, and such other works as from their 
nature require no guarantee of their being conformable to the reality 
of things; but will never be found to include a single writer on civil or 
personal, political or sacred, history. Authors who have undertaken to 
inform us on the latter subject, especially, and who have succeeded in 
winning general attention to their works, are the men whose own history 
becomes a field of curiosity and research, that the scenes through which 
they passed may assure us of their competency to the task, and the 
character they have preserved amidst ordinary or peculiar trials may 
attest the honesty of every part of their important record. Hence it is 
that histories of the Christian church have, beyond all other works, 
required a sure and safe appeal to the character of their authors to give 
them currency, and have circulated and flourished in the walks of 
literature in proportion as that appeal has been fearlessly and faithfully 
answered. 

When special periods of ecclesiastical fame or disgrace, triumph or 
suffering, are chosen by an historian, it becomes of greater importance 
that we know who and what he is. Few will commit their faith to the 
details of such a period, who are not first informed to their satisfaction 
that the author was a man above suspicion — resolved, in the love of 
truth and the fear of God, 

Nothing to extenuate 



Or set down aught in malice." 

It is true that such periods are most fertile in determined partisans, and 
it is equally true that they require every public character deliberately 
to choose and resolutely to defend his party: and this, in reference to 
active and warlike agents, can scarcely ever be done without inflaming 
the passions beyond all reasonable bounds, and giving ascendancy to 
feelings often at perfect variance with integrity and charity. But 
writers, who undertake a subsequent record of what these fierce com- 
batants have done, need not be under the same injurious impulse — may 
without difficulty release themselves from the angry constraint — have, 



xx LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

in fact, the best opportunity and the most pure and powerful motive to 
atone for the wrong doing of their friends, while they wield the weapons 
of truth against their foes. How far the subject of the present memoir 
merited the censure or the praise to which these remarks refer, will 
appear in some measure from the annals of his life and the features of 
his general character: while from his great work which this memoir 
precedes, it must be sufficiently manifest that with whatever errors of 
spirit or judgment he may have been chargeable, he could have fairly said 
of himself in the words of a later author — "My work is for the service 
of truth, by one who would be glad to attend and grace her triumphs; as 
her soldier, if he has had the honour to serve successfully under her 
banner; or as a captive tied to her chariot wheels, if he has committed 
any offence against her." 

John Foxe, or Fox, was born at Boston in Lincolnshire, a. d. 1517, 
the year in which Luther published his Theses against the papal church, 
and just before the growing power of Henry VIII. led him to shake the 
foundations of the vast Roman hierarchy, which no British prince before 
had the courage to speak of but in terms of the profoundest reverence 
and submission. The town of Fox's birth, on account of its remoteness 
and seclusion, contained an unusual proportion of independent gentle- 
men of small fortune, to which class his father belonged; but not being 
a native of the place his constitution suffered from confinement in the 
extreme humidity of that corner of the kingdom, so that he died of 
decline a few years after the birth of this his distinguished child, and 
we believe only son. His mother, a woman very generally admired and 
esteemed, soon embraced a second offer of marriage; which, however, 
neither drove her son from under the paternal roof, nor diminished the 
care with which she had begun to tutor and train him. His second 
father became warmly attached to his foster son, and is said to have 
elicited more of his rising talent than the mother, sanguine as she was 
on this point, could venture to hope he would ever display. Afterwards 
indeed, when young Fox openly avowed partiality to protestant prin- 
ciples, his father-in-law either became deeply prejudiced against him on 
this ground, or was alarmed at the probable consequences of the change 
to the family, so that he withheld from him the means of support; but 
as one remarks, " As the hunted deer takes sanctuary by flying to the rest 
of the herd, they, out of a principle of self-preservation, drive him away 
for fear lest the hounds in pursuit fall on them ; so Foxe's father-in-law was 
lothe to receive him, and forbade him the protection of his family, lest per- 
secution in quest of his son should bring him and his house into trouble." 

At the age of sixteen his " good inclinations and towardness to learning" 
led to his being sent to the university of Oxford. He was accordingly 
entered at Brazennose college ; and placed under Mr. Hawarden, one 
of the fellows. It would seem strange that, at a period of difficult com- 
munication between one town and another, the more distant university 
should have been preferred; especially as Cambridge lay mid-way on 
the road from Boston to Oxford, and was, moreover, of easier access as 
a place of learning for the sons of the poorer gentry of the land. It 
was a favourable circumstance for young Fox that the frugality of his 
parents, while it did not shrink from the expence of an Oxford education, 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxi 

rendered it necessary that the youth should share his college apartment 
with another pupil. This incident was the more favourable from that 
other pupil being some years the elder of the two, and a youth of dis- 
tinguished genius, industry, and kindness. But the most favourable as 
well as extraordinary feature of the event was, the decided and growing 
protestantism of the other collegian, whose abode by night and day it 
was the privilege of young Fox to share. This undoubtedly laid the 
foundation of his early and decided love of reforming principles, and of 
his resolute undeviating course in their defence, when poverty stared 
him in the face, and death seemed to threaten him at every step. 

The companion referred to was no other than Alexander Nowell, the 
celebrated preacher of Elizabeth's days, and the exemplary dean of St. 
Paul. He had entered Brazennose at an early age, and continued an 
under-graduate thirteen years. This suspension of graduateship did not 
imply inferiority, for the first degree was not then, as at the present day, 
usually taken at the expiration of the fourth year. At the age of twenty, 
two years before Fox was admitted as a student, and after a residence of 
seven years, Nowell was appointed public reader of Logic in the university, 
which he taught from the work of Rodolphus Agricola. There is some- 
thing worth dwelling upon in the circumstance of two such individuals 
being thus early, and as it were accidentally coupled, — not to pull in 
opposite directions, and thus impede each other's progress, but to ad- 
minister each to the other's strength, and thus multiply their separate 
talents and zeal, as well as furnish to both all the additional energy and 
efficiency that could be derived from the most friendly combination. The 
few years difference in age was soon lost sight of, or became a motive 
for the elder to be more generously and faithfully communicative, and 
for the younger to receive his communications with all the openness of 
an ardent pupil united with all the gratitude of an obliged and affec- 
tionate friend. 

But it is in their like-mindedness as studious and zealous protestants, 
that we reflect on their early union and later co-operation with the 
greatest delight. At that period there was just enough in the pos- 
ture of public affairs to encourage two such minds to proceed in 
their investigation of ecclesiastical evils, and at the same time so little 
as to convince them that such investigations alone might expose them to 
the greatest danger; that one new impulse acting upon the fickle mind 
of an arbitrary monarch might spoil all their hopes, transfer them for 
the remainder of a short life from a college to a prison, exile them from 
their native country, or bring upon them a violent and barbarous death. 
How far these considerations stimulated their zeal and tempered it with 
due discretion, we have no means of accurately judging; but that their 
critical circumstances, which must have suggested some such reasoning, 
neither abated their protestant energy nor deprived them of christian 
prudence and caution, we have enough in their history to convince us. 
Undoubtedly the universities contained many young inquirers eager to 
ascertain whether the protestant or the papal cause were the more just 
as well as more likely to triumph in the approaching conflict; but it is 
still more certain that the number was comparatively small of those who 
turned their inquiries to so much real edification, and directed them to 



xxii LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

such honourable purposes and aims as these noble and persevering 
reformers, Alexander Nowell and John Fox. 

The latter took his bachelor's degree in the year 1538, when he reached 
his twenty- first year; and his master's degree in 1543. In the latter 
year he was elected fellow of Magdalen college, though many objections 
were made from various causes. About the same time, Nowell left Oxford 
to become second master of Westminster School, " where he instructed his 
pupils in the ancient principles of the true catholic faith, as they were cleared 
from the papal errors which had so long blended with and disfigured them." 
The change in both instances, especially in the latter, arose doubtless 
from the growing disaffection of the leading men at Brazen-nose to a 
reform in the church, which had now begun to assume a rather auspicious 
and active appearance. Westminster afforded Nowell a more secure and 
promising sphere for his bolder efforts in this great and growing cause; 
while Oxford, having offered to Fox a fellowship which he thought he 
might safely accept in a more liberal college, continued a few years 
longer to shelter him in the less public and more cautious pursuit of pro- 
testant principles. 

Cultivating an early taste for poetry, some portion of the seclusion of 
his fellowship was given to this pleasing art ; but it was an art which he 
never dissociated from theology, nor allowed essentially to interfere 
with that sacred and ascendant theme. Nor was his love of poetry ever 
permitted to divert his attention from those protestant views of theology, 
which were every year acquiring the strongest influence over him. It 
was, in fact, very early and efficiently subservient to the extension 
of those views, and to his assurance that they were strictly in unison 
with the will of God as revealed in holy writ. In very few years he 
made himself master of all the controversies which then agitated the 
christian world, and before he was thirty he had read all the Greek and 
Latin fathers, together with all the decrees of consistories, convocations, 
and councils. His acquaintance with Jewish and Rabbinical literature 
was not so extensive or so profound, as with the erudition and the annals 
of christian churches ; still he was a respectable Hebrew scholar, and 
had by this time become master of the chief intricacies of that ancient 
and sacred language. 

In early youth he had been, like most others, a zealous and bigoted 
papist : he might be said to belong to the strictest sect of the Romish 
church ; and had he possessed less ingenuousness of mind, his studies, 
receiving a papal direction, might have rendered him a still more devoted 
catholic, and prepared him for the honours of the conclave, if not the 
glories of the popedom. But his native candour was equal to his in- 
dustry, and led him to examine and compare at every step ; and this 
soon turned the balance of his judgment in favour of protestant truth. 
He is said to have been first shaken in his popish belief by perceiving in 
the writing of its advocates things most repugnant to each other; as 
that the same man might be superior in matters of faith, and yet his life 
and manners be inferior to all the world besides. He now pursued his 
investigations of the system with more ardour than ever, and his mind 
rapidly advanced to a perfect assurance, which nothing could shake, 
that some great effort must soon be made, and had in fact already com- 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxm 

menced, to reform the church of Christ, especially in his own beloved 
but deluded country, in which the heresy and tyranny of the Romish 
faith had acquired a long and almost inveterate entrenchment. 

There can be no doubt that his conscience and character became pro- 
portionably conformed to the will of Christ — that he grew as a christian 
in the grace of the gospel with the same rapidity, enlargement, and 
strength as he increased in an acquaintance with its history and truth, 
and in zeal for its most extensive diffusion. So ardent was his pursuit 
of personal godliness, that he would spend whole nights in sacred stu- 
dies and spiritual devotion ; reading the scriptures in their original 
tongues, beseeching in humble prayer to God the spirit of wisdom and 
knowledge rightly to understand them, and comparing spiritual things 
with spiritual that he might comprehend the whole truth as it is in Jesus 
Christ. He would often leave his study or his bed at midnight, and 
resort to a neighbouring grove, to meditate on what he had been reading, 
and pour forth the desires of his soul in earnest supplication and grateful 
thanksgiving. On these occasions his fellow students would sometimes 
watch and listen to him, and several were deeply impressed by what they 
overheard in favour of a more earnest pursuit of christian truth and 
duty. 

Some, however, to whom these extraordinary studies and exercises of 
mind were known, were neither so candid nor so charitable. They report- 
ed Mr. Fox to the heads of the university as an abettor of the new faith, 
which occasioned him to be narrowly watched and restrained in many of 
his most favourite pursuits. At length his conscience constrained him to 
cease from attendance on the national worship, which continued, espe- 
cially in the universities, to be conducted in strict conformity to papal 
rules and rites. Without abetting the formation of separate protestant 
societies — a proceeding commenced by some elder and less exposed 
members of Oxford — he was yet constrained to absent himself, except 
on necessary and official occasions, both from the Magdalen chapel and 
the university church. At last he was openly charged with heresy, 
brought before the heads of his college, and commanded to leave the 
city and county without delay, and to be thankful that he had met with 
judges so merciful, and a sentence so far below what his apostacy 
merited ! 

Very small is the number of true friends who will firmly stand the day 
of trial. Many will fawn, and smile, and live upon us in our prosperity, 
who, when adversity overtakes us will refuse to know us, and even baseiy 
deny that they ever knew us before. They leave the garden in winter 
when there is nothing to gather. So fared it with Mr. Fox. He had 
several patrons and friends both in the university and the country, who, 
while he continued but privately a protestant, afforded him their coun- 
tenance and protection. But so soon as his new principles assumed a 
tangible and public shape — that is, so soon as he became faithful to his 
trust, and began to appear a protestant openly, in deed and in truth ; 
especially when the rulers of the university took cognizance of his neg- 
lect of papal ceremonies, and his opposition to papal credence and 
authority ; those who had before most befriended him, either in anger or 
in fear avoided his societv and left him to his fate. Hitherto he had 



XXIV LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

found no difficulty in obtaining periodical remittances of the little pro- 
perty he claimed from his mother, and to which she usually made some 
addition from her own ; but now either her mind was turned from him, 
or she was obliged to yield to the influence of her husband, whose rigid 
Romanism made him the adversary of his "heretic" son-in-law, and 
determined him to withhold all further pecuniary supply. Some of this 
incensed gentleman's friends have apologised for his conduct, on the 
plea that the courts of justice would have called him to account for grant- 
ing further supply to one who had become a voluntary outlaw ; but there 
is much greater reason to believe that he was induced by superstition 
and priestcraft to appropriate the property of a heretic to the support 
of a tottering church and the absolution of his own guilt. Be these 
things as they may, Mr. Fox was reduced by the simultaneous loss of 
his fellowship and fortune to the deepest personal distress. 

"Troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; perplexed, but not in 
despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed" — 
Mr. Fox now went from one place to another in the hope and search of 
honourable and useful occupation. The county of Warwick, and espe- 
cially the city of Coventry, being well disposed towards the protestant 
cause, he bent his steps thither, and made his injured case known to a 
few families in whom he could safely confide ; but for some time without 
any success beyond the temporary supply of pressing necessity. At last 
when hope appeared to fail, divine Providence directed him to the man- 
sion of Sir Thomas Lucy, in whom he found a patron both able and 
willing to render him efficient aid. Averse to receiving that aid but as 
the recompense of honest service, Mr. Fox undertook, at the request of 
Sir Thomas, the tutorship of his sons, on which task he entered with the 
best mental, moral, and theological qualifications for its due performance. 

While in this occupation Fox married the daughter of a citizen of 
Coventry, who visited at Crmrlecote, the seat of his patron. His engage- 
ment as tutor could not have been of long duration; and was probably 
terminated either in consequence of his marriage, or of the strict search 
then being made for supposed heretics, both publicly and in private 
families. On leaving Charlecote, Mr. Fox was reduced to great distress. 
He remained with his wife's father, at Coventry, so long as he could do so 
with safety; and from thence wrote to his father-in-law at Boston, to ask 
if he could there be sheltered. He received for answer, " That it seemed 
to his step-father a hard condition to take into his house one whom he 
knew to be guilty of and condemned for a capital offence ; neither was he 
ignorant what hazard he should undergo in so doing : nevertheless he 
would show himself a kinsman, and for that cause neglect his own danger. 
If he would alter his mind he might come, on condition, to stay as long 
as himself desired ; but if he could not be persuaded to that, he should 
content himself with the shorter tarriance, and not bring him and his 
mother into hazard of their lives and fortunes, who were ready to do any- 
thing for his sake." 

The necessities of Fox compelled him to accept this offer of protection, 
to which he was also privately urged by his mother ; but how long he re- 
mained at Boston is uncertain. It was probable of very brief continuance. 
Nothing is known of his trials and mode of life after leaving the country, 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxv 

till within a few months of the king's death, when the influence of the 
queen and Cranmer allowed the reformers to appear more openly in 
public, at which time Mr. Fox was discovered in London. The doors of 
St. Paul's were then always open ; and numerous idlers, as well as wor- 
shippers, were continually found within its precincts. " He is as much 
known as the middle walk of St. Paul's," became a proverb ; and in 
Lupton's description of the metropolis at that period, the "idlers" in 
the cathedral are called " dinnerless pedestrians :" some watching the 
opportunity of an invitation, having on their visiting garments; others, in 
tattered clothes and with a mournful visage, brooding over their discon- 
solate condition. Mr. Fox appears to have been among the latter; and 
the circumstance is thus portrayed by his son, whose narrative of the sub- 
sequent events in his father's life are set forth with less interruption : — 

"As Master Fox one day sate in St. Paul's church, spent with long 
fasting, his countenance thin, and eyes hollow, after the ghastly manner 
of dying men, every one shunning a spectacle of so much horror, there 
came to him one whom he never remembered to have seen before, who, 
sitting down by him, and saluting him with much familiarity, thrust an 
untold sum of money into his hand, bidding him be of good cheer, adding 
withal, that he knew not how great the misfortunes were which oppressed 
him, but supposed it was no light calamity ; that he should, therefore, 
accept in good part that small gift from his countryman which common 
courtesy had forced him to offer ; that he should go and take care of 
himself, and take all occasions to prolong his life ; adding, that within a 
few days new hopes were at hand, and a more certain condition of liveli- 
hood." Fox used every endeavour to discover to whom he was indebted 
for this relief in his hour of need, but without success. Great cities are 
great solitudes, and Fox felt himself alone in the metropolis, without friends 
or occupation ; though his want of them probably arose more from the 
danger of making application to individuals likely to patronize him, than 
from the scarcity of employment for a scholar of his attainments. " Some 
who looked further into the event by which that prophecy became fulfilled, 
believed that the friend who performed the kindness came not of his own 
accord, but was employed by others who were deeply concerned for Mr. 
Fox's safety ; and that it might possibly be through the negligence of 
the servant, or person commissioned, that he had endured so much misery 
before the means of relief were afforded him. Certain it is, however, that 
within three days after the transaction, the presage was made good. Some 
one waited upon him from the duchess of Richmond, who invited him, 
upon fair terms," says the writer, " into her service. It had so fallen out, 
not long before, that the duke of Norfolk, the most renowned general of 
his time, together with his son, the earl of Surrey, a man, as far as may be 
imagined, of sincere meaning and sharp understanding, were committed to 
custody in the Tower of London, for what crime is uncertain. While they 
were in prison, the earl's children were sent to the aforesaid duchess, their 
aunt, to be brought up and educated : Thomas, who succeeded in the 
dukedom ; Henry, afterwards earl of Northampton ; and Jane, wife of 
Charles, the last Neville, earl of Westmoreland, afterwards countess of 
Westmoreland." 

To these Fox became tutor. It is uncertain whether his first publication 



xxvt LIFE OF THE REV 7 . JOHN FOX. 

appeared just before or just after he entered on the duties of this honour- 
able office. The probability is that while in London and in want he 
had offered the manuscript to some booksellers, and that when they 
found him thus nobly patronised one of them ventured to publish it. 
The reader will be pleased to have the title of this curious work before 
him in its own tongue and shape. It is as follows: — 

DE NON PLECTENDIS MORTE 
ADULTERIS CONSULTATIO, 

JOANNIS FOXI. 

Impressum Londini per Hugonem Syngletonum, 

sub intersignio D. Augustini, 

Anno Domini. M. D. 1548. 

The work is preceded by an affectionate and able dedication, which 
the author thus introduces: — 

generoso viro Thome Pictono, 
I. Foxus salutem et pacem in 
christo. 

There are in the body of the work about forty pages ; but not a num- 
ber to any one of them. It is the duodecimo size ; the letter is large 
and open, a Roman character, and the impression is on the whole uniform 
and good. We have not been able to discover a second edition of this 
work, nor is it on a subject likely to have created popularity for the 
author. It contains many admirable remarks, amidst some doubtful 
propositions, and as a whole is inferior both in style and sentiment to the 
later productions of the excellent author. 

We now follow him to Ryegate, where he commenced the important 
duties of his new office and where he passed six or seven years in great 
activity and peace, until the accession of Mary clouded his prospects 
and sent him into exile. It is here proper to remind the reader that 
the outraged earl of Surry had five lovely children, three daughters 
and two sons, and that his death rendered his eldest son immediate heir 
to the dukedom of Norfolk — a rank which the youth seemed likely very 
soon to reach, as no hope was at this time entertained that either the 
duke or the earl, who were both prisoners" in the tower, could be saved 
from death. It will be remembered that the rage of Henry soon cut off 
the earl,* and that the king's rather sudden death alone gave the con- 
demned duke a few years more of life, though not of liberty. A ques- 
tion or two of some importance here suggest themselves. How came 
the children of the earl of Surry under the care of the duchess of Rich- 
mond ? and how was it that the heir of the dukedom of Norfolk, always 

* The cruel eagerness with which Henry hastened the execution of the earl of Surry 
has generally been pronounced a mystery ; but, if the report be true that he had aspired 
to a marriage with the princess Mary, the mystery becomes easily solved. 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxvii 

a popish family, was committed for education to John Fox, one of the 
most marked protestants of the age? 

These problems can be solved only by referring to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances under which the arrangement took place, and the control 
which the government, if not the king himself must have exercised in the 
affair. The duchess of Richmond was Surry's sister and the children's aunt: 
she was a retired widow without son or daughter of her own, and was 
withal a protestant of superior education and understanding. But then 
she was the chief witness against her injured and innocent brother ! She 
was in fact the cause — it is to be feared the voluntary cause — of bringing 
him to the block, by deposing against him all that could be construed 
into treason! These distressing recollections create the greatest wonder 
that she, in preference to all others, should have been chosen to govern 
and guide their youthful course. It would seem scarcely possible to 
conceal from the children themselves the dreadful secret that they were 
in the hands of the cruel relative, whose testimony had been mainly in- 
strumental in depriving them of the protection of one of the best of 
fathers! How could their mother submit with any patience to such a 
disposal of her almost infant and orphan family. 

The only explanation of these mysteries which has been offered is this 
— that their father being doomed to death, however unjustly, on a charge 
of treason, the children were at the disposal of government, and the 
duchess, whose loyalty was undoubted, was most likely to train them in 
a course of devotion to the reigning prince. Such had been the rapid 
advance of the reformation that loyalty was likely henceforward to be 
identified with protestantism. Henry was drawing towards his end, and 
had appointed his son Edward to set aside the claims of Mary; and the 
earl of Hertford, into whose hands the regency was likely to fall, was 
known to be resolute in carrying on the reformation. Hence the expe- 
diency of imparting a protestant education to the earl of Surry's chil- 
dren, and hence the policy of substituting as their governess the earl's 
sister, a protestant, for the more natural appointment of their own 
mother. The latter was more than suspected of cleaving to the ancient 
faith, and was known to prefer obscurity and a separation from her 
family to what she deemed the fellowship and fate of heretics. In her 
retirement in the north she soon married a second husband, a catholic 
gentleman of the name of Steyning. 

Returning to the incidents of Fox's personal history, we find him re- 
siding at Ryegate about seven years, comprehending a few of the last 
months of Henry VIII., the whole short reign of his son Edward VI., 
and until his cruel sister and successor commenced the measures which 
turned the kingdom into a protestant furnace, heated by her fury " seven 
times hotter than it was wont to be heated." With the exception of the 
duchess of Richmond and some few of her attendants and friends, 
Ryegate had not only hitherto been without advocates or examples of 
the protestant faith; but it had betrayed for ages unusual features of 
gross ignorance and vulgar superstition. The glad tidings of christian 
truth had never been heard by its inhabitants, nor had they been directed 
to any of the spiritual and scriptural exercises of christian worship. No 
disciple of Wickliffe — no faithful Lollard — no enlightened reformer had 



xxvni LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

ever been known to lift up his voice in the church or in the street;, 
against a system of the most absurd and stupid idolatry, which the se- 
cluded and populous town of Ryegate had been known to prefer to every 
other mode of expressing its religious feelings. The fame of the virgin 
Mary had long fled from the town and its temple, and her image, 
wherever it had aforetime been exhibited, had given way to that of an 
old fortune-teller and quack-doctress, reverently called by the besotted 
people of all ranks, the old lady of Ouldsworth. This woman, if she 
ever had existence beyond the ancient fables of the place, was reported 
to have been skilful in recovering the sick to health, and causing the 
lame to leap for joy. There were other saintly idols held in esteem and 
adoration by the sages as well as peasants of Ryegate; but no one had 
such lasting and abounding popularity as this lady — no one was sup- 
posed to have conferred half so much benefit on the church and people 
as she had done. " Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" was not a louder 
or a warmer cry than was uttered continually by all ranks in her praise, 
and more than half the industry and traffic of the town were occasioned 
by the embellishment which she was thought to claim, and by the new 
honours which her priests and people gathered around her ! 

No wonder that at such scenes the spirit of Fox " was stirred within 
him," and that he burned with zeal to bear his testimony against them, 
and to cast from the temple of religion such profane and vulgar abuse 
of divine service. But it was some time before he had an opportunity 
of accomplishing his pious purpose. He had to wait for a pioneer of 
government to break up the way, before he could begin a successful 
march against evils almost as inveterate as they were absurd and con- 
temptible. Soon, however, the establishment of the reformation under 
Edward VI. enabled him to cast off every restraint, and to stand forth 
the first protestant preacher in the church of Ryegate. He embraced 
the opportunity with the liveliest feelings of gratitude, and began pro- 
claiming the glad tidings of salvation through Christ alone with a zeal 
sufficiently tempered by discretion to obviate improper offence, yet con- 
straining him to bear a testimony not to be mistaken against the idolatries 
which had so long darkened and deluded the people. The old lady of 
Ouldsworth met with little forbearance from him; and, through the 
power of his persuasive eloquence and resistless reasoning and wit, she 
soon lost her hold of the public confidence, and was removed by common 
consent from her lofty place in the church. 

Uncertain and inconsistent dates render it difficult to determine the 
precise year in which Mr. Fox commenced his public ministry. Some 
have led us to believe that he opened his faithful commission soon after 
the accession of Edward VI. ; while others tell us that he was not or- 
dained till the midsummer of 1550, more than two years after that wel- 
come event. The probability is, either that he was licensed to preach 
before his ordination, and eagerly availed himself of the privilege, or 
that the latter is the date of his ordination to the priesthood, and that 
he had become a deacon of the church some time before. Of one fact, 
however, we are certain — that as he had no clerical appointment at 
Ryegate, his ministerial labours, however irregular, were as gratuitous as 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxix 

they were intrepid and faithful.* He rather abounded than relaxed in 
his services as tutor to Surry's children, and received nothing beyond 
the stipulated compensation which those services merited. They now 
began to impose upon him a task as difficult as it was honourable, and 
requiring the utmost prudence as well as assiduity and erudition. The 
duke of Norfolk had been reprieved from death by the rather sudden 
death of Henry; but the timid and cautious advisers of Edward would 
not allow the old man to enjoy his liberty, notwithstanding imprisonment 
was uniting with age to weaken a frame naturally robust, and to hasten 
a departure which at best could not have been far distant. Thus the 
eldest pupil of Fox was likely soon to reach the most ancient ducal title 
in the realm; and this illustrious pupil, with his brother and one sister, 
were to be fully initiated — such was the engagement — in religious prin- 
ciples the reverse of those which a long line of ancestors had held as a 
sacred inheritance. 

Contrary to general expectation the task of the tutor was nearly over, 
and his continuance in England began to be unsafe, before the elevation 
of his pupil took place. The duke of Norfolk, after escaping execu- 
tion by the death of Henry, obtained release from imprisonment by the 
death of Edward. One of the first acts of Mary, upon her accession 
to the throne, was to restore to liberty this aged nobleman, whom she 
called her father's most faithful servant — an act and a speech too plainly 
intended to censure his imprisonment by protestant influence over the 
minds of her father and brother. One purpose of his release evidently 
was to employ his high military talents against the forces of Sir Thomas 
Wyatt. This task he executed with great success; but the excitement 
it produced in his aged and tottering frame very soon brought him to the 
grave. 

" Of no distemper, of no blast, he died ; 

But fell like Autumn fruit that's mellow'd long : 

Even wonder'd at because he dropt no sooner. 

He pass'd man's life of threescore years and ten, 

And then ran on eleven winters more; 

Till, like a clock worn out with eating time, 

The wheels of weary life at last stood still." 

Now came on the clouds, most dark and dense, portending the storms 
which soon burst upon all the distinguished protestants who were either 
resolved or compelled to continue in the land. Persecution had begun 
to assume its worst forms: many excellent men were already thrown into 
dungeons, and some were brought to the scaffold and the stake after 
brief proceedings which too clearly shewed the malignant purpose of the 
court, and that it was religion and not sedition which Mary was resolved 
to punish and suppress. On hearing of these events, and especially find- 
ing that they most abounded in the diocese of Stephen Gardiner, who had 
been appointed bishop of Winchester, and to whom as a clergyman Mr. 
Fox was locally subject, he began to prepare means for the safety of 

* Anthony Wood tells us that Edward VI. restored Fox to his fellowship of Magdalen 
college, Oxford: if this were the case, marriage was in that day no impediment, as it is in 
the present day, to a protestant being fellow of an university college. Fox was then, as 
at all other times, living openly with the wife of his bosom. 



xxx LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

himself and his beloved wife. On his purpose being mentioned to his 
chief pupil, who had now become duke of Norfolk he spurned the thought 
of danger, and assured his revered tutor that in the shelter of his mansion 
he was perfectly safe. Undoubtedly the young nobleman thought as 
he spoke, since he then looked upon Gardiner as his friend, and not 
having studied the character of that dissembling prelate, he considered 
lie might implicitly confide in his promise and influence. A remarkable 
circumstance is mentioned, which appears to have suddenly undeceived 
him, and while it shews that crafty men as often impose upon themselves 
as others, manifests the perception which the young duke at once ac- 
quired of Gardiner's real character and of Fox's actual danger. 

The bishop's intimacy with the Norfolk family, and the obligations he 
had been under to them for much of his dignity, often led him to visit 
their mansion in London ; and now he had additional reasons to repeat 
and multiply his visits: he feared the effects of Mr. Fox's instructions, 
and supecting the tutor to be concealed in the house deemed it necessary 
to dispossess him as soon as possible. He began his scheme by request- 
ing of the duke that he might see his tutor, and on one occasion Mr. 
Fox, not knowing he was present, entered the room, but instantly with- 
drew. The bishop inquired of the duke who that stranger was ? when 
the duke, fearing some craft in the question, answered that he was a 
physician, fresh from the university and somewhat uncourtly in his be- 
haviour. The reply of the bishop was — " I like his countenance and 
aspect well, and when occasion offers 1 will send for him." This speech 
confirmed the duke in his suspicion of the bishop, and determined him 
to provide without delay for the flight and security of Mr. Fox. He 
dispatched a faithful servant to Ipswich, where he had agents on whom 
he could depend, and where a vessel was prepared to take his tutor, with 
a few other protestant friends, to some near and safe port of the oppo- 
site shore. Mrs. Fox was at this time near her confinement ; but the 
danger was too great to delay their departure, and they journeyed to 
Ipswich and embarked with the utmost possible speed. 

A sudden and violent storm drove them back to Ipswich the day after 
they had set sail, and Mr. Fox soon heard that a messenger from the 
bishop had been in the town inquiring after him and his companions. 
The officer had even broken into the house of a tenant of the duke, 
where Mr. Fox had slept the night before his departure, and where he 
was returning for renewed shelter. On receiving this intelligence he left 
the town privately on horseback, and returned with the same caution so 
soon as the weather would allow the vessel again to put to sea. His 
second embarkation was successful, and within two days he and his wife 
and friends were safely landed and lodged in the secluded town of Nieu- 
port in Flanders. In a few days he left that place for Antwerp, then 
the most flourishing city in Europe, and containing within its ample 
walls a large number of protestant merchants and some few ministers of 
the reformation. As, however, the object of Mr. Fox was active occu- 
pation, and no opportunity immediately presented itself in this place 
of turning his talents to any profitable account, he went to Strasburg, 
and soon after to Basle, where a considerable number of his English 
brethren, as well as protestant ministers from other countries, had already 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxxi 

taken refuge, and were uniting; in measures to diffuse and propagate the 
truth. 

Mr. Fox cheerfully joined with these pious refugees, and soon made 
them sensible of his superior worth both as a private christian, and a 
public minister and author. To secure an independent subsistence he 
engaged to assist John Oporimus, a distinguished printer in Basle, in 
conducting several valuable works through the press; and in a short 
time he produced a singular work of his own, which he had evidently 
prepared for publication in England, and would have printed here but 
for the necessity of his sudden flight. His early taste for poetry, and 
the subserviency of his poetic studies and compositions to theology, have 
been mentioned in an early part of this memoir ; and the work now 
referred to is a remarkable proof of both facts. The reader will be in- 
terested in a literal transcription of the title. 

CHRISTUS TRIUMPH AUS 

Comoedia Apocalyptica 

Autore Joanne Foxo Anglo. 

Basilese per Joaxnem Oporinum. 

There precedes the drama an epistle dedicatory thus addressed 

Clarissimus Viris, D. Bynksio, D. Alcosto, 

D. Kelko, cumque his universo Mercatorum 

Christianse pietati fanentium Sodalitio 

Joannes Foxus, salt. 

The dramatis persona are rather numerous, comprising about twenty 
five characters, including angels and adolescentes. The leading parts of 
the drama are taken by Christus, Eva. Saulus qui et Paulus, and Maria 
Petris also occupies a conspicuous place; while the "principalities and 
powers of darkness" often come forth to commit " spiritual wickedness 
in high places." The first edition of this remarkable work is printed in 
a good clear italic type, and is of the duodecimo size. There were two 
other editions of the work, one published in 1556, and the other in 1672. 
It was also translated into English, by John Dave, jun. son of the 
printer to queen Elizabeth over Aldersgate ; and three editions of the 
English version were published, in 1579, 1607, and in 1672.* The 
distaste of the people of this country to sacred dramas will account for 
their not being acquainted with this and numerous similar works. Highly 
dramatic as are most parts of the old testament, especially a few entire 
books held in the greatest esteem, and read with the deepest delight, 
even these meet with little or no attention when the hand of man has 
presumptuously attempted to improve upon the form which the inspira- 
tion of divine wisdom chose to give them. 

Soon after this publication, Mr. Fox prepared for the press a Latin 

*The last was revised bv a clergyman of Cambridge who signs himself T. C. and who 
dedicates it " to all schoolmasters, on account of the peculiar excellence of its style !" 



xxxii LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

translation of Cranmers Answer to Gardiner on the Sacrament, intending 
it to circulate through the several states of Germany, and other parts of 
the continent where symptoms of reformation in religion began to ap- 
pear. But upon inquiry and advice he saw fit to withhold it, on account 
of the several points it contained being warmly contested among protes- 
tants themselves, and the diversion it might give to their talents and zeal 
from objects of more general interest and more essential advantage. 
In some notes appended to the translation he complains strongly and 
satirically of Gardiner's style of writing. In a letter to Peter Martyr he 
repeats some of his animadversions, and observes — " You may as soon 
extract water from pumice stone as find light from Gardiner's sentences !" 
His next work was the commencement of the undertaking which has 
immortalised his name in all protestant churches. Its title is as follows. 

"Commentarii Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum 
maximarumque per totam Europam persecu- 
tionem a wiclevi Temporibus. Strasburg \Cj5A." 

In all probability it was printed as he tarried awhile in that city, and 
where he might have stayed to print the other volumes, but for the dis- 
putes then prevailing among the reformers on ceremonial questions. The 
remaining volumes, all in octavo, were therefore printed at Basle, whither 
he proceeded in the hope of greater quiet as well as more active and 
profitable employ. 

The contention of the protestant exiles in Strasburg and other conti- 
nental cities at this time was not confined to the sacramental points just 
referred to, but extended to questions of ecclesiastical discipline and 
ritual service. It is well known that the Swiss and French reformers 
from the beginning proceeded much farther than the English in simpli- 
fying both the government of the church and the performance of 
divine worship. Most of the English exiles were of course at- 
tached to the laws and ceremonies established in their own country 
by the statutes of Edward ; while a few were won over to the less 
intricate and burdensome system adopted by the leading spirits of re- 
form in Switzerland and France. Mr. Fox was among them, and ad- 
vocated with his usual zeal the general adoption of the rites and rules 
of the people among whom they had taken refuge, and which, with 
very slight alterations, continue in force to this day in most of the pro- 
testant churches of the continent. In this honest preference he met 
with much unbecoming opposition from his British brethren, then abroad 
and afterwards at home. We have no proof that he ever behaved un- 
civilly to them ; but in some of his letters he complains of great inci- 
vility from them. In one to Peter Martyr he has a passage worth recit- 
ing. " I have discovered what otherwise I could not have believed, how 
much bitterness is to be found among those, whom continued acquaint- 
ance with the sacred volume ought to render gentle, and should 
alway incline to all kindness. As far as in me lies I persuade all parties 
to concord." 

We shall soon observe how far this variation from the national standard 
obstructed Mr. Fox's promotion in the church of England under the 
rigid dominion of Elizabeth : at present the order of events requires us 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxxiii 

to trace his progress as an author, labouring with the utmost diligence 
to defend and diffuse the principles for which he had emigrated to a 
foreign and friendly land. He appears, supremely dependent on the 
divine blessing, to have relied for subsistence and the support of his wife 
and infant daughter on his daily labour in revising manuscripts and cor- 
recting the press for John Oporinus, whose famous printing office was at 
that time honoured by the services, while it gave permanence and pub- 
licity to the works, of some ot tiie most enlightened and devout men that 
ever lived. Mr. Fox also found time to proceed with the great work which 
he had auspiciously commenced, and of which Oporinus was more than 
willing to undertake the pecuniary responsibility. It has been frequently 
said that the entire materials of his "Acts and Monuments of the Church" 
were collected by himself, without the assistance of an individual. The 
honour of our protestant hero and literary colossus by no means requires 
us to credit this report : nor is it correct in point of fact. In the ab- 
sence of direct evidence against it, we should fairly infer that among his 
brother exiles there must have been a few at least, who, unaccustomed 
to authorship, were yet both able and willing to render him valuable aid 
in gathering appropriate facts for his use. But we have information of 
one distinguished individual at least, who greatly assisted him in this 
respect. Grindal, who became one of Elizabeth's archbishops, was at 
that time in Strasburgh, and did much by his studies and letters to fur- 
nish Fox with matter for his great work. We have seen that the first 
volume was published in that city, perhaps under Grindal's own eye, 
since we find that faithful friend peculiarly anxious that the work should 
appear in as accurate a state as possible. Still the disputes in Stras- 
burgh, and the greater facilities for printing in Basle, will sufficiently 
account for the remainder being published at the latter place. 

Leaving further mention of the progress of the various editions, 
we cast an eye a little back to notice a circumstance not mentioned in 
its proper place — that on his way to Basle Mr. Fox tarried a short time 
at Frankfort. His name occurs in a tract descriptive of the "Troubles" 
of that city, published some years after this period ; but evidently re- 
ferring to events which then occurred, and which appear to have involved 
him, as well as others in some tribulation. They were in fact "Troubles" 
rising out of the old question of ecclesiastical discipline and ceremonies, 
and probably contributed, like those of Strasburgh, to hasten his de- 
parture towards Basle and determined him to fix his residence there. 

Either at Strasburgh or at Frankfort the birth of his first child and 
only daughter took place; an event which gave him much satisfaction, 
because it not only removed the fears he had entertained of the effect of 
recent events on the weak constitution and timid nerves of Mrs. Fox, 
but was the occasion of her henceforward enjoying a remarkable share 
of health and spirits. The child was baptised by his friend Grindal, 
and received the name of Anne, perhaps in memory of Anne Boleyn, 
for whom he always cherished great esteem. The child grew up an 
object of great admiration, more for her mental qualities, and the excel- 
lence of her religious character, than for any remarkable attractions of 
person. At a proper age she became the esteemed wife of Sir Richard 
Willis, bart. of Ditton in the county of Essex. 

d 



xxxiv LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

No further events of importance occurred during the sojourn of Mr. 
Fox on the continent. He printed four or five more octavo volumes 
towards completing his great work, and two or three minor works, all 
in latin; persevering through the greater portion of his time in the more 
humble task he had undertaken for his employer, with the utmost in- 
dustry and integrity. At length the time arrived in which he might 
safely return to England. The death of Mary and the accession of 
Elizabeth created the opening for this desirable change; of which, how- 
ever he did not avail himself till several months after his brethren from 
England were again settled in this country. .The delay on his part 
appears to have arisen, not from any distrust of the new government, 
but from the advice of Grindal and his own conviction, that it was 
rather his duty to remain abroad some time longer the better to advance 
his important undertaking. It is not improbable that his peculiar opi- 
nions on church government rendered him either indifferent to or appre- 
hensive of an immediate return. Though he disapproved of the heat of 
the rigid puritans, and called them on one occasion factious and turbu- 
lent spirits — a new sort of monks more pernicious than the old* — it was 
yet manifest that he himself was partly a non-conformist; and he might 
wish to know how Elizabeth would deal with such ultra reformers, before 
he ventured to place himself at her mercy. Grindal, too, might be 
fearful of hastily exposing so bold a protestant and so good a man to 
the displeasure of a queen, known to be almost as hostile to dissenters 
from high episcopacy as to catholics themselves. That he wished, as 
some have insinuated to keep back Fox from preferment until he had se- 
cured preferment for himself, is contradicted by every part of Grindal's 
character, and every act of his behaviour toward his esteemed friend. 

The first month of the year 1551 saw Elizabeth seated on the throne, 
and before the spring arrived most of the English exiles had returned 
to support the protestant cause at home. Mr. Fox, however, remained till 
the year had closed, ostensibly at least, for completing the first folio 
edition of his work in latin, the title page of which bears the date of 
1559. Even then he was with difficulty persuaded to leave his studies 
and labours at Basle, though he knew that preferment awaited him in 
England. It does not appear that any communication had passed 
between him and his pupil, the young duke of Norfolk, during his ab- 
sence; but soon after he arrived in London he addressed to his grace a 
latin letter, soliciting his future patronage and some present aid. He 
received an immediate and favourable answer, and soon took up his 
abode in the city mansion of the duke, then in Aldgate. There he was 
furnished with all desirable facilities for proceeding with the English 
translation of his recently published latin folio, and was thus engaged 
without interruption, for twelve or thirteen months; when he visited 
Norwich, whither his patron sent him on some commission, probably 
with the kindlier purpose of promoting his health and that of Mrs. Fox, 
who accompanied him, by a sojourn at one of his country seats. There 
Mrs. Fox gave birth to a first son in the spring of 1560; of whom the 
few particulars claiming insertion may at once be introduced. 

* This was done, we believe, when puritan ascendancy deprived his son of the fellowship 
he held in Magdalen college. 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxw 

A note on the preceding page intimates tliat this son was trained and 
intended for the church, but was deprived of his fellowship in his father's 
college by puritan influence. To him we are indebted for what must 
be deemed the most accurate life of Mr. Fox, prefixed to the fourth 
English edition of the Acts and Monuments. He differs on several ma- 
terial facts from Anthony Wood ; but every candid reader will take his 
integrity for granted, while drawing the inference that he must have been 
much better acquainted than Wood with the motives and movements of 
his father's course. Upon leaving Oxford, he took up his residence, 
probably as tutor, in the house ot Sir Moyle Finch, an ancestor of the 
present earl of Winchelsea, at Eastwell in Kent, where he married a 
distant relation of his patron, a widow of the name of Leveson. 

Mr. Fox continued in the duke of Norfolk's house till that ill-fated 
nobleman entangled himself in the affairs of Mary queen of Scots. His 
personal attachment to the unhappy queen is generally undoubted; 
on no other supposition can we account for the excess of his romantic 
zeal in her cause, and his willingness to sacrifice life rather than become 
indifferent to her fate. His gallantry brought him to the scaffold in the 
year 1572. Both Mr. Fox and his friend Nowell, then dean of St. Paul's, 
attended him on the melancholy occasion, and we may imagine much 
easier than describe the feelings of the former on witnessing the execu- 
tion of one, to whom he had supplied the place of father, and whom, 
both as pupil and patron, he had held in the highest esteem. This 
event put the fidelity and prudence of Mr. Fox to the severest test. 
The tendency of the duke notwithstanding his protestant education, to 
the religion of his fathers, met from his tutor with no indulgence, else 
the latter would not have enjoyed as he did the smiles of government, 
and a respect from the queen amounting to avowed filial reverence. On 
the other hand, his inflexible protestantism did not extinguish or abate 
his sympathy with the duke, amidst the perils of his courtly life and the 
calamities of his early death. It is due both to Mr. Fox and the duke 
to remark that the latter died professing protestant principles. 

Mr. Fox now took up his abode in the famous Grub-street, then the 
resort of authors of slender substance and laborious habits. In addition 
to unwearied study and toil through the week, he preached generally 
twice on the Lord's day, and was seldom recompensed except by the 
consciousness of labouring for the public good, and often hearing that 
he had actually promoted it. His popularity was such as to create the 
warm desire of the bishops that he would be sufficiently decided and 
comprehensive in his subscription to allow of his taking a place on the 
episcopal bench. As it was, he received from secretary Cecil a prebend 
in Salisbury cathedral, which he retained through life. It is said, also, 
that he was once summoned by archbishop Parker to subscribe, " that the 
reputation of his piety might give the greater countenance to conformity ;" 
but that, instead of complying, he drew from his pocket the New Testament 
in Greek, and said emphatically, " To this I will subscribe." When 
reminded that he was already a dignitary of the church, a post which 
required subscription to the canon law, he mildly answered, " I have 
nothing in the church but a prebend at Salisbury, and if you take that 
from me much °;ood mav it do you." From this answer we infer that 



xxxvi LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. 

he had somehow lost his vicarage of Cripplegate, and that the report 
of his having been a prebendary of Durham is incorrect. 

Although he preached more sermons at this period than any other 
London divine, very few have ever been published. The most remark- 
able among them was delivered at St. Paul's cross in the year 1570, and 
was printed soon after by John Daye. The following year it was trans- 
lated into latin, and in both languages it obtained a wide circulation, 
and was productive of much benefit to the protestant cause. The English 
edition, as it was preached, is printed in a fine black letter, and is pre- 
ceded by the following quaint notice: — 

" Faults excepted in the printing, which I pray thee good reader first 
to correct, and then read." The faults are only four. The text of this 
sermon is the last two verses of the fifth chapter of St. Paul's second 
epistle to the Corinthians — which he thus translates: 

" For Christ therefore, or in Christ's name, we come to you as mes- 
sengers, even as God himself desiring you, we pray you for Christ's 
stead that you will be reconciled unto Cod. For him who knew no sin, 
God hath made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness 
of God in him." 

The sermon contains much that we should be glad to extract: the 
following passage is too good to be omitted. " I remember, about the 
beginning of queen Mary's reign, there was a certain message sent, not 
from heaven, but from Rome — not from God, but from the pope — not 
by any apostle, but by a certain cardinal Pole, a legate of the pope's 
own white side. And what was the message? Forsooth, that the realm 
of England should be reconciled to the pope !" After such an introduc- 
tion, the reader may imagine the sort of sermon John Fox would deliver: 
on such a back ground, every one will look for a bright and beautiful 
picture of evangelical truth, and no one will be disappointed. The 
sermon is followed by an admirable prayer, and by a " Postcript to 
papists." Some of his letters mention this sermon, or rather the effect 
of preaching it, in terms which imply that as it was the first he had de- 
livered at St. Paul's cross, so he wished it to be the last. No mention 
is made of his preaching on. that remarkable spot a second time. 

As no order of time is observed in any of the lists of Mr. Fox's works, 
and as several of them are without date or clue to the year in which they 
were published, the chief of those which have not been mentioned may 
here be introduced. He wrote treatises on the Eucharist, on the Apo- 
calypse, on the doctrine of Election, and on Free Justification in Christ. 
The latter drew forth animadversions from Jerome Osorio, author of se- 
veral theological works, whom he answered by a second treatise on the 
subject, entitled Contra Osorium de Justitia. He also published " A 
new year's gift concerning the deliverance of certain christians from 
Turkish galleys," and an ingenious essay on the restoration of backsliders, 
which he entitles " De lapsis per errorem in Ecclesiam restituendis." 
In addition to these and some other original productions, he undertook, 
at the request, or rather command, of archbishop Parker, an edition of 
the Saxon gospels; and he also edited the works of Tindal, Frith, and 
Barnes. His prefaces and letters were innumerable, and as Daye ob- 



LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN FOX. xxxvn 

tained the name of the reformed printer, so Fox was called the author 
and editor of the reformation. 

We now come to a point concerning Mr. Fox, which has been mag- 
nified into a prophetic and miraculous character. The boldness of his 
speech often led his unthinking admirers to attribute to his superior 
mind a prescience more than human or christian. The first remarkable 
instance of this was when he avowed his conviction that Mary would 
soon die, before he could possibly know of her decline and danger. 
This was soon ascribed to a prophetic acquaintance with the will of 
Heaven, imparted for the comfort of the banished English. Aylmer, 
afterwards bishop of London, who was then at Basle is appealed to in 
support of this extravagant conclusion. It is also confidently asserted, 
and on authority quite as good as that of the credulous bishop, that Fox 
predicted the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The good man's reputa- 
tion receives neither support nor adorning from such an attribute, and 
had he assumed it, that reputation would not have stood so high as it 
does. No supernatural prescience was requisite in a sanguine protestant 
like him to foretell the defeat of the Spanish Armada ; and the delight 
and heat of hope frequently rise high enough to assure us of the speedy 
fall of those by whom we are unrighteously coerced and persecuted. 

Between prophecy and miracle there is but a slender partition. Pro- 
phecy is the miraculous in word, and miracle is the prophetic in deed. 
Hence the enthusiasm which made Mr. Fox a prophet, had no difficulty 
in announcing his words to have produced miraculous effects. He is 
said to have assured Lady Anne Heneage that she should not die of a 
mortal sickness, and contrary to the verdict of her physicians she reco- 
vered ! On a visit to the earl of Arundel they were walking together 
towards the river, when Mr. Fox, wishing to depart, was exhorted by the 
earl to remain because the river, which he had to cross, was greatly 
agitated by a boisterous wind. Mr. Fox persisted in going, and said, 
" So let these waters deal with me, as I have in truth delivered to you 
all that I have spoken." He then stepped into the boat, when the wind 
ceased and there was a perfect calm ! A Mrs. Honiwood, hopeless of 
life and even longing for death, sent for Mr. Fox, who assured her that 
she would recover and live to a great age. She is said to have thrown a 
small glass she had in her hand against the wall, asserting her recovery 
to be as impossible as that the glass should not be broken. The glass 
did not break, nor did she die till she had seen ninety winters, and 
reckoned as many descendants as there are days in the year. 

Giving full credit to these statements without feeling the least necessity 
of drawing prophetic or miraculous inferences from them, we refer with 
greater pleasure to the high moral qualities by which Mr. Fox was dis- 
tinguished. His charity was conspicuous. Coming on one occasion 
from the palace of Aylmer, bishop of London, he saw some miserable 
beggars at the gate. He found his own pockets empty ; but stepped 
back to the bishop and requested the loan of five shillings, which he 
obtained, and on passing the gate again distributed the whole among the 
astonished and grateful mendicants. Some time after, the bishop re- 
minded him of the debt and requested it might be paid: " My lord," 
answered Fox, " I laid it out for you, and soon you will be paid with 



xxxvm LIFE OF THE REV r . JOHN FOX. 

ample interest." He was a man of remarkable discretion : his motto 
was, " Give none offence. " A gentleman with whom he was dining in 
a large party freely canvassed the character of the earl of Leicester. 
Mr. Fox felt it an imperious duty to rebuke the offender, and ordered a 
certain cup to be brought to him. Drinking to the gentleman's health 
he added, " This cup was given me by the earl of Leicester." 

His disinterestedness might be traced through every step of a long 
life. Although his scruples prevented his promotion, he discovered that 
Elizabeth had consented to the advancement of some who were as 
averse to complete conformity as himself. He had courage enough even 
to rebuke the queen; but he preferred congratulating her on doing jus- 
tice to others, and wrote an admirable latin panegyric on her conduct 
towards them, without a syllable of complaint about his own case. His 
characteristic compassion was often manifested, especially in interced- 
ing for the anabaptists, whose extravagance and suspected treason had 
drawn down upon them the vengeance of the court and council. He 
gave himself no rest till he had obtained pardon for the greater number 
and bitterly lamented the fate of two, natives of Holland, who suffered 
the sentence of death. To these testimonies in his favour we add one 
specimen of his wit. A young man in his presence remarked that he 
saw no reason why old authors should be so greatly admired. " No 
marvel indeed," answered Mr. Fox, " for if you could conceive the rea- 
son you would yourself admire them." 

We come to the closing scene of this life of distinguished honour and 
usefulness. For some time Mr. Fox knew his departure to be at hand — 
a knowledge to be accounted for without ascribing it, as some have done 
to inspired and prophetic discernment. Incessant and untiring exertion 
had reduced a frame naturally vigorous and robust to almost the weak- 
ness of infancy: leaving him, however, as were his wishes and prayers, 
in the full possession of reason and enjoyment of religion to the last 
moment. He died at his lodging in the city on the 20th of April 1587, 
and was buried in the church at Cripplegate, of which he had been vicar 
some short time after his return to England. A monument in the chan- 
cel marks the spot of his interment : it is on the south side of the com- 
munion table, and contains a Latin inscription, partly concealed by wood- 
work subsequently raised. In the register of burials stands this plain 
record : — 

"April 20th, 1587 — John Fox, householder and preacher." 



$uf% Sunk of Jfinrttjri 



LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. 



Page 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew (frontispiece j 

Burning of Bidley and Latimer (vignette) 

Slaughter of Christians at Alexandria 88 

An Auto da Fe at Madrid 15-3 

A Lady brought before the Inquisition after the Torture 16o 

Massacre at Vassy, headed by the Duke of Guise 203 

Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont 250 

King John resigning his Crown to the Pope's Legate 283 

Trial of Lambert before Henry VIII 3o0 

Burning of George Wishart 438 

Boger Clarke turning away from the Host 448 

Bepresentation of a Manufactory of " Saints " 496 

Burning of John Bradford 720 

Bishop Bidley before the Convocation at Oxford 843 



AN UNIVERSAL HISTORY 



CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



BOOK I. 

An account of the ecclesiastical matters which passed in the Church of Christ from its 
first establishment till the period of three hundred years ; particularly showing the 
differences between the ancient and present Church of Rome ; in which the absurdity, 
impiety, and blasphemous doctrines of that Church in modern times are fully illus- 
trated. a 

CHRIST, in the gospel of St. Matthew, chap, xvi., hearing the confes- 
sion of Simon Peter, who first openly acknowledged him to be the Son 
of God, and perceiving the secret hand of his Father therein, answered 
again; and alluding to his name, called him a rock, upon which rock 
he would build his church so strong, that the gates of hell should not 
prevail against it, &c. In these words three things are to be noted- 
First, that Christ will have a church in this world. Secondly, that the 
same church should be mightily impugned, not only by the world, but 
also by the utmost strength and powers of all hell. And, thirdly, that 
the same church, notwithstanding the efforts of the devil and all his 
malice, should continue. This prophecy of Christ we see wonderfully 
verified, insomuch that the whole course of the church to this day, seems 
nothing else but a verification of it. First, that Christ hath set up a 
church, needs no proof. Secondly, what force, what sides and sorts of 
men, of princes, kings, monarchs, governors, and rulers of this world, 
with their subjects publicly and privately, with all their strength and 
cunning, have bent themselves against this church. And, thirdly, how 
the said church, notwithstanding all this, hath yet endured. 

To bring these events home to the minds of Christians, it will be ne- 
cessary to treat in the following order : 

First, of the suffering time of the church, which continued from the 
apostles' age about three hundred years. 

Secondly, of the flourishing time of the church, which lasted other 
three hundred years. 

Thirdly, of the declining time of the church, which comprehends 
other three hundred years, or about the thousandth year after the ceasing 
of persecution. During which space of time, the church, although 
ambitious and proud, was much altered from the simple sincerity of the 
primitive time; yet in outward profession of doctrine and religion, it was 

a To the disgrace of all modern editions which we have seen of the " Lives of the 
Martyrs," this most interesting and truly historical part of the original work has been 
totally omitted. 

1 B 



^ HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

something tolerable, notwithstanding some corruption of doctrine, with 
superstition and hypocrisy, had then crept in. 

Fourthly, followed the time of Antichrist, or, as it is scripturally called, 
the loosing of Satan, or desolation of the church, which contains the 
space of four hundred years. In this time both Christian doctrine and 
sincerity of life was almost extinguished ; particularly in the chief heads 
and rulers of the west church, through the means of the Roman bishops, 
especially from Gregory the seventh, called Hildebrand, Innocentius 
the third, and the friars who crept in with him, till the time of John 
Wickliffe and John Huss, during a space of four hundred years. 

Fifthly and lastly, after this time of Antichrist reigning in the church 
of God by violence and tyranny, followed the reformation, or, as it may 
properly be called, the purging of the church of God, wherein Anti- 
christ begins to be revealed, and his antichristian doctrine to be detected, 
the number of his church decreasing, and the number of the true church 
increasing greatly. 

With respect to the church of Rome, in all the ages above specified, 
it challenged to itself the supreme title, and ringleading of the whole 
universal church on earth, by whose direction all other churches have 
been governed. In writing therefore of the church of Christ, one can- 
not but intermeddle with the acts and proceedings of the said church, 
because the doings and orderings of all other churches, from time to 
time, as well in England as in other nations, have chiefly depended 
upon it; in order to give a general description, briefly to show, as 
in a summary table, the misguiding of that church, comparing the for- 
mer primitive state of the church of Rome with the latter times of the 
same, and then to proceed more at large with all the particulars thereof. 

The title and style of that church was such, that it surpassed all other 
churches : being called the Holy Universal Mother Church, which could 
not err; and the bishop thereof, Holy Father the Pope, Bishop Univer- 
sal, Prince of Priests, Supreme Head of the Universal Church, and 
Vicar of Christ on Earth, who must not be judged, having all know- 
ledge of Scripture, and all laws contained within his breast. 

The jurisdiction of that bishop was such, that, challenging to him- 
self both the swords, that is, both the keys of the scripture and the 
sceptre of the laity, he not only subdued all bishops under him, but also 
advanced himself above kings and emperors, causing some of them to 
lie under his feet, some to hold his stirrup, others to lead his horse by 
the bridle, to kiss his feet, and placing and displacing emperors, kings, 
dukes, and earls, where and when he listed, taking upon him to trans- 
late the empire at his pleasure ; b first from Greece to France, from France 

b The disgrace and contempt into which this Antichrist has now fallen, must convince 
all true Christians of the fulfilment of the scriptures, as they describe his overthrow. No- 
thing proves so clearly that Buonaparte was intended by the Almighty as a scourge to the 
nations of the Continent, as his conduct towards the popes of his time, whom he 
robbed, insulted, and trod under foot, with as great a degree of contumely as preceding 
popes did the rightful but bigoted sovereigns of great nations in former ages. Some years 
ago, when the Editor of this work was making a tour through Italy, he was shewn the 
statues of the popes which are preserved in the pantheon at Rome. It was shortly after 
the death of Pius VI.; and he remarked that there was only one niche remaining unfilled. 
The guide, with a melancholy shake of the head, observed that a prophecy had long pre- 



POPISH USURPATIONS. 3 

to Germany, preferring and deposing whom he pleased, confirming 
them which were elected. Also being emperor himself, sede vacante, 
pretending authority or power to invest bishops, to give benefices, to 
spoil churches, to give authority to bind and loose, to call general coun- 
cils, to judge over them, to set up religions, to canonize saints, to 
take appeals, to bind consciences, to make laws, to dispense with the 
law and word of God, to deliver from purgatory, to command angels, &c. 

This doctrine was tedious to students, pernicious to men's con- 
sciences, injurious to Christ, and contrary in itself. 

But it should be noted, that all these deformities, vain title, pretended 
jurisdiction, heretical doctrine, and schismatical life, came not into 
the church of Rome at once, nor sprang with the beginning of 
the same church, but with long working, and continuance of time, by 
little and little crept in, and came not to full perfection till the time 
partly of pope Sylvester, partly of pope Gregory the seventh in 1170, 
partly of Innocent the third, and finally of pope Boniface the eighth 
in 1300. Of these four popes, the first brought in the title, in the year 
of the Lord 670, which was never before publicly enacted and received 
or acknowledged in the church of Rome. The second brought in juris- 
diction. The third, which was pope Innocent, with his rabble of monks 
and friars (amongst whom were Thomas Aquinas, Petrus Lombardus, 
Johannes Scotus) and such other bishops as succeeded in the see after 
him, corrupted and obscured the sincerity of Christ's doctrine and man- 
ners. And lastly, pope Boniface the eighth, and Clement the fifth, 
added the temporal sword to be carried before them. And they decreed, 
that no emperor (were he never so justly elected) should be sufficient and 
lawful, without the pope's admission. This was in the year J 300, 
whereby the pope's power was now brought to its full pride and perfec- 
tion. And thus arose the corruption of the Romish church in continu- 
ance of years by degrees, and not at one time, as is here shown. 

Hence the church of Rome, as it is now governed with this titular 
jurisdiction, and institution of doctrine, never descended from the primi- 
tive age of the apostles, or from their succession, nisi tantum cequivoce c , 
et non univoce ; like as Sancta Maria picta non est Sancta Maria, et 
homo pictus non est homo: that is, as the picture of the Holy Virgin is 
not the Holy Virgin, and as a man painted on the wall is not a man : 
so it is to be said of the church of Rome, that although it hath the name 
of the church Apostolic, and doth bring forth a long genealogy of 
outward succession from the apostles, as the Pharisees in Christ's time 
brought their descent from Abraham their father ; yet all this is but only 
cequivoce, that is, the name only, and not in effect or matter. 

With respect to the order and qualities of life, let us ask of this Ro- 



vailed in that city, that when the niche in question should be filled there would be no need 
for any others. Since then the temporal authority of the pope has been degraded even to 
ridicule ; and every hour seems to prognosticate that the papal supremacy is approximating 
to its end, at least on the continent. 

c JEquivoce, that is in name only, and not in deed. Univoce, that is both in name and 
also in definition and effect, agreeing with the name. 



4 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

man clergy, where was this church of theirs which now is, in the ancient 
time of the primitive church of Rome ; with this pomp and pride ; with 
this riches and superfluity ; with this gloria mundi, and name of car- 
dinals ; with this extortion, bribing, buying and selling of spiritual dig- 
nities ; these annats, reformations, procurations, exactions, and other 
practices for money ; this avarice insatiable, ambition intolerable, fleshly 
filthiness most detestable, barbarousness and negligence in preaching, 
promise-breaking faithlessness, poisoning and supplanting one another; 
with such schisms and divisions, which never were more practised than 
in the elections and courts of Rome within these seven hundred years ; 
with such extreme cruelty, malice, and tyranny in burning and perse- 
cuting their poor brethren to death ? 

If a man were to write at large all the schisms that have been in the 
church of Rome since the time of Damasus the first, what a volume 
would it require ? Or if here should be recorded all whom this church 
hath burnt and put to death, who would be able to number them ? 

If there were no other difference in the matter, but only corruption 
of life, all that we would tolerate, or impute to the common frailty 
of man, and charge them no farther than we might charge ourselves. 
But besides this deformity of life, wherein they have strayed from the for- 
mer steps of the true church of Rome, we have to charge them in greater 
points, more nearly affecting the substantial ground of the church. 

Although Victor, bishop of Rome, in the year 200, went about to ex- 
communicate the east churches for the observance of Easter day ; yet 
neither did he proceed therein, nor was he permitted by Ireneus so to 
do. And although Boniface the first, writing to the bishops of Carthage, 
required of them to send up their appellations to the church of 
Rome, alleging the decree of the Nicene council for his authority ; 
the bishops and clergy of Carthage assembling together in a general 
council (called the sixth council of Carthage) to the number of two 
hundred and seventeen bishops, after that they had perused the decrees 
in the authentic copies of the Nicene council, and found no such order, 
made a public decree, that none out of that country should make any ap- 
peal beyond the see, &c. It is no wonder if appeals were forbidden them 
to be made to Rome ; for here in England the kings would not permit 
any to appeal from them to Rome, till Henry II. from political motives 
submitted to the influence of pope Alexander III. on account of the 
murder of Thomas a Becket. And also in France the like prohibitions 
were expressly made by Ludovicus Pius, anno 1264, which forbade, by a 
public instrument called Pragmatica sanctio, all exactions of the pope's 
court within that realm. The like was done also by king Philip, named 
Le Bel, anno 1296, which not only restrained all sending or going of 
his subjects to Rome, but also that no money, armour, nor subsidy 
should be transported out of his realm. King Charles the fifth, sur- 
named the Wise, and his son likewise, Charles the sixth, also punished 
as traitors certain seditious persons for appealing to Rome. 

The like resistance was made in France, against the pope's reservations, 
preventions, and other practices of his usurped jurisdiction, in the days 
of pope Martin the fifth, anno 1418, when king Henry the sixth in Eng- 



LAWS OF JUSTINIAN. o 

land, and king Charles the seventh in France, both accorded with the 
pope in investing and in the collation of benefices ; yet notwithstanding 
the high court of parliament in France did not admit the same, but still 
maintained the old liberty and customs of the French church. And 
when the duke of Bedford came with the king's letters patent to 
have the pope's procurations and reservations admitted, the parliament 
would not agree to it, but the king's procurator-general was obliged 
to interfere. 

The Roman emperors made frequent attempts to curtail and check the 
powers of the popes. The emperor Honorius enacted a law, that none 
should be made bishops of Rome through ambition, charging all ec- 
clesiastical ministers to cease from ambition; appointing, moreover, 
that if two were elected together, neither of them should be taken, 
but the election to proceed to another, who was to be chosen by a full 
consent of voices. 

To this may be added also the law and constitution of Justinian the 
emperor, ratified and renewed afterwards in the council of Paris, in the 
time of king Ludovicus Pius ; where all bishops and priests were ex- 
pressly forbidden to excommunicate any man before his cause was 
known and proved to be such, for which the ancient canons of the 
church would have him to be excommunicate. And if any should pro- 
ceed contrary to this law, then the excommunicate person to be absolved 
by the authority of a higher decree, and the excommunicate to be se- 
questered from the communion, so long as should seem convenient to 
him that had the execution thereof, as is expressed 24. ^.3. De illicita. 
Justinian also, in his laws and constitutions, ordained many things of 
high importance in church matters, such as to have a determinate 
number of churchmen or clerks in churches ; also concerning monas- 
teries and monks ; how bishops and priests should be ordained ; the 
removing of ecclesiastical persons from one church to another ; 
the constitution of the churches in Africa; and that the holy 
mysteries should not be performed in private houses, so that whoever 
should attempt the contrary should be deprived. Const. 58. Also con- 
cerning the order and manner of funerals; and that bishops should not 
keep from their flock. The same Justinian granted to the clergy of 
Constantinople the privilege of the secular court in cases only civil, 
and such as touched not the disturbance of the bishop : in all 
criminal causes he left them to the judgment of the secular court. He 
also gave laws and decrees for breach of matrimony. And in his Const. 
123, after the doctrine of St. Paul, he commanded all bishops and 
priests to sound out their service and to celebrate the mysteries, not after 
a secret manner, but with a loud voice, so as they might not only be 
heard, but also that the faithful people might understand what was said 
and done; whereby we learn that divine prayers and service was then in 
the vulgar tongue. 

These and numerous other instances that could be adduced, shew that 
even in the early ages of papacy the sovereigns of Europe were jealous 
of, and adverse to, the institutions and authority of the popes; insomuch 
that they thought it necessary to point out to the catholic bishops and 



6 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

priests what they ought to consider as their duty. Carolus Magnus, 
besides his other laws and political edicts, called five synods, one at 
Mentz, the second at Rome, the third at Rheims, the fourth at Cabi- 
lone, the fifth at Arelate, where sundry rites and ordinances were given 
to the clergy, about eight hundred and ten years after Christ. The 
same Carolus also decreed, that only the canonical books of Scripture 
should be read in the church and none other ; which before was also 
decreed anno 417, in the third general council of Carthage. This mo- 
narch also exhorted bishops and priests, to preach the word with a godly 
injunction; and ordered them to dispense with the superstition which is 
used at certain places in the burial of the dead. 

The said kings and emperors likewise forbade that any freeman or ci- 
tizen should enter the profession of a monk, without licence asked of the 
king; and added a double cause for this regulation, first, because many 
not for mere devotion, but for idleness, and avoiding the king's wars, do 
give themselves to religion; again, that many be craftily circumvented 
and deluded by subtle covetous persons seeking to get from that which 
they have; that no young children or boys should be shaven, or enter 
any profession, without the will of their parents; and that no young 
maiden should take the veil or profession of a nun before she came to 
sufficient discretion of years to discern and chuse what to follow. That 
none should be interred or buried thenceforth within the church : which 
also was decreed by Theodosius and Valentinianus forty years before 
them. The said Carolus, two and twenty years before this emperor, 
enacted that murderers, and such as were guilty of death by the law, 
should have no sanctuary by flying into the church, SfC. which also was 
decreed by Justinian three hundred years before Carolus. e 

Amongst the numerous other improprieties of the modern church of 
Rome may be mentioned their vowsons and pluralities of benefices, 
which were then things as much unknown as they are now pernicious 
to the church, by taking away all free election of ministers from the 
flock of Christ. 

As these inconveniences came and crept in chiefly by the pretended 
authority and jurisdiction abused in this latter church of Rome; so it 
cannot be denied, but the said latter church of Rome hath taken and 
attributed to itself much more than either the limits of God's word 
gives, or as stands with the example of the old Roman church, in these 
three things especially. 

The first is this, that whatsoever the Scripture giveth and referreth, 
either to the whole church universally, or to every particular church se- 
verally, this present church of Rome doth arrogate to itself absolutely and 
only; both doing injury to other churches, and also abusing the Scrip- 

e This singular historical fact forcibly shews the increase of the papal supremacy in 
modern ages. The sanctuary of the church, in catholic countries, is a safeguard for mur- 
derers and criminals of every description. In Italy and Spain, in particular, to the present 
day, a man who chuses to murder another in the public streets receives protection from 
entering the porches of a church, and a summary vengeance would fall upon any one who 
should molest him in such a sacred spot. One of the writers in the Spectator has intro- 
duced a beautiful story from a subject of this nature: it is the adventure of a gentleman 
who takes refuge in a church after killing his antagonist in a duel. 



CORRUPTIONS OF THE POPE'S CHURCH. ' 

tures of God. For though the Scripture doth give authority to bind and 
loose, it limiteth it neither to person nor place, that is, not to the city of 
Rome more than other cities, nor to the see of Peter more than to 
other apostles; but giveth it clearly to the church, whereof Peter did 
bear the figure, so that wheresoever the true church of Christ is, there 
is annexed power to bind and loose, given and taken merely as from 
Christ, and not immediately by the pope or bishop of Peter's see. 

The second point wherein this present church of Rome abuses its ju- 
risdiction contrary to the Scripture and steps of the old Roman church, 
is this, that it extendeth its authority farther and more amply, than 
either the warrant of the word, or example of time, will give. For al- 
though the church of Rome hath (as other particular churches have) 
authority to bind and absolve, yet it hath no authority to absolve subjects 
from their oath, subjection, and loyalty to their rulers and magistrates, 
to dispense with perjury , to pronounce remission where no earnest repent- 
ance is seen before, to number remission by days and years, to dispense 
with tilings expressly in the word forbidden, or to restrain that which the 
icord maketh free, to divide religion into religions, to bind and burtheyi 
consciences with constitutions of men, to excommunicate for worldly mat- 
ters, such as not ringing of bells at the bishop's coming, for not bringing 
litter for their horses, for not paying their fees and rents, for withholding 
the church goods, for holding on their prince's side in princely cases, 
for not going at the pope's commandment, for not agreeing to the pope's 
election in another prince's realm, with other such things more vain than 
these, &c. Again, although the Scripture giveth leave and authority to 
the bishop and church of Rome to minister sacraments ; yet it giveth 
no authority to make sacraments, much less to worship sacraments. 
And though their authority serveth to baptise men, yet it extendeth not 
to christen bells ; neither have they authority by any word of God to 
add to the word of God, or take from the same, to set up unwritten ve- 
rities under pain of damnation, to make other articles of belief, to insti- 
tute strange worship, otherwise than he hath prescribed who hath told 
us how he would be worshipped, &c. 

The third abuse of the pope's jurisdiction is, that as in spiritual juris- 
diction they have vehemently exceeded the bounds of Scripture, so they 
have impudently intermeddled themselves in the temporal jurisdiction, 
wherein they have nothing to do. Insomuch that they have translated 
their empire, they have deposed emperors, kings, princes, rulers, and 
senators of Rome, and set up others or the same again at their pleasure ; 
they have also proclaimed wars, and have warred themselves. And 
though emperors in ancient times have dignified them with titles, have 
enlarged them with donations, and they received their confirmation by 
the emperors, yet, like ungrateful clients to such benefactors, they after- 
wards stamped upon their necks, made them hold their stirrup, and also 
the bridle of their horse; have likewise caused them to seek confirma- 
tion at their hand ; and, in fact, have made themselves emperors, sede 
vacante, et in discordia electionis, and also have been senators of the 
city ; moreover, have extorted by their own hands the plenary fulness 
of power and jurisdiction of both the swords, especially since the time 
of pope Hildebrand ; which Hildebrand deposing Henry, the fourth 



8 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

emperor, made him give attendance at his city gate. And after him 
pope Boniface the eighth shewed himself to the people on the first day 
like a bishop, with his keys before him ; and the next day in his robes 
imperial, having a naked sword borne before him, like an emperor ; this 
happened in the year 1298. 

Thus having sufficiently shewn the manner of life, title, jurisdiction, 
and government of the pope's see (in all which points it is to be seen how 
this latter church of Rome hath receded from the true ancient church of 
Rome) it now remains to proceed to the fourth and last point, which is 
of doctrine, wherein consisteth the chief matter that is with us and 
against them, and which proves that they are neither to be reputed for 
true catholics, being altered so far from them ; nor we other than 
heretics, if we should now join with them. For the proof whereof, let 
us examine the doctrine and rites of the said church of Rome now used, 
and compare the same with the teaching of the ancient catholics, to 
the intent that such persons as have been hitherto, and yet are 
seduced by the false statements and image of this pretended church, 
perceiving what lieth within it, may be warned betimes either to avoid 
the peril, or if not, to blame none but themselves for their own wilful 
destruction. 

And though I could here charge the new fangled church of the pope 
with seven or eight heinous crimes, such as blasphemy, idolatry, heresy, 
superstition, absurdity, vanity, cruelty, &c. yet to pass this matter 
with them, these two things I will and dare boldly affirm, that in this 
doctrine of the pope, now taught in the church of Rome, is neither any 
consolation of conscience, nor salvation of man's soul. For seeing 
there is no life nor soul's health but only in Christ, nor any promise of 
salvation or comfort made but only by faith in the Son of God, what 
assurance can there be of perfect peace, life, or salvation, where that 
which only maketh all, is least made of, and other things which are of 
least import are most esteemed ? 

And, therefore, as it may be truly said that this doctrine of the pope 
is void of all true comfort and salvation, so likewise it seemeth that those 
which addict themselves so devoutly to the pope's learning, were never 
earnestly afflicted in conscience, never humbled in spirit, nor broken in 
heart ; never entered into any serious feeling of God's judgment, nor 
ever felt the strength of the law and of death. For if they had, they 
would soon have seen their own weakness, and been driven to Christ ; 
then would they have seen what a horrible thing it is to appear before 
God the judge, or once to think on him (as Luther says) without Christ; 
and, on the contrary, they would know what a glory, what a kingdom, 
what liberty and life it were to be in Christ Jesus by faith. 

And thus were the old Romans first taught by St. Paul writing to 
them. The same did Cornelius the Roman, the first that was bap- 
tized of the Gentiles, learn of St. Peter when he received the Holy 
Ghost, not by the deeds of the law, but only by hearing the faith of 
Jesus preached. And in the same doctrine the said church of the Ro- 
mans many years continued, so long as they were in affliction. And in 
the same doctrine the bishop of Rome with his Romans now also should 
si ill remain, if they were such ancient Catholics as they pretend, and 



TRUE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. 9 

would follow the old mother church of Rome ; but what wonder if the 
Romans now in so long a tract of time have lost their first sap, seeing 
that the church of the Galatians, in the very time of St. Paul, their 
schoolmaster, he being amongst them, had scarcely turned his back but 
they almost turned from the doctrine of faith. 

And lest any should think that we here protest against the corrupt 
errors and deformities of this latter church of Rome from motives of 
any rancour, rather than necessary causes and demonstrations, I 
shall take some little pains to descry the particular branches and con- 
tents of the pope's doctrine, now set forth, to the intent that all true 
christian readers, comparing the one with the other, may discern what 
great alteration there is between the church of Rome that now is, and 
the church of Rome that then was planted by the apostles in the primi- 
tive time. And to open to the simple reader some way whereby he may 
the better judge in such matters of doctrine, and not be deceived in dis- 
cerning truth from error. First, we will mention certain principles or 
general positions, as infallible rules or truths of the Scripture, whereby 
all other doctrines and opinions of men being tried and examined, may 
the more easily be judged whether they be true or contrary to the holy 
Scripture. 

CERTAIN PRINCIPLES, OR GENERAL VERITIES, FOUNDED UPON 
THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD, 

1. As sin and death came originally by the disobedience of one to all 
men of his generation by nature, so righteousness and life came origi- 
nally by the obedience of one to all men regenerated of him by faith 
and baptism. Rom. 5. 

2. The promise of God was freely given to our first parents without 
their deserving ; that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's 
head. Gen. 3. 

3. Promise was given freely to Abraham before he deserved any thing, 
that in his seed all nations should be blessed. Gen. 12. 

4. To the word of God neither must we add nor take from it. Deut. 4. 

5. He that doth the works of the law shall live therein. Lev. 18. 
Gal. 3. 

6. Accursed is he who abideth not in every thing that is written in 
the book of the law. Deut. 27. Gal. 3. 

7. God only is to be worshipped. Deut. 6. Luke 4. 

8. All our righteousness is like a defiled cloth. Isa. 64. 

9. In all my holy hill they shall not kill nor slay, saith the Lord. 
Isa. 11 ; 65. 

10. God loveth mercy and obedience more than sacrifice. Hos. 6. 
1 Sam. 15. 

11. The law worketh anger, condemneth and oppresseth sin. Rom. 3. 

12. The end of the law is Christ, for righteousness to every one that 
believeth. Rom. 10. 

13. Whosoever believeth and is baptized, shall be saved. Matth. ult. 

14. A man is justified by faith, without works; freely by grace, not 
of ourselves. Gal. 2. Ephes. 2. 

15. There is no remission of sins without blood. Heb. 9. 



10 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

1(>. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Rom. 14. Without faith it is 
impossible to please God. Heb. 11. 

17. One mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 2. 
And he is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 2. 

18. Whosoever seeketh by the law to be justified, is fallen from 
grace. Gal. 5. 

19. In Christ be all the promises of God, Est & Amen. 2 Cor. 1. 

20. Let every soul be subject to superior powers, giving to Caesar 
that which is Ccesar's, and to God that which is God's. Rom. 13. 

These principles and infallible rules of Scripture, which no man can 
deny, prove that the doctrine of the pope's church is not catholic, but 
full of errors and heresies, as in the sequel will be more expressly and 
particularly explained. 

A SUMMARY COLLECTION OF THE ERRORS, HERESIES, AND 

ABSURDITIES 

Contained in the Pope's Doctrines, contrary to the Rules of God's Word, and the 

First Institution of the Church of Rome. 

OF FAITH AND OF JUSTIFICATION. 

First, as to the only means and instrumental cause of our justification, 
whereby the merits of Christ's passion is applied to us and made ours, 
ye heard before how St. Paul ascribes the same only to faith, as appears 
by all his letters, especially to the Romans; where he, excluding all 
kind of works, ascribes all our salvation, justification, righteousness, re- 
conciliation, and peace with God only to faith in Christ. Contrary to 
which doctrine, the pope and his church hath set up sundry other means 
of their own devising, whereby the merits of Christ's passion, they say, 
are applied to us and made ours, to the putting away of sins, and for 
our justification, as hope, charity, sacrifice of the mass, auricular con- 
fession, satisfaction, merit of saints, and holy orders, the pope's par- 
dons, &c. So that Christ's sacrifice, stripes, and suffering, by this 
teaching, do not heal us, nor are beneficial to us, though we believe 
never so well, unless we had also these works and merits above recited. 
This error and heresy of the church of Rome, though it seems at first 
sight to the natural reason of man to be of small importance, yet if 
it be earnestly considered, it is in very deed the most pernicious heresy 
that ever crept into the church; upon which, as the only founda- 
tion, all or the most part of all the errors, absurdities, and inconveni- 
encies of the pope's church are grounded. For this being once ad- 
mitted, that a man is not justified by his faith in Christ alone, but that 
other means must be sought by our own working and merits, to apply 
the merits of Christ's passion unto us ; then is there neither any cer- 
tainty left of our salvation, nor end in setting up new means and merits 
of our own devising for remission of sins. Neither has there been 
any heresy that either hath rebelled more presumptuously against the 
high majesty of God the Father, nor more perniciously hath injured the 
souls of the simple, than this doctrine. 

Secondly, the christian reader in the gospel, reading of the great 
grace and sweet promises of God given to mankind in Christ his son, 
might thereby take much comfort of soul, and be at rest and peace with 
the Lord his God; but there comes in the pestiferous doctrine of these 



FALSE TENETS OF ROMANISTS. 11 

heretics, wherewith they obscure this free grace of God to choke the 
sweet comforts of man in the Holy Ghost, and oppress Christian liberty, 
and bring* us into spiritual bondage. 

Thirdly, as in this their impious doctrine they shew themselves mani- 
fest enemies to God's grace, so they are no less injurious to christian 
men, whom they leave in a doubtful distrust of God's favour and of their 
salvation, contrary to the word and will of God, and right institution 
of the apostolic doctrine. 

of six. 

Of sin likewise they teach not rightly, nor after the institution of the 
apostles and the ancient church of Rome; as they consider not the 
deepness and largeness of sin, supposing it still to be nothing else but 
the inward actions with consent of will, or the outward, such as are 
against will : whereas the essence of sin extends not only to these, but 
also comprehends the blindness and ignorance of the mind, lack of 
knowledge, the untowardness of man's mind, the privy rebellion of the 
heart against the law of God, the undelighting will of man to God and 
his word, &c. 

OF PENANCE OR REPENTANCE. 

Of penance, this corrupt Lateran church of Rome has made a sacra- 
ment (contrary to the fourth principle), which penance, say they, 
standeth of three parts, contrition, confession, and satisfaction cano- 
nical. Contrition, as they teach, may be had by strength of free-will, 
without the law and the Holy Ghost, per actus elicitis, through man's 
own action and endeavour. Which contrition first must be sufficient, 
and so it meriteth remission of sin. In confession they require a full 
rehearsal of all sins, whereby the priest knowing the crimes, may minister 
satisfaction accordingly. And this rehearsing of sins, ex opere operate, 
deserveth remission, contrary to the fourteenth principle before men- 
tioned. Satisfactions they call opera indebita, enjoyed by the ghostly 
father. And this satisfaction (say they) taketh away and changeth 
eternal punishment into temporal pains, which pains also it doth miti- 
gate. And again, these satisfactions may be taken away by the pope's 
indulgence, fyc. 

OF FREE WILL. 

Concerning free-will, as it may in some case be admitted, that men 
without grace may do some outward functions of the law, and keep 
some outward observances or traditions; so as touching things spiritual 
and appertaining to salvation, the strength of man being not regenerate 
by grace, is so infirm and impotent that he can perform nothing neither 
in doing well nor willing well; though, after he be regenerated by 
grace, may work and do well, but yet that there still remains, notwith- 
standing, a great imperfection of flesh, and a perpetual repugnance 
between the flesh and spirit. And thus was the original church of the 
ancient Romans first instructed, from which we may see now how far 
this latter church of Rome has degenerated, which affirms, that men 
without grace may perform the obedience of the law, and prepare them- 
selves to grace by working, so that those works may be meritorious and 
obtain grace. Which grace once obtained, then men may (say they) 



12 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

perfectly perform the full obedience of the law, and accomplish those 
spiritual actions and works which God requires, and to those works of 
condignity deserve everlasting life. As to the infirmity which still re- 
mains in nature, that they do not regard nor once speak of. 

OF INVOCATION AND ADORATION. 

Besides these uncatholic and almost unchristian absurdities and de- 
fection from the apostolical faith above specified, let us consider the 
manner of their invocation, not to God alone, as they should, but to 
dead men, saying that saints are to be called upon, tanquam mediatores 
intercessiones, as mediators of intercession ; Christum vero tanquam me- 
diatorem salutis, and Christ as the mediator of salvation. They affirm, 
moreover, that Christ was a mediator only in time of his passion, which 
is repugnant to the words of St. Paul, writing to the old Romans, chap, 
viii., where he, speaking of the intercession, of Christ, saith, "who is 
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," 
&c. And if Christ be a mediator of salvation, what needs then any 
other intercession of saints for our suits? Or what does he want more 
of the saints, who is sure to be saved only by Christ? 

Hitherto also pertains the worshipping of relics, and the false adora- 
tion of sacraments, that is, the outward signs of the thing signified, 
contrary to the seventh principle before stated. Add to this also the 
profanation of the Lord's supper, contrary to the use for which it was 
ordained, in reserving it after the communion ministered, in setting it to 
sale for money, and falsely persuading both themselves and others, that 
the priest doth merit both to himself who speaks, and to him who hears 
ex opere operato, sine bono motu utentis, Sfc. that is, only by the mere 
doing of the work, though the party that useth the same hath no motion 
in him. 

OF SACRAMENTS, BAPTISM, AND THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

With respect to sacraments, their doctrine is likewise corrupt and 
erroneous. 

In the sacrament of baptism they are to be reproved, not only for 
adding to the simple words of Christ's institution divers many new-found 
rites and fantasies of men, but also where the use of the old church of 
Rome was only to baptise men, they baptise also bells, and apply the 
words of baptism to water, fire, candles, stocks, and stones, fyc. 

But especially in the supper of the Lord their doctrine most filthily 
swerves from the right meaning of the scripture, and should be explod- 
ed out of all christian churches. The first error is their idolatrous abuse 
by worshipping, adoring, censing, knocking, and kneeling to it, in reserv- 
ing also and carrying about in pomp and processions in towns and fields. 
Secondly, also in substance thereof their teaching is monstrous, leaving 
no substance of bread and wine to remain, but only the real body and 
blood of Christ, putting no difference between calling and making. 
Because Christ called bread his body, therefore, say they, he made it his 
body, and so of a wholesome sacrament make a perilous idol : and that 
which the old church of Rome did ever take to be a mystery, they turn 
into a blind mist of mere accidents to deceive the people ; and to wor- 
ship a thing made, for their maker ; a creature for their creator; and 



PARADOXES OF PURGATORY. 13 

that which was threshed out of a wheaten sheaf, they set up in the 
church and worship for a saviour; and when they have worshipped him, 
then they offer him to his Father; and when they have offered him, then 
they eat him up, or else close him fast in a cell, where if he corrupt and 
putrify before he be eaten, then they burn him to powder and ashes. 
And notwithstanding they know well by scripture that the body of 
Christ can never corrupt and putrify, yet for all this corruption will they 
needs make it the body of Christ, and burn all them who believe not 
that which is against true christian belief. 

OF MATRIMONY. 

Contrary to the ordinances of the scripture, the new catholics of the 
pope's church call marriage a state of imperfection, and prefer single 
life be it never so impure, before the former, pretending that where the 
one replenishes the earth, the other fills heaven. Ministers and priests 
such as are found to have wives, they not only remove out of their place, 
but also pronounce sentence of death upon them, and account their 
children illegitimate. Again, as good as the third part of the year they 
exempt and suspend from liberty of marriage. Besides all this, they 
have added a novel prohibition of spiritual kindred, that is, that 
such as have been gossips, or godfathers and godmothers together in 
christening another man's child, must not by their law marry together. 
Finally, in this doctrine and cases of matrimony, they gain much mo- 
ney from the people, nourish adultery, and fill the world with offences 
that give great occasion of murdering infants. 

OF MAGISTRATES AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

It is known what rules and lessons St. Paul gave to the old Romans 
concerning magistrates, to whose authority he would have all human 
creatures subjected, as they are the ministers of God, having the sword 
given unto them, wherewith they ought to repress false doctrine and 
idolatry, and maintain that which is true and right, Rom. xiii. Now 
let us survey the pope's proceedings, and mark how far he transgresses 
in this, as he doth in all other points, from true Christianity. 

1. First, The pope with all his clergy, exempt themselves from all 
civil obedience. 

2. They arrogate to themselves authority to ordain and constitute, 
without leave or knowledge of the ordinary magistrate. 

3. They take upon themselves to depose and set up rulers and magis- 
trates when they please/ 

OF PURGATORY. 

The paradoxes, or rather the fantasies, of the latter church of Rome, 
concerning purgatory, are monstrous, and neither old nor apostolical. • 

1 . First (they say) there is a purgatory where souls burn in fire after 
this life. 

2. The pain of purgatory differs nothing from the pains of hell, but 
only that it has an end ; the pains of hell have none. 

f It is likely that this degree of power is lost to them for ever; but it still remains their 
nominal prerogative. 



14 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

3. The painful suffering of this fire scours away the sins before com- 
mitted in the body. 

4. The time of these pains endures in some longer, in some less, ac- 
cording as their sins deserve. 

5. After the time of their pains has expired, then the mercy of God 
translates them to heavenly bliss, which the body of Christ hath bought 
for them. 

6. The pains of purgatory are so great, that if all the beggars of the 
world were seen on the one side, and but one soul in purgatory on the 
other side, the whole world would pity more that one, than all the 
others. 

7. The whole time of punishment in this purgatory must continue till 
the fire has scoured away the spots of every sinful soul there burning, 
unless there come some release. 

8. Helps and releases that may shorten the time of their purgation, 
may be obtained by the pope's pardon and indulgences, sacrifices of the 
altar, dirges and trentals, prayer, fasting, &c. 

Lack of belief of purgatory bringeth to hell. 

In short, let us examine the whole religion of this latter church of Rome, 
and we shall find it to consist altogether in outward and ceremonial 
exercises ; as outward confession, absolution at the priest's hand, out- 
ward sacrifice of the mass, buying of pardons, purchasing of obiits, 
external worshipping of images and relics, pilgrimage to this place or 
that, building of churches, founding of monasteries, outward works of 
the law, outward gestures, garments, colours, choice of meats, difference 
of times and places, peculiar rites and observances, set prayers, and 
number of prayers prescribed, fasting of vigils, keeping of holidays, 
coming to church, hearing of service, external succession of bishops 
and of Peter's see, external form and notes of the church, &c. So that 
by this religion to make a true christian and a good catholic, there is 
scarcely any working of the Holy Ghost required. As for example, to 
make this matter more demonstrable, let us define a christian man after 
the pope's making, whereby we may see the better what is to be judged 
of the scope of his doctrine. 

A CHRISTIAN MAN, AFTER THE POPE'S MAKING, DEFINED. 

According to the catholic religion, a true christian man is thus de- 
fined : first, to be baptised in the Latin tongue (which the godfathers 
profess they cannot understand), then confirmed by the bishops; the mo- 
ther of the child to be purified ; after he is grown in years, then to come 
to the church to keep his fasting days, to fast the lent, to come under 
benedicite ; that is, to be confessed of the priest, to do his penance, at 
Easter to take his rites, to hear mass and divine service, to set up can- 
dles before images, to creep to the cross, to take holy bread and water, 
to go in procession, to carry his palms and candle, and to take 
ashes ; to fast the ember days, rogation days, and vigils ; to keep the 
holidays, to pay his tithes and offerings, to go on pilgrimage, to 
buy pardons, to worship his Maker over the priest's head, and to receive 
the pope for his supreme lord, and to obey his laws ; to receive St. 
Nicholas' clerks, to have his beads, and to give to the high altar ; to 



THE FIRST TEN PERSECUTIONS. 15 

take orders if he will be a priest, to keep his vow, and not to marry ; 
when he is sick to be anointed and take the rites of the holy church, 
to be buried in the church-yard, to be rung for, to be sung for, to be 
buried in a friar's cowl, and to conform living and dying to the Romish 
rule. All these points being observed, who can deny but this is a 
devout man, and perfect christian catholic, and sure to be saved, as a 
true faithful child of the holy mother church? 

Now look upon this definition, and say, good reader, what faith or 
spirit, or what working of the Holy Ghost in all this doctrine is to be 
required. The grace of our Lord Jesus give the true light of his gos- 
pel to shine in our hearts. Amen. 



SECTION II. 



Containing a history of the first Ten Persecutions of the Primitive Church, from the year 
of our Lord, 67, and the reign of Nero Domitius, till the time of Constantine the Great; 
in which are detailed the lives and actions of the principal Christian martyrs of both 
sexes, who suffered for their faith in Europe and in Africa. 

The dreadful martyrdoms we are now about to describe, arose from 
the persecutions of the Christians by pagan fury, in the primitive ages 
of the church, during the space of three hundred years, until the time 
of Constantine the great. § 

It is both wonderful and horrible to peruse the descriptions of the 
sufferings of those godly martyrs, as they are described by ancient 
historians. Their torments were as various as the ingenuity of man, 
excited by the devil, could devise ; and their numbers were truly in- 
credible. " Some," says Robanus, " were slain with the sword ; some 
burnt with fire ; some scourged with whips ; some stabbed with forks of 
iron ; some fastened to the cross or gibbet ; some drowned in the sea ; 
some had their skins plucked off; some their tongues cut out; some 
were stoned to death-; some frozen with cold; some starved with 
hunger; some with their hands cut off, or otherwise dismembered, were 
left naked to the open shame of the world." Augustine, speaking of 
these martyrs, 11 says, that though their punishments were various, yet 
the constancy in all was the same. And notwithstanding the sharpness 
of so many torments, and cruelty of the tormentors, such was the 
number of these faithful saints, that as Hierome, in his epistle to 
Cromatius and Heliodorus, observes, " There is no day in the whole 
year, unto which the number of Jive thousand martyrs cannot be ascribed, 
except only the first day of January ." 

s Eusebius was the principal historian who has transmitted to us an account of the 
sufferings of these blessed martyrs, and to his works we are indebted for many valuable 
anecdotes not to be found in any other writer. 

h De Civit. 22. cap. 6. 



16 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The first martyr to our holy religion was its Blessed Founder himself. * 
His history is sufficiently known, as it has been handed down to us in 
the New Testament ; nevertheless it will be proper here to give an out- 
line of his sufferings, and more particularly as they will be followed by 
those of the apostles and evangelists. (A. D. 1 to 18.) The persecutions 
by the emperors took place long after the death of our Saviour. 

It is known that in the reign of Herod, the angel Gabriel was sent by 
divine command to the Virgin Mary. This maiden was betrothed to a 
carpenter named Joseph, who resided at Nazareth, a city of Galilee ; 
but the marriage had not then taken place ; for it was the custom 
of the eastern nations to contract persons of each sex from their child- 
hood, though the alliance was not permitted till years of maturity. 
The angel informed Mary how highly she was favoured of God, and that 
she should conceive a son by the Holy Spirit, which happened accord- 
ingly ; for travelling to Bethlehem to pay the capitation-tax then levied, 
the town was so crowded that they could get lodgings only in a stable, 
where the Holy Virgin gave birth to our Blessed Redeemer, which was 
announced to the world by a star and an angel : the wise men of the 
east saw the former, and the shepherds the latter. 

After Jesus had been circumcised, he was presented in the temple by 
the Holy Virgin ; upon which occasion Simeon exclaimed in the cele- 
brated words mentioned in the liturgy : "Lord, now lettest thou thy ser- 
vant depart in peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen 
thy salvation." Luke ii. 29, 30. 

Jesus, in his youth, conversed with the most learned doctors in the 
temple, and soon after was baptized by John in the river Jordan, when 
the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and a voice 
was heard audibly to pronounce these words: " This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased." 

After this Christ fasted forty days and nights in the wilderness, where 
he was tempted by the devil, but resisted all his allurements. He per- 
formed his first miracle at Cana, in Galilee ; he likewise conversed with 
the good Samaritan, and restored to life a nobleman's dead child. While 
travelling through Galilee he restored the blind to sight, he cured the 
lame, the lepers, &c. Among other benevolent actions, he cured at the 
pool of Bethseda, a paralytic man who had been lame thirty-eight years, 
bidding him take up his bed and walk ; and he afterwards cured a man 
whose right hand was shrunk up and withered, with many acts of a simi- 
lar nature. 

When he had chosen his twelve apostles, he preached the celebrated 
sermon on the Mount ; after which he performed several miracles, par- 

1 A reverend editor of an edition of the Book of Christian Martyrs, published some 
years since, with a pompous title-page, and announced as the only "complete and original 
History of Martyrdom," has absurdly described as martyrs, Noah, Lot, Joseph, the 
Children of Tsrael, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, &c. It is, nevertheless, evident, that 
these characters, who sustained with all becoming fortitude, as we learn from scripture, the 
malignity of their persecutors, ought not to be classed amongst the blessed martyrs, whose 
lives were sacrificed for their perseverance in the doctrines of Christianity. As well might 
be recorded in a history of martyrs every man who had been in danger of perishing 
by the hand of an assassin. 



TRIAL OF CHRIST. 17 

ticularly the feeding of the multitude, and the walking on the surface 
of the sea. 

On the celebration of the passover, Jesus supped with his disciples ; he 
informed them that one of them would betray him, and another deny him : 
in short he preached his farewell sermon. A multitude of armed men 
soon afterwards surrounded him, and Judas kissed him, in order to point 
him out to the soldiers, who were not acquainted with his person. In 
the conflict occasioned by the apprehension of Jesus, Peter cut off the ear 
of Malchus, the servant of the high-priest, for which Jesus reproved him, 
and, by touching the wound, healed it. (A. D. 34.) Peter and John 
followed Jesus to the house of Annas, who refusing to judge him, sent 
him bound to Caiaphas, in whose house Peter denied Christ, as he had 
predicted ; but, on Christ reminding him of his perfidy, the apostle went 
out and wept bitterly. 

When the council had assembled in the morning, the Jews mocked 
Jesus, and the elders suborned false witnesses against him : the princi- 
pal accusation being, that he had said, " I will destroy this temple 
made with hands, and within three days I will build another made 
without hands." Caiaphas then asked him if he was Christ the Son of 
God, or not; being answered in the affirmative he was accused of blas- 
phemy, and condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman gover- 
nor, who, though conscious of his innocence, yielded to the solicitations 
of the Jews, and condemned him to be crucified. His remarkable ex- 
pression at the time of passing sentence proved how much he was con- 
vinced that the Lord was persecuted. 

Previous to the crucifixion, the Jews, by way of derision, clothed 
Christ in a regal robe, put a crown of thorns upon his head, and a reed, 
for a sceptre, in his hand ; they then mocked him with ironical compli- 
ments, spat in his face, smote his cheeks, and taking the reed out of 
his hand, they struck him with it upon the head. Pilate would have 
released him, but the general cry was, Crucify him, crucify him ; which 
occasioned the governor to call for a basin of water, and having washed 
his hands, he declared himself innocent of the blood of Christ, whom 
he termed a just person. But the Jews said, " Let his blood be upon 
us, and our children:" and the governor found himself obliged to com- 
ply with their wishes. Their imprecation, too, has manifestly taken 
place, as they have ever since been a people scattered and cursed. J 

i A similar example of punishment is to be noted amongst the Romans ; for when Tiberius 
Caesar, having received accounts from Pontius Pilate, of the doings of Christ, of his miracles, 
resurrection, and ascension into Heaven, and how he was received as a divine messenger, 
was himself also moved with belief, and conferred with the whole senate of Rome to have 
Christ adored as God : they refused, because that, contrary to the law of the Romans, he 
was consecrated for God, before the senate of Rome had so decreed and approved him. 
Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. Thus the senate following rather the law of man than of God, the 
permission of God stirred up their own emperors against them in such a degree, that the 
senators were almost all destroyed, and the whole city horribly afflicted for the space of 
three hundred subsequent years. Tiberius, who for a great part of his reign was a mode- 
rate prince, was afterwards a severe tyrant, who neither favoured his own mother, spared 
his own nephews, nor the princes of the city, nor such as were his own counsellors, of whom, 
to the number of twenty, he left only two or three alive. History relates him to have been 
so tyrannical, that in his reign many were accused, and condemned with their wives and 
children. In one day, according to Suetonius, he ordered twenty persons to be drawn to the 

C 



18 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

While they were leading Christ to the place of crucifixion, he 
was obliged to bear the cross, which being unable long to sustain, his 
enemies compelled one Simon, a native of Cyrene, to carry it the rest 
of the way. Mount Calvary was fixed on for the place of execution, 
where, having arrived, the soldiers offered Christ a mixture of gall and 
vinegar to drink, which he refused. Having stripped him, they nailed 
him to the cross, and crucified him between two malefactors. On 
being fastened to the cross, he uttered this benevolent prayer for his 
enemies : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
Four soldiers who crucified him, now cut his mantle to pieces, and 
divided it between them ; but his coat being without seam, they cast lots 
for it. While Christ remained in the agonies of death, the Jews mocked 
him, and said, " If thou art the son of God, come down from the cross." 
The chief priests and scribes also reviled him, and said, " He saved 
others, but cannot save himself." One of the criminals who was 
crucified with him, also cried out, and said, " If thou art the Messiah, 
save thyself and us;" but the other malefactor, having great faith, 
exclaimed, " Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." 
To which Christ replied, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

When Christ was upon the cross, the earth was covered with darkness, 
and the stars appeared at noon-day, which struck the people and even 
the Jews with terror. In the midst of his tortures, He cried out, 
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !" and then expressed 
a desire to drink, when one of the soldiers gave him, upon the point of 
a reed, a sponge dipped in vinegar, which however he refused. About 
three o'clock in the afternoon he gave up the ghost, and at that moment 
a violent earthquake commenced, when the rocks were rent, the moun- 
tains trembled, and the dead emerged from the graves. These and 
other prodigies attended the death of Christ, and such was the mortal 
end of the Redeemer of mankind. It is not a subject of wonder that 
the heathens who lived so long after him, endeavoured by persecution 
and the most horrid cruelties, to prevent the propagation of that source 
of comfort and happiness in all affliction, which has resulted from the 
blessed system of faith that our Saviour confirmed with his blood. 

ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES, SUFFERINGS, AND MARTYRDOM OF THE 
APOSTLES, EVANGELISTS, &c. 

I. ST. STEPHEN. 

This early martyr was elected, with six others, as a deacon of the first 
Christian church. He was also an able and successful preacher. The 
principal persons belonging to five Jewish synagogues entered into 
dispute with him ; but he, by the soundness of his doctrine, and the 

place of execution. By him, also, Pilate, under whom Christ was crucified, was apprehended 
and accused at Rome, deposed, then banished to the town of Lyons, and at length committed 
suicide. Herod and Caiaphas also did not long escape. We shall here, combining his- 
torical facts with our narrative, inform the reader, that it was in the reign of Tiberius, that 
Jesus, the Son of God, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his age, which was the seventeenth 
of this emperor, suffered martyrdom. After this, Tiberius lived six years, during which 
time no persecution had begun in Rome against the Christians. It was in the reign of this 
emperor that St. Paul was converted to the faith. 



MARTYRDOM OF THE APOSTLES. 19 

strength of his arguments, overcame them all, which so much irritated 
them, that they bribed false witnesses to accuse him of blaspheming 
God and Moses. On being carried before the council, he made a noble 
defence; but this so much exasperated his judges, that they resolved 
to condemn him. At the instant Stephen saw a vision from heaven, 
representing Jesus, in his glorified state, sitting at the right hand or 
God. This vision so enraptured him, that he exclaimed, "Behold I 
see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand 
of God." This caused him to be condemned, and having dragged him 
out of the city they stoned him to death. On the spot where he was 
martyred, Eudocia, the empress of Theodosius, erected a superb church, 
and the memory of the martyr is annually celebrated on the 26th day 
of December. 

The death of Stephen was succeeded by a severe persecution in 
Jerusalem, in which 2000 Christians, with Nicanor the deacon, were 
martyred, and many others obliged to leave their country. k 

II. ST. JAMES THE GREAT. 

He was a Galilean, and the son of Zebedee, a fisherman, the elder 
brother of St. John, and related to Christ himself; for his mother 
Salome was cousin to the Virgin Mary. Being one day with his father 
fishing in the sea of Galilee, he and his brother John were called by the 
Saviour to become his disciples. They cheerfully obeyed the mandate, 
and leaving their father, followed Jesus. It is to be observed, that 
Christ placed greater confidence in them than in any other of the 
apostles, Peter excepted. Christ called these brothers Boanerges, or 
sons of thunder, on account of their vigorous minds and zealous spirits. 

When Herod Agrippa was made governor of Judea by the emperor 
Caligula, he raised a persecution against the Christians, and particularly 
selected James as an object of his vengeance. This martyr, on being 
condemned to death, showed such intrepidity and constancy of mind, 
that even his accuser was struck with admiration, and became a convert 
to Christianity. This transition so enraged the people in power, that 
they condemned him likewise to death; when the apostle, and his 
penitent accuser, were both beheaded on the same day and with the 
same sword. These events took place in the year of Christ 44; and the 
25th of July was fixed by the church for the commemoration of James's 
martyrdom. About the same period, Timon and Parmenas, two of the 
seven deacons, suffered martyrdom, the former at Corinth, and the 
latter at Philippi, in Macedonia. 

III. ST. PHILIP. 

This apostle and martyr was born at Bethsaida, in Galilee, and was 
the first called by the name of disciple. He was employed in several 
important missions by Christ, and being deputed to preach in Upper 

k Dorotheus, in his Synopsis, asserts, apparently upon good authority, that Nicanor, one 
of the seven deacons, with two thousand others, who believed in Christ, suffered on the 
same day when Stephen was martyred. He also adds, that Simon, another of the deacons, 
afterwards bishop of Bostrum, in Arabia, was there burned. Parmenas, another of the 
deacons, suffered at the same time. 



20 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Asia, laboured very diligently in his apostleship. He then travelled 
into Phrygia, and arriving at Heliopolis, found the inhabitants so sunk 
in idolatry, as to worship a large serpent. St. Philip, however, was the 
means of converting many of them to Christianity, and even procured the 
death of the serpent. This so enraged the magistrates, that they com- 
mitted him to prison, had him severely scourged, and afterwards crucified. 
His friend, St. Bartholomew, found an opportunity of taking down the 
body, and burying it; for which, however, he was very near suffering the 
same fate. The martyrdom of Philip happened eight years after that 
of James the Great, A. D. 52 ; and his name, together with that of 
St. James the Less, is commemorated on the 1st of May. 

IV. ST. MATTHEW. 

This evangelist, apostle, and martyr, was born at Nazareth, in Galilee ; 
but resided chiefly in Capernaum, on account of his business, which was 
that of a tax-gatherer, to collect tribute of such as had to pass the sea 
of Galilee. On being called as a disciple, he immediately complied, 
and left every thing to follow Christ. After the ascension of his Lord, 
he continued preaching the gospel in Judea about nine years. Intend- 
ing to leave Judea, to go and preach among the Gentiles, he wrote 
his gospel in Hebrew, for the use of the Jewish converts ; but it 
was afterwards translated into Greek by St. James the Less. He then 
went to Ethiopia, ordained preachers, settled churches, and made many 
converts. He afterwards proceeded to Parthia, where he had the same 
success ; but returning to Ethiopia, he was slain by a halberd in the 
city of Nadabar, about the year of Christ 60 ; and his festival is kept by 
the church on the 21st day of September. He was inoffensive in his 
conduct, and remarkably temperate in his mode of living. 

v. ST. MARK. 

This evangelist and martyr was born of Jewish parents of the tribe 
of Levi. It is supposed that he was converted to Christianity by St. 
Peter, whom he served as an amanuensis, and whom he attended in all 
his travels. Being entreated by the converts at Rome to commit to 
writing the admirable discourses they had heard from St. Peter and 
himself, he complied with their request, and composed his gospel in 
the Greek language. He then went to Egypt, and constituted a 
bishopric at Alexandria : afterwards he proceeded to Lybia, where he 
made many converts. On returning to Alexandria, some of the Egyp- 
tians, exasperated at his success, determined on his death. They tied 
his feet, dragged him through the streets, left him bruised in a dungeon 
all night, and the next day burned his body. This took place on the 
25th of April, on which day the church commemorates his martyrdom. 
His bones were carefully gathered up by the Christians, decently inter- 
red, and afterwards removed to Venice, where he is honoured as the 
tutelar saint and patron of the state. 

VI. ST. JAMES THE LESS. 

This apostle and martyr was so called to distinguish him from St. 
James the Great. He was the son of Joseph, the reputed father of Christ; 



MARTYRDOM OF THE APOSTLES. 21 

and after the Lord's ascension was elected bishop of Jerusalem. He wrote 
his general epistles to all Christians and converts whatever, to suppress 
a dangerous error then propagating, viz. " That faith in Christ was alone 
sufficient for salvation, without good works." The Jews, being at this 
time greatly enraged that St. Paul had escaped their fury, by appealing 
to Rome, determined to wreak their vengeance on James, who was now 
ninety-four years of age : they accordingly threw him down, beat, 
bruised, and stoned him ; and then dashed out his brains with a club, 
such as was used by fullers in dressing cloths. His festival, together 
with that of St. Philip, is kept on the first of May. ' 

VII, ST. MATTHIAS. 

This martyr was called to the apostleship after the death of Christ, 
to supply the vacant place of Judas, who had betrayed his master. He 
was also one of the seventy disciples. He was martyred at Jerusalem, 
by being first stoned, and then beheaded ; and the 24th of February 
is observed for the celebration of his festival. 

VIII. ST. ANDREW. 

This apostle and martyr was the brother of St. Peter, and preached 
the gospel to many Asiatic nations. On arriving at Edessa, the gover- 
nor of the country, named Egeas, threatened him for preaching against 

1 Egissippus in his commentaries, gives the following interesting account of this martyr . 
— " James, the brother of our Lord, took in hand to govern the church after the apostles, 
being counted of all men, from the time of Christ, to be a just and perfect man. There 
were many others of the name ; but this was born holy : he drank no wine nor any strong 
drink, neither did he eat any living creature, the razor never came upon his head, he was 
not anointed with oil, neither did he use bath ; to him only was it lawful to enter into the 
holy place; neither was he clothed with woollen cloth, but with silk; and he entered into 
the temple, always upon his knees, asking remission for the people, so that his knees, by con- 
stant use, lost the sense of feeling, being benumbed and hardened like the knees of a camel. 
He was (for worshipping God, and craving forgiveness for the people), called the Just, 
and for the excellency of his life named Oblias, which is the safeguard and justice of 
the people, as the prophets declare of him : therefore, when many of the heretics which 
were among the people asked him what manner of man Jesus should be, he answered, 
that he was the Saviour. But the aforesaid heretics, neither believe the resurrection, 
nor that one shall come, who shall render unto every man according to his works ; but 
as many as believe, they believe in James's faith. When some, therefore, of the princes 
did believe, there was a tumult made of the Scribes, Jews, and Pharisees, saying, it is 
dangerous lest that all the people do look for this Jesus as for Christ. Therefore, they 
gathered themselves together, and said to James — 'We beseech thee restrain the people, 
for they believe in Jesus as though he were Christ ; we pray thee persuade them all which 
come unto the feast of the passover of Jesus; for we are all obedient unto thee, and 
all the people do testify of thee that thou art just, neither that thou dost accept the 
person of any man ; therefore persuade the people that they be not deceived in Jesus, and 
all the people and we will obey thee; therefore stand upon the pillar of the temple, 
that thou mayest be seen from above, and that thy words may be perceived of all the 
people, for to this passover all the tribes do come with all the country.' And thus the 
Scribes and Pharisees did set James upon the battlements of the church, and they, cried 
unto him and said, ' Thou just man, whom we all ought to obey, because this people is 
led after Jesus, who is crucified, tell what is Jesus crucified 1' And he answered with a 
great voice, ' What do you ask me of Jesus the Son of Man, seeing that he sitteth on 
the right hand of God, and shall come in the clouds of Heaven. ' W T hen many were 
persuaded of this, they glorified God upon the witness of James, and said, ' Hosanna in 
the highest to the Son of David.' " 



22 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the idols they worshipped. St. Andrew, persisting in the propagation of 
his doctrines, was ordered to be crucified, two ends of the cross being 
fixed transversely in the ground. He boldly told his accusers, that he 
would not have preached the glory of the cross, had he feared to die 
on it. And again, when they came to crucify him, he said that he 
coveted the cross, and longed to embrace it. He was fastened to the 
cross, not with nails, but cords; that his death might be more slow. 
In this situation he continued two days, preaching the greatest part of 
the time to the people ; and expired on the 30th of November, which is 
commemorated as his festival. 

IX. ST. PETER. 

This great apostle and martyr was born at Bethsaida in Galilee, being 
the son of Jonas, a fisherman, which employment St. Peter himself fol- 
lowed. He was persuaded by his brother to turn Christian, when Christ 
gave him the name of Cephas, implying, in the Syriac language, a rock. 
He was called, at the same time as his brother, to be an apostle, gave 
uncommon proofs of his zeal for the service of Christ, and always ap- 
peared as the principal speaker among the apostles. He had, however, 
the weakness to deny his Master after his apprehension, though he 
defended him at the time; but the sincerity of his repentance proved 
that he soon became deeply convinced of the greatness of his crime. 
After the death of Christ, the Jews still continued to persecute the 
Christians, and ordered several of the apostles, among whom was Peter, 
to be scourged. This punishment they bore with the greatest fortitude, 
and rejoiced that they were thought worthy to suffer for the sake of their 
Redeemer. 

When Herod Agrippa caused St. James the Great to be put to death, 
and found that it pleased the Jews, he resolved, in order to ingratiate 
himself with the people, that Peter should be the next sacrifice. He 
was accordingly apprehended, and thrown into prison ; but an angel of 
the Lord released him, which so enraged Herod, that he ordered the 
sentinels who guarded the dungeon in which he had been confined, to 
be put to death. St. Peter, after various miracles, retired to Rome, 
where he defeated the artifices, and confounded the magic of Simon 
Magus, a great favourite of the emperor Nero: he likewise converted 
to Christianity one of the concubines of that monarch, which so exas- 
perated the tyrant, that he ordered both St. Peter and St. Paul to be 
apprehended. During the time of their confinement, they converted 
two of the captains of the guard, and forty-seven other persons to 
Christianity. Having been nine months in prison, Peter was brought 
from thence for execution, when after being severely scourged, he 
was crucified with his head downwards; which position, however, was 
at his own request. 1 " His festival is observed on the 29th of June, on 

m As to the cause and manner of his death there are many who describe them, as 
Hierome, Egissippus, Eusebius, Abdias, and others, although they do not all precisely agree 
in the time. The words of Hierome are these, " Simon Peter the son of Jonas, of the 
province of Galilee, and of the town of Bethsaida, the brother of Andrew, after he 
had been bishop of the church of Antioch, and had preached to the dispersed of them that 
believed of the circumcision, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, in the 



MARTYRDOM OF ST. PAUL. 23 

which day he as well as Paul suffered. His body being taken down, 
embalmed, and buried in the Vatican, a church was erected on the 
spot; but this being destroyed by the emperor Heliogabalus, the body 
was concealed till the 20th bishop of Rome, Cornelius, conveyed it 
again to the Vatican; afterwards Constantine the Great erected one 
of the most stately churches in the universe over the place. Before we 
quit this article, it is requisite to observe, that previous to the death of 
St. Peter, his wife suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ, when he 
exhorted her, as she was going to be put to death, to remember her 
Saviour. 

X. ST. PAUL. 

This apostle and martyr was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, born 
at Tarsus in Cilicia. He was at first a great enemy to, and persecutor 
of the Christians; but after his miraculous conversion, he became a 
strenuous supporter of Christianity. 11 At Iconium, St. Paul and St. 
Barnabas were near being stoned to death by the enraged Jews ; on 
which they fled to Lycaonia. At Lystra, St. Paul was stoned, dragged 
out of the city, and left for dead. He, however, happily revived, and 
escaped to Derbe. At Philippi, Paul and Silas were imprisoned and 
whipped; and both were again persecuted at Thessalonica. Being 
afterwards taken at Jerusalem, he was sent to Cesarea, but appealed to 
Csesar at Rome. Here he continued a prisoner at large for two years ; 
and at length being released, he visited the churches of Greece and 
Rome, and preached in France and Spain. Returning to Rome, he was 
again apprehended, and by the order of Nero, martyred, by beheading. 

second year of Claudius the emperor (which was about the year of our Lord 44) came to 
Rome to withstand Simon Magus, and there kept the priestly chair the space of five-arid- 
twenty years, until the last year of the aforesaid Nero, which was the fourteenth year of 
his reign, in which he was crucified, his head being down, and his feet upward, himself so 
requiring, because he was, he said, unworthy to be crucified after the same form and 
manner as the Lord Jesus. 

n The circumstances of the conversion of this apostle are not so well known as they ought 
to be: in fact, there are many important events in the lives of the martyrs which none can 
properly know but those who read the Greek and Latin works of theological historians. 
The following particulars of St. Paul are from Hieronymus, (Be viris IUustribus.) 

Paul, before his conversion was called Saul; and after performing many journeys and 
unspeakable labours in promoting the gospel of Christ, he suffered under persecution and 
was beheaded. Before he was converted he was a promoter of the death of Stephen. He 
was brought up under Gamaliel. While on his way to Damascus, the Lord's glory came 
suddenly upon him, and he was struck to the earth ; on which, from a persecutor, he 
immediately became a professor, an apostle, and a martyr. 

Among his labours in spreading the doctrine of Christ he converted to the faith Sergius 
Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, on which he took his name, and, was thence called 
Paulus instead of Saulus. After many labours he took to him Barnabas, and went up 
to Jerusalem to Peter, James, and John, where he was ordained, and sent out with Barnabas 
to preach to the Gentiles. 

Besides what is mentioned of his miraculous conversion, in the sacred scriptures, 
we may add, that this apostle, in the 25th year after the passion of our Lord, and in the 
second of Nero, was sent in chains to Rome, where he almost daily disputed for two years 
against the Jews. Nero, who had not then broken out in his wickedness, caused him to be 
discharged, and he was sent to preach the gospel in the west, and about the coasts of 
Italy ; where he did much good, and, to use his own words, was delivered by the Lord 
out of the lion's mouth. He was beheaded on the same day on which Peter was crucified. 



24 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Two days are dedicated to the commemoration of this apostle ; the one 
to his conversion, which is on the 25th of January, and the other to 
his martyrdom, which is on the 29th of June, A. D. 72. 

XI. ST. JUDE. 

This apostle and martyr, the brother of James, was commonly called 
Thaddseus. Being sent to Edessa, he wrought many miracles, and made 
many converts, which exciting the resentment of people in power, he 
was crucified, A. D. 72; and the 28th of October is, by the church, 
dedicated to his memory. 

XII. ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 

This apostle and martyr preached in several countries, performed 
many miracles, and healed various diseases. He translated St. Matthew's 
gospel into the Indian language, and propagated it in that country ; 
but at length, the idolaters growing impatient with his doctrines, severely 
beat and crucified him. He was scarcely alive when taken down and 
beheaded. The anniversary of his martyrdom is on the 24th of August. 

XIII. ST. THOMAS. 

He was called by this name in Syriac, but Didymus in Greek ; he was 
an apostle and martyr, and preached in Parthia and India, where dis- 
pleasing the pagan priests, he was martyred by being thrust through 
with a spear. His death is commemorated on the 21st of December. 

XIV. ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST. 

This martyr was the author of the third most excellent gospel ; and 
also of the Acts of the Apostles. He travelled with St. Paul to Rome, 
and preached to divers barbarous nations, till the priests of Greece 
hanged him on an olive-tree. The anniversary of his martyrdom is on 
the 18th of October. 

XV. ST. SIMON. 

This apostle and martyr was distinguished from his zeal by the name 
of Zelotes. He preached with great success in Mauritania, and other 
parts of Africa, and even in Britain, where, though he made many con- 
verts, he was crucified, A. D. 74 ; and the church, joining him with St, 
Jude, commemorates his festival on the 28th of October. 

XVI. ST. JOHN. 

He was distinguished as a prophet, an apostle, a divine, an evangelist, 
and a martyr. He is called the beloved disciple, and was brother to 
James the Great. He was previously a disciple of John the baptist, and 
afterwards not only one of the twelve apostles, but one of the three to 
whom Christ communicated the most secret passages of his life. He 
founded churches at Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, 
and Thyatira, to which he directs his book of Revelations. Being at 
Ephesus, he was ordered by the emperor Domitian to be sent bound to 
Rome, where he was condemned to be cast into a caldron of boiling 
oil.° But here a miracle was wrought in his favour ; the oil did him no 

° With respect to this punishment the Legend and Perionius say, it took place at Rome, 
Isidorus also writing of him, declares that he turned certain places of wood into gold, and 



FIRST PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 25 

injury; and Domitian, not being able to put him to death, banished 
him to Patmos to labour in the mines, A. D. 73. He was, however, re- 
called by Nerva, who succeeded Domitian, but was deemed a martyr on 
account of his having undergone an execution, though it did not take 
effect. He wrote his epistles, gospel, and Revelation, each in a different 
style ; but they are all equally admired. He was the only apostle who 
escaped a violent death, and lived the longest of any, he being nearly 
100 years of age at the time of his death. The church devotes the 27th 
of December to his memory. 

XVII. ST. BARNABAS. 

He was a native of Cyprus, but of Jewish parents : the time of his 
death is uncertain ; but it is supposed to have been about the year of 
Christ 73 ; and his festival is kept on the 11th of June. 

ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION, 
Beginning in the year 67, under the reign of the emperor Nero. 

The first persecution in the primitive ages of the church, was under 
Nero Domitius, the sixth emperor of Rome, A. D. 67. This mo- 
narch reigned for the space of five years with tolerable credit to him- 
self; but then gave way to the greatest extravagance of temper, and to 
the most atrocious barbarities, p Among other diabolical outrages, he 
ordered that the city of Rome should be set on fire, which was done by 
his officers, guards, and servants. While the city was in flames, he went 
up to the tower of Msecenas, played upon his harp, sung the song of 
the burning of Troy, and declared, " That he wished the ruin of all 
things before his death." Among the noble buildings burnt was the 
Circus, the place appropriated to civic sports : it was half a mile in length, 
of an oval form, with rows of seats rising above each other, and capable 
of receiving with ease upwards of 100,000 spectators. Many other 
palaces and houses were consumed ; and several thousands of the people 
perished in the flames, were smothered, or buried beneath the ruins. 
This dreadful conflagration continued nine days. 

Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe odium 
cast upon him, determined to charge the whole upon the Christians, at 
once to excuse himself, and have an opportunity of fresh persecutions. 
The barbarities inflicted on the Christians, during the first persecution, 
were such as excited the sympathy of even the Romans themselves. 

stones by the sea-side into pearls, to satisfy the desire of those whom he had persuaded to 
renounce their riches; and they afterwards repenting that for worldly treasure they had 
lost Heaven, the apostle again changed the same into their former substance. It is said by 
Eusebius that he raised a widow and a young man from death to life. That he drank 
poison and it hurt him not. These and other miracles, though they may be true, and 
are found in several writers, yet are not mentioned in the sacred books, and may there- 
fore be considered at best as apocryphal. 

p Eusebius, speaking of his cruelties, says, that one might then see cities full of men's 
bodies, and carcases cast out naked, without reverence of sex, in the open streets. Nero 
was the first who began persecution against the Christians, and not only in Rome, but also 
through the provinces, thinking to abolish and to destroy the name of Christians in all 
places. In consequence of his cruelties towards the Christians, he was the first who re- 
ceived the name of anti-christ. See Orosius, lib. 7. and Hist. Eccles. lib. 2. cap. 24. 



26 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Nero nicely refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punish- 
ments for his victims. He had some sewed up in the skins of wild 
beasts, and then worried by dogs till they expired ; and others dressed in 
shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axletrees, and set on fire in his 
garden. This persecution was general throughout the Roman empire; 
but it increased rather than diminished the spirit of Christianity. 
Besides St. Paul and St. Peter, many others, whose names have not 
been transmitted to posterity, and who were mostly their converts and 
followers, suffered ; the facts concerning the principal of them we shall 
proceed to describe. 

Erastus, the chamberlain of Corinth, was converted by St. Paul, 
and determined to follow the fortunes of that apostle. He resigned his 
office, and accompanied the apostle in his voyages and travels, till the 
latter left him in Macedonia, where he was first made bishop of that 
province by the Christians. He afterwards suffered martyrdom, being 
tortured to death by the pagans at Philippi. 

Aristarchus, the Macedonian, was born in Thessalonica, and being 
converted by St. Paul became his constant companion. He was with 
the apostle at Ephesus, during a commotion raised in that city by De- 
metrius the silversmith. They both received severe insults on the 
occasion from the populace, which they bore with christian patience, 
giving good advice in return for ill usage, and not in the least resenting 
any indignity. Aristarchus accompanied St. Paul from Ephesus into 
Greece, where they were very successful in propagating the gospel, and 
converting many to Christianity. Having left Greece they traversed a 
great part of Asia, and made a considerable stay in Judea, where they 
were also very prosperous in making converts. After this Aristarchus 
went with St. Paul to Rome, where he suffered the same fate as the apos- 
tle ; for being seized as a Christian, he was beheaded by the command 
of Nero. 

Trophimus, an Ephesian by birth, and a Gentile by religion, was 
converted by St. Paul to the christian faith. On his conversion he 
accompanied his master in his travels; and on his account the Jews 
raised great disturbance in the temple at Jerusalem, the last time St. 
Paul was in that city, They even attempted to murder the apostle, for 
having introduced a Greek into the temple ; such an one being looked 
upon by the Jews with detestation. Lysias, the captain of the guard, 
however, interposed, and rescued St. Paul by force from the hands of 
the Jews. On quitting Jerusalem, Trophimus followed his master to 
Rome, and did him very essential service. He then attended him to 
Spain, and passing through Gaul, the apostle made him bishop of that 
province, and left him in the city of Aries. There he continued about 
twelve months, when he paid another visit to St. Paul in Asia, and 
went with him for the last time to Rome, where he was witness to the 
martyrdom of his master, which was but the fore-runner of his own : 
for being soon after seized on account of his faith, he was beheaded by 
order of the emperor Nero. 

Joseph, commonly called Barsabas, was a primitive disciple, and is 
usually deemed one of the seventy. He was, in some degree, related to 
the Redeemer ; and he became a candidate, together with Matthias, to 



SECOND PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 27 

fill the vacant place of Judas Iscariot, to which Matthias was elected. 
Ecclesiastical writers make very little other mention of Joseph ; but 
Papias informs us, that he was once compelled to drink poison, which 
did not do him the least injury, agreeably with the promise of the Lord to 
those who believe in him. He was during his life a zealous preacher of 
the gospel ; and having received many insults from the Jews, at length 
obtained martyrdom, being murdered by the pagans in Judea. 

Ananias, bishop of Damascus, is celebrated in the sacred writings 
as the person who cured St. Paul of the blindness with which he was 
struck by the amazing brightness which shone upon him at his conversion. 
He was one of the seventy, and was martyred in the city of Damascus. 
After his death a christian church was built over the place of his burial, 
which is now converted into a Turkish mosque. 

ACCOUNT OF THE SECOND PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 

UNDER THE EMPEROR DOMITIAN. 

The emperor Domitian was naturally of a cruel disposition ; he first 
slew his brother, and then raised a second persecution against the 
Christians. His rage was such, that he even put to death several Ro- 
man senators ; some through malice, and others to confiscate their 
estates. He then commanded all the lineage of David to be sacrificed 
Two Christians were brought before the emperor, and accused of being 
of the tribe of Judah, and line of David ; but from their answers, he despis- 
ed them as idiots, and dismissed them accordingly. He, however, was de- 
termined to be more secure upon other occasions ; and on this plea he 
took away the property of many Christians, put several to death, and banish- 
ed others. Among the numerous martyrs that suffered during this perse- 
cution was Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem ,1 who was crucified ; and St. John, 
who was boiled in oil, and afterwards banished to Patmos. Flavia, the 
daughter of a Roman senator, was likewise banished to Pontus ; and a 
cruel law was made, " That no Christian, once brought before the tribunal, 
should be exempted from punishment without renouncing his religion." 

During this reign there were various tales published in order to 
injure the Christians. Among other falsehoods, they were accused of 
indecent nightly meetings, of a rebellious turbulent spirit, of being ini- 
mical to the Roman empire, of murdering their children, and even of 
being cannibals ; and at this time, such was the infatuation of the Pa- 
gans, that if famine, pestilence, or earthquakes, afflicted any of the 
Roman provinces, it was charged on the Christians. These persecutions 
naturally multiplied the number of informers ; and many, for the sake 
of gain, swore away the lives of the innocent. When any Christians 
were brought before the magistrates, a test was proposed, when, if 
they refused to take the oath, death was pronounced against them ; 
and if they confessed themselves Christians, the sentence was the same. 
The various kinds of punishments and inflicted cruelties were, during 
this persecution, imprisonment, racking, searing, broiling, burning, 

q A curious anecdote relative to Simeon will be found at the commencement of the third 
persecution. 



28 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

scourging, stoning, hanging, and worrying. Many were lacerated with 
red hot pincers, and others were thrown upon the horns of wild bulls. 
After having suffered these cruelties, the friends of the deceased Chris- 
tians were refused the privilege of burying their remains. 

The following were the most remarkable individual martyrs who 
suffered during this persecution. 

Dionysius the Areopagite, was an Athenian by birth, and educated 
in all the useful and ornamental literature of Greece. He travelled 
into Egypt to study astronomy, and made particular observations on the 
great supernatural eclipse, which happened at the time of our Saviour's 
crucifixion. On his return to Athens he was highly honoured by the 
people, and at length promoted to the dignity of senator of that cele- 
brated city. Becoming a convert to the gospel, he advanced from the 
worthy pagan magistrate to the pious christian pastor ; for even while 
involved in the darkness of idolatry, he was as morally just as when he 
became a disciple and minister of Christ. After his conversion, the sanc- 
tity of his conversation and purity of his manners recommended him so 
strongly to the Christians in general, that he was appointed bishop of 
Athens. He discharged this duty with the utmost diligence till the 
second year of this persecution, A. D. 69, when he was apprehended, and 
received the crown of martyrdom, by being beheaded. 

Nicomedes, a Christian of distinction at Rome, during Domitian's 
persecution, made great efforts to serve the afflicted ; comforting the 
poor, visiting the imprisoned, exhorting the wavering, and confirming 
the faithful. For those and other pious actions he was seized as a 
Christian, and was sentenced and scourged to death. 

Protasius and Gervasius were martyred at Milan ; but the particu- 
lar circumstances attending their death are not recorded. 

Timothy, the celebrated disciple of St. Paul, and bishop of Ephesus, 
was born at Lystra in the province of Lycaonia ; his father was a 
Gentile, and his mother a Jewess ; but both his parents and his grand- 
mother embraced Christianity, by which means Timothy was taught 
from his infancy the precepts of the gospel. Upon St. Paul's reaching 
Lycaonia, he ordained Timothy, and made him the companion of his 
labours. St. Paul mentions him with peculiar esteem, and declares, that 
he could find no one so truly united to him, both in heart and mind. 

Timothy attended St. Paul to Macedonia, where, together with Silas, 
he laboured in the propagation of the gospel. When St. Paul went 
to Achaia, Timothy was left behind to strengthen the faith of those 
already converted, and induce others to adopt the true faith. St Paul 
at length sent for Timothy to Athens, and then despatched him to Thes- 
salonica, to protest to the suffering Christians there against the terrors of 
the persecution which then prevailed. Having performed his mission, 
he returned to Athens, and there assisted St. Paul and Silas in compos- 
ing the two epistles to the Thessalonians. He then accompanied the 
apostle to Corinth, Jerusalem, and Ephesus. After performing several 
of his commissions for him and attending him on various journeys, the 
apostle constituted Timothy bishop of Ephesus, though he was only 
thirty years of age ; and in two admirable epistles gave him in- 
structions for his conduct. Timothy was so temperate in his living, 



PLINY'S DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANS. 29 

that St. Paul blamed him for being too abstemious, and recommended to 
him the moderate use of wine to recruit his strength and spirits. 

St. Paul sent to Timothy to come to him in his last confinement at 
Rome ; and after that great apostle's martyrdom, he returned to Ephesus, 
where he zealously governed the church till nearly the close of the cen- 
tury. At this period the Pagans were about to celebrate a feast, the 
principal ceremonies of which were, that the people should carry 
sticks in their hands, go masked, and bear about the streets the images 
of their gods. When Timothy met the procession, he severely reproved 
them for their ridiculous idolatry, which so exasperated the people, that 
they fell upon him with their clubs, and beat him in so dreadful a man- 
ner, that he expired of the bruises two days after. 

ACCOUNT OF THE THIRD PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

Only one year elapsed between the second and third Roman persecu- 
tions. Upon Nerva succeeding Domitian, he gave a respite to the Chris- 
tians ; but reigning only thirteen months, his successor Trajan, in the 
tenth year of his reign, and in the year 108, began the third persecution 
against them. While this persecution raged, Plinius Secundus, a heathen 
philosopher, wrote to the emperor in favour of the Christians, 1- to whose 
epistle Trajan returned this indecisive answer: — " That Christians ought 
not to be sought after, but when brought before the magistracy they 
should be punished." Provoked by this reply, Tertullian exclaimed in 
the following words : " O confused sentence ! he would not have them 
sought for as innocent men, and yet would have them punished as guilty." 
His officers were uncertain, if carried on with severity, how to interpret 
the meaning of his decree. Trajan, however, soon after wrote to Jeru- 
salem, and gave orders to exterminate the stock of David; in conse- 
quence of which, all that could be found of that race were put to death. 13 

r This second Pliny was one of the most strenuous defenders of the persecuted Christians. 
He wrote to Trajan to stop the cruelties exercised against them. He observed in his letter, 
that he examined them, " and found some, who, though they had embraced Christianity, did 
not object to sacrifice to the gods, and to Trajan's image." — " Others," said he, " confessed 
they had been Christians, but afterwards denied the fact, affirming to me the whole sum 
of that sect or error to consist in this, that they were wont, at certain times appointed, to 
convene before day, and to sing certain hymns to one Christ their God, and to confederate 
among themselves: to abstain from all theft, murder, and adultery ; to keep their faith, and 
to defraud no man ; which done, then to depart for a time, and afterward to resort again to 
take food in company together, both men and women, one with another, and yet without 
any act of evil." "In the truth whereof to be further certified whether it were so or not, 1 
caused two maidens to be laid on the rack, and with torments to be examined of the same. 
But finding no other thing in them, but only strange and immoderate superstition, I thought 
to cease of farther inquiry, till I might be further advertised in the matter from you." 

8 When the order for extermination arrived at Jerusalem, it appears, according to 
Egissippus, that certain sectaries of the Jewish nation accused Simeon, then bishop of 
Jerusalem, and son of Cleophas, as being of the stock of David, and that he was a 
Christian. Some of his accusers, says Egissippus, were apprehended and proved to be of 
the stock of David, and so were justly put to death themselves who sought the destruction 
of others. Of Simeon, the blessed bishop, Egissippus thus writes, "The Lord's nephew, 
when he was accused to Attalus the pro-consul, by the malice of the Jews, to be of the 
line of David, and to be a Christian, was scourged many days together, being of age 120 
years; which martyrdom he endured so firmly, that both the consul and the multitude 
wondered at the sight. 



30 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

About this period the emperor Trajan was succeeded by Adrian, who 
continued the persecution with the greatest rigour. When Phocas, 
bishop of Pontus, refusing to sacrifice to Neptune, was, by his imme- 
diate order, cast first into a hot lime-kiln, and being drawn from thence, 
was thrown into a scalding bath till he expired. 

Trajan likewise commanded the martyrdom of Ignatius, bishop of 
Antioch. This holy man, when an infant, Christ took in his arms, and 
showed to his disciples, as one that would be a pattern of humility and 
innocence : he received the gospel afterwards from St. John the evan- 
gelist, and was exceedingly zealous in his mission and ministry. He 
boldly vindicated the faith of Christ before the emperor, for which he 
was cast into prison, and was tormented in a cruel manner ; for, after 
being dreadfully scourged, he was compelled to hold fire in his hands, 
and, at the same time, papers dipped in oil were put to his sides and 
lighted ! His flesh was then torn with hot pincers, and at last he was 
despatched by the fury of wild beasts. 

Ignatius had either presentiment or information of his fate; for 
writing to Polycarp at Smyrna, he thus described his adventures; 
" From Syria, even till I came to Rome, had I battle with beasts, as 
well by sea as land, both day and night, being bound in the midst of a 
cruel legion of soldiers who, the more benefits they received at my 
hands, behaved so much the worse unto me. But being now well ac- 
quainted with their injuries, I am taught every day more and more. 
And would to God I were once come to the beasts which are prepared for 
me ; which also I wish with gaping mouths were ready to come upon 
me, whom also I will provoke that they, without delay, may devour me. 
And if they will not, unless they be provoked, I will then enforce them 
against myself. Now begin I to be a scholar; I esteem no visible 
things, not yet invisible things, so that I may get or obtain Christ Jesus. 
Let the fire, the gallows, the wild beasts, the breaking of bones, the 
pulling asunder of members, the bruising of my whole body, and the 
torments of the devil and hell itself come upon me, so that I may win 
Christ Jesus!" 

Symphrosa, a widow and her seven sons, were commanded by this 
emperor to sacrifice to the heathen deities. Refusing to comply with 
the impious request, the emperor, in a rage, told her, that for her obsti- 
nacy, herself and her sons should be slain, and ordered her to be carried 
to the temple of Hercules, where she was scourged while she hung up 
by the hair of her head : then a large stone was fastened to her neck, 
and she was thrown into a river. The sons were bound to seven posts, 
and being drawn up by pulleys, their limbs were dislocated: these 
tortures, not affecting their resolution, they were thus martyred- 
Cresentius, the eldest, was stabbed in the throat: Julian, the second, 
in the breast; Nemesius, the third, in the heart; Primitius, the fourth, 
in the navel ; Justice, the fifth, in the back ; Stacteus, the sixth, in 
the side ; and Eugenius, the youngest, was sawed asunder. 

About this time, Alexander, bishop of Rome, with his two deacons, 
were martyred; as were Quirinus and Hermes, with their families; 



DEATH OF ADRIAN. 31 

Zenon, a Roman nobleman, and about ten thousand other Christians. l 
Many were crucified on Mount Ararat, crowned with thorns, and 
spears run into their sides, in imitation of Christ's passion. Eustachius, 
a brave and successful Roman commander, was ordered by the emperor 
to join an idolatrous sacrifice, in celebration of some of his own victories; 
but his faith was so strong, that he nobly refused it. Enraged at the 
denial, the ungrateful emperor forgot the services of this skilful com- 
mander, and ordered him and his whole family to be martyred. 

During the martyrdom of Faustines and Jovita, brothers and citizens 
of Bressia, their torments were so many, and their patience so firm, 
that Calocerius, a pagan, beholding them, was struck with admiration, 
and exclaimed, in ecstasy, " Great is the God of the Christians!" for 
which he was apprehended and put to death. Many other cruelties and 
rigours were exercised against the Christians, till Quodratus, bishop of 
Athens, made a learned apology in their favour before the emperor, who 
happened to be there; and Aristides, a philosopher of the same city, 
wrote an elegant epistle, which caused Adrian to relax in his severities, 
and relent in their favour. He went so far as to command that no 
Christian should be punished on the score of religion or opinion only; 
but this gave occasion against them to the Jews and pagans, for then 
they began to suborn false witnesses, to accuse them of crimes against 
the state. 

The history of Nicephorus makes mention of Anthia, a godly woman, 
who committed her son Eleutherius to Anicetus, bishop of Rome, to be 
brought up in the doctrines of the christian faith. He afterwards 
became bishop in Apulia, and was there beheaded with his mother 
Anthia. Justus also and Pastor, two brethren, ended their lives in a 
city of Spain called Complutum, by an exemplary martyrdom. 

Adrian died in the year 138, and was succeeded by Antoninus Pius, 
so amiable a monarch, that his people gave him the title of "The Father 
of Virtues." Immediately on his accession to the throne, he published 
an edict, forbidding further persecution of the Christians, and concluded 
it in these words: — "If any hereafter shall vex or trouble the Christians, 
having no other cause but that they are such, let the accused be released, 
and the accusers be punished." This stopped the persecution, and the 
Christians enjoyed a respite from their sufferings during this emperor's 
reign, though their enemies took every occasion to do them what 
injuries they could . u 

* Florigellus, the author of "Flores Historiarum," affirms that Alexander bishop of 
Rome was beheaded seven miles out of the city, in the year 105. Eusebius records no 
more of him, but that in the third year of Adrian he ended his life and office, after he had 
been bishop ten years. Various miracles are reported of this Alexander, in the canon 
legends, and lives of saints. A singular circumstance, well worthy of notice, is mentioned 
of him. He is said to have been the founder of holy water, which was mixed with salt, to 
purge and purify those on whom it is sprinkled, after receiving the priest's blessing. It is 
also believed that he was the first who ordained water to be mixed with wine in the 
chalice. 

u Adrian died of a bleeding at the nose in the year 129, according to some historians. 
He commanded the cessation of the persecutions against the Christians some years before 
his death; as is proved by Justin, who quotes his letter to Fuodanus, the pro-consul, in 
which he orders that nothing shall be done to the Christians, unless they are complained of 
as malefactors acting contrary to law. The piety and goodness of Antoninus were so great, 



32 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ACCOUNT OF THE FOURTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS, WHICH COMMENCED A. D. 162. 

Antoninus Pius was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus, 
who began the fourth persecution, in which many Christians were 
martyred, particularly in several parts of Asia, and France. Such 
were the cruelties used in this persecution, that many of the spectators 
shuddered with horror at the sight, and were astonished at the intrepidity 
of the sufferers. Some of the martyrs were obliged to pass, with their 
already wounded feet, over thorns, nails, sharp shells, &c. ; others were 
scourged till their sinews and veins lay bare; and after suffering most 
excruciating tortures, they were destroyed by the most terrible deaths. 

Germanicus, a young and holy Christian, being delivered to the 
beasts on account of his faith, behaved with such astonishing courage, 
that several pagans became converts to a faith which inspired so much 
fortitude. This so enraged others, that they cried he merited death, 
as they did also of Polycarp, the pious and venerable bishop of Smyrna. 
At the death of Germanicus, many of the multitude wondering at the 
beloved martyr for his constancy and virtue, began suddenly to cry with 
a loud voice, "Destroy the wicked men, let Polycarp be sought for." 
And whilst a great uproar and tumult began to be raised upon these 
cries, a certain Phrygian, named Quintus, lately arrived, was so afflicted 
at the sight of the wild beasts, that he rushed to the judgment seat, 
and abused the judges, for which he was put to death without mercy 
or delay. 

Polycarfus hearing that persons were seeking to apprehend him, 
escaped, but was discovered by a child. From this circumstance, and 
having dreamed that his bed suddenly became on fire, and was consumed 
in a moment, he concluded that it was God's will he should suffer 
martyrdom. He therefore did not attempt to make a second escape 
when he had an opportunity of doing it. Those who apprehended him 
were amazed at his serene countenance and gravity. After feasting 
them, he desired an hour for prayer, which being allowed, he prayed 
with such fervency, that his guards repented they had been instrumental 
in taking him. He was, however, carried before the pro-consul, con- 
demned, and conducted to the market place. Wood being provided, 
the holy man earnestly prayed to Heaven, after being bound to the 
stake ; and as the flames grew vehement, the executioners gave way on 
each side, the heat becoming intolerable. In the mean time the bishop 
sung praises to God in the midst of the flames, but remained uncon- 
sumed therein, and the burning of the wood spreading a fragrance 
around, the guards were much surprised. Determined, however, to put 
an end to his life, they struck spears into his body, when the quantity 

that he used to say, that he had rather save one citizen, than destroy one thousand of his 
adversaries. At the beginning of his reign, such was the state of the church, as Adrian his 
predecessor had left it, that although there was no edict to persecute the Christians, yet the 
tumultuous rage of the heathen multitude did not cease to disturb and afflict the quiet 
people of God, imputing to the Christians whatever misfortune happened contrary to their 
desires. 



MURDER OF A LADY AND HER SONS. 33 

of blood that issued from the wounds extinguished the flames. After 
considerable attempts, they put him to death, and burnt his body when 
dead, not being able to consume it while living. Twelve other Chris- 
tians who had been intimate with Polycarp, were soon after martyred. v 

Metrodorus, a minister who preached boldly, and Pionius, who 
made some excellent apologies for the christian faith, were likewise 
burnt. Carpus and Papilus, two worthy Christians, and Agathonica, 
a pious woman, suffered martyrdom at Pergamopolis, in Asia, about the 
same period. 

Felicitas, an illustrious Roman lady of a considerable family, and 
great virtues, was a devout Christian. She had seven sons, whom she 
had educated with the most exemplary piety. The empire being about 
this time grievously troubled with earthquakes, famine, and inunda- 
tions, the Christians were accused as the cause, and Felicitas was 
included in the accusation. The lady and her family being seized, the 
emperor gave orders to Publius, the Roman governor, to proceed against 
her. Upon this Publius began with the mother, thinking that if he 
could prevail to change her religion, the example would have great 
influence with her sons. Finding her inflexible, he changed his 
entreaties to menaces, and threatened destruction to herself and fa- 
mily. She despised his threats as she had done his promises; on which 
he began with the sons, whom he examined separately. They all, how- 
ever, remained steadfast in the faith, and unanimous in their opinions, 
on which the whole family were ordered for execution. Januarius, the 
eldest, was scourged and pressed to death with weights ; Felix and 
Philip, the two next, had their brains dashed out with clubs; Sylvanus, 
the fourth, was murdered by being thrown from a precipice ; and the 
three younger sons, viz. Alexander, Vitalis, and Mertialis were all behead- 
ed. The mother was beheaded with the same sword as the three latter. 

Justin, the celebrated philosopher, fell a martyr in this persecution. 
He was a native of Neapolis, in Samaria, and was born A. D. 103. 
He had the best education the times could afford, and travelled into 
Egypt, the country where the polite tour of that age was made for im- 
provement. At Alexandria he was informed of every thing relative to 
the seventy interpreters of the sacred writings, and shewn the rooms, or 
rather cells, in which their work was performed. Justin was a great 
lover of truth, and an universal scholar ; he investigated the Stoic and 
Peripatetic philosophy, and attempted the Pythagorean system ; but the 
behaviour of one of its professors disgusting him, he applied himself to 
the Platonic, in which he took great delight. About the year 133, when 
he was thirty years of age, he became a convert to Christianity. Justin 
wrote an elegant epistle to the Gentiles, to convert them to the faith he 

v The ancient historians assert, that this extraordinary event had such an effect upon the 
people that they began to adore the martyr; and the pro-consul was admonished not to 
deliver the body, lest the people should leave Christ and begin to worship him. It appears 
from the accounts of Ireneus and Eusebius, that Polycarp was a very aged man, who had 
served Christ eighty-six years, and laboured also in the ministry about the space of seventy 
years. He was a scholar and hearer of John the evangelist, and was placed by him in 
Smyrna. Of him also Ignatius makes mention in his epistle which he wrote in his journey 
to Rome, going towards his martyrdom, and commends to him the government of the church 
at Antioch, whereby it appears that Polycarp was then in the ministry. . 

D 



34 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

had newly acquired, and lived in so pure and innocent a manner, that 
he well deserved the title of a christian philosopher. He likewise em- 
ployed his talents in convincing the Jews of the truth of the christian 
rites, and spent much time in travelling, till he took up his abode in 
Rome, and fixed his habitation on the Veminal mount. He kept a pub- 
lic school, taught many who afterwards became great men, and wrote 
a treatise to confute heresies of all kinds. As the pagans began to treat 
the Christians with great severity, Justin wrote his first apology in their 
favour, and addressed it to the emperor Antoninus, to two princes whom 
he had adopted as his sons, and to the senate and people of Rome in 
general. This piece, which occasioned the emperor to publish an edict 
in favour of the Christians, displays great learning and genius. 

A short time after, he entered into frequent contests with Crescens, a 
person of a vicious life, but a celebrated cynic philosopher ; and his ar- 
guments appeared so powerful, yet disgusting to the cynic, that he re- 
solved on his destruction, which in the sequel he accomplished. The 
second apology of Justin was occasioned by the following circumstances : 
a man and his wife who were both evil characters, resided at Rome. 
The woman, however, becoming a convert to Christianity, attempted to 
reclaim her husband ; but not succeeding, she sued for a divorce, which 
so exasperated him, that he acccused her of being a Christian. Upon 
her petition, he dropped the prosecution and levelled his malice against 
Ptolemeus, who had converted her. Ptolemeus was condemned to die ; 
and one Lucius, with another person, for expressing themselves too freely 
upon the occasion, met with the same fate. Justin's apology upon these 
severities gave Crescens an opportunity of prejudicing the emperor 
against the writer of it; upon which Justin and six of his companions 
were apprehended. Being commanded as usual to deny their faith, and 
sacrifice to the pagan idols, they refused to do either ; they were, there- 
fore, condemned to be first scourged and then beheaded. 

It appears that only seven pieces of the writings of this celebrated 
martyr, and great philosopher, are now extant, viz : The Two Apologies ; 
An Exhortation to the Gentiles ; An Oration to the Greeks ; A Treatise 
on Divine Monarchy ; A Dialogue with Trypho the Jew ; and An Epistle 
to Diagnetus. His Oratio, and Parcenesis ad Grecos, are well known. 

About this time many were beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the 
image of Jupiter: in particular Concordus, a deacon of the city of 
Spoleto, being carried before the image, and ordered to worship it, not 
only refused, but spat in its face; for which he was severely tormented, 
and afterwards had his head cut off with a sword. 

At this time some of the northern nations having armed against Rome, 
the emperor marched to encounter them ; he was, however, drawn into 
an ambuscade, and dreaded the loss of his whole army. Surrounded by 
mountains and enemies, and perishing with thirst, the troops were driven 
to the last extremity. All the pagan deities were invoked in vain ; when 
the men belonging to the militine, or thundering legion, who were nearly 
all Christians, were commanded to call upon God for succour: they 
immediately withdrew from the rest, prostrated themselves upon the earth, 
and prayed fervently. A miraculous deliverance immediately ensued : a 
prodigious quantity of rain fell, which being caught by the men, and 



CONVERSION OF AN ARMY. 35 

filling the dykes, furnished a sudden and astonishing relief. The empe- 
ror, in his epistle to the Roman senate, wherein the expedition is describ- 
ed, after mentioning the difficulties to which he had been driven, speaks 
of the Christians in the following manner. 

" When I saw myself notable to encounter with the enemies, I craved 
aid of our nation's gods; but finding no relief at their hands, and being 
cooped up by the enemy, I caused those men whom we call Christians, 
to be sent for ; who being mustered, I found a considerable number of 
them, against whom I was more incensed than I had just cause, as I 
afterwards found : for, by a marvellous power, they forthwith used their 
endeavours, not with ammunition, drums, and trumpets, abhorring such 
preparations and furniture, but only praying to, and trusting in their 
God, whom they carry about with them in their consciences. It is there- 
fore to be believed, although we call them wicked men, that they worship 
God in their hearts ; for they, falling prostrate on the ground, prayed, 
not only for me, but for the army also which was with me, beseeching 
God to help me in our extreme want of food and fresh water (for 
we had been five days without water, and in our enemies land, even 
in the midst of Germany) : I say, falling upon their faces, they prayed 
to a God unknown to me, and immediately thereon fell from heaven 
a most cool and pleasant shower ; but amongst our enemies great store of 
hail, mixed with thunder and lightning : so that we soon perceived the 
invincible aid of the most mighty God to be with us ; therefore we give 
these men leave to profess Christianity, lest, by their prayers, we be pu- 
nished by the like : and I thereby make myself the author of all the 
evil that shall arise from the persecution of the Christian religion. " w 

It appears that the storm which so miraculously flashed in the faces 
of the enemy so intimidated them, that part deserted to the Roman 
army, the rest were defeated, and the revolted provinces were entirely 
recovered. This affair occasioned the persecution to subside for some 
time, at least in those parts immediately under the inspection of the 
emperor ; for we find that it soon after raged in France, particularly at 
Lyons, where the torture, to which many Christians were put, almost 
exceeds the powers of description. All manner of punishments were 
adopted, torments, and painful deaths ; such as being banished, 
plundered, hanged, burnt. Even the servants and slaves of opulent 
Christians were racked and tortured, to make them accuse their 
masters and employers. The following were the principal of these 
martyrs : Vetius Agathus, a young man, who having pleaded the Chris- 
tian cause, was asked if he was a Christian ; when answering in the 
affirmative, he was condemned to death. Many, animated by this 
young man's intrepidity, boldly owned their faith and suffered like him. 
Blandina, a Christian, but of weak constitution, being seized and tor- 
tured on account of her religion, received so much strength from Hea- 
ven, that her torturers became frequently tired ; and were surprised at 
her being able to bear her torments for so great a length of time, and 
with such resolution. Sanctus, a deacon of Vienna, was put to the 

w Marcus Aurelius, in this letter, states his army tc have consisted of 975,000 
fighting men ; but this must be a prodigious overstatement. 



36 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

torture, which he bore with great fortitude, and only cried. " I am a 
Christian." Red hot plates of brass were placed upon those parts of 
the body that were tenderest, which contracted the sinews ; but remain- 
ing inflexible, he was re-conducted to prison. Being brought from 
his place of confinement a few days afterwards, his tormentors were 
astonished to find his wounds healed, and his person perfect : however 
they again proceeded to torture him ; but not being able, at that time 
to take his life, they remanded him to prison, where he remained for 
some time, and was at length beheaded. Biblias, a timid woman, 
had been ah apostate, but having returned to the faith, was martyred, 
and bore her sufferings with great patience. Attalus, of Pergamus, was 
another sufferer ; and Pothinus, the venerable bishop of Lyons, who was 
ninety years of age, was so treated by the enraged mob, that he expired 
'wo days after their outrage in the prison. 

At Lyons, exclusive of those already mentioned, the martyrs were 
compelled to sit in hot iron chairs till their flesh broiled. This was 
inflicted with peculiar severity on Sanctus, already mentioned, and some 
others. Some were sown up in nets, and thrown on the horns of wild 
bulls ; and the carcases of those who died in prison, previous to the 
appointed time of execution, were thrown to dogs. Indeed, so far did 
the malice of the pagans proceed, that they set guards over the bodies 
while the beasts were devouring them, lest the friends of the deceased 
should get them by stealth; and the offals left by the dogs were ordered 
to be burnt. The martyrs of Lyons are said to have been forty-eight 
in number, and their executions happened in the year of Christ, 177. 
They all died with great fortitude, glorifying God and the Redeemer. 

Besides the above martyrs of Lyons, whom Mr. Fox enumerated 
together, many others suffered in that city, and different parts of the 
empire, soon after. Of these the principal were, Epipodius and Alex- 
ander, celebrated for their great friendship, and their christian union. 
The former was born at Lyons, the latter in Greece ; they were of 
great assistance to each other, by the continual practice of all manner 
of christian virtues and godliness. At the time the persecution began to 
rage at Lyons, they were in the prime of life, and to avoid its severities, 
they thought proper to withdraw to a neighbouring village. Here they 
were, for some time, concealed by a christian widow, named Alice. But 
the rage of their persecutors sought after them with indefatigable in- 
dustry, and pursued them to their place of concealment, whence they 
were committed to prison without examination. At the expiration of 
three days, being brought before the governor, they were examined in 
the presence of a crowd of heathens, when they confessed the divinity 
of Christ ; on which the governor, being enraged at what he termed their 
insolence, said, " What signifies all the former executions, if some yet 
remain who dare acknowledge Christ'" 

They were then separated, that they should not condole with each 
other, and he began to tamper with Epipodius, the younger of the two. 
He pretended to pity his condition, and entreated him not to ruin him- 
self by obstinacy. " Our deities," continued he, " are worshipped by 
the greater part of the people in the universe, and their rulers ; we adore 
them with feasting and mirth, while you adore a crucified man : we, to 



SHOCKING DEATH OF EPIPODIUS. 37 

honour them, launch into pleasures ; you, by your faith, are debarred 
from all that indulges the senses. Our religion enjoins feasting, your's 
fasting ; our's the joys of licentious blandishments, your's the barren 
virtue of chastity. Can you expect protection from one who could 
not secure himself from the persecutions of a contemptible mob ? Then 
quit a profession of such austerity, and enjoy those gratifications 
which the world affords, and which your youthful years demand." 
Epipodius, in reply, contemning his compassion, said, "Your pre- 
tended tenderness is actual cruelty ; and the agreeable life you describe 
is replete with everlasting death. Christ suffered for us, that our 
pleasures should be immortal, and hath prepared for his followers an 
eternity of bliss. The frame of man being composed of two parts, body 
and soul ; the first as mean and perishable, should be rendered subser- 
vient to the latter. Your idolatrous feasts may gratify the mortal, but 
they injure the immortal part : that cannot, therefore, be enjoying life 
which destroys the most valuable moiety of your frame. Your pleasures 
lead to eternal death, and our pains to eternal happiness." 

For this admirable speech, Epipodius was severely beaten, and then 
put to the rack; upon which being stretched, his flesh was torn with iron 
hooks. Having borne his torments with incredible patience and forti- 
tude, he was taken from the rack and beheaded. Alexander, his compa- 
nion, was brought before the judge two days after his friend's execution; 
and on his absolute refusal to renounce Christianity, he was placed on the 
rack and beaten by three executioners, who relieved each other. He 
bore his sufferings with as much fortitude as his friend had done, and 
the next day was crucified. These martyrs suffered A. D. 179; the 
first on the 20th of April, and the other in three days after. 

Valerian and Marcellus, who were nearly related to each other, were 
imprisoned at Lyons, in the year 177, for being Christians. By some 
means, however, they made their escape, and travelled different roads. 
The latter made several converts in the territories of Besancon and 
Chalons ; but being apprehended, was carried before Priscus, the go- 
vernor of those parts. This magistrate, knowing Marcellus to be a 
Christian, ordered him to be*fastened to some branches of a tree, which 
were drawn for that purpose. When he was tied to different branches, 
they were let go, with a design to tear him to pieces by the suddenness 
of the rebound. This invention failing, he was conducted to Chalons, 
to be present at some idolatrous sacrifices, refusing to assist in them, 
he was put to the torture, and afterwards fixed up to the neck in the 
ground, in which position he expired, A. D. 179, after remaining three 
days. Valerian was also apprehended, and, by the order of Priscus, 
was first brought to the rack, and then beheaded in the same year as 
his relation Marcellus. 

About the same time the following martyrs suffered: Benignus, at 
Dijon; Spensippus, and others, at Langres; Androches, Thyrseus, and 
Felix, at Salieu; Sympoviam and Florella, at Antun; Severinus, Feli- 
cian, and Exuperus, at Vienna; Cecilia, the virgin, at Sicily; and 
Thrasus, bishop of Phrygia, at Smyrna. 

In the year 180 the emperor Antoninus died, and was succeeded by 
his son Commodus, who did not imitate his father in any respect. He 



38 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

had neither his virtues nor his vices ; he was without his learning and 
his morality, and at the same time without his prejudices against Chris- 
tianity. His principal weakness was pride, and to that may be chiefly 
ascribed the errors of his reign; for having fancied himself Hercules, 
he sacrificed those of every creed to his vanity, who refused to subscribe 
to his own absurd opinions. 

In this reign Apollonius, a Roman senator, became a martyr. This 
eminent person was skilled in all the polite literature of those times, 
and in all the purest precepts taught by the blessed Redeemer. He 
was accused by his own slave Severus, upon an unjust and contradictory, 
but unrepealed edict of the emperor Trajan. This law condemned 
the accused to die, unless he recanted his opinion ; and at the same 
time ordered the execution of the accuser for slander. Apollonius, 
upon this ridiculous statute was accused ; for though his slave Severus 
knew he must die for the accusation, yet such was his diabolical malice 
and desire of revenge, that he courted death in order to involve his 
master in the same destruction. As Apollonius refused to recant his 
opinions, he was, by order of his peers the Roman senators, to whom 
he had appealed, condemned to be beheaded. The sentence was exe- 
cuted on the 18th day of April, A. D. 186, his accuser having previ- 
ously had his legs broken, and been put to death. 

About this time succeeded Anicetus, Soter, and Eleutherus, about 
the year of our Lord 189. This Eleutherus, at the request of Lucius, 
King of Britain, sent to him Damianus and Fugatius, by whom the king 
was converted to the christian faith, and baptized about the year 179. 

Eusebius, Vincentius, Potentianus, and Peregrinus, for refusing to 
worship Commodus as Hercules, were likewise martyred. x 

x This Commodus is said in history to have been so sure and steady-handed in casting 
the dart, that in the open theatre, before the people, he would encounter with the wild 
beasts, and be certain of striking them in the place specified. Among his vicious qualities, 
he was so far overcome in pride and arrogance, that he would be called Hercules, and many 
times would shew himself to the people, wishing to be counted king of men, as the lion is of 
beasts. Once on his birth-day, Commodus calling the people of Rome together, having 
his lion's skin upon him, made sacrifice to Hercules and Jupiter, causing it to be cried 
through the city that Hercules was the patron and defender of the city. There was at 
the same time at Rome, Vincentius, Eusebius, Peregrinus, and Potentianus, learned men, 
and instructors of the people, who, following the steps of the apostles, went from place to 
place, where the gospel was not yet preached, converting the Gentiles to the faith of Christ. 
These, hearing the madness of the emperor and the people, began to reprove their 
idolatrous blindness ; and while teaching in some villages and towns, they discovered and 
converted the senator Julius. Vide Vincentius, lib. 10. cap. 11. and Chron. Henr. de 
Erfordia. 

About the time of Commodus, among other learned men and famous teachers whom 
God stirred up to confound the persecutors by learning and writing, as the martyrs to con- 
firm the truth with their blood, was Seraphion, bishop of Antioch, and Egissippus a writer 
of Ecclesiastical History from Christ's passion to his time. About the same time Heraclitus, 
first began to write annotations upon the New Testament. Theophilus bishop of Cesarea, 
Dionysius bishop of Corinth, a man famously learned, also wrote divers epistles to churches. 
By the letters of Dionysius, we understand it to be the custom at that time, to read in the 
churches such written epistles as were sent by bishops and teachers to the congregations, as 
appears by these words to the church of the Romans and to Soter, " This day we celebrate 
the holy dominical day, in which we have read your epistle, which also we will read 
for our exhortation ; like as we do read the epistle of Clement sent to us before." By 
him also mention is made of keeping of Sunday holy, of which we find no mention in 



FIFTH GENERAL PERSECUTION. 39 

Julius, a Roman senator, becoming a convert to Christianity, was 
ordered by the emperor to sacrifice to him as Hercules. This Julius 
absolutely' refused, and publicly professed himself a Christian. On this 
account, after remaining in prison a considerable time, he was in the 
year 190, pursuant to his sentence, beat to death with a club. 



ACCOUNT OF THE FIFTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

In the year 191, the emperor Commodus dying, was succeeded by 
Pertinax, and he was succeeded by Julianus, both of whom reigned 
but a short time. On the death of the latter, Severus became emperor 
in the year 192. When he had been recovered from a severe fit of sick- 
ness by a Christian, he became a great favourer of Christians generally 
and even permitted his son Caracalla to be nursed by a female of that 
persuasion. Hence, during the reigns of the emperors who successively 
succeeded Commodus, and some years of his reign, the Christians had 
a respite for several years from persecution. But the prejudice and fury 
of the ignorant multitude again prevailed, and the obsolete laws were 
put in execution against them. The pagans were alarmed at the progress 
of Christianity, and revived the calumny of placing incidental misfor- 
tunes to the account of its professors. Fire, sword, wild beasts, and 
imprisonments, were resorted to, and even the dead bodies of Christians 
were torn from their graves, and submitted to every insult: yet the 
gospel withstood the attacks of its barbarous enemies. Tertullian, who 
lived in this age, informs us, that if the Christians had collectively with- 
drawn themselves from the Roman territories, the empire would have been 
greatly depopulated. 

Victor, bishop of Rome, suffered martyrdom in the first year of the 
third century, viz. A. D. 201, though the circumstances are not ascer- 
tained. 

Leonidas, the father of the celebrated Origen, was beheaded for being 
a Christian. Previous to the execution, his son, in order to encourage 
him, wrote to him in these remarkable words : " Beware, Sir, that your 
care for us does not make you change your resolution." Many of Ori- 
gen's hearers likewise suffered martyrdom ; particularly two brothers, 
named Plutarchus and Serenus : another Serenus, Heron, and Heraclides 
were beheaded. Rhais had boiling pitch poured upon her head, and was 
then burnt. Marcella her mother, and Potamiena her sister, were exe- 
cuted in the same manner as Rhais. Basilides, an officer belonging to 
the army, who was ordered to attend their execution, became a convert 
on witnessing their fortitude. When Basilides, as an officer, was 
required to take a certain oath, he refused, saying, that he could not 

ancient authors before his time, except only in Justin the martyr, who in his description 
declares on two occasions especially used for Christians to congregate together: — first, when 
any convert was to be baptized, the second was upon the Sunday, which was wont for two 
causes then to be hallowed : first, because upon that day God began the creation ; 
secondly, because Christ upon that day first shewed himself, after his resurrection, to his 
disciples. 



40 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

swear by the Roman idols, as he was a Christian. The people could not 
at first believe what they heard ; but he had no sooner confirmed his 
assertion, than he was dragged before the judge, committed to prison, 
and beheaded immediately. 

Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, was born in Greece, and received a chris- 
tian education. It is generally supposed, that the account of the per- 
secution at Lyons was written by him. He succeeded the martyr 
Pothinus as bishop of Lyons, and ruled his diocese with great propriety ; 
he was a zealous opposer of heresies in general, and wrote a celebrated 
tract against heresy, which had great influence at the time. Victor, 
the bishop of Rome, wanting to impose a particular mode of keeping 
Easter there, it occasioned some disorder amongst the Christians. 
In particular, Irenseus wrote him a synodical epistle in the name of 
the Gallic churches. This zeal, in favour of Christianity, pointed him 
out as an object of resentment to the emperor ; and he was accordingly 
beheaded in A. D. 202. 

The persecutions about this time extended to Africa, and many were 
martyred in that part of the globe ; the principal of whom was 
Perpetua, a married lady of about twenty-six years of age, with an 
infant child at her breast. She was seized for being a Christian. Her 
father, who tenderly loved her, went to console her during her confine- 
ment, and attempted to persuade her to renounce Christianity. Perpe- 
tua, however, resisted every entreaty. This resolution so much incensed 
her father, that he beat her severely, and did not visit her for some days 
after ; and, in the mean time, she and some others who were confined 
were baptised, as they were before only catechumens. On being carried 
before the pro-consul Minutius, she was commanded to sacrifice to the 
idols: refusing, she was ordered to a dark dungeon, and deprived of 
her child. Two deacons, however, Tertius and Pomponius, who had 
the care of persecuted Christians, allowed her some hours daily to inhale 
the fresh air, during which time she had the satisfaction of being allowed 
to nourish her infant. Foreseeing that she should not long be permitted 
to take care of it, she recommended it strongly to her mother's attention. 
Her father at length paid her a second visit, and again entreated her to 
renounce Christianity. His behaviour was now all tenderness and 
humanity; but inflexible to all human influence, she knew she must 
leave every thing for Christ's sake; and she only said to him, " God's 
will must be done." He then, with an almost bursting heart, left her to 
her fate. 

Perpetua gave the strongest proof of fortitude and strength of mind 
on her trial. The judge entreated her to consider her father's tears, her 
infant's helplessness, and her own life; but triumphing over all the sen- 
timents of nature, she forgot the thought of both mental and corporeal 
pain, and determined to sacrifice all the feelings of human sensibility, 
to that immortality offered by Christ. In vain did they attempt to per- 
suade her that their offers were gentle, and her own religion otherwise. 
Aware that she must die, her father's parental tenderness returned, and 
in his anxiety he attempted to carry her off, on which he received a severe 
blow from one of the officers. Irritated at this, the daughter immedi- 
ately declared, that she felt that blow more severely than if she had re- 



CRIMES ALLEGED AGAINST CHRISTIANS. 41 

ceived it herself. Being conducted back to prison, she waited for exe- 
cution, when several other persons were to be executed with her ; of these 
were Felicitas, a married Christian lady, who was with child at the time 
of her trial. The procurator,. when he examined her, entreated her to 
have pity upon herself and her condition; but she replied, that his com- 
passion was useless, for no thought of self-preservation could induce her 
to any idolatrous proposition. She was delivered in prison of a girl, 
which was adopted by a christian woman as her own. 

Revocatus was a catechumen of Carthage, and a slave. The names 
of the other prisoners who were to suffer upon this occasion, were Satur, 
Saturninus, and Secundulus. When the day of execution arrived, they 
were led to the amphitheatre. Satur, Saturninus, and Revocatus, having 
the fortitude to denounce God's judgments upon their persecutors, they 
were ordered to run the gauntlet between the hunters, such as had the 
care of the wild beasts. The hunters being drawn up in two ranks, 
they ran between, and as they passed were severely lashed. Felicitas and 
Perpetua were about to be stripped, in order to be thrown to a beast ; 
but some of the spectators, through decency, desired that they might 
remain as they were clothed, which request was granted. The beast 
made his first attack upon Perpetua, and stunned her ; he then attacked 
Felicitas, and wounded her much ; but not killing them, the executioner 
did that office with a sword. Revocatus and Satur were destroyed in 
the same manner ; Saturninus was beheaded ; and Secundulus died in 
prison. These executions took place in the month of March, A. D. 205. 

The crimes and false accusations laid against the Christians at this 
time, were sedition and rebellion against the emperor, sacrilege, murder 
of infants, incestuous pollution, eating raw flesh, libidinous converse, 
for which the people called gnostici were disgraced. It was objected 
against them that they worshipped the head of an ass, a report pro- 
pagated by the Jews. They were charged also with worshipping the 
sun, because before the sun rose, they met together, singing their 
morning hymns to the Lord, and because they prayed together towards 
the east; but particularly because they would not with them worship 
the idolatrous gods of their adversaries. ? 

Seperatus, and twelve others, were likewise beheaded ; as was An- 
droclus in France. Asclepiades, bishop of Antioch, suffered many tor- 
tures, but was spared his life. Cecilia, a young lady of a good family 
in Rome, was married to a gentleman named Valerian. Being a Chris- 
tian herself, she soon persuaded her husband to embrace the same faith; 
and his conversion was speedily followed by that of Tibertius his brother. 
This information drew upon them all the vengeance of the laws ; the two 
brothers were beheaded ; and the officer who led them to execution 
becoming their convert, suffered in a similar manner. When the lady 
was apprehended, she was doomed to death in the following manner : 
she was placed in a scalding bath, and having remained there a con- 
siderable time, her head was stuck off with a sword, A. D. 222. 

y According to Tertullian, the captains and presidents of the persecution under the 
emperor Severus, were Hilerianus, Vigellius, Claudius, Hermianus, ruler of Cappadocia, 
Cecilius, Capella, Vespronius, also Demetrius, mentioned by Cyprian, and Aquila, judge 
of Alexandria, of whom Eusebius, in his 6th book, gives a particular account. 



42 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Calistus, bishop of Rome, was martyred A. D. 224; but the manner 
of his death is not recorded: and in A. D. 232, Urban, bishop of 
Rome, met the same fate. Agapetus, a boy of Prseneste, in Italy, who 
was only fifteen years of age, refusing to sacrifice to the idols, was 
severely scourged and then hanged up by the feet, and boiling water 
poured over him. He was afterwards worried by wild beasts, and at 
last beheaded. The officer, named Antiochus, who superintended this 
execution, while it was performing, fell suddenly from his judicial seat, 
and cried out in extreme agony from sudden disease ! 



ACCOUNT OF THE SIXTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

Maximus, who was emperor in A. D. 235, raised a persecution against 
the Christians; and in Cappadocia, the president Semiramus, made great 
efforts to exterminate the Christians from that kingdom. A Roman 
soldier, who refused to wear a laurel crown bestowed on him by the 
emperor, and confessed himself a Christian, was scourged, imprisoned, 
and put to death. Pontianus, bishop of Rome, for preaching against 
idolatry, was banished to Sardinia, and there destroyed. Anteros, a 
Grecian, who succeeded this bishop in the see of Rome, gave so much 
offence to the government by collecting the acts of the martyrs, that, 
he suffered martyrdom, after having held his dignity only forty days. 
Pammachius, a Roman senator, with his family and other Christians, 
to the number of forty-two, were, on account of their religion, all 
beheaded in one day, and their heads fixed on the city gates. 
Simplicius, another senator, suffered martyrdom in a similar way. 
Calepodius, a christian minister, after being inhumanly treated, and 
barbarously dragged about the streets, was thrown into the river 
Tiber with a mill-stone fastened about his neck. Quiritus, a Roman 
nobleman, with his family and domestics, were, on account of their 
christian principles, put to most excruciating torture, and then the 
most painful death. This nobleman suffered the confiscation of his 
effects, poverty, reviling, imprisonment, scourging, torture, and loss of 
life, for the sake of his Redeemer. Martina, a noble and beautiful 
virgin, suffered martyrdom for Christ, being variously tortured, and 
afterwards beheaded; and Hippolitus, a christian prelate, was tied to a 
wild horse, and dragged through fields, stony places, and brambles, till 
he died. 

While this persecution continued, numerous Christians were slain 
without trial, and buried in indiscriminate heaps: sometimes fifty or 
sixty being cast into a pit together. Maximus, died in A. D. 238; he 
was succeeded by Gordian, during whose reign, and that of his successor 
Philip, the church was free from persecution for the space of m&re than 
ten years; but in the year 249, a violent persecution broke out in Alex- 
andria. It is, however, worthy of remark, that this was done at the 
instigation of a pagan priest, without the emperor's knowledge. At this 
time the fury of the people being great against the Christians, they 
broke open their houses, stole the best of their property, destroyed the 



PERSECUTIONS UNDER DEC1US. 43 

rest, and murdered the owners; the universal cry was, "Burn them, 
burn them! kill them, kill them!" The names of the martyrs, three 
excepted, and the particulars of this affair, however, have not been 
recorded. The three martyrs known were, Metus, an aged and 
venerable Christian, who refusing to blaspheme his Saviour, was beaten 
with clubs, pierced with sharp reeds, and at length stoned to death. 
Quinta, a christian woman, being carried to the temple, and refusing to 
worship the idols there, was dragged by her feet over sharp stones, 
scourged with whips, and at last killed in the same manner as 
Metus. And Appollonia, an ancient maiden lady, confessing herself a 
Christian, the mob dashed out her teeth with their fists, and threatened 
to burn her alive. A fire was accordingly prepared for the purpose, 
and she was fastened to a stake: requesting to be unloosed, it was 
done, on a supposition that she meant to recant, when, to their 
astonishment ? she immediately threw herself into the flames and was 
consumed. 

ACCOUNT OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

In the year 249, Decius being emperor of Rome, a dreadful persecu- 
tion was begun against the Christians. This was occasioned partly by 
the hatred he bore to his predecessor Philip, who was deemed a Chris- 
tian, and partly by his jealousy concerning the amazing progress of 
Christianity; for the heathen temples were almost forsaken, and the 
Christian churches crowded with proselytes. Decius, provoked at this, 
attempted, as he said, to extirpate the name of Christian; and, unfor- 
tunately for the cause of the gospel, many errors had about this time 
crept into the church : the Christians were at variance with each other, 
and a variety of contentions ensued among them. The heathens in 
general were ambitious to enforce the imperial decrees upon this occa- 
sion, and looked upon the murder of a Christian as a merit to be 
coveted. The martyrs were, therefore, innumerable. Fabian, bishop 
of Rome, was the first person of eminence who felt the severity of this 
persecution. The deceased emperor, Philip, had, on account of his 
integrity, committed his treasure to the care of this good man; but 
Decius, not finding so much as his avarice led him to expect, determined 
to wreak his vengeance on the good prelate. He was accordingly 
seized, and on the 20th of January, A. D. 250, suffered martyrdom, by 
decapitation. Abdon and Semen, two Persians, were apprehended as 
strangers; but being found Christians, were put to death, on account of 
their faith. Moyses, a priest, was beheaded for the same reason. 
Julian, a native of Celicia, as we are informed by St. Chrysostom, was 
seized for being a Christian. He was frequently tortured, but still 
remained inflexible; and though often brought from prison for execution, 
was again remanded, to suffer greater cruelties. He, at length, was 
obliged to travel for twelve months together, from town to town, that 
he might be exposed to the insults of the populace. 

When all endeavours to make him recant his religion were found 
ineffectual, he was brought before a judge, stripped, and whipped in a 



44 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

dreadful manner. He was then put into a leathern bag, with a number 
of serpents and scorpions; and in that condition thrown into the 
sea. Peter, a young man, amiable for the superior qualities of his 
body and mind, was apprehended for being a Christian, at Lampsacus, 
on the Hellespont, and carried before Optimus, pro-consul of Asia. On 
being commanded to sacrifice to Venus, he said, "I am astonished that 
you should wish me to sacrifice to an infamous woman, whose de- 
baucheries even your own historians record, and whose life consisted of 
such actions as your laws would punish. No ! I shall offer the true God 
the sacrifice of praise and prayer." 

Optimus, on hearing this, ordered the prisoner to be stretched upon 
a wheel, by which his bones were broken in a shocking manner; but 
his torments only inspired him with fresh courage; he smiled on his 
persecutors, and seemed, by the serenity of his countenance, not to 
upbraid, but to applaud his tormentors. At length the pro-consul or- 
dered him to be beheaded, and the command was immediately executed. 
Nichomachus, being brought before the pro-consul as a Christian, was 
ordered to sacrifice to the pagan idols. He answered, "I cannot pay 
that respect to devils which is due only to the Almighty." The speech 
so enraged the pro-consul, that Nichomachus was put to the rack. 
He bore the torture for some time with patience and great resolution ; 
but, at length, when ready to expire with pain, he had the weakness to 
abjure his faith, and become an apostate. He had no sooner gi\en this 
proof of his frailty than he fell into the greatest agonies, dropped down, 
and expired immediately. 

Denisa, a young woman, only sixteen years of age, who beheld this 
signal judgment, suddenly exclaimed; " O, unhappy wretch, why 
would you buy a moment's ease, at the expense of a miserable eternity;" 
Optimus hearing this, called to her, and asked if she was a Christian? 
She replied in the affirmative; and being commanded to sacrifice to the 
idols, refused. Optimus enraged at her resolution, gave her over to two 
libertines, who took her to their own home, and would have ruined 
her, but for her astonishing courage. At midnight they were appalled 
by a frightful vision, when both of them fell at the feet of Denisa, and 
implored her prayers that they might not feel the effects of divine ven- 
geance for their brutality. But this event did not diminish the cruelty 
of Optimus; for the lady was beheaded soon after by his command. 

Andrew and Paul, two companions of Nichomachus the martyr, on 
confessing themselves Christians, were condemned to die, and delivered 
to the multitude to be stoned. Accordingly, A. D. 251, they suffered 
martyrdom by stoning, and expired, calling on the blessed Redeemer. 
Alexander and Empimacus, of Alexandria, were apprehended for being 
Christians, and on confessing the accusation, were beat with staves, 
torn with hooks, and at length burnt. We are informed by Eusebius, 
that four female martyrs suffered on the same day, and at the same place, 
but not in the same manner; for these were beheaded. Lucian and 
Marcian, two pagans and magicians, becoming converts to Christianity, 
to make amends for their former errors, adopted the life of hermits, and 
subsisted upon bread and water. After spending some time in this 
manner, they reflected that their life was inefficacious, and determined 



CRUELTIES IN GREECE, &c. 45 

to leave their solitude to make converts to Christianity. With this 
pious and laudable resolution they became zealous preachers. Per- 
secution, however, raging at the time, they were seized upon, and 
carried before Sabinus, governor of Bithynia. On being asked by 
what authority they took upon themselves to preach, Lucian answered 
"That the law of charity and humanity obliged all men to endeavour to 
convert their neighbours, and to do every thing in their power to rescue 
them from the snares of the devil." Marcian said, " Their conver- 
sion was by the same grace which was given to St. Paul, who, from 
a zealous persecutor of the church, became a preacher of the gospel." 
When the pro-consul found that he could not prevail on them to 
renounce their faith, he condemned them to be burnt alive, and the 
sentence was soon after executed. 

Trypho and Respieius, two eminent men, were seized as Christians, 
and imprisoned at Nice. They were soon after put to the rack, which 
they bore with admirable patience for three hours, and uttered the praises 
of the Almighty the whole time. They were then exposed naked in the 
open air, which benumbed all their limbs. When remanded to prison, 
they remained there for a considerable time; and then the cruelties of 
their persecutors were again evinced. Their feet were pierced with 
nails; they were dragged through the streets, scourged, torn with hooks, 
scorched with lighted torches, and at length beheaded, on the 1st of 
February, A. D. 251. 

Agatha, a Sicilian lady, was remarkable for her beauty and endow- 
ments: the former was so great that Quintain, governor of Sicily, 
became enamoured of her, and made many attempts upon her virtue. 
The governor being known as a great libertine and a bigoted pagan, 
the lady thought proper to withdraw from the town ; but being discovered 
in her retreat, she was apprehended and brought to Catana, when, 
finding herself in the power of an enemy both to her soul and body, 
she recommended herself to the protection of the Almighty, and prayed 
for death. In order if possible to gratify his passion, the governor 
transferred the virtuous lady to Aphrodica, an infamous and licentious 
woman, who tried every artifice to win her to prostitution; but all her 
efforts were in vain. When Aphrodica acquainted Quintain with the 
inefficacy of her endeavours, he changed his desire into resentment, and, 
on her confessing that she was a Christian, he determined to gratify his 
revenge. He therefore ordered her to be scourged, burnt with hot irons, 
and torn with sharp hooks. Having borne these torments, with admira- 
ble fortitude, she was next laid upon live coals, intermingled with 
glass, and being carried back to prison, she there expired on the 5th 
of February, A. D. 251. 

Cyril, bishop of Gortyna, was seized by order of Lucius, the governor 
of that place, who first exhorted him to obey the imperial mandate, 
offer sacrifice to idols, and save his venerable person from destruction ; 
for he was then eighty-four years of age. The good prelate replied, 
that he could not agree to any such requisitions ; but as he had long 
taught others to save their souls, now he should only think of his 
own salvation. When the governor found all his persuasion in vain, he 
pronounced sentence against the venerable Christian in these words — 



46 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

" I order that Cyril, who has lost his senses, and is a declared enemy of 
our gods, shall be burnt alive." The good and worthy prelate heard this 
sentence without emotion, walked cheerfully to the place of execution, 
and underwent his martyrdom with a resolution which astonished all, 
and converted some. 

In the island of Crete persecution raged with great fury: the go- 
vernor being exceedingly active in executing the imperial decrees, that 
place streamed with the blood of many Christians. The principal 
Cretan martyrs whose names have been transmitted to us, are these — 
Theodulus, Saturnius, and Europus, inhabitants of Gortyna, who had 
been confirmed in their faith by Cyril, bishop of that city : Eunicianus, 
Zeticus, Cleomenes, Agathopas, Bastides, and Euaristus, were brought 
from different parts of the island on accusations relating to their 
profession of Christianity. 

On their trial they were commanded to sacrifice to Jupiter, and 
declining, the judge threatened them with the severest tortures. To 
these menaces they unanimously answered, " That to suffer for the 
sake of the Supreme Being would, to them, be the sublimest of plea- 
sures." The judge then attempted to gain their veneration for the 
heathen deities, by descanting on their merits, and recounting some of 
their mythological histories. This gave the prisoners an opportunity of 
remarking on the absurdity of such fictions, and of pointing out the 
folly of paying adoration to ideal deities and material images. Provoked 
to hear his favourite idols ridiculed, the governor ordered them to be 
put to the rack, the tortures of which they sustained with surprising 
fortitude. They at length suffered martyrdom, A. D. 251; being all 
beheaded at the same time. Babylas, z a Christian of a liberal educa- 

z With respect to Babylas, bishop of Antioch, Eusebius and Zonaras assert that he died 
in prison, at the time of Decius, as did Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. 

In the treatise of Chrysostom, entitled, " Contra Gentiles," there is an interesting history 
of one Babylas, a martyr, who was put to death about this time, for resisting an emperor, 
by" not suffering him to enter into the temple of the Christians after a cruel murder; 
the story of which is, that there was a certain emperor, who, upon concluding peace 
with a certain nation, had received for hostage the son of the king, a youth of tender 
age, on the condition that neither he should be molested by them, nor they be vexed by 
him. Upon this the king's son was delivered to the emperor, who caused him in a short 
time to be slain. This fact being committed, the tyrant would enter into the temple of the 
Christians, where Babylas, being bishop or minister, resisted him. The emperor, in great 
rage, had him forthwith bound in prison, with as many irons as he could bear, and from 
thence shortly after brought to execution. Babylas went boldly to his martyrdom, and 
desired after his death to be buried in his irons and bands. The story adds, that in the 
reign of Constantinus, Gallus, then governor of the eastern parts, caused his body to be 
removed into the suburbs of Antioch, called Daphnes, where was a temple of Apollo, 
famous for oracles and answers given by that idol. In this temple, after the arrival of 
the body of Babylas, the idol ceased to give any more oracles, complaining that the place 
was wont to be consecrated unto him, but now it was full of dead men's bodies. Thus the 
oracles there ceased for that time till the age of Julianus; who on learning why they ceased, 
caused the bones of the holy martyr to be removed from thence by the Christians, whom 
he called Galileans. They coming in a great multitude, both men, maidens, and children, 
to the tomb of Babylas, transported his bones according to the command of the emperor, 
singing by the way, the verse of the psalm, "Confounded be all that worship images, and 
all that glory in idols,"etc. This coming to the emperor's ears, he flew into a rage with 
the Christians, and excited persecution against them. Zonaras, however, declares the cause 
otherwise, saying, that as soon as the body of Babylas and other martyrs were removed, the 



LIFE OF BISHOP ALEXANDER. 47 

tion, became bishop of Antioch in A. D. 237, on the demise of Zebinus. 
He acted with inimitable zeal, and governed the church during the 
most tempestuous times with admirable prudence. The first misfortune 
that happened to Antioch during his mission, was the siege by 
Saphor, king of Persia ; who having over-run all Syria, took and plun- 
dered this city among others, and used the christian inhabitants with 
greater severity than the rest, His cruelties, however, were not lasting, 
for Gordian, the emperor, appearing at the head of a powerful army, An- 
tioch was retaken, the Persians driven entirely out of Syria, and pursued 
into their own country, while several places in the Persian territories fell 
into the hands of the'emperor. Gordian dying, in the reign of Decius, 
that emperor came to Antioch, where, having a desire to visit an assembly 
of Christians, Babylas opposed him, and refused to let him enter. 
The emperor dissembled his anger for the time; but soon sending for the 
bishop, he sharply reproved him for his insolence, and ordered him 
to sacrifice to the pagan deities as an expiation for his supposed crime. 
Having refused this, he was committed to prison, loaded with chains, 
treated with great severity, and then beheaded, together with three 
young men who had been his pupils. On going to the place of execu- 
tion, the bishop exclaimed, " Behold me and the children that the Lord 
hath given me." They were martyred, A. D. 251, and the chains 
worn by the bishop in prison were buried with him. 

Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, about this time was cast into prison 
on account of his religion, where he died through the severity of his 
confinement. When Serapian was apprehended at Alexandria, he had 
his bones broken, and was thrown from a high loft, and killed by the fall. 
Julianus, an old man, lame with the gout; and Cronion, another Chris- 
tian, were bound on the backs of camels, severely scourged, and then 
thrown into a fire and consumed. A spectator who seemed to commise- 
rate them was ordered to be beheaded, as a punishment for his sympathy 
and tenderness. Macar, a Lybian Christian, was burnt. Horonater 
and Isidorus, Egyptians, with Dioschorus, a boy of fifteen, after suffer- 
ing many torments, met with a similar fate; and Nemesion, another 
Egyptian, was first tried as a thief; but being acquitted, was accused 
of Christianity, which confessing, he was scourged, tortured, and 
finally burnt. Ischyrian, the Christian servant of an Egyptian noble- 
man and magistrate, was run through with a pike by his own master, for 
refusing to sacrifice to idols. Venatius, a youth of fifteen, was martyred 
in Italy; and forty virgins, at Antioch, after being imprisoned and 
scourged, were destroyed by fire. 

The emperor Decius having erected a pagan temple at Ephesus, in 
the year 251, he commanded all who were in that city to sacrifice to 
the idols. This order was nobly refused by seven of his own soldiers,- 
viz. Maximianus, Martianus, Joannes, Malchus, Dyonisius, Constantinus,'- 
and Seraion. The emperor wishing to prevail on the soldiers to prevent 
their fate by his entreaties and lenity, gave them a respite till he returned 

temple of the idol, with the image, was consumed by a fire in the night. Nicephorus, in 
his fifth book, makes mention of another Babylas, who suffered under Decius, and was 
bishop of Nicomedia. 



48 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

from a journey. In the absence of the emperor they escaped, and 
hid themselves in a cavern; but he was informed of it on his return, 
the mouth of the cavern was closed up, and they all were starved or 
smothered to death. 

Theodora, a beautiful young lady of Antioch, on refusing to sacrifice 
to the Roman idols, was condemned to the brothel, that her virtue 
might be sacrificed. Didymus, a Christian, then disguised himself in 
the habit of a Roman soldier, went to the house, informed Theodora who 
he was, and prevailed on her to make her escape in his dress. 
Being found in the brothel instead of the lady, he was taken 
before the president, to whom confessing the truth, sentence of death 
was immediately pronounced against him. In the mean time, Theodora, 
hearing that her deliverer was likely to suffer, came to the judge, threw 
herself at his feet, and begged that the sentence might fall only on her 
as the guilty person ; but the inflexible judge condemned both ; and 
they were executed accordingly, being first beheaded, and their bodies 
afterwards burnt. 

Secundianus having been accused as a Christian, was conveyed to pri- 
son by some soldiers. On their way, Verianus and Marcellinus said, 
"Where are you carrying the innocent ?" This interrogatory occasioned 
them to be seized; and all three, after having been tortured, were hang- 
ed, and their heads were cut off when they were dead. 

Origen, the celebrated presbyter and catechist of Alexandria, at the 
age of sixty-four, was seized, thrown into a loathsome prison, loaded 
with chains, his feet placed in the stocks, and his legs extended to the 
utmost for several days. He was threatened with fire, and tormented 
by every means that the most infernal imagination could suggest. But 
his Christian fortitude sustained him. Such was the rigour of the judge, 
that his tortures were ordered to be as lingering as possible, that death 
might not too soon put a period to his miseries. During this cruel 
interval, the emperor Decius died, and Gallus, who succeeded him, en- 
gaging in a war with the Goths, the Christians met with a respite. 
Thus Origen obtained his enlargement, and retiring to Tyre, he re- 
mained there till his death, which happened when he was in the sixty- 
ninth year of his age. a 

a The learned who have written the life of Origen assert, that he was of wit quick 
and sharp, patient of labour, a man who kpew many languages, of a spare diet, of a strict 
and abstemious life; he went barefoot; and was a strict observer of that saying of the 
Lord, " Provide but one coat, &c." He is said to have written as much as seven 
notaries. The number of his books, by the account of Jerome, amounted to seven thousand 
volumes, copies of which he used to sell for the value of threepence or a little more, for 
the support of his life. He kept seven maids in constant employ to copy for him. So 
zealous he was in the cause of Christ and his martyrs, that he would assist and exhort 
them going to their death, and kiss them, insomuch that he was near being stoned by the 
multitude; and sometimes by providing for Christian men, had his house guarded with 
soldiers, for the safety of those who daily resorted to hear his readings. 

These historians also mention the following curious circumstance, which is confirmed by 
Eusebius. When Leonidas, the father of Origen, was martyred, his son, then seventeen 
years old, would have suffered by his own wish, had not his mother privily in the night 
conveyed away his clothes and his shirt. On which, more for shame to be seen than for 
fear to die, he was constrained to remain at home; and when he could do nothing else, he 
wrote to his father a letter with these words: "Take heed to yourself, that you turn 
not your thought and purpose for our sake." Such a fervency had young Origen 



DEATH OF CORNELIUS AND OTHERS. 49 

In the city of Antioch, Vincentius, lib. 11, speaks of forty virgins, 
martyrs, who suffered in the persecution of Decius. In the country of 
Phrygia, and in the town of Lampsar, Vincentius also speaks of one 
Peter, who was there apprehended, and suffered bitter torments for 
Christ's name, under Optimus, the pro-consul : and in Troada he also 
speaks of other martyrs that suffered, whose names were Andrew, Paul, 
Nichomachus, and Dionysia, a virgin. He adds, that in Babylon, many 
christian confessors were found who were led away into Spain to be 
executed. 

In the country of Cappadocia, and the city of Cesarea, Germanus, 
Theophilus, Cesarius, and Vitalis, suffered martyrdom for Christ; and 
in the same book mention is also made of Polychronius, bishop of 
Babylon, and of Nestor, bishop of Cesarea, who died martyrs. 

At Perside, in the town of Cardalia, Olympiades and Maximus. In 
Tyrus also, Anatolia, a virgin, and Audax, a senator, gave their lives for 
a testimony to the name of Christ. 

Gallus having concluded his wars, a plague broke out in the 
empire ; and sacrifices to the pagan deities were ordered by the 
emperor to appease their wrath. On the Christians refusing to comply 
with these rites, they were charged with being the authors of the cala- 
mity : thus the persecution spread from the interior to the extreme 
parts of the empire, and many fell martyrs to the impetuosity of the 
rabble, as well as the prejudice of the magistrates. Cornelius, the 
Christian bishop of Rome, was, among others, seized upon this occasion. 
He was first banished to Centum-Cellse, now called Civitia Vecchia ; 
and after having been cruelly scourged, was, on the 14th of September, 
A. D. 252, beheaded; having been bishop fifteen months and ten 
days. Lucius, who succeeded Cornelius as bishop of Rome, was the 
son of Porphyrius, and a Roman by birth. His vigilance as a pastor, 
occasioned him to be banished ; but in a short time he was permitted 
to return from exile. Soon after, however, he was apprehended, and 
beheaded, March the 4th, A. D. 253. This bishop was succeeded by 

to the doctrine of Christ's faith, partly by the diligent education of his father, who 
brought him up from his youth in good literature, but especially in reading the holy 
scripture, that many times he would put questions to his father of the meaning of certain 
parts of the sacred book. Insomuch that his father would frequently uncover his breast 
when asleep, and kiss it, giving thanks to God who had made him so happy a father of such 
a child. After the death of his father, all his goods being confiscated to the emperor, he, 
with his poor mother, and six brethren, were reduced to such extreme poverty, that he sup- 
ported both himself and them by keeping a school. 

The treatise of the venerable Bede, cited by Henricus de Orford, gives the following list 
of those who suffered in the reign of Decius, the particulars of whose martyrdoms have 
not been handed down. Hippolitus and Concordia, Hiereneus and Abundus, Victoria, a 
virgin, being noble personages of Antioch ; Bellias, bishop of the city of Apollonia, Lacus, 
Tirsus, and Gallictus. Nazanzo, Triphon, in the city of Egypt called Tamas, Phileas, 
a bishop, Philocomus, with many others in Persia, and Philcronius, bishop of Babylon; 
Thesiphon, bishop of Pamphilia; Neffor, bishop in Corduba ; Parmenias, a priest, with 
many more. In the province called Colonia, Circensis, Marianus, and Jacobus. In 
Africa, Nemesianus, Felix, Rogatianus, a priest, and Felicissimus. At Rome, Jovinus and 
Basileus; Tertullianus, Valerianus, Nemesius, Sempronianus, and Olympius. In Spain, 
Teragon. At Verona, Zeno, a bishop; and Theodorus, surnamed Gregorius, bishop of 
Pontus. Vincentius in his eleventh book makes mention of certain children suffering mar- 
tyrdom under the same persecution, in a city of Tuscia, called Aretium. 



50 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Stephanus, a man of fiery temper, who held the dignity few years, 
and might probably have fallen a martyr, had not the emperor been 
murdered by his general JEmilian, when a profound peace succeeded 
throughout the empire, and persecution was suffered to subside. 

Many of the errors which crept into the Church at this time, arose 
from placing human reason in competition with revelation ; but the fal- 
lacy of such arguments being proved by some able divines, the opinions 
they had created vanished before the sublimity and power of christian 
truth. 



ACCOUNT OF THE EIGHTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

After the death of Gallus, iEmilian, the general, having many ene- 
mies in the army, was slain, and Valerian elected to the empire. This 
emperor, for the space of four years, governed with moderation, and 
treated the Christians with peculiar lenity and respect ; but in the year 
257, an Egyptian magician, named Macriamus, gained a great ascen- 
dency over him, and persuaded him to persecute the Christians. Edicts 
were accordingly published, and the persecution which began in the 
month of April, continued for three years and six months. 

The martyrs that fell in this persecution were innumerable, and their 
tortures and deaths are various. The most eminent were the follow- 
ing — Rufina and Secunda, two beautiful and accomplished ladies, 
daughters of Asterius, a gentleman of eminence in Rome. Rufina the 
elder, was designed in marriage for Armentarius, a young nobleman ; 
and Secunda, the younger, for Verinus, a person of rank and immense 
wealth. These suitors, at the time the persecution commenced, were 
both Christians ; but when danger appeared, to save their fortunes they 
renounced their faith. They took great pains to persuade the ladies to 
do the same, but failed in their purpose; and as a method of safety, 
Rufina and Secunda left the kingdom. The lovers finding themselves 
disappointed informed against the ladies, who being apprehended as 
Christians, were brought before Junius Donatus, governor of Rome. 
After many remonstrances, and having undergone several tortures, they 
sealed their martyrdom with their blood, by being beheaded in the 
year 257. 

In the same year, Stephen, bishop of Rome, was beheaded, and 
about that time Saturninus, bishop of Thoulouse, was attacked and seized 
by the rabble of that place, for preventing, as they alleged, their 
oracles from speaking. On refusing to sacrifice to the idols, he was treat- 
ed with many barbarous indignities, and then fastened by the feet to the 
tail of a bull. On a certain signal the enraged animal was driven down 
the steps of the temple, by which the martyr's brains were dashed out; 
and the small number of Christians in Thoulouse had not for some time 
courage sufficient to carry off the dead body ; at length two women 
conveyed it away, and deposed it in a ditch. 

This martyr was an orthodox and learned primitive Christian, and his 
doctrines are held in high estimation. 



LAURENTIUS BROILED TO DEATH. 51 

Stephen was succeeded by Sextus as bishop of Rome. He is suppos- 
ed to be a Greek by birth, or extraction, and had for some time served 
in the capacity of a deacon under Stephen. His great fidelity, singular 
wisdom and courage, distinguished him on many occasions ; and the 
fortunate conclusion of a controversy with some heretics is generally 
ascribed to his prudence. Marcianus, who had the management of the 
Roman government in the year 258, procured an order from the emperor 
Valerian to put to death all the Christian clergy in Rome. 

The senate having testified their obedience to the imperial mandate, 
Sextus was one of the first who felt the severity of the edict. Cyprian 
tells us that he was beheaded August 6, A. D. 258, and that six of 
his deacons suffered with him. 

Laurentius, generally called St. Laurence, the principal of the dea- 
cons, who taught and preached under Sextus, followed him to the place 
of execution ; when Sextus predicted that he should meet him in heaven 
three days after. Laurentius considering this as a certain indication of 
his own approaching martyrdom, at his return collected all the Chris- 
tian poor, and distributed amongst them the treasures of the church 
which had been committed to his care, thinking the money could not be 
better disposed of, or less liable to fall into the hands of the heathens. 
His conduct alarmed the persecutors, who seized on him, and command- 
ed him to give an immediate account to the emperor of the church trea- 
sures. 

Laurentius promised to satisfy them, but begged a short respite to put 
tilings in proper order; three days being granted him, he was suffered to 
depart. Then with great diligence he collected together a great number 
of aged, helpless, and impotent poor, and repaired to the magistrate, 
presenting them to him, saying "These are the true treasures of the 
church." 

Provoked at the disappointment, and fancying the matter meant in 
ridicule, the governor ordered him to be immediately scourged. He was 
beaten with iron rods, set upon a wooden horse, and had his limbs dislo- 
cated. He endured these tortures with such fortitude and perseverance, 
that he was ordered to be fastened to a large gridiron, with a slow fire 
under it, that his death might be more tedious. But his astonishing 
constancy during these trials, and his serenity of countenance under 
such excruciating torments, gave the spectators so exalted an idea of the 
dignity and truth of the Christian religion, that many immediately be- 
came converts. 

Having lain for some time upon the gridiron, the martyr called out to 
the emperor, who was present, in a kind of jocose Latin couplet, which 
may be thus translated 

" This side is broil'd sufficient to be food 
For all who wish it to be done and good." 

On this the executioner turned him, and after having lain a consider- 
able time longer, he had still strength and spirit enough to triumph over 
the tyrant, by telling him, with great serenity, that he was roasted 
enough, and only wanted serving up. He then cheerfully lifted up his 
eyes to heaven, and with calmness yielded his spirit to the Almighty. 
This happened August 10, A. D. 258. 



52 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Among the several converts to Christianity from this event, was a sol- 
dier called Romanus who attended the martyrdom. He had taken the 
opportunity of the martyr's imprisonment to make some inquiries con- 
cerning the Christian faith, and it was reported that he had received bap- 
tism at the hands of his captive. Be this as it may, he declared himself 
a christian immediately after the death of Laurentius, and soon followed 
him by a less lingering and torturing martyrdom to the world of blessed 
spirits in heaven. On his avowal of the christian faith, he was scourged 
and beheaded. He had a companion in both his faith and suffering, 
named Hypolitus, to whom he was much attached, and who evinced no 
desire to escape the fate of his courageous friend. 

Fourteen years before this period persecution raged in Africa with 
peculiar violence, and many thousands received the crown of martyrdom, 
among whom the following were the most distinguished characters : — 

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, an eminent prelate, and a pious orna- 
ment of the church. His doctrines were orthodox and pure ; his lan- 
guage easy and elegant ; and his manners graceful. He was said to be 
so perfectly a master of rhetoric and logic, and so complete in the prac- 
tice of elocution and the principles of philosophy, that he was made 
professor of those sciences in his native city of Carthage, where he be- 
came so popular, and taught with such success, that many of his stu- 
dents afterwards became shining ornaments of polite erudition. He was 
educated in his youth in the maxims of the heathen, and having a con- 
siderable fortune, he lived in great splendour and pomp. Gorgeous in 
attire, luxurious in feasting, vain of a numerous retinue, and fond of 
every kind of fashionable parade, he seemed to fancy that man was born 
to gratify all his appetites, and created for pleasure alone. About the 
year 246, Coecilius, a Christian minister of Carthage, became the instru- 
ment of Cyprian's conversion ; on which account, and for the great love 
that he always afterwards bore for his adviser, he was termed Coecilius 
Cyprian. 

Before his baptism, he studied the scriptures with care, and being 
struck with the excellence of the truths they contained, he determined 
to practise the virtues they recommended. After baptism he sold his 
estate, distributed the money among the poor, dressed himself in plain 
attire, and commenced a life of austerity and solitude. Soon after he 
was made a presbyter ; and being greatly admired for his virtues and 
his works, on the death of Donatus, in A. D. 248, he was almost una- 
nimously elected bishop of Carthage. The care of Cyprian not only 
extended over Carthage, but to Numidia and Mauritania. In all his 
transactions he took great care to ask the advice of his clergy, knowing, 
that unanimity alone could be of service to the church : this being one 
of his maxims, " That the bishop was in the church, and the church in 
the bishop ; so that unity can only be preserved by a close connection 
between the pastor and his flock." 

In the year 250, Cyprian was publicly proscribed by the emperor 
Decius, under the appellation of Coecilius Cyprian, bishop of the 
Cyprians ; and the universal cry of the Pagans was, " Cyprian to the 
lions, Cyprian to the beasts!" The bishop, however, withdrew from the 
rage of the populace, and his effects were immediately confiscated. 



WISE SAYINGS OF CYPRIAN. 53 

During his retirement he wrote thirty pious letters to his flock : but 
several schisms then crept into the church gave him great uneasi- 
ness. The rigour of the persecution abating, he returned to Carthage, 
and did every thing in his power to expel erroneous opinions and false 
doctrines. A terrible plague now breaking out at Carthage, it was as 
usual laid to the charge of the Christians ; and the magistrates began to 
persecute them accordingly : this occasioned an epistle from them to 
Cyprian, in answer to which he vindicates the cause of Christianity. 5 

b Cyprian was of an uncommonly meek and amiable disposition, and though he neither 
wanted prudence nor circumspection, he was so modest that he never attempted any thing 
without first consulting his partisans. He used to declare that he had visions and revela- 
tions concerning the events that were to effect the Christian church. He never attempted 
to thwart or circumvent any man; and St. Augustine, in his third book " De baptismo 
contra Donatistas," declares that he was very diligent in reading, especially the works of 
Tertullius. He adds, that he saw an old man whose name was Paulus, who told him he 
saw the notary of blessed Cyprian, being then an old man, when he himself was but a 
springal in the city of Rome, and told him that it was Cyprian's custom, never to let one 
day pass without reading Tertullian, and that he was accustomed to say to him, " Give me 
my master," meaning thereby Tertullian. 

Several learned authors among the ancients have written on the virtues and good actions 
of Cyprian, and it is much to be regretted that these accounts, as well as many others 
which tend to enforce belief in, and respect for the sacred scriptures, are now unknown, 
owing to the neglect into which the Latin and Greek languages have fallen, though every 
man, whatever may be his station, may have now an opportunity of giving his sons a liberal 
education. The principal divines and authors who wrote concerning Cyprian are, Nice- 
phorus, Nazianzenus, Jacobus de Voragine, Henricusde Erfordia, Volateranus, Hieronymus, 
and Vincentius ; and Laziardus Celestinus made an abridgment of his works, or rather 
what is now called ana, in which, amongst many others, are the following pithy sentences, 
which we quote on account of their excellence. 

Let nothing sleep in thy treasures, that may profit the poor. 

Two things never wax old in man, — the heart ever imagining new cogitations, the tongue 

ever uttering the vain conceptions of the heart. 
Discipline is an inordinate amendment of manners present, and a regular observation of 

evils past. 
There can be no integrity, while they who should condemn the wicked, are ever wanting, 

and they only who are to be condemned, are ever present. 
A covetous man only possesseth his goods for this reason, because another should not 

possess them. 
Women that advance themselves in putting on silk and purple, cannot but lightly put on 

Christ. 
They who love to paint themselves in this world otherwise than God hath created them, 

let them fear, lest when the day cometh of resurrection, the Creator will not know them. 
He that giveth an alms to the poor, sacrificeth to God an odour of sweet smell. 
All injury of evils present, is to be neglected, for the good hope of good things to come. 
To set out virtue in words, and to destroy the same in facts, is nothing worth. 
The more children and greater household thou hast at home, the more cause thou hast not 

to hoard up, but to disperse abroad, for that many sins are to be redeemed, many con- 
sciences are to be purged. 

Eincentianus observes, that in another Book of Cyprian, not mentioned in the catalogue 
of his works, he describes twelve principal abuses or absurdities in the life of man, which 
are in the following order, and are unfortunately too frequently to be met with in every age 
of the world ; but perhaps more at present than at any former period. 

1. A wise man without good works. 7. A Christian man contentious. 

2. An old man without religion. 8. A poor man proud. 

3. A young man without obedience. 9. A king unrighteous. 

4. A rich man without alms. 10. A bishop negligent. 

5. A woman shameless. 11. People without discipline. 

6. A guide without virtue. 12. Subjects without law. 



.54 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM 

Cyprian was brought before the pro-consul Aspasius Paternus, A. D. 
257, when being commanded to conform to the religion of the empire, 
he boldly made a confession of his faith. This did not occasion his 
death, but an order was made for his banishment and he was exiled 
to a little city on the Libyan sea. On the death of the pro-consul who 
banished him, he returned to Carthage, but was soon after seized, and 
carried before the new governor, who condemned him to be beheaded ; 
and on the 14th of September, A. D. 258, this sentence was executed. 
This bishop was a pious Christian, an excellent philosopher, and an ac- 
curate and eloquent preacher. 

His disciples who were martyred in this persecution were, Lucius Fla- 
vian, Victorious, Remus, Montanus, Donatian, Julian, and Primolus. 

Perhaps one of the most dreadful events in the history of martyrdom 
was that which took place at Utica, where 300 Christians were, by the 
orders of the pro-consul, placed around a burning lime-kiln. A pan of 
coals and incense being prepared, they were commanded either to sacri- 
fice to Jupiter, or to be thrown into the kiln. Unanimously refusing, 
they bravely jumped into the pit, and were suffocated immediately. 

Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragon, in Spain, and his two deacons, 
Augarius and Eulogius, for avowing themselves Christians, were con- 
sumed by fire. Malchus, Alexander, and Priscius, three Christians of 
Palestine, with a woman of the same place, voluntarily avowed them- 
selves to be Christians : for whicli they were sentenced to be devoured 
by tigers, which sentence was accordingly executed. Donatilla, Maxima, 
and Secunda, three virgins of Tuburga, had gall and vinegar given them 
to drink, were then severely scourged, tormented on a gibbet, rubbed 
with lime, scorched on a gridiron, worried by wild beasts, and at last 
beheaded. Before the last act of barbarity took place they were how- 
ever dead, and the headsman was said to admire the singular serenity 
of their countenances. 

Pontius a native of the city of Simela, near the Alps, being appre- 
hended as a Christian, was tortured on the rack, worried by wild beasts, 
half burnt, then beheaded, and his body thrown into the river. Protus 
and Hyacinthus likewise suffered martyrdom about the same period. 

A singular and miserable fate befel the emperor Valerian, c who had 

c A very extraordinary and interesting event occurred in the reign of Valerian, which is 
told, though in different ways, by Aquilinus, Antoninus, and Bergomensis. — Philippus, the 
governor of Alexandria, had a daughter named Eugenia, who was singularly beautiful in 
her person, and had received from her parents an elegant education ; but having been much 
in the way of the Christians, was brought up to their faith, together with two eunuchs, her 
schoolfellows, named Protheus and Hiacinthus; with whom, to avoid the persecutions then 
going on, or else from refusing to marry a pagan, she eloped, and resorted to hear the 
readings of Helenus, then an aged bishop; and with this view she put on man's apparel, 
and named herself Eugenius, under which name she was at length admitted into a 
monastery in the suburbs of Alexandria, where for her learning and virtue, she was made 
head of the place. 

It is said, that Eugenia, after the martyrdom of her father, returning to Rome with 
Protheus and Hiacinthus, on account of converting Basilla to the Christian faith, was 
assailed with sundry kinds of death : first, being tied to a great stone and cast into the 
Tiber, where she was prevented from drowning ; then put into the hot baths, which were 
extinguished, and she preserved ; afterwards by being prevented famishing in prison, 
where they say she was fed by a miraculous hand. 



PERSECUTIONS OF AURELIAN. 55 

so long and so terribly persecuted the Christians. This tyrant, by a 
stratagem, was taken prisoner by Sophores, emperor of Persia, who 
carried him into his own country, and there treated him with the most 
unexampled indignity, making him kneel down as the meanest slave, and 
treading upon him as a footstool when he mounted his horse, saying, in 
a vaunting manner, " This posture is a greater proof which way the 
victory went, than all the pictures the Roman artists can draw." Having 
kept him, for the space of seven years, in this abject state of slavery, 
he at last caused his eyes to be put out, though he was then eighty-three 
years of age ; and his desire of revenge not being satisfied, he soon 
after ordered his body to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt, under 
which torments he expired ; and thus fell one of the most tyrannical 
emperors of Rome, and one of the greatest persecutors of the Christian 
church. 

Gallienus, the son of Valerian, succeeded him A. D. 260, and during 
his reigns the empire suffered many commotions, particularly earthquakes, 
pestilence, d inundations, intestine broils, and incursions of barbarians. 
This emperor reflecting, that when his father favoured the Christians, he 
prospered, and that when he persecuted them he was unsuccessful, deter- 
mined to relax the persecution ; so that (a few martyrs excepted) the 
church enjoyed peace for some years. The chief of those few martyrs, 
was Marinus, a centurion, who being apprehended as a christian, had 
but three hours allowed him to deliberate, whether he would sacrifice to 
the pagan deities, or become a martyr; and wavering during this interval 
a christian prelate placed the gospel and the sword before him, and de- 
manded which he would choose. Marinus took the sword without hesi- 
tation. On meeting again with the governor, he made a noble confession 
of his faith, and was soon after beheaded, in the year 262. 

ACCOUNT OF THE NINTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

In the year 274, the emperor Aurelian commenced a persecution 
against the Christians : the principal sufferer was Felix, bishop of Rome. 
This prelate was advanced to the Roman see in 274, and was beheaded 
in the same year on the 22d of December. Agapetus, a young gentle- 
man, who sold his estate and gave the money to the poor, was seized as 
a Christian, tortured, and then brought to Praeneste, a city within a 
day's journey of Rome, where he was beheaded. These are the only 
martyrs left upon record during this reign, as it was soon put a stop to 
by the emperor being murdered by his own domestics, at Byzantium. 
Aurelian was succeeded by Tacitus, who was followed by Probus, as 

A This plague affected, more or less, the whole of the Roman provinces, and lasted 
nearly ten years. In Egypt, it was particularly violent : and Dionysius, who was bishop 
of Alexandria, writing to Hieros, a bishop in Egypt, declares, that at the former city it was 
so great that there was no house exempt. Although the greatness of the plague affected 
the Christians, yet it scourged the heathen idolaters much more : besides which, the 
behaviour in the one and the other was very different. The Christians, through brotherly 
love and piety, visited and comforted one another, notwithstanding the great danger that 
attended them by so doing. 



56 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

was the latter by Carnius : this emperor being struck with death by 
lightning, his sons, Carnius and Numerian, succeeded him ; and during 
these reigns the church enjoyed rest e . 

Diocletian mounting the imperial throne, A. D. 284, at first shewed 
great favour to the Christians. In the year 286, he associated Maximian 
with him in the empire; when Felician and Primus, two Christian 
brothers, were put to death before any general persecution broke out. 
They were seized by an order from the imperial court; and owning 
themselves Christians, were scourged, tortured, and finally beheaded. 
Marcus and Marcellianus, twin natives of Rome, and of noble descent, 
whose parents were heathens, but the tutors, to whom the education of 
the children were entrusted, brought them up as Christians, were also 
apprehended on account of their faith, were severely tortured, and then 
condemned to death. A respite of a month was obtained for them by 
their friends, when their parents and other relations attempted to bring 
them back to paganism, but in vain. At last their constancy subdued 
their persuaders, and the whole family became converts to a faith they 
had just before opposed. 

Tranquillinus, the father of the two young men, was sent for by the 
prefect to give him an account of the success of his endeavours, when 
he confessed, that so far from having persuaded his sons to forsake the 
faith they had embraced, he was become a Christian himself. He then 
stopped till the magistrate had overcome his surprise, and resuming his 
discourse, he used such powerful arguments that he made a convert of 
the prefect, who soon after sold his estate, resigned his command, and 
spent the remainder of his days in a pious retirement. 

The prefect, who succeeded this singular convert, had none of the 
disposition of his predecessor : he was morose and severe, and soon 
seized upon the whole of this Christian race, who were accordingly 
martyred by being tied to posts, and having their feet pierced with 
nails. After remaining in this situation for a day and night, their 
sufferings were put an end to by thrusting lances through their bodies. 
Zoe, the wife of the gaoler, who had the care of these martyrs, being 
greatly edified by their discourse, had a desire to become a Christian : 
this, as she was dumb with a palsy, she could only express by gestures. 
They gave her instruction in the faith, and told her to pray in her 
heart to God to relieve her from her disorder. She did so, and was at 
length relieved: for her paralytic disorder by degrees left her, her 
speech returned, and like Zacharias she glorified God. 

This enforced her belief, and confirmed her a Christian: and her 
husband, finding her cured, became a convert himself. These con- 
versions made a great noise, and the proselytes were apprehended. 
Zoe was commanded to sacrifice to Mars, which refusing, she was 
hanged on a tree, and a fire of straw lighted under her. When her 

e This Carnius with his son Numerian, being slain in the East, Carinus, the other son, 
reigned alone in Italy; where he overcame Sabinus striving for the empire, and reigned 
there with much wickedness till the return of the army from Persia, who then set up 
Diocletian as emperor ; by whom Carinus, being forsaken by his host, was overcome, and 
at length slain by the hand of the tribune. Thus Carnius, with his two sons, Numerian 
and Carinus, ended their lives, their reign continuing only three years. 



PERSECUTIONS OF DIOCLETIAN. 57 

body was taken down it was thrown into a river, a large stone being 
fastened round her neck. 

Tibertius, a native of Rome, was of a family of rank and distinction. 
Being accused as a Christian, he was commanded either to sacrifice to 
idols, or to walk upon burning coals. He chose the latter, and is said 
to have walked over them without damage, when Fabian passed sentence 
upon him that he should be beheaded; which was executed in the 
month of August, A. D. 286, and his body was afterwards buried by 
some pious Christians. 

A remarkable affair occurred in A. D. 286. A legion of soldiers, 
consisting of 6666 men, contained none but Christians. This was 
called the Theban legion, because the men had been raised in Thebais: 
they were quartered in the East till the emperor Maximian ordered them 
to march to Gaul, to assist him against the rebels of Burgundy; when 
passing the Alps into Gaul, under the command of Mauritius, Candidus, 
and Exuperuis, their commanders, they at length joined the emperor. 
About this time, Maximian ordered a general sacrifice, at which the 
whole army were to assist; and he commanded that they should take 
oaths of allegiance, and swear, at the same time, to assist him in the 
extirpation of Christianity in Gaul. Terrified at these orders, each 
individual of the Theban legion absolutely refused either to sacrifice, or 
take the oaths prescribed. This so enraged Maximian, that he ordered 
the legion to be decimated, that is, every tenth man to be selected from 
the rest, and put to the sword. This cruel order having been put into 
execution, those who remained alive were still inflexible, when a second 
decimation took place, and every tenth man of those living were again 
put to the sword. 

This second severity made no more impression than the first; the 
soldiers preserved their fortitude and their principles ; but, by the advice 
of their officers, drew up a remonstrance to the emperor, in which they 
told him that they were his subjects and his soldiers, but could not at 
the same time forget the Almighty; that they received their pay from 
him, and their existence from God. " While your commands/'said 
they, " are not contradictory to those of our common Master, we shall 
always be ready to obey, as we have been hitherto : but when the orders 
of our prince and those of the Almighty differ, we must always obey the 
latter. Our arms are devoted to the emperor's use, and shall be 
directed against his enemies ; but we cannot submit to stain our hands 
with Christian blood ; and how, indeed, could you, O emperor, be sure 
of our allegiance and fidelity, should we violate our obligation to our 
God, in whose service we were solemnly engaged before we entered the 
army? You command us to search out and to destroy the Christians : 
it is not necessary to look any further for persons of that denomination ; 
we ourselves are such, and we glory in the name. We saw our com- 
panions fall without the least opposition or murmuring, and thought 
them happy in dying for the sake of Christ. Nothing shall make us lift 
up our hands against our sovereign ; we had rather die wrongfully, and 
by that means preserve our innocence, than live under a load of guilt : 
whatever you command we are ready to suffer ; we confess ourselves to be 
Christians, and therefore cannot persecute Christians, nor sacrifice to idols.'' 



53 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Such a declaration it might be presumed would have prevailed with 
the emperor, but it had a contrary effect : for, enraged at their perse- 
verance and unanimity, he commanded that the whole legion should be 
put to death, which was accordingly executed by the other troops, who 
cut them to pieces with their swords. This barbarous transaction oc- 
cured on the 22d of September, A. D. 286 ; and such was the inveterate 
malice of Maximian, that he sent to destroy every man of a few detach- 
ments that had been drafted from the Theban legion, and despatched to 
Italy. A veteran soldier of another legion, whose name was Victor, met 
the executioners of this bloody business. As they appeared rather merry, 
he enquired into the cause of their jocularity, and being informed of the 
whole affair, he sharply reproved them for their barbarity. This excited 
their curiosity to ask him if he was of the same faith as those who had 
suffered. On answering in the affirmative, several of the soldiers fell 
upon him, and despatched him. 

Alban, from whom St. Alban's received its name, was the first British 
martyr. This island had received the gospel of Christ from Lucius, the 
first Christian king, but did not suffer by the rage of persecution. This 
man was originally a pagan, but being of a very humane disposition, he 
sheltered a Christian ecclesiastic, named Amphibalus, whom some officers 
were in pursuit of on account of his religion. The pious example, and 
edifying discourses of the refugee, made a great impression on the mind 
of Alban ; he longed to become a member of a religion which charmed 
him ; the fugitive minister, happy in the opportunity, took great pains to 
instruct him ; and before his discovery, perfected Alban's conversion. 

Alban now took a firm resolution to preserve the sentiments of a 
Christian, or to die the death of a martyr. The enemies of Amphibalus 
having intelligence of the place where he was secreted, came to the 
house of Alban, in order to apprehend him. The noble host, desirous 
of protecting his guest and convert, changed clothes with him in order 
to facilitate his escape ; and when the soldiers came, offered himself up 
as the person for whom they were seeking. Being accordingly carried 
before the governor, the deceit was immediately discovered ; and 
Amphibalus being absent, that officer determined to wreak his vengeance 
upon Alban : with this view he commanded the prisoner to advance to 
the altar, and sacrifice to the pagan deities. The brave Alban, however 
declared that he would not comply with the idolatrous injunction, but 
boldly professed himself to be a Christian. The governor therefore 
ordered him to be scourged, but he bore the punishment with great for- 
titude, and seemed to acquire new resolution from his sufferings : he 
was then beheaded. The venerable Bede states, that upon this occasion, 
the executioner suddenly became a convert to Christianity, and entreated 
permission either to die for Alban or with him. Obtaining the latter 
request, they were beheaded by a soldier, who voluntarily undertook 
the task. This happened on the 22d of June, A. D. 287, at Verulam, 
now St. Alban's, where a magnificent church was erected to his memory 
about the time of Constantine the Great. This edifice was destroyed 
in the Saxon wars, but was rebuilt by Offa, king of Mercia, and a monas- 
tery erected adjoining to it, some remains of which are still visible. 

Faith, a christian female, of Acquitain, in France, being informed 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 59 

that there was a design to seize her, anticipated the intention, by sur- 
rendering herself a prisoner ; and being inflexible in her faith, was or- 
dered to be broiled upon a gridiron, and then beheaded, which sentence 
was executed A. D. 287. Capacius, a Christian, concealed himself from 
the persecutors, but being informed of the fortitude of Faith, he openly 
avowed his religion, and delivered himself up to the governor, who had 
him first tortured, and then beheaded. Quintin was a Christian, and a 
native of Rome, but he determined to attempt the propagation of the 
gospel in Gaul. He accordingly went to Picardy, attended by one Lucian, 
and they preached together at Amiens ; after which Lucian went to 
Beauvais where he suffered martyrdom. Quintin, however, remained in 
Picardy, and was very zealous in his ministry. His continual prayers to 
the Almighty were to increase his faith, and strengthen his faculties to pro- 
pagate the gospel. Being seized upon as a Christian, he was stretched 
with pullies till his joints were dislocated : his body was then torn with 
wire scourges, and boiling oil and pitch poured on his naked flesh : 
lighted torches were applied to his sides and arm-pits ; and after he had 
been thus tortured, he was remanded back to prison. He died of 
his wounds and bruises at a village not far from Amiens, before the year 
was closed, and his body was thrown, by order of Varus the governor, 
into the river Somme. 



ACCOUNT OF THE TENTH GENERAL PERSECUTION 

UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the heathen to exterminate the Chris- 
tians and abolish their mode of faith, yet they increased so greatly as to 
render themselves formidable by their numbers. They, however, forgot 
the precepts of their Redeemer, and instead of adopting his humility, 
they gave themselves up to vain attire, living sumptuously, building 
stately edifices for churches, and thus provoking envy and hatred. 
Galerius, the adopted son of Diocletian, stimulated by his mother, a 
bigoted pagan, persuaded the emperor to commence the persecution. 
It began on the 23d of February A. D. 303, being the day on which 
the Terminalia were celebrated, and on which, as the pagans boasted, 
they hoped to put a termination to Christianity. 

The persecution opened in Nicomedia. The prefect of that city re- 
paired on a certain morning to the Christians' church, which his officers 
were commanded to break open, and then commit the sacred books it con- 
tained to the flames. Diocletian and Galerius, who were present, ordered 
their attendants to level the church with the ground. This was followed 
by a severe edict, commanding the destruction of all other christian 
churches and books; and an order soon succeeded, the object of which 
was to render Christians of all denominations outlaws, and consequently, 
to make them incapable of holding anyplace of trust, profit, or dignity, 
or of receiving any protection from the legal institutions of the realm. 
An immediate martyrdom was the result of this edict ; for a bold Chris- 
tian not only tore it down from the place to which it was affixed, but 



60 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

execrated the name of the emperor for his injustice and cruelty : he was 
in consequence seized, severely tortured, and then burnt alive. The 
Christian prelates were likewise apprehended and imprisoned ; and 
Galerius privately ordered the imperial palace to be set on fire, that the 
Christians might be charged as the incendiaries, and a plausible pretext 
given for carrying on the persecution with the greatest severity. A 
general sacrifice was then commanded, which occasioned various martyr- 
doms. Among others, a Christian named Peter was tortured, broiled, 
and then burnt ; several deacons and presbyters were seized and executed 
by various means ; and the bishop of Nicomedia himself was beheaded. 
So great was the persecution that there was no distinction made of age 
or sex, but all fell indiscriminate sacrifices to their opinions. Many 
houses were set on fire, and whole christian families perished in the 
flames ; others had stones fastened about their necks, and were driven into 
the sea. The persecution became general in all the Roman provinces, but 
more particularly in the East ; and as it lasted ten years, it is impossible 
to ascertain the numbers martyred, or to enumerate the various modes 
of martyrdom : some were beheaded in Arabia ; many devoured by wild 
beasts in Phoenicia ; great numbers were broiled on gridirons in Syria ; 
others had their bones broken, and in that manner were left to expire, in 
Cappadocia ; and in Mesopotamia several were hung with their heads 
downwards over slow fires, and suffocated. In Pontus, a variety of tor- 
tures were used ; pins were thrust under the nails of the prisoners, 
melted lead was poured upon them, and other exquisite tortures were 
inflicted, without however shaking their faith. In Egypt, some Chris- 
tians were buried alive in the earth, others were drowned in the Nile, 
many were hung in the air till they perished, and great numbers were 
thrown into large fires, and suffocating kilns. Scourges, racks, daggers, 
swords, poison, crosses, and famine, were made use of in various parts 
to destroy the Christians ; and invention was exhausted to devise new 
tortures against them. 

A town of Phrygia, consisting entirely of Christians, was surrounded 
by a number of pagan soldiers, who set it on fire, and all the inhabitants 
perished in the flames. 

At last, several governors of provinces represented to the imperial 
court, that " it was unfit to pollute the cities with the blood of the in- 
habitants, or to defame the government of the emperors with the death 
of so many subjects." Hence many were respited from execution ; but 
though they were not put to death, they were subjected to every species 
of indignity and suffering. Many had their ears cut off, their noses slit, 
their right eyes put out, their limbs dislocated, and their flesh seared in 
conspicuous places with red hot irons. 

Among the most distinguished persons, who forfeited their lives during 
this bloody persecution, was Sebastian, a celebrated holy man, born 
at Narbonne in Gaul, instructed in the principles of Christianity at 
Milan, and afterwards an officer of the imperial guard at Rome. He 
remained a true Christian in the midst of idolatry, unallured by the 
splendour of a court, and untainted by evil examples around him ; 
esteemed by the most eminent, beloved by his equals, and admired by 
his inferiors, he lived happily, and kept his faith and station, till the 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 61 

rigour of persecution deprived him of the latter with his life. He was 
informed against, and betrayed to Fabian the Roman praetor, by Tor- 
quatus, a pretended Christian ; but being of a rank too considerable to 
be put to death without the emperor's express orders, Diocletian was 
acquainted with the persecution. 

On hearing the accusation, he sent for Sebastian, and charged him 
with ingratitude in betraying the confidence reposed in him, and being 
an enemy to the gods of the empire and to himself. To this he answered 
that his religion was not of a pernicious tendency but the opposite ; 
that it did not stimulate him to any thing against the welfare of the 
empire or the emperor, and that the greatest proof he could give 
of his fidelity, was praying to the only true God for the health and 
prosperity of his person and government. Incensed at this reply, the 
emperor ordered him to be taken to a field near the city, termed the 
Campus Martius, and there to be shot to death with arrows ; which 
sentence was speedily executed. A few Christians attending at the 
place of execution, in order to give his body burial, perceived signs of 
life in him, and removing him to a place of security, they in a short 
time effected his recovery, and prepared him for a second martyrdom. 
So soon as he was able to walk, he placed himself in the emperor's way 
as he was going to the temple. The unexpected appearance of a person 
supposed to be dead, greatly astonished the emperor, nor did the words 
of the martyr less surprise him ; for he began with great severity to re- 
prehend him for his various cruelties, and for his unreasonable prejudices 
against Christianity. Having overcome his surprise, he ordered Sebas- 
tian to be seized, carried to a place near the palace, and beaten to 
death. That the Christians should not either bury or recover his body, 
he ordered that it should be thrown into a common sewer. Neverthe- 
less, a christian lady, named Lucina, found means to remove it. and 
bury it in the catacombs. 

At this time the Christians, upon mature consideration, thought it 
unlawful to bear arms under a heathen emperor. Their reasons were : 
— That they thereby were under the necessity of profaning the Christian 
sabbath. — That they were obliged, with the rest of the army, frequently 
to be present at idolatrous sacrifices before the temples of idols — That 
they were compelled to follow the imperial standards, which were dedi- 
cated to heathen deities, and bore their representations. These reasons 
induced many to refuse to enter into the imperial army ; the Roman 
constitution obliging all young men, of a certain stature, to make several 
campaigns. 

Maximilian, the son of Fabius Victor, being pointed out as a proper 
person to bear arms, was ordered by Dion, the pro-consul, to be mea- 
sured, that he might be enlisted in the service. He, however, boldly 
declared himself a Christian, and refused to do military duty. Being 
found of the proper height, Dion gave directions that he should be 
marked as a soldier, according to the usual custom. He strenuously 
opposed this order, and told Dion that he could not possibly engage in 
the service. The pro-consul instantly replied, that he should either serve 
as a soldier, or die for disobedience. " Do as you please with me 
(replied Maximilian) ; behead me if you think proper ; I am already a 
soldier of Christ, and cannot serve any other power." 



62 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Dion, wishing notwithstanding to save the young man, commanded 
his father to use his authority over him, to persuade him to comply ; but 
Victor coolly replied, " My son knows best what he has to do." Dion 
again demanded of Maximilian, with some acrimony, if he was yet dis- 
posed to receive the mark. To which the young man replied, he had 
already received the mark of Christ. " Have you! (exclaimed the pro- 
consul in a rage) then I shall quickly send you to Christ." " As soon 
as you please (answered Maximilian), that is all I wish or desire." The 
pro-consul then pronounced this sentence upon him, " that for disobe- 
dience in refusing to bear arms, and for professing the christian faith, 
he should lose his head." This sentence he heard with great intrepidity, 
and exclaimed with apparent rapture, " God be praised !" 

At the place of execution, he exhorted those who were Christians to 
remain so ; and such as were not, to embrace a faith wdiich led to eternal 
salvation. Then addressing his father with a cheerful countenance, he 
desired that the military habit intended for him might be given to the 
executioner ; and after taking leave of him, said, he hoped they should 
meet again in the other world, and be happy to all eternity. He then 
received the fatal stroke. The father beheld the execution with amazing 
fortitude, and saw the head of his son severed from his body without any 
emotion, but such as seemed to proceed from a conscious pleasure in 
being the parent of one whose piety and courage rendered him so great 
an example for the christian world. 

Vitus, a Sicilian of a considerable family, was trained a Christian 
from his infancy. His virtues increased with his years, his constancy 
supported him under all afflictions, and his faith was superior to the 
utmost perils and trials. Hylas, his father, who was a pagan, finding 
that he had been instructed in the principles of Christianity by his nurse, 
used all his endeavours to bring him back to paganism ; but finding all 
efforts in vain, he forgot the feelings of a parent, and informed against 
him to Valerian, governor of Sicily, who was very active in persecuting 
the Christians at this period. When apprehended upon the information 
of his father, Vitus was little more than twelve years of age ; the go- 
vernor therefore thought to frighten him out of his faith, and accordingly 
threatened and ordered him to be severely scourged. After this, the 
governor sent him back to his father, thinking that what he had suffered 
would make him change his principles ; but in this he was mistaken ; 
and Hylas, finding his son inflexible, basely allowed nature to sink under 
superstition, and determined to sacrifice his son to the idols. On being 
apprised of his design, Vitus escaped to Lucania, where being seized, 
he was, by order of Valerian, put to death, June 14, A. D 303. His 
nurse, Crescentia, who brought him up as a Christian, and Modestus, a 
person who escaped with him, were martyred at the same time. 

Victor, a Christian of good family at Marseilles, who spent great part 
of the night in visiting the afflicted, and confirming the weak; and his 
fortune in relieving the distresses of poor Christians. His beneficence 
becoming known, he was seized by the emperor's orders, and carried 
before two prefects, who advised him to embrace paganism, and not for- 
feit the favour of his prince, on account of a dead man, as they styled 
Christ. In answer he replied, " That he preferred the service of that 
man, who was in reality the Son of God, and had risen from the grave, 






TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 63 

to all the advantages he could receive from the emperor's favour : that 
he was a soldier of Christ, and would therefore take care that the post 
he held under an earthly prince, should never interfere with his duty to 
the King of heaven." For this reply, Victor was loaded with reproaches, 
but being a man of rank, he was sent to the emperor to receive his 
final sentence. When brought before him, the emperor, under the 
severest penalties, commanded him to sacrifice to the Roman idols; 
and on his refusal, Maximilian ordered him to be bound, and dragged 
through the streets. During the execution of this order, he was treated 
by the enraged populace with all manner of indignities. Remaining 
inflexible, his courage was deemed obstinacy: to which he replied, 
" That the ready disposition of the disciples of Christ to undergo any 
sufferings for his sake, and the joy with which they met the most igno- 
minious and painful death, were sufficient proofs of their assurance of 
the object of that hope." He added, "That he was ready to give an 
example of what he had said in his own person." When stretched on 
the rack, he turned his eyes towards heaven, and prayed to God to give 
him patience ; after which he underwent the tortures with admirable 
fortitude. The executioners being tired with multiplying his tortures, 
he was taken from the rack to a dungeon. During his confinement, he 
convinced his gaolers, named Alexander, Felician, and Longinus. This 
affair coming to the knowlege of the emperor, he ordered them to be 
put to death, and the gaolers were immediately beheaded. Victor was 
afterwards again put to the rack, beaten with clubs, and then sent to 
his dungeon. Being a third time examined, he persevered in his prin- 
ciples : a small altar was then brought, and he was commanded to offer 
incense upon it immediately; but instead of complying he boldly 
stepped forward, and with his foot overthrew both altar and idol ! 

The emperor, who was present, was so enraged at this, that he 
ordered the foot which had kicked the altar, to be immediately cut off; 
and Victor was afterwards sentenced to be thrown into a mill, and 
crushed to pieces with the stones. This horrid sentence was carried 
into execution: Victor was thrown into the mill, but part of the appa- 
ratus breaking, he was drawn from it terribly bruised; and the emperor, 
not having patience to stay till the machinery was repaired, ordered his 
head to be struck off without delay. 

While Maximus, governor of Cilicia, was at Tarsus, three Christians 
were brought before him by Demetrius, a military officer. Tarachus 
the eldest and first in rank, was addressed by Maximus, who asked him 
what he was. The prisoner replied, " a Christian." This reply offending 
the governor, he again made the demand, and was answered in a similar 
manner. The governor then told him, that he ought to sacrifice to the 
gods, as the only way to promotion, riches, and honours; and that 
the emperors themselves did what he recommended him to perform. 
Tarachus answered, that avarice was a sin, and gold itself an idol as 
abominable as any other ; since it promoted frauds, treacheries, rob- 
beries, and murders ; it induced men to deceive each other, by which 
in time they deceived themselves, and bribed the weak to their own 
eternal destruction. As for promotion, he desired it not, as he could 
not in conscience accept of any place which would subject him to pay 



64 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

adoration to idols ; and with regard to honours, he desired none greater 
than the honourable title of Christian. As to the emperors themselves 
being pagans, he added, with the same undaunted spirit, that they were 
deceived in adoring senseless idols, and evidently misled by the machi- 
nations of the devil himself. For the boldness of this speech, his jaws 
were ordered to be broken. He was then stripped, scourged, loaded 
with chains, and thrown into a dismal dungeon, to remain there till the 
trials of the other two prisoners. Probus was then brought before 
Maximus, who, as usual, asked his name. Undauntedly the prisoner 
answered, the most valuable name he could boast of was that of a 
Christian. To this Maximus replied in the following words, "Your 
name of Christian will be of little service to you, be therefore guided by 
me; sacrifice to the gods, engage my friendship, and the favour of the 
emperor." Probus nobly answered, " that as he had relinquished a 
considerable fortune to become a soldier of Christ, it might appear 
evident, that he neither cared for his friendship, nor the favour of the 
emperor." Probus was then scourged; and Demetrius, the officer, 
observing to him how his blood flowed, advised him to comply; but his 
only anwer was, that those severities were agreeable to him. " What! " 
cried Maximus, "does he still persist in his madness?" To which 
Probus rejoined, " that character is wrongly bestowed on one who re- 
fuses to worship idols, or what is worse, devils." After being scourged 
on every part of his body, suffering with as much intrepidity as before, 
and still repeating, " the more my body suffers and loses blood, the 
more my soul will grow vigorous, and be a gainer," he was committed 
to gaol, loaded with irons, and his hands and feet were stretched on 
the stocks. 

Andronicus was next brought up, when being asked the usual ques- 
tions, he said, "I am a Christian, a native of Ephesus, and descended 
from one of the first families in that city." He was ordered to undergo 
punishments similar to those of Tarachus and Probus, and then was 
remanded to prison. Having been confined some days, the three 
prisoners were again brought before Maximus, who began to reason 
with Tarachus, saying, that as age was honoured from the supposition 
of its being accompanied by wisdom, he was in hopes that what had 
already past must, upon deliberation, have caused a change in his sen- 
timents. Finding himself mistaken, he ordered him to be tortured by 
various means; fire was placed in the palms of his hands; he was hung 
up by his feet, and smoaked with wet straw ; a mixture of salt and 
vinegar was poured into his nostrils ; and in this state he was remanded 
to his dungeon. Probus being called, and asked if he would sacrifice, 
replied, " I come better prepared to die than before; for what I have 
already suffered, has only confirmed and strengthened me in my reso- 
lution. Employ your whole power upon me, and you will find, that 
neither you, nor your masters the emperors, nor the gods whom you 
serve, nor the devil who is your father, shall oblige me to adore idols 
whom I know not." The governor however attempted to reason with 
him, paid extravagant praises to the pagan deities, and pressed him to 
sacrifice to Jupiter; but Probus turned his causuistry into ridicule, and 
said, " Shall I pay divine honours to Jupiter, to one who married his 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. £5 

own sister to an infamous debauchee, as he is even acknowledged to 
have done by your own priests and poets." Provoked at this speech, 
the governor ordered him to be struck upon the mouth, for uttering 
what he called blasphemy : his body was then seared with hot irons, he 
was put to the rack, and afterwards scourged; his head was then 
shaved, and red hot coals placed upon the crown ; and after all these 
tortures, he was remanded to prison. 

When Andronicus was again brought before Maximus, the latter 
attempted to deceive him, by pretending that Tarachus and Probus 
had repented of their obstinacy, and owned the gods of the empire. 
To this the prisoner answered, " Lay not, O governor, such a weakness 
to the charge of those who have appeared before me in this cause, nor 
imagine it to be in your power to shake my fixed resolution with artful 
speeches. I cannot believe that they have disobeyed the laws of their 
fathers, renounced their hopes in our God, and consented to your ex- 
travagant orders : nor will I ever fall short of them in faith and de- 
pendence upon our common Saviour. _ Thus armed, I neither know 
your gods nor fear your authority; fulfil your threats, execute your 
most sanguinary inventions, and employ every cruel art in your power 
on me; I am prepared to bear it for the sake of Christ." For this 
answer he was cruelly scourged, and his wounds were afterwards rubbed 
with salt; but being well again in a short time, the governor reproached 
the gaoler for having suffered some physician to attend to him. The 
gaoler declared, that no person whatever had been near him, or the 
other prisoners, and that he would forfeit his head if any allegation of 
the kind could be proved against him. Andronicus corroborated the 
testimony of the gaoler, and added, that the God whom he served was 
the most powerful of physicians. 

These intrepid Christians were brought to a third examination, when 
they retained their constancy, were again tortured, and at length 
ordered for execution. Being brought to the amphitheatre, several 
beasts were let loose upon them; but none of the animals, though 
hungry, would touch them. Maximus was so surprised and incensed 
at this circumstance, that he severely reprehended the keeper, and 
ordered him to produce a beast that would execute the business for 
which he was wanted. The keeper then brought out a large bear, that 
had that day destroyed three men; but this creature, and a fierce 
lioness, also refused to touch the Christians. Finding the design of 
destroying them by the means of wild beasts ineffectual, Maximus 
ordered them to be slain by a sword, which was accordingly done on 
the 11th of October, A. D 303. The resolute martrys all declared 
that as death was the common lot of men, they wished to meet it for 
the sake of Christ; and to resign that life to faith, which must other- 
wise be the prey of disease. 

Romanus, a native of Palestine, was deacon of the church of Csesarea, 
at the commencement of Diocletian's persecution. He was at Antioch 
when the imperial order arrived for sacrificing to idols, and was greatly 
afflicted to see many Christians, through fear, submit to the idolatrous 
mandate, and deny their faith to preserve their existence. While cen- 
suring some for their conduct, he was informed against to the emperor, 

F 



06 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and soon after apprehended. Being brought to the tribunal, he con- 
fessed himself a Christian, and said he was willing to suffer any thing 
which he was pleased to inflict upon him for his confession. When 
condemned for his faith, he was scourged, put to the rack, his body 
torn with hooks, his flesh cut with knives, his face scarified, his teeth 
beat from their sockets, and his hair plucked up by the roots. Thus 
cruelly mangled, he turned to the governor, and calmly thanked him 
for what he had done, and for having opened so many mouths to 
preach the doctrines of Christianity; "for," said he, " every wound is a 
mouth, to sing the praises of the Lord." 

The following circumstance, which happened upon this occasion, is 
related by Prudentius and other writers. Romanus offered to stand to 
the decision of a young child, whose age must be free from malice, and 
to put the truth of the Christian religion upon that test. Ascepiades is 
said to have accepted of the proposal. A child about seven years of 
age was called out of the crowd, and being asked whether he thought 
it to be true, that men ought to. worship but one God in Christ, or to 
worship many gods, he answered, that he thought, whatsoever men 
affirm to be God, must be but one, and as this one is Christ, he must 
of necessity be God ; "for that there are many gods," continued the 
boy, " we children cannot believe." The governor amazed at this, 
was highly enraged with the child, and calling him a little villain 
and a young traitor, asked him who taught him that lesson. To 
which the child replied, "My mother, with whose milk I sucked in 
this lesson, that I must believe in Christ." This so incensed the 
governor, that he ordered the infant to be severely whipped ; insomuch 
that the beholders could not refrain from tears, the mother of the child 
only excepted, who reproved him for asking for a draught of water, 
charging him to thirst for that cup which the infants of Bethlehem had 
drank of, and bidding him remember Isaac, who willingly offered 
himself to death by his father's hand. While the woman was giving 
her son this lesson, the executioner plucked the skin and hair from the 
crown of his head; his mother at the same time saying to him, "though 
you suffer here, my child, you shall shortly be with him, who shall adorn 
thy naked head with a crown of eternal glory." Upon which the child 
smiled upon her and his executioners, and bore their stripes with silent 
fortitude. Romanus soon after was ordered to be strangled, and the 
child to be beheaded; which sentence was executed on the 17th of 
November, A. D. 303. 

Marcellinus was an ecclesiastic at Rome; being apprehended on ac- 
count of his religion, he was ordered to be privately executed in the 
forest, and was accordingly beheaded there. Peter, a Christian, appre- 
hended for the same cause, was executed at the same time and place. 
Also about this period, Smagarclus, Largus, and Cyracus, a deacon of 
the christian church, were martyred; but the mode of their death is not 
specified. 

Susanna, the niece of Caius, bishop of Rome, was enjoined by the 
emperor Diocletian to marry a noble pagan, who was nearly related to 
him : but she refused the honour, on account of being a Christian, which 
so enraged the emperor, that she was immediately afterwards beheaded 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 67 

by his order. Dorotheus, chamberlain of the household to Diocletian, 
was a Christian, and took great pains to make converts. He was assisted 
by Gorgonius, another Christian belonging to the palace : they were both 
high in the emperor's favour, but they soon proved that worldly honours 
and temporary pleasures were nothing when set in competition with 
the joys of immortality; for being informed against, they were first 
tortured and then strangled. Peter, an eunuch belonging to the em- 
peror, was a Christian of singular humility, insomuch that he did any 
servile office to serve the afflicted, and gave whatever he possessed to 
those who needed assistance. Having been informed against, and con- 
fessing the charge, he was scourged till his flesh was torn in a terrible 
manner; then salt and vinegar were thrown upon the wounds, and after 
suffering these tortures with the utmost tranquillity, he was laid on a 
gridiron, and broiled over a slow fire till he expired in the greatest 
agony. 

Cyprian, known by the title of magician, to distinguish him from 
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, was a native of Antioch. He received 
a liberal education in his youth, and applied himself to astrology; after 
which he travelled through India, Egypt, and Greece. He afterwards 
settled near Babylon, and being skilled in Chaldean mysteries, he em- 
ployed his talents in endeavouring to draw women from chastity and 
conjugal faith, and in persecuting the Christians and ridiculing Chris- 
tianity. He became acquainted with Justina, a young lady of Antioch, 
of high birth, beauty, and accomplishments, who had been educated in 
idolatry ; but being converted to Christianity, she induced her father and 
mother to embrace the same faith. Her modesty was remarkable. A 
pagan gentleman strongly attached to her, not being able to obtain 
a favourable return to his addresses, applied for assistance to Cyprian, 
who undertook the design, but with a treacherous intent : for under the 
pretence of acting for his friend, he determined if possible, to possess the 
lady himself. To effect this, he employed all his skill ; but his endeavours 
proving ineffectual, he was convinced that a superior power protected 
her from his evil intentions. Consequent reflection, caused him to search 
into the truths of Christianity, and his enquiry became so beneficial, that 
he renounced paganism. His repentance was sincere; he determined to 
reform his conduct, and to make every amends in his power for the crimes 
he had committed. He burnt his books of astrology and magic, received 
baptism, and became animated with a powerful spirit of piety. The 
conversion of Cyprian had a great effect on the pagan gentleman who 
paid his addresses' to Justina, and he also in a short time embraced 
Christianity. During the persecution of Diocletian, Cyprian and Justina 
were seized upon as Christians, when the former was torn with pincers, 
and the latter chastised ; and after suffering other torments, both were 
beheaded. 

Sergius was an officer in the Roman army, and attended the emperor 
Maximian into Syria. Being accused as a Christian, he was ordered to 
sacrifice to Jupiter ; but refusing, he was stripped of his military habit, 
and, in derision, dressed in woman's clothes. He was then compelled 
to walk a considerable way with nails in his sandals, and had an end 
put to his sufferings by being beheaded. Bacchius, an officer of the 



63 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

same rank with Sergius, being apprehended at the same time, underwent 
similar sufferings, and was beheaded on the same day, A. D. 303. 

A Spanish lady of a Christian family, named Eulalia, who was remark- 
able in her youth for sweetness of temper and solidity of understanding, 
was apprehended as a Christian. The magistrate attempted, by the 
mildest means, to bring her over to paganism, but she answered him in 
so ironical a manner, and ridiculed the pagan deities with such wit, 
that, incensed at her behaviour, he ordered her to be tortured. Ac- 
cordingly her sides were torn by hooks, and her breasts burnt in the most 
shocking manner, till the fire catching her head and face, she expired. 
This happened in December A. D. 303. 

The emperor Diocletian becoming ill, in the year 304, the persecution 
was carried on by Galerius, and the governors of the several provinces, 
when many fell victims to the zeal or malice of the persecutors : among 
whom the following persons are enumerated : — 

Vincent, a Spanish Christian, brought up by Valerius, bishop of 
Saragossa, who, on account of his great merits, ordained him a deacon. 
When the persecution reached Spain, Dacian, the governor of Tarragona, 
ordered Valerius the bishop, and Vincent the deacon, to be seized, loaded 
with irons, and imprisoned. Some time after Dacian examined them with 
great asperity, and threatened them with death, unless they renounced 
their principles. Vincent undertaking to speak for both, avowed their 
full determination to persist in the faith. Hereupon, Dacian, in a rage 
at his freedom of speech, declared that unless he immediately offered 
incense to the gods, he should fall a sacrifice. But the prisoners being 
firm in their resolution, Valerius was banished, and the whole of Dacian's 
rage directed against Vincent, who was racked, had his limbs dislocated, 
his flesh torn with hooks, and was laid on a gridiron, which had not 
only a fire placed under it, but spikes at the top, which run into his 
flesh. These torments neither destroying him nor changing his resolu- 
tion, he was remanded to prison, and confined in a dark dungeon. 
Orders were also given not to allow him any provisions whatever, and 
that the news of his death should be carried to Dacian as soon as known. 
When the keepers thought him starved they entered the dungeon, but 
instead of seeing a corpse as they expected, they beheld Vincent at 
prayers, his wounds in a great measure healed, and his body in tolerable 
health. 

This speedy recovery and preservation had such an effect upon the 
keepers, that it became the means of their conversion. Dacian however, 
instead of being softened, was enraged at the triumph of Vincent over 
his cruelties, and gave orders for new tortures to be prepared, so severe 
as to compel him to sink under them. But his malice was again dis- 
appointed, for before the instruments could be prepared, God took him 
to himself, and he died with all the serenity of a good conscience, and 
with as much calmness as if he had only fallen into a gentle sleep. 
Dacian then ordered that his body should be exposed in the fields to the 
birds of prey; but they not offering to touch it, he commanded that it 
should be thrown into the river, which was done accordingly. His death 
happened on the 22nd of January, 304. 

It was in this year the persecution of Diocletian began again to prevail, 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 69 

and many Christians were put to cruel tortures, and the most painful 
deaths ; the most eminent and particular of these were, Saturninus, a 
priest of Albilina in Africa. He used to preach and administer the 
sacrament to a society of Christians, who privately assembled at the 
house of Octavius Felix ; for the severity of the times was such, that 
they could not publicly observe their religious duties. Having been 
informed against, Saturninus, with four of his children, and several other 
persons, were apprehended; and that their punishment might be the 
more exemplary and public, they were sent to Carthage, the capital of 
Africa, where they were examined before Anulinus, the pro-consul of 
that quarter. 

Saturninus, on the examination, gave such spirited answers, and vin- 
dicated the christian religion with eloquence that shewed he was worthy 
to preside over an assembly possessing a faith of purity and truth. 
Anulinus, enraged at his arguments, ordered him to be silenced by being 
put to a variety of tortures, such as scourging, tearing his flesh with 
hooks, and burning with hot irons. Having been thus inhumanly 
treated, he was remanded to prison and there starved to death. His 
four children, notwithstanding they were variously tormented, remained 
steady in their faith ; on which they were sent to the dungeon in which 
their father was confined, where they calmly and even cheerfully shared 
his fate. 

There were eight other Christians tortured on the same day as Satur- 
ninus, and much in the same manner. Two expired on the spot through 
the severity of their sufferings, and the other six being remanded to 
prison, were suffocated for want of a pure air. Thelico, a pious Chris- 
tian; Dativus, a noble Roman senator; Victoria, a young lady of con- 
siderable family and fortune, with some others of less consideration, who 
had been all auditors of Saturninus, were seized at the time, tortured in 
a similar manner, and perished by the same means. About the same 
time three sisters, Chionia, Agape, and Irene, were seized at Thes- 
salonica. They had been educated in the christian faith, but had taken 
great precautions to remain unknown. They therefore retired to a soli- 
tary place, and spent their hours in performing religious duties. Being, 
however, discovered and seized, they renounced their former timidity, 
blamed themselves for being fearful, and begged of God to strengthen 
them against the great trial they had to undergo. 

When Agape was examined before Dulcatius, the governor, and was 
asked whether she was disposed to comply with the law of the land, and 
obey the mandate of the emperor, she answered, That being a Christian, 
she could not comply with any law which commanded the worship of 
idols and devils; that her resolution was fixed, and nothing should deter 
her from maintaining it. Her sister Chionia answered in the same 
manner; when the governor, not being able to draw them from their 
faith, pronounced sentence of condemnation on them, in consequence 
of which they were burnt, March 25, A. D. 304. 

Irene was then brought before the governor, who fancied that the 
death of her sisters would have an effect upon her fears, and that the 
dread of similar suffering would engage her to comply with his proposals. 
He therefore exhorted her to acknowledge the heathen deities, to sacrifice 



70 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to them, to partake of the victims, and to deliver up her books relative 
to Christianity. But she firmly refused to comply with any of them. 
The governor then asked her, who persuaded her and her sisters to keep 
those books and writings. She answered, It was that God who com- 
manded them to love him to the last ; for which reason she was resolved 
to submit to be burned alive rather than give them up into the hands of 
his professed enemies. When the governor found that he could make 
no impression on her, he ordered her to be exposed naked in the streets; 
which shameful order having been executed, she was burnt, April 1, 
A. D. 304, on the same spot where her sisters had suffered before her. 

Agatho, a man of a pious turn of mind, with Cassice, Phiiippa, and 
Eutychia, were martyred about the same time; as was Marcellinus, 
bishop of Rome, who succeeded Caius in that see. He was greatly 
perplexed during this persecution; and having strongly resisted paying 
divine honours to Diocletian, who wished to exact them from the people, 
and to appear as a god, he was at length seized and committed to a 
dungeon. He suffered martyrdom, by a variety of tortures, in the 
year 304. 

Theodotus, a Dalmatian, kept an inn at Ancyra. Being a Christian, 
and of a very humane disposition, he devoted a great part of his time to 
visit the afflicted, and a great part of his property to relieve the poor. 
Theotecnus, governor of "these parts, whose cruelty was equalled by 
nothing but his bigotry, received the mandate for persecuting the Chris- 
tians with great satisfaction, and wrote the emperor word that he would 
do his utmost endeavours to root out Christianity from every place under 
his jurisdiction. Thus encouraged by the governor, the pagans began 
to inform against and persecute the Christians. Great numbers were 
seized and imprisoned; their goods were destroyed, and their estates 
confiscated. Many fled to the woods, or retired to caves, where some 
supported themselves by feeding upon roots, and others perished by 
famine. Many were starved in the city, by means of the following 
singular stratagem : the governor gave orders that no provisions what- 
ever should be exposed to sale in the markets, without having been first 
consecrated to the idols ; hence the Christians were compelled to eat 
idolatrous food, or to starve and perish. The latter dreadful alternative 
was chosen by most of them, who, to preserve the purity of their faith, 
heroically gave up their lives. It was in. these dreadful times, Theodotus 
did all that he could to comfort the imprisoned, and buried the bodies 
of several who had been martyred, though it was forbidden on pain of 
death. He likewise privately assisted many with food; for having laid 
in a great stock of corn and wine, he sold it at a low price, and often 
gave it away. 

Polychronicus, a Christian, being seized, forfeited his faith, in order 
to preserve his life, and informed against his friend Theodotus, who 
hearing of this treachery, surrendered himself to the governor of his 
own accord. On his arrival in the court, he surveyed the instruments 
of torture with a smile, and seemed totally regardless of their operation. 
When placed at the bar, the governor informed him, that it was still in 
his power to save himself, by sacrificing to the gods of the empire. 
"And, (he continued,) if you renounce your faith in Christ, I promise 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 71 

you my friendship, and the emperor's protection, and will constitute you 
one of the magistrates of the town." Theodotus displayed great courage 
and eloquence in his answer : he refused to renounce his faith, declined 
the friendship of the governor and protection of the emperor, and 
treated their idols with the greatest contempt. The pagans on this were 
extremely clamorous against the prisoner, and demanded that he should 
be immediately punished. The priests in particular rent their clothes, 
and tore their chaplets, the badges of their offices, through rage. The 
governor complied with their desire, when Theodotus was scourged, torn 
with hooks, and then placed upon the rack. After this, vinegar was 
poured into his wounds, his flesh was seared with burning torches, and 
his teeth were knocked out of their sockets. He was then remanded to 
prison ; and as he went, pointing to his mangled body, he said to the 
people, " It was but just that Christians should suffer for him who 
suffered for us all." Five days afterwards he was brought from prison, 
tortured, and then beheaded. 

Victor, a native of Ancyra, was accused by the priests of Diana for 
having abused their goddess. For this imputed crime he was seized and 
committed to prison, his house plundered, his family turned out of doors, 
and his estate forfeited. When put to the rack, his resolution failed 
through the variety and severity of his torments. Being carried back to 
prison, that he might make a full recantation he suffered for his apostasy ; 
his wounds mortified, and put an end to his life. 

A Christian, of the name of Timothy, being carried before Urban, 
governor of Palestine, was sentenced to be burnt to death by a slow 
fire ; which sentence was executed at Gaza, on the 19th day of August, 
A. D. 104. 

Philip, bishop of Heraclea, had, in every act of his life, appeared a 
devoted Christian ; the chief of his disciples were Severus a priest, and 
Hermes a deacon ; who did much to promote the cause of Christianity. 
This worthy bishop was advised to conceal himself, in order to avoid the 
storm of the persecution ; but he reproved those who counselled him to 
do so, telling them that their courage would be enhanced by their suffer- 
ings, and that death had no terror for the virtuous. He therefore 
publicly performed his duty. 

An officer named Aristomachus, being employed to shut up the chris- 
tian church in Heraclea, Philip took great pains to convince him, that 
shutting up buildings made by hands could not destroy Christianity, 
while the living temples of the Lord remained ; for the true faith con- 
sisted not in the places where God is adored, but in the hearts of those 
who adore God. Being denied entrance into the church where he used 
to preach, Philip took up his station at the door, and there exhorted 
people to patience, perseverance, and godliness. For this he was seized 
and carried before the governor, who severely reprimanded him, and 
then continued to speak sternly in these words — " Bring all the vessels 
used in your worship, and the scriptures which you read and teach the 
people, and surrender them to me, before you are forced to do it by 
tortures." " If," replied the bishop, " you take any pleasure in seeing 
us suffer, we are prepared for the worst you can do. This infirm body 
is in your power ; use it as you please. The vessels you demand shall 



72 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

be delivered up, for God is not honoured by gold and silver, but by fear 
and love ; but as to our sacred books, it is neither proper for me to part 
with them, nor for you to receive them." This answer so much incensed 
the governor, that he ordered him to torture. Hermes, expressing him- 
self freely against such barbarities, was ordered to be scourged at the 
same time. 

The pagans having proceeded to the place where the scriptures and 
the church plate were kept, immediately seized them ; they likewise 
unroofed the church, walled up the doors, melted down the plate, and 
burnt the scriptures. When Philip was taken to the market-place, he 
was ordered to sacrifice to the Roman deities in general, and to a very 
handsome image of Hercules in particular ; to which command, he made 
an animated address on the real nature of the deity ; and concluded, 
that from what he had already said, it appeared that the heathens wor- 
shipped what might lawfully be trodden on, and made gods of such 
things as Providence had designed for common use. The governor then 
tried the constancy of Hermes, but finding him as inflexible as the 
bishop, he committed them both to prison. Soon after this, the gover- 
nor's time of ruling those parts being expired, a new governor named 
Justin arrived ; but he was equally cruel as his predecessor. Philip was 
then dragged by the feet through the streets, severely scourged, and 
brought again to the governor, who charged him with obstinate rashness 
in continuing disobedient to the imperial decrees ; but he boldly replied 
that he was obliged to prefer heaven to earth, and to obey God rather 
than man. On this the governor immediately passed sentence on him 
to be burnt, which was executed accordingly, and he expired, singing 
praises to God in the midst of the fire. Hermes, for behaving in a 
similar manner, and Severus, who had surrendered himself resolutely to 
suffer with his friends, endured the same fate. Such were the effects of 
a diabolical zeal for the adoration of idols. 

St. Ambrose asserts that Agricola was a Christian of so amiable a 
disposition, that he even gained the esteem and admiration of the 
pagans. Being apprehended as a Christian, he was crucified in imita- 
tion of the death of our Saviour; and his body, together with the cross, 
were buried at Bologna in Italy, in one grave. Vitalis, the servant 
and convert of Agricola, was seized on the same charge as his master, 
and being put to the seventy of the torture, died under the hands of 
his tormentors. Carphorus, Victorius, Severus, and Severanus, were 
brothers, and all employed in places of great trust and honour in the 
city of Rome. Having exclaimed against worshipping idols, they were 
apprehended, and scourged with a whip, to the ends of which were 
fastened leaden balls. This punishment was exercised with such rigour, 
that the pious brothers fell martyrs to its severity. 

A Christian of Aquileia, named Chrysogonus, was beheaded by order 
of Diocletian, for having instructed Anastasia, a young lady of that 
city, in the christian faith. This lady was descended from an illustrious 
Roman family. Her mother, named Flavia, was a Christian, and dying 
while her daughter was an infant, she bequeathed her to the care of 
Chrysogonus, with a strict injunction to instruct her in the principles of 
Christianity. This Chrysogonus punctually performed ; but the father 



TENTH PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION. 73 

of the lady, who was a pagan, gave her in marriage to a person of his 
own persuasion, named Publius, who was of a good family, but bad 
morals, and having spent his wife's and his own patrimony, he had the 
baseness to inform against her as a Christian. Publius soon after dying, 
she was released; but continuing to perform many charitable actions to 
Christians, she was again apprehended, and delivered up to Florus, 
governor of Illyricum. Florus commanded that she should be put to 
the torture; when finding her constant in the faith, he ordered her to be 
burnt, which was executed on December 25, A. D. 304; the event 
taking place about a month after the martyrdom of Chrysogonus, her 
instructor. 

In the same year, Mouris and Thea, two christian women of Gaza, 
were martyred in that city. The former died under the hands of her 
tormentors, and the latter perished in prison of the wounds she had 
received. 

Timothy, a deacon of Mauritania, and Maura his wife, had not been 
married above three weeks, when they were separated from each other 
by the persecution. Timothy was carried before Arrianus, the governor 
of Thebais, who did all in his power to induce him to embrace the pagan 
superstition. Perceiving his endeavours vain, and knowing that Timothy 
had the keeping of the holy scriptures, the governor commanded him to 
deliver them up, that they might be burnt: to which Timothy answered, 
" Had I children I would sooner deliver them up to be sacrificed, than 
part from the word of God." The governor, incensed at this reply, 
ordered his eyes to be put out with hot irons, saying, " The books 
shall at least be useless to you, for you shall not see to read them." 
He endured the punishment with such patience that the governor was 
the more exasperated, and ordered him to be hung up by the feet, with 
a weight tied about his neck, and a gag in his mouth. This treatment 
he bore with the greatest courage, when some person acquainted 
the governor that he had been but newly married to a wife of whom he 
was extremely fond. Arrianus accordingly ordered Maura to be sent for, 
and promised a handsome reward, with the life of her husband, if she 
could prevail upon him to sacrifice to the idols. Maura, wavering in her 
faith, tempted by a bribe, and impelled by an unbounded affection for 
her husband, undertook the impious affair. 

When conducted to him, she assailed his constancy with all the 
persuasive language of affection. When the gag was taken out of his 
mouth in order to give him an opportunity of replying, instead of 
consenting to his wife's entreaties, as they expected, he blamed her 
mistaken love, and declared his resolution of dying for the faith. 
Maura repeated her importunities, till her husband reproved her so 
strongly for her weakness, that she returned to his way of thinking, 
and resolved to imitate his courage and fidelity, and either to accompany 
or follow him to glory. Timothy advised her to repair her fault by 
declaring that resolution to the governor, by whose order she had un- 
dertaken the sinful commission. On which being strengthened by his 
exhortations, and the grace of God, she went to Arrianus and told him, 
that she was united to her husband in opinion as well as love, and was 
ready to suffer any thing to atone for her late crime, in wishing to make 



74 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

him an apostate. The governor immediately ordered her to be tortured, 
which was executed with great severity; and after this Timothy and 
Maura were crucified near each other, A. D. 304. 

A bishop of Assisium, named Sabinus, refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter, 
and pushing the idol from him, had his hands cut off by the order of 
the governor of Tuscany. After patiently suffering this barbarity, he 
was committed to prison, where he remained a considerable time without 
any assistance or relief but what he received from a christian widow, 
whose blind grandson had been restored by him to sight. The governor, 
who was himself afflicted in his sight, on hearing this intelligence, began 
to consider the behaviour of the Christians, and the tenets of Chris- 
tianity in a more favourable light, and sending for Sabinus, he informed 
him that he now entertained very different sentiments to what he had 
hitherto done, both with respect to him and his faith; then throwing 
himself at the feet of Sabinus, he entreated him to afford him assistance 
and to undertake the cure of his body and soul. The undissembled 
fervour with which he spoke convinced Sabinus of his sincerity; he was 
accordingly baptized, and the disorder in his eyes immediately left 
them: this conversion of the governor was followed by that of his whole 
family, and some of his friends. When the tyrant Maximian was in- 
formed of these circumstances, he immediately ordered the governor 
and all his family to be beheaded. Immediately after their execution, 
Sabinus was scourged to death; and two ecclesiastics, named Marcellus 
and Experantius, who officiated under Sabinus, were scourged in a most 
dreadful manner; but remaining constant in their faith, their flesh was 
torn with hooks till they expired. This took place in December, 
A. D. 304. 

It now happened that, weary of the farce of state, and public 
business, the emperors Diocletian and Maximian resigned the imperial 
diadem, and were succeeded by Constantius ■ and Galerius; the former, 
a prince of the most mild and humane disposition, and the latter re- 
markable for his tyranny and cruelty. These divided the empire into 
two equal governments; Galerius ruling in the East, and Constantius in 
the West; and the people in the two governments felt the effects of the 
different dispositions of the two emperors; for those in the West were 
governed in the mildest manner, but such as resided in the East felt all 
the miseries of cruelty and oppression/ 

f Sulpicius, in the second book of his Sacred History, observes, that the primitive 
Christians were more desirous of martyrdom than its professors in the after ages were of 
bishoprics ! The number of martyrs increased under the persecutions of the contemporary 
emperors, Maximian and Diocletian, so much, that there were never less than ten executed 
daily, and from that to twenty, thirty, sixty, and even a hundred, who suffered various 
kinds of deaths till at last it was found necessary to destroy all in one general sacrifice per 
day, as the prisons became so crowded that there were no means of keeping the Christians 
alive. Eusebius, in his eighth book, cap. 9. as well as Damasus, Bede, Orosius, Honorius, 
and others witness, that there were slain in this persecution by the name of Martyrs, within 
the space of thirty days, seventeen thousand persons ! 

Bede in his history writes, that this persecution began under Diocletian, and endured till 
the seventh year of Constantinus. And Eusebius says that it lasted till the tenth year of 
Constantinus. It was not yet one year from the day in which Diocletian and Maximian, 
joining themselves together, began their persecution, before they saw the number of the 



CHRISTIANS KILLED BY GALERIUS. 75 

As Galerius bore an implacable hatred to Christians, we are informed, 
that " he not only condemned them to tortures, but to be burnt in slow 
rires, in this horrible manner : they were first chained to a post, then a 
gentle fire put to the soles of their feet, which contracted the callus till 

Christians rather increase than diminish, notwithstanding all the cruelty that ever they 
could shew, and therefore they despaired of rooting them out. 

Some important events which happened to Diocletian, seem so immediately the effect cf 
divine judgment upon that tyrant, that we think it proper to call the attention of the readei 
to the brief recital of them. When Diocletian and Maximian had reigned together as 
emperors one and twenty years, (Nicephorus says, two and twenty years), Diocletian 
abandoned his imperial dignity at Nicomedia, and lived at Salona ; Maximian did the same 
at Milan ; and thus both of them led a private life, in the three hundred and ninth year 
after Christ. This strange alteration made it happen, that, within a short space after, there 
were in the Roman commonwealth many emperors at one time. 

We have stated in the text in what manner the empire was divided between Galerius and 
Constantius; but the latter deserves some farther mention on account of his virtues. 
Constantius, as a modest prince, contented with the imperial title, refused Italy and Africa, 
satisfying himself only with France, Spain, and Britain. On which Galerius chose to him 
his two sons, Maximinius and Severus ; and on this Constantius took Constantinus his son 
as Cffisar under him. In the mean time, while Galerius with his two Caesars were in 
Asia, the Roman soldiers set up for their emperor Maxentius, the son of Maximian, who 
had before deposed himself. Against him Galerius, the emperor of the East, sent his son 
Severus, who in the same voyage was slain of Maxentius, in whose place then Galerius 
took Licinus. And these were the emperors and Caesars who succeeded after Diocletian 
and Maximian, and continued that persecution which Diocletian and Maximian begun, 
during the space of seven or eight years. Constantius had no desire of dominion ; but was 
a prince, as Eutropius describes him, very excellent, meek, gentle, liberal, and desirous to 
do good to all who had any authority under him: and as Cyrus once said, that he got 
treasure enough, when he made his friends rich ; and Constantius would often say, that it 
were better that his subjects had treasure, than he to have it in his treasury. He was 
disgusted with finery, so that he used to eat and drink out of earthen vessels, a part of his 
conduct which has been much praised by Agathocles, the Sicilian. To these virtues he 
added devotion and affection towards the word of God, so that he neither levied any wars 
contrary to piety and the christian religion, nor aided any other prince that did the same; 
neither did he destroy the churches, but commanded that Christians should be preserved 
and defended from all injury. Constantius knowing that he had many hypocrites in his 
service, and wishing at a certain time to try what sincere Christians he had in his court, 
called together all his officers and servants, pretending to choose out such as would do 
sacrifice to devils, and that those only should keep their offices, while those who would refuse 
should be banished the court. At this appointment, all the courtiers divided themselves 
into companies. The emperor marked which were the godliest; and when some said they 
would willingly do sacrifice, others boldly denied to do so. Then the emperor sharply 
rebuked those who were ready to do sacrifice, and called them traitors to God, account- 
ing them unworthy to be in his court, and commanded that they should be banished. But 
he greatly commended those who refused to do sacrifice, affirming, that they only were 
worthy to be about a prince ; and commanded that henceforth they should be the trusty 
counsellors and defenders both of his person and kingdom. 

As before said, with Constantius was joined Galerius, a man, as Eutropius affirms, who 
was very civil and a good soldier, as well as a favourer of wise and learned men. But 
Eusebius far otherwise describes him. He says, he was of a tyrannical disposition, exces- 
sively timid and curious in all superstition, insomuch that without the divinations and 
answers of magicians, he durst do nothing at all ; and therefore he gave great offices and 
dignities to enchanters. He was an exacter and extortioner of the citizens, liberal to those 
that were flatterers, given to surfeiting and riot, a great drinker of wine, and in his furious 
drunkenness like a mad-man. To conclude, he was so great an idolater, that he built up 
temples in every city, and repaired those that were falling in great decay : but to the 
Christian religion, he was most incensive, and in the East churches exercised cruel 
persecutions. 

He at length revoked his cruelty by the just judgment and punishment of God. For 
he was seized with a fatal and desperate disease. The physicians, not able to abide the 



70 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

it fell off from the bone; then flambeaux just extinguished were put to 
all parts of their bodies, so that they might be tortured all over; and 
care was taken to keep them alive, by throwing cold water in their faces, 
and giving them some to wash their mouths, lest their throats should be 
dried up with thirst, and choke them. Thus their miseries were length- 
ened out, till at last, their skins being consumed, and they just ready 
to expire, were thrown into a great fire, and had their bodies burned to 
ashes, after which their ashes were thrown into some river." 

Of the Christians martyred by the order of Galerius, the most eminent 
are these : — Amphianus was a gentleman of distinction in Lycia, and a 
scholar of Eusebius; pressing through the crowd while the proclamation 
for sacrificing to idols was read, he caught the governor Urbianus by the 
hand, and severely reproved him for his wickedness. On which the 
governor, incensed at the freedom, ordered him to be put to the torture, 
and then thrown into the sea. JEdesius, brother of the last mentioned 

intolerable offence of the disorder, some of them were commanded to be slain, and others, 
because they could not heal him, were cruelly put to death. At length, being reminded 
that this disease was sent by God, he began to think of the wickedness that he had done 
against the saints, and so confessed his offences: then calling those who were about him, 
he commanded all men to cease from persecuting the Christians; requiring, moreover, that 
they should set up his imperial proclamations, for restoring their temples, and that they 
would require of the Christians, that they would devoutly pray to God for their emperor. 
Then was the persecution discontinued. 

Maximian, the other persecutor of the Christians, and the contemporary sovereign with 
Diocletian, also met with a dreadful end. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was set up at 
Rome by the praetorian soldiers to be emperor. To this the senate, though they did not 
consent, yet for fear did not resist/ Maximian, his father, who had before deprived himself 
with Diocletian, hearing of this, was inclined to resume his dignity, and laboured to persuade 
Diocletian to do the same: but not succeeding, he repaired to Rome, thinking to wrest the 
empire out of his son's hands. But as the soldiers would not suffer that, he fled to 
Constantinus in France, under pretence of complaining of Maxentius his son, but in fact 
to kill Constantinus; but the conspiracy being detected by Fausta, the daughter of 
Maximian, whom Constantinus had married, Constantinus through the grace of God was 
preserved, and Maximian returned. In his flight he was apprehended and put to death. 

Maxentius all this while reigned at Rome with tyranny and wickedness like another 
Pharaoh or Nero. He slew most of his noblemen, and took their estates. Sometimes in 
his rage he would destroy great multitudes of the people of Rome by his soldiers, as 
Eusebius declares. He is said to have left no mischievous nor lascivious act unattempted. 
Letus declares, that being in love with a noble and chaste gentlewoman of Rome, he sent to 
her such of his courtiers as he held in great estimation. These first fell upon her husband 
and murdered him in his own house: and when they could by no means get her away from 
him, she desired leave to go into her chamber, and after prayer she would accomplish what 
they requested. When she had reached her chamber under this plea, she killed herself. 

The end of Maxentius was as follows. Constantinus had a vision that commanded him 
to bear the sign of a cross before his army and go against the pagans. The day following 
this night's vision, Constantinus caused a cross after the same figure to be made of gold and 
precious stones, and to be borne before him instead of his standard; and with as much hope 
of victory and confidence as one armed from Heaven, advanced towards his enemy. 
Maxentius being constrained to issue out of the city against him, sent all his power to join 
him in the field beyond the river Tiber, where Maxentius craftily breaking down the bridge 
called Pons Milvius, caused an artificial bridge to be made of boats, thinking to take 
Constantinus as in a trap. But here it came to pass, as is written, in the seventh Psalm, 
"He digged a pit and fell therein himself." After the hosts met, he being unable to sustain 
the force of Constantinus fighting under the cross against him, was put to such a flight, that 
in returning back, thinking to get into the city upon the same bridge which he laid for 
Constantinus, was overturned by the fall of his horse, and, with a great part of his men, 
was drowned. 



BURNING OF JULITTA. 77 

martyr, was, about the same time, martyred at Alexandria, in a terrible 
manner. Julitta, a Lyconian of royal descent, was a christian lady of 
great humility, constancy, and integrity. When the edict for sacrificing 
to idols was published at Iconium, she withdrew from that city, taking 
with her only her young son Cyricus, and two female servants. She 
was, however, seized at Tarsus, and being carried before Alexander, the 
governor, she acknowledged that she was a Christian. For this confes- 
sion her son was taken from her, and she was immediately put to the 
rack, and tortured with great severity; but she bore her sufferings with 
true Christian resignation. The child however cried bitterly to get at 
his mother; when the governor observing the beauty and melted at 
the tears of the infant, took him upon his knee, and endeavoured to 
pacify him. Nothing, however, could quiet Cyricus; he still called 
upon the name of his mother, and at length, in imitation of her words, 
lisped out, " I am a Christian." This innocent expression turned the 
governor's compassion into rage; and throwing the child furiously 
against the pavement, he dashed out its brains. The mother, who from 
the rack beheld the transaction, thanked the Almighty that her child 
was gone before her; and she should have no anxiety concerning his 
future welfare. To complete the torture, Julitta had boiling pitch 
poured on her feet, her sides torn with hooks, and received the end of 
her martyrdom by being beheaded, April 16, A. D. 305. 

Pantaleon, a native of Nicomedia, received an elegant education from 
his father, who was a pagan, and was taught the precepts of the gospel 
by his mother, who was a Christian. Applying to the study of medicine, 
he became eminent in the knowledge of physic, and in process of time 
was appointed physician to the emperor Galerius. The name of this 
man in Greek signifies humane, and the. appellation well suited his 
nature, for he was one of the most benevolent men of his time; but his 
extraordinary reputation roused the jealousy of the pagan physicians, 
who accused him to the emperor. Galerius on finding him a Christian, 
ordered him to be tortured, and then beheaded, which sentence was 
executed on July 27, A. D. 305. Hermolaus, a venerable and pious 
Christian, of great age, and an intimate acquaintance of Pantaleon, 
suffered martyrdom for his faith on the same day, and in the same 
manner. 

Julitta, of Cappadocia, was a lady of distinguished capacity, great 
virtue, and uncommon courage: she was martyred on account of a law- 
suit, of which Basil, bishop of Csesarea, gives an account as follows: — 
;< She had a troublesome suit with one of the principal men in Csesarea, 
who was unjustly possessed of a considerable part of her estate, and had 
seized both her servants and cattle. This oppressive usurper had found 
means to bribe the judges in his favour, and hired persons to swear, that 
the land and goods in dispute were his property. Julitta, supported by 
the justness of her cause, thought that she had nothing more to do but 
to give the magistrates an ingenuous account of her title. When the 
cause came to be tried, the defendant, instead of supporting his claim, 
urged that the law would not suffer him to engage at that bar with one 
of a different religion ; so that he could not proceed in his defence, 
unless the lady, who was the plaintiff, renounced Christianity. The 



78 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

judge was too well instructed not to second the motion, and gave it as 
his opinion, that what he insisted upon was according to the laws of the 
empire. He then ordered an altar to be brought in, and some fire to be 
put on it, and incense to be prepared, and then told the parties, that if 
they expected, either of them, to enjoy any benefit from the laws, they 
must both of them offer incense to the gods. The usurper who was a 
heathen, immediately complied; but Julitta made it appear that her 
faith was much dearer to her than her goods, or even than life itself. 
1 No, (said she), my affection to what is undoubtedly my own, shall 
never hinder me from sacrificing my all, and even my life, if required, 
rather than violate my fidelity to my God and Saviour/ For this de- 
claration she was condemned to be burnt." 

Eustratius, secretary to the governor of Armenia, was thrown into a 
furnace, for exhorting some Christians, who had been apprehended, to 
persevere in their faith. § Auxentius and Eugenius, two of Eustratius's 
adherents, were burnt at Nicopolis; Mardarius, another friend of his, 
expired under torment; and Orestes, a military officer, was broiled to 
death on a gridiron for wearing a golden cross at his breast. Theodore, 
a Syrian by birth, a soldier and a Christian, set fire to the temple of 
Cybele, in Amasia, through indignation at the idolatrous worship prac- 
tised in it, for which he was scourged, and on February 18, A. D. 306, 
burnt to death. Dorothea, a Christian of Cappadocia, was, by the 
governor's order, placed under the care of two women, who had become 
apostates to the faith, in order that she might be induced to follow their 
example. But her discourses had such an effect upon them, that they 
became re-converted, and were put to death for not succeeding: soon 
after which, Dorothea was tortured, and then beheaded. Pancratius 
was a native of Phrygia, but being made a Christian and brought to 
Rome, by his uncle, he there suffered martyrdom, by being beheaded 
after the decease of his uncle, who died a natural death a little time 
before. Cyrinus, Nazarius, Nabor, and Basilides, four worthy christian 
officers at Rome, were thrown into prison for their faith, scourged with 
rods of wire, and then beheaded. 

Two Roman military officers, Nicander and Marcian, were appre- 
hended on account of their faith. As they were both men of great 
abilities, the utmost endeavours were made to induce them to renounce 
Christianity; but being without effect, they were ordered to be beheaded. 
The execution was attended by vast crowds of the populace, among 
whom were the wives of the two sufferers. The consort of Nicander 
was a Christian, and encouraged her husband to meet his fate with 
fortitude; but the wife of Marcian being a pagan, entreated her husband 

s Nicephorus tells us that Eustratius was much skilled in the Greek language, and was 
a scribe of great estimation. Tt appears that this man, beholding the marvellous constancy 
of the martyrs, thirsted with the desire of martyrdom, and privily learned the Christian 
religion. Therefore he detected himself, and professed that he was a Christian, only 
execrating the madness and vanity of the wicked Ethnics. Being in consequence carried 
away, he was tied up and cruelly beaten. After that he was scorched and mangled with 
shells, so that his whole body seemed to be one continual wound; yet by God's great 
goodness, it was speedily healed. After this he was carried to Sebastia, where with his 
companion Orestes he was burnt to death. 



DROWNING OF QUIRINUS. 79 

to save himself, for the sake of her and her child. Marcian, however, 
reproved her for her idolatry and folly, but before the stroke was given 
he embraced her and the infant. Nicander likewise took leave of his 
wife in the most affectionate manner ; and then both, with great reso- 
lution, received the crown of martyrdom. Besides these there were 
several others, whose names and sufferings are not recorded by the 
ancient historians. 

In the kingdom of Naples several martyrdoms took place : in par- 
ticular, Januarius, bishop of Beneventum; Sosius, deacon of Misene; 
Proculus, another deacon ; Eutyches and Acutius, two laymen ; Festus, 
a deacon; and Desiderius, a curate, were all condemned, by the 
governor of Campania, to be devoured by wild beasts for professing 
Christianity. The animals, however, not touching them, they were 
beheaded. Marcellus, a centurion, of the Trajan legion, was posted at 
Tangier, and being a Christian, suffered martyrdom, under the following 
circumstances : — While he was there, the emperor's birth-day was kept, 
and the sacrifices to the pagan idols made a considerable part of that 
solemnity. All the subjects of the empire were expected on that occa- 
sion to conform to the blind religion of their prince; but Marcellus, 
who had been well instructed in the duties of his profession, expressed 
his detestation of those profane practices, by throwing away his belt, 
the badge of his military character, declaring aloud that he was a soldier 
of Christ, the eternal king. He then quitted his arms, and added, that 
from that moment he ceased to serve the emperor ; and that he thus 
expressed his contempt of the gods of the empire, which were no better 
than deaf and dumb idols. " If," continued he, " their imperial majesties 
impose the obligation of sacrificing to them and their gods, as a necessary 
condition of their service, I here throw up my commission and quit the 
army." Marcellus's behaviour and speeches occasioned an order for his 
being beheaded. Cassian, secretary to the court which tried Marcellus, 
expressing his disapprobation of such proceedings, was ordered into 
custody; when avowing himself a Christian, he met with the same fate. 

Quirinus, bishop of Siscia, being carried before Matenius, the governor, 
was ordered to sacrifice to the pagan deities, agreeable to the edicts of 
various Roman emperors, but refusing, was ordered to be severely 
scourged. When under the hand of the executioner, the governor was 
urgent with him to sacrifice, and offered to make him a priest of Jupiter: 
to which Quirinus replied, that he was already engaged in the priestly 
office, while he thus offered a sacrifice to the true God. " I," continued 
he, " scarce feel my torments, and am ready to suffer still greater, that 
my example may show those whom God has committed to my care, the 
way to the glory we wish for." The governor then sent him to prison, 
and ordered him to be heavily ironed: after which he was sent to 
Amantius, the governor of Parmonia, now Hungary, who loaded him 
with chains, and carried him through the principal towns of the Danube, 
exposing him to general ridicule. At length arriving at Sabaria, and 
finding that Quirinus would not renounce his faith, he ordered him to 
be cast into a river, with a stone fastened to his neck. The sentence 
was accordingly put into execution, and Quirinus, floating about for 
some time, exhorted the people in the most pious terms, concluding his 



80 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

admonitions with this prayer: — "It is no new thing, O all-powerful 
Jesus! for thee to stop the course of rivers, or to cause a man to walk 
upon the water, as thou didst thy servant Peter : the people have already 
seen the proof of thy power in me; grant me now to lay down my life 
for thy sake, O my God!" After uttering these words, he immediately 
sunk. This happened June 4, A. D. 308: his body was afterwards 
taken up, and buried by some Christian brethren. 

Five Egyptian Christians being on a visit to their afflicted brethren in 
Csesarea, were apprehended and carried before Firmilian, the governor 
of Palestine, who, on questioning them, was answered by one in the 
name of the rest, that they were Christians, and belonged to the New 
Jerusalem, and had their names recorded in the book of life. The 
governor was surprised at the answer, as he knew Vespasian and his son 
Titus had destroyed the ancient Jerusalem; and that the inconsiderable 
town erected by Adrian upon the spot, was called JElia Capitolina: he 
therefore enquired more particularly concerning it. The Christian who 
had spoken before, again replied, and pursuing the allegory, described, 
with great force of imagination, the beauty, riches, and strength of the 
place. Firmilian still mistaking the Christian's meaning, by under- 
standing his words in a literal sense, became much alarmed ; for not 
dreaming that a heavenly city was alluded to, he fancied that the Chris- 
tians were strengthening and fortifying some place, in order to revolt 
from their allegiance to the emperor. Prejudiced by this mistake, and 
enraged at the supposed disloyalty, he condemned the five prisoners to 
be cruelly tormented and then beheaded; which sentence was executed 
on the 16th of February, A. D. 309. 

Pamphilius, a native of Phoenicia, of a considerable family, was a 
man of such extensive learning, that he was called a second Origen. 
He was received among the clergy at Csesarea, where he spent his time 
in the practice of every christian virtue. He copied the greatest parts 
of the works of Origen with his own hand, and, assisted by Eusebius, 
gave a correct copy of the Old Testament, which had suffered greatly 
by the ignorance or negligence of former transcribers. He likewise gave 
public lectures on religious and literary subjects, in an academy which 
he had erected for that purpose, till the year 307, when he was appre- 
hended and carried before Urban, the governor of Palestine, who exerted 
himself to induce him to embrace paganism. Finding his endeavours 
vain, he began to threaten him; but Pamphilius maintained his resolu- 
tion, upon which he was ordered to be severely tortured, and then sent 
to prison. 

Soon after, Urban, having displeased the emperor, was displaced and 
beheaded ; but another was appointed in his room, who was equally 
prejudiced against the Christians. Pamphilius suffered martyrdom 
under the new governor, by being beheaded; together with Valens, a 
deacon of the church of Jerusalem; and Paul, a layman, of Jamnia, 
in Palestine. Porphyrius, the servant of Pamphilius, was burnt by a 
straw fire, for only requesting leave to bury the body of his master and 
other martyrs. Theodolus, a venerable and faithful servant to Firmilian, 
the governor, being accused of the Christian faith, confessed the charge, 
and was, by order of his master, crucified on February 17, A. D. 309: 



CONSTANTINE'S VISION. 81 

on the same day, Julian, a Cappadocian, was burnt. Marcellus, bishop 
of Rome, being banished on account of his faith, fell a martyr to the 
miseries he suffered in exile, A. D. 310, on the 16th of January. Peter, 
the sixteenth bishop of Alexandria, by order of Maximinus Csesar, who 
reigned in the East, was martyred November 25, A. D. 311. Lucian, 
a learned Syrian, was a man of so benevolent a temper, that he disposed 
of the greatest part of his fortune in charitable donations. He was 
apprehended as a Christian, imprisoned for the space of nine years, put 
to the rack, rolled upon sharp flints, and being tortured to death, his 
body was thrown into the sea; but it was afterwards cast on shore, and 
received Christian interment. 

Valentine, a priest, suffered the same fate at Rome ; and Erasmus, a 
bishop, was martyred in Campania. Cosmus and Damian, Arabians 
and brothers, were martyred in Cilicia; Adrian, an imperial officer, was 
beheaded in Rome; Barbara, a young lady, was martyred at Nicomedia; 
Lucia, a Christian virgin, was put to death at Syracuse; and Serena, the 
empress of Diocletian, did not escape martyrdom when she declared 
herself a Christian. 

Gordius, a native of Caesarea, and a centurion in the Roman army, 
was first tortured, and then burnt; Menas, an Egyptian soldier, was 
beheaded; and Barlaam, a noble martyr, having endured the utmost 
torments even to the point of death, his tormentors laid him on a pagan 
altar, and put frankincense into his hand, which they lighted, that the 
heat and force of the fire might oblige him to scatter the burning incense 
on the altar, to enable them to say that he had sacrificed ; but they were 
disappointed, for the flame went round his hand, which appeared covered 
with red hot embers, while he uttered this exclamation of the psalmist : 
"Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to war, and my 
fingers to fight." After which he surrendered his soul to the Redeemer. 
The pagans about this time shut up the doors of a church in which a 
Christian congregation were assembled, and having set fire to the build- 
ing, every person perished. 

Constantine the Great at length determined to redress the grievances 
of the Christians, for which purpose he raised an army of 30,000 foot 
and 8000 horse, with which he marched towards Rome, against Max- 
entius, the emperor. But he reflected on the fatal miscarriages of his 
predecessors, who had maintained a multiplicity of gods, and reposed 
an entire confidence in their assistance. On the other hand, he con- 
sidered that while his father adored only one God, he continually pros- 
pered. He therefore rejected the adoration of idols, and implored the 
assistance of the Almighty; who heard his prayers, and answered them 
in a manner so surprising and miraculous, that Eusebius acknowledges 
it could not have been credible, had he not received it from the em- 
peror's own mouth, who publicly and solemnly ratified the truth with a 
solemn oath. The extraordinary narrative is as follows: — "The army 
arriving near Rome, the emperor was employed in devout ejaculations on 
the 27th of October, about three o'clock in the afternoon, when, the sun 
declining, there suddenly appeared to him a pillar of light in the heavens, 
in the form of a cross, with this plain inscription, In hoc signo vinces, "In 
this sign thou shalt conquer." Constantine was greatly surprised at the 

G 



82 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

astonishing sight, which was also visible to the whole army, who equally 
wondered at it with himself. The officers and commanders, prompted 
by the augurs and soothsayers, looked upon it as an inauspicious omen, 
portending an unfortunate expedition. The emperor himself did not 
understand it, till at length Christ appeared to him in a vision, with the 
cross in his hand, commanding him to make it a royal standard, and 
cause it to be continually carried before his army, as an ensign both of 
victory and safety. Early the next morning, Constantine informed his 
friends and officers of what he had seen in the night, and sending for 
proper workmen, sat down by them, and described to them the form of 
the standard, which he then ordered them to make with the greatest art 
and magnificence. They made it thus: a long spear, plated with gold, 
with a traverse piece at the top, in the form of a cross, to which was 
fastened a four square purple banner, embroidered with gold, and beset 
with precious stones, which reflected the brightest lustre: towards the 
top was depicted the emperor between his two sons : above the cross, 
stood a crown, overlaid with gold and jewels, within which was placed 
the sacred symbol, namely the two first letters of Christ in Greek, X 
and P, one intersecting the other. This device he afterwards bore, not 
only upon his shields, but also upon his coins, many of which are still 
extant." h 

In the subsequent engagement with Maxentius, he defeated him, and 
entered the city of Rome in triumph. A law was now published in 
favour of the Christians, in which Licinius joined with Constantine, and 
a copy of it was sent to Maximus in the East. Maximus was a bigoted 
pagan, and greatly disliked the edict; but being afraid of Constantine, 
did not openly avow his disapprobation. At length Maximus invaded 
the territories of Licinius, but being defeated, he was so chagrined, that 
he put an end to his life by poison. The death of Maxentius has al- 
ready been described in a previous note. 

Licinius was not a Christian in his heart, but affected to appear as 
such, through the dread of Constantine's power; for even after publish- 
ing several edicts in favour of the Christians, he put to death Blase, 
Bishop of Sebaste, several bishops and priests of Egypt and Lybia, who 
were cut to pieces, and thrown into the sea; and forty soldiers of the 
garrison of Sebaste, who suffered martyrdom by fire. These things 
offended Constantine the Great; and he marched against Licinius, who 
was defeated by him, and afterwards slain by his own soldiers. 

St. George, the tutelar saint and the patron of England, was born in 
Cappadocia, of Christian parents, who brought him up according to the 
tenets of the gospel. His father dying when he was young, he travelled 
with his mother into Palestine, which was her native country. Here 

h In the writing's of Ma rsilius Patavinus, entitled " Defensor Paris " which were pub- 
lished in the year 1324, it is observed of Constantine, that he was a singular spectacle for 
all Christian princes to imitate; that his fervent zeal in favour of the servants of Christ 
was notable ; but especially the affection and reverence of his heart towards those, who 
had suffered for the confession of Christ in previous persecutions: these he held in peculiar 
veneration, so much that he embraced and kissed their wounds and stripes. And if any 
such bishop or other ministers brought to him any complaints one against another, (as 
many times they did) he would take their bills of complaint and burn them before their 
faces; so studious and zealous was his mind to have them agree. 



GOD'S VENGEANCE EXEMPLIFIED. 83 

she claimed a patrimonial estate, which afterwards descended to her 
son. St. George being active, and of great spirit, became a soldier, 
and was made a tribune or colonel. In this post he exhibited great 
proofs of his courage, and was promoted in the army of the emperor 
Diocletian. During the persecution, St. George threw up his com- 
mand, went boldly to the senate-house, and avowed his being a Christian, 
taking occasion at the same time to remonstrate against paganism. 
This so greatly provoked the senate, that St. George was ordered to be 
tortured, which he underwent with much constancy. He was after- 
wards, by the emperor's command, dragged through the streets and 
beheaded. The calendar commemorates his martyrdom on the 23rd of 
April. 1 

In the catalogue of holy martyrs, who suffered in the tenth persecu- 
tion, many more are mentioned, particularly Philoromus, a man of 
noble birth, and great possessions in Alexandria, who, being persuaded 
by his friends to favour himself, to respect his wife, to consider his 
children and family, not only rejected the counsel, but also neglected 
the threats and torments of the judge, to keep the confession of Christ 
inviolate to death. Of like estate and dignity was Procopius in Pa- 
lestina, who after conversion brake his images of silver and gold, and 
distributed the value of them to the poor, and after all kind of torments, 
racking, tearing his flesh, at length had his head struck off. Georgius, 
a young man of Cappadocia, boldly inveighing against the impious 
idolatry of the emperors, was apprehended and cast into prison, then 
torn with irons, burnt with lime, stretched with cords ; after that, his 
hands and feet being cut off, his tortures were closed, and his crown 
of martyrdom was completed by beheading. 

We cannot close our account of the ten persecutions under the 
Roman emperors, without calling the attention of the Christian reader 
to the evident indignation which the Almighty manifested towards the 
persecutors. History shews that no nation or individual can prosper 
where Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is contemned. After these events, 
the Romans were not only plagued and destroyed by their own em- 
perors, but also by civil wars, three of which happened in two years at 
Rome, after the death of Nero. In the days of Tiberius, five thousand 
Romans were maimed or slain at one time by the fall of a theatre. By 
the destruction of the Jews, about this time, there were destroyed by 
Titus and Vespasian his father, eleven thousand, besides those whom 

• The order of the Garter, instituted by Edward the third, on an occasion well known to 
every child acquainted with English history, is placed under the tutelary protection of 
St. George ; but with a most ridiculous substitution of fable for fact. The saint is pictured 
in the badge of the order — a badge worn even by the bishop of Winchester, as prelate of 
the order, in every pulpit in which he preaches — in the traditionary attitude of tilting at a 
dragon as a sort of knight errantry defence of some hopeful virgin; thus commemorating 
by the highest order in the realm, a pagan fable, rather than any one of the christian 
enterprises by which the saint is said to have been distinguished ! The apology for this 
absurd preference is as ridiculous as the preference itself. The dragon is considered an 
emblem of the devil, and the saint's encounter with it an allegory of his assailing the 
powers of darkness by the life and death of a Christian hero 1 Subsequent ruling powers, 
however, not satisfied with this apology, have associated with St. George in the protection 
of the order, the Blessed Virgin, St. Edward the confessor, and even the Holy Trinity! 



84 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Vespasian slew in subduing Galilee, and those who were sent into 
Egypt, and other provinces to slavery, to the number of seventeen 
thousand. Two thousand were brought with Titus in his triumph; 
many of whom he gave to be devoured by the wild beasts, and the rest 
were most cruelly slain. By this case all nations may take example, 
what it is to reject the visitation of God's truth, and much more to 
persecute those who are sent by God for their salvation. 

And though the vengeance of God thus was shewn upon both Jews 
and Romans, for their contempt of Christ, whom God so punished by 
their own emperors; yet neither the emperors themselves, for perse- 
cuting Christ in his members, escaped without their just reward. For 
during the space of these first three hundred years, few or none of them 
escaped some miserable end. First we record the poisoning of Tiberius, 
and the slaughter of the three Neros after him. Then Domitius Galba 
within seven months was slain by Otho. And Otho afterwards killed 
himself, being overcome by Vitellius. Vitellius shortly after was drawn 
through the city of Rome, and after being tormented was thrown into 
the Tiber. Titus was thought to be poisoned by Domitian his brother; 
and Domitian was slain in his chamber by the consent of his wife. 
Commodus was murdered by Narcissus. Pertinax and Julianus met a 
similar fate. Severus was slain in England ; his son Bassianus killed 
his brother Geta, and he was murdered by Martialis. Macrinus with 
his son Diadumenus were both slain by their own soldiers. Heliogabulus 
was killed by his people, drawn through the city, and cast into the 
Tiber. Alexander Severus, although in life and virtues he was much 
superior to other emperors, yet met with the like end, being slain at 
Mentz with his godly mother Mammea, by Maximinus, whom the 
emperor from a mule-driver had advanced to great dignities. Maximinus 
also, three years after, was slain by his soldiers. Maximus and Balbinus, 
in like manner, were both massacred in Rome. Gordon was slain by 
Philip. Decius was drowned, and his son slain at the same time in 
battle. Gallus and Volusianus his sons, were both slain by a con- 
spiracy of Emilianus, who rose against them in war, and within three 
months was slain himself. Next to Emilianus succeeded Valerian and 
Galienus his son. Valerian was taken prisoner by the Persians, and 
there contemned by Sapores their king, who used him for a stool to 
leap upon his horse ; while his son Galienus, sleeping at Rome, either 
would not or could not revenge his father's ignominy. After the taking 
of Valerian, as many emperors rose up as there were provinces in the 
Roman monarchy. At length Galienus was killed by Aureolus, who 
warred against him. Aurelian was slain by his secretary. Tacitus and 
Florinus his brother: the first reigned six months, and was slain at 
Pontus; the other reigned two months, and was murdered at Tarsus. 
Probus, although a good civil emperor, was destroyed by his soldiers. 
After him Cams, the next emperor, was slain by lightning. Next to 
Carus followed the impious Diocletian, with Maximian, Valerius, Maxi- 
minus, Maxentius, and Licinius, under whom (during the time of 
Diocletian) the greatest persecution was excited against Christians for 
ten years. Diocletian and Maximian deposed themselves from the 
empire. The miserable end of Galerius has been already described. 



PERSECUTIONS IN PERSIA. 85 

Maximinius, in his war, being tormented with pain, died in misery. 
Maxentius was vanquished by Constantine, and drowned in the Tiber. 
Licinius, being overcome by Constantine the Great, was deposed from 
his empire, and afterwards slain by his soldiers. On the other hand, 
after the time of Constantine, when the faith of Christ was received into 
the imperial seat, we read of scarcely an emperor destroyed or molested. 
Thus it may be seen that the punishment of God, though deferred, is 
certain to alight on the wicked ; and if he has hitherto withheld his 
hand from visiting our sins in this realm, let us not on that account be 
high minded, but humbly thank him for his tender mercies; and while 
we bow before him in faith, let us endeavour to preserve his worship free 
from that ungodliness and superstition of which it is now purged. So 
shall we be happy in this fleeting world, and obtain everlasting life in 
the world to come, through the intercession of our blessed Redeemer, 
who offered up his life on the cross for our salvation. 



BOOK II. 

Containing an account of the persecutions in Persia under Sapores; the persecutions under 
the Arian ascendancy ; those under Julian the Apostate, the Goths and Vandals ; and in 
various parts of the world; with many other particulars. 

SECTION I. 

THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS IN PERSIA. 

The gospel having spread itself into Persia, the pagan priests became 
greatly alarmed, and dreaded the loss of their influence over the public 
mind. They therefore complained to the emperor, that Christians were 
enemies to the state, and held a treasonable correspondence with the 
Romans, the great enemies of Persia. The emperor, being averse to 
Christianity, readily believed what was said against its disciples, and gave 
orders to persecute them throughout his empire. On account of this 
mandate many fell martyrs, the sufferings of the most eminent of whom 
we shall here relate. 

Simeon, archbishop of Seleucia, with many other ecclesiastics, to the 
number of 128, were apprehended and accused of having betrayed the 
affairs of Persia to the Romans. The emperor being greatly exasperated 
against them, ordered Simeon to be brought before him. The arch- 
bishop in his presence boldly acknowledged his faith, and defended the 
cause of Christianity. The emperor offended at his freedom, ordered 
him to kneel before him, as he had done in former interviews. To this 
Simeon answered "That being now brought before him a prisoner, for 
the truth of his religion, and the sake of his God, it was not lawful 
for him to kneel, lest he should be thought to worship and betray 
his faith." 



86 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

On this the emperor told him, that if he did not kneel, he and all the 
Christians in his dominions should be put to death; but Simeon rejected 
with disdain the proposal to kneel. The emperor then ordered him to 
be sent to prison. A short time after, Simeon and his fellow-prisoners 
were examined, and commanded to worship the sun, agreeable to the 
Persian custom; but this they resolutely and unanimously refused. The 
emperor then sentenced them to be beheaded, and the sentence was 
executed without delay, exception, or remorse. 

"An aged eunuch, named Usthazares, who had been tutor to the em- 
peror, and was in great estimation at court, on observing Simeon pro- 
ceeding to prison, saluted him. Simeon, however, (as Usthazares had 
formerly been a Christian, and since apostatized to oblige the emperor) 
would not return his salute, but reproved him for his apostasy. This so 
affected the eunuch, that he burst into tears, and exclaimed, "Ah! how 
shall I hereafter look upon my God, whom I have denied, when Simeon, 
my old companion and familiar acquaintance, disdains to give me a 
gentle word, or to return my salute!" 

The emperor learning that his ancient tutor was afflicted, sent for him, 
and asked him whether he desired any thing which could be procured 
for him; to which the eunuch replied, That there was nothing that he 
wanted, which this earth could afford; but that his grief was of another 
kind, and for which he justly mourned, namely, that to oblige him he 
had denied his God, and had worshipped the sun, against his own con- 
science ; for which, continued he, I am deserving a double death, first, 
for denying Christ, and secondly, for dissembling with my king. 

The emperor, offended at this explanation, ordered Usthazares to be 
beheaded. While going to execution, he desired that a messenger might 
be sent to the emperor, to request that it might be proclaimed, "That 
Usthazares did not die for any crime against the king or state ; but only 
that being a Christian, he would not deny his God." This petition was 
granted, and was a great satisfaction to Usthazares, whose chief reason 
for desiring it was, because his apostasy from Christ had caused many 
others to follow his example; but now, hearing that he died for no crime 
but his religion, they might return to Christ. Usthazares then cheerfully 
yielded his neck to the executioner. 

On Good Friday after his execution, an edict was published to put to 
death all who confessed themselves Christians, which caused the destruc- 
tion of multitudes. About this time the empress of Persia falling sick, 
the sisters of Simeon, the archbishop, were accused by some of the magi 
of causing this calamity. This report being credited, they were, by the 
emperor's orders, sawed in quarters, and their limbs fixed upon poles, 
between which the empress passed as a charm to effect the restoration 
of her health. 

Acepsimus, and many other clergymen, were seized upon, and ordered 
to adore the sun ; which refusing, they were scourged, and then tortured 
to death, or kept in prison till they expired. Athalas, a priest, though 
not put to death, was so miserably racked, that his arms were rendered 
useless: and he was ever after obliged to be fed like a child. In short, 
by this edict, above 16,000 either suffered horribly by torture, or lost 
their lives by some barbarous execution. 



INTERFERENCE OF CONSTANTINE. 87 

When Constantine the Great was informed of the persecutions in 
Persia, he was much concerned, and began to reflect in what manner 
he should redress the grievances of the victims, when an ambassador 
arrived from the Persian emperor upon some political business. Con- 
stantine received him civilly, granted his demands, and wrote a letter to 
the Persian monarch in favour of the Christians, in which, he alluded to 
the vengeance that had fallen on persecutors, and the success that had 
attended those who had refrained from the persecution : and then refer- 
ring to the tyrants and persecuting emperors of his own time, he said, 
" I subdued those solely by faith in Christ; in which God was my helper, 
who gave me victory in battle, and made me triumph over my enemies; 
and hath so enlarged to me the bounds of the Romish empire, that it 
extends from the Western Ocean, almost to the uttermost parts of the 
East. For this purpose I neither offered sacrifice to the ancient deities, 
nor made use of charm or divination, but only prayer to Almighty God, 
and followed the cross of Christ : and how glad should I be to hear that 
the throne of Persia flourished by embracing the Christians ; that so you 
with me, and they with you, may enjoy all the felicity your souls could 
desire; and no doubt but you would, as God, the Almighty Creator of all 
things, would become your protector and defender. These men, there- 
fore, I commend to your mercy; I commit them unto you, desiring 
you to embrace them with humanity ; for in so doing, you will procure to 
yourself grace through faith, and bestow on me a benefit worthy of 
my thanks." 

In consequence of this appeal, the persecution ended during the life 
of Sapores; but it was renewed under his successors, when the following 
were the principal sufferers : — Hormisdas, a Persian nobleman, being 
convicted of Christianity, was ordered to attend the emperor's elephants 
naked. This disgusting task he performed for some time, when the 
emperor one day looking out of a window which commanded the yard 
where the elephants were kept, saw Hormisdas performing his office. 
Determining to try him once more, he gave orders that a shirt should be 
put on him, and that he should be brought into his presence. The 
emperor asked him if he would now deny Christ. On which Hormisdas 
tore off his shirt, and said, " If you think I will deny my faith for the 
sake of a shirt, take your gift again." The emperor then banished him 
from Persia, and he died in exile. 

Theodoret, a deacon, was imprisoned for two years, and on being 
released, was ordered not to preach the doctrine of Christ. He how- 
ever did his utmost to propagate the gospel, for which he was miserably 
tormented, by having sharp reeds thrust under his nails; and then a 
knotty branch of a tree was forced into his body, and he expired in the 
most excruciating agony. Bademus, a Christian of Mesopotamia, gave 
away his fortune to the poor, and devoted his life to religious retire- 
ment. This Christian, with seven others, was seized and cruelly 
tortured. The Christians, who were apprehended with Bademus, re- 
ceived martyrdom, though the manner is not recorded; and Bademus, 
after having been four months in prison, was beheaded by Narses, an 
apostate Christian, who acted as the executioner, in order to convince the 
emperor that he was sincere in his renunciation of the Christian faith. 



83 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

SECTION II. 
PERSECUTIONS UNDER THE ARIAN ASCENDANCY. 

The sect denominated Arian, had its origin from Arius, a native of 
Lybia, and a priest of Alexandria, who, in A. D. 318, began to publish 
his errors. He was condemned by a council of the Lybian and Egyptian 
bishops, and the sentence was confirmed by the council of Nice in 
A. D. 325. After the death of Constantine the Great, the Arians found 
means to ingratiate themselves into the favour of Constantius, his son 
and successor in the East; and hence a persecution was raised against 
the orthodox bishops and clergy. The celebrated Athanasius, and other 
bishops, were banished at this period, and their sees filled with Arians. 

In Egypt and Lybia, thirty bishops were martyred and many other 
Christians cruelly tormented. George, the first Arian bishop of Alexan- 
dria, under the authority of the emperor, began a persecution in that 
city, and its environs, which was continued some time with the utmost 
severity. He was assisted by Catophonius, governor of Egypt; Sebas- 
tian, general of the Egyptian forces; Faustinus, the treasurer; and a 
Roman officer, named Heraclius. So great was this persecution, that 
the clergy were driven from Alexandria, their churches were shut, and 
the severities practised by the Arian heretics became as great as those 
that had been exercised by the pagan idolaters. If a man accused of 
being an orthodox Christian made his escape, his whole family were 
massacred, and his effects forfeited. By this means, being deprived of 
all places of public worship in the city of Alexandria, the persecuted 
used to perform their devotion in a desert at some distance from it. On 
a Trinity Sunday, when they had met, George, the Arian bishop, en- 
gaged Sebastian, the general, to fall upon them with his soldiers, while 
they were at prayers; and several fell a sacrifice to the fury of the 
troops. The modes of cruelty were various; and the degrees equally 
diversified; for they were beaten on their faces till their features were 
disfigured ; or were lashed with twigs of palm-trees with such violence, 
that they expired under the blows, or by the mortification of the wounds. 
Several whose lives had been spared, were banished to the deserts of 
Africa, where amidst their sufferings, they passed their time in prayer, 
and general acts of piety and devotion. 

Secundus, an orthodox priest, differing in point of doctrine from 
a prelate of the same name, the bishop, who had imbibed the pecu- 
liarities of Arianism, determined to put Secundus to death, for rejecting 
opinions which he himself had thought proper to embrace. He went 
with one Stephen, as much an Arian as himself, sought out Secundus 
privately, fell upon and murdered him : the holy martyr, just before he 
expired, called upon Christ to receive his soul, and to forgive his 
enemies. At this time, being dissatisfied with the cruelties exercised 
upon the orthodox Christians in Alexandria, the principal persecutors 
applied to the emperor for an order to banish them from Egypt and 
Lybia, and to put their churches into possession of the Arians. They 
obtained their request, and an order was sent for that purpose to 




.SLAUGHTER OF CHRISTIANS AT ALEXANDRIA. 



PAGE 88. 



ARIAN PERSECUTIONS. 89 

Sebastian, the commander in chief of the Roman forces in those pro- 
vinces: the general signified the emperor's pleasure to all the sub- 
governors and officers. Thus a great number of the clergy were seized, 
and imprisoned for examination; when it appearing that they adopted 
the opinions of Athanasius, an order was signed for their banishment 
into uncultivated and mostly uninhabited regions. While the orthodox 
clergy were thus used, many of the laity were condemned to the mines, 
or compelled to work in the quarries. Some few indeed escaped to 
other countries, and several were weak enough to renounce their faith, 
in order to avoid the severity of the persecution. Paul, the bishop of 
Constantinople, was a Macedonian, and was designed from his birth 
for the clerical office. When Alexander, the predecessor of Paul, was 
on his death-bed, he was consulted by some of the clergy on the choice 
of a successor: he told them, " That if they were disposed to choose a 
person of an exemplary life, and thoroughly capable of instructing the 
people, Paul was the man; but if they had rather have a person of a 
well-composed appearance, acquainted with worldly affairs, and fit for 
the conversation of a court, they might then choose Macedonius." The 
latter was a deacon in the church of Constantinople, in which office he 
had spent many years, and gained great experience; and the dying 
prelate did both him and Paul justice in the different characters he 
gave them. Nevertheless, the Arians gave out, that Alexander had 
bestowed great commendations on Macedonius for sanctity, and had 
only given Paul the reputation of eloquence, and a capacity for busi- 
ness ; after some struggle, the orthodox party carried their point, and 
Paul was consecrated. Macedonius, being offended at this preference, 
did his utmost to calumniate the new bishop : but not gaining belief, 
he dropped the charge, and reconciled himself to Paul. This was not 
the case with Eusebius of Nicomedia, who resumed the accusations 
under two heads, as follow : — 

" 1. That he had led a disorderly life before his consecration. 
2. That he had been placed in the see of Constantinople without the 
consent of the bishops of Nicomedia and Heraclea, two metropolitans, 
who ought to have been consulted upon that occasion." 

Eusebius, to support these accusations, procured the emperor's au- 
thority, by representing that Paul, having been chosen during the 
absence of Constantius, the imperial dignity had been insulted. This 
artifice succeeded, and Paul being deposed Eusebius was placed in his 
stead. Thus Paul hwing lost all his authority in the East, retired to 
the territories of Constans, in the West, where he was well received by 
the orthodox prelates and clergy. At Rome he visited Athanasius, and 
assisted at a council held there by Julius, the bishop of that see. Let- 
ters being written by this council to the eastern prelates, Paul returned 
to Constantinople, but was not restored to his bishopric till the death of 
Eusebius. The Arians, however, constituting Macedonius their diocesan, 
by the title of bishop of Constantinople, a civil war ensued, in which 
many were put to death. 

Constantius the emperor, who was then at Antioch, hearing of the 
schism, laid the whole blame upon Paul, and ordered that he should 
be driven from Constantinople. But Hermogenes, the officer who had 



90 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

received the emperor's order, attempted in vain to put it into execution; 
for the orthodox Christians rising in defence of Paul, Hermogenes was 
killed. This greatly exasperated the emperor, who left Antioch in the 
depth of winter, and returned to Constantinople, resolving to punish 
the Christians. He, however, contented himself with banishing Paul 
and suspending Macedonius. After this, Paul retired again to the terri- 
tories of Constans, implored the protection of that emperor, and by his 
intercession, was restored to his see. His re-establishment exasperated 
his enemies, who were constantly employed in secret and open attempts 
against his life, against which the affections of his people were his 
only security. Being convinced that the emperor had no other motive 
for allowing his stay at Constantinople but the dread of disobliging his 
brother, Paul could not think himself perfectly safe in his bishopric; 
and being much concerned at what the orthodox bishops suffered from 
the power and malice of the Arian faction, joined Athanasius, who was 
then in Italy, in soliciting a general council. The council was held at 
Sardica, in Illyricum, in the year 347, at which were present three hun- 
dred bishops of the western, and seventy-three of the eastern empire. 
But disagreeing in many points, the Arian bishops of the East retired to 
Philippolis, in Thrace and forming a conference there, they termed it 
the council of Sardica ; from which place they pretended to issue an 
excommunication against Julius, bishop of Rome; Paul, bishop of 
Constantinople; Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria; and several other 
prelates. In the year 350, the emperor Constans died, which gave the 
Arians fresh courage, and they applied to the emperor Constantius, who 
being inclined towards them, he wrote an order to the prefect Philip, to 
remove Paul from the bishopric of Constantinople, and to restore 
Macedonius. Paul was exiled to Cucucus, and confined in a dark 
dungeon for six days without food, and then strangled. He met death 
with uncommon fortitude. 

The Arian party now made Gregory of Cappadocia, an obscure per- 
son, bishop of Alexandria, after having deposed Athanasius for his strict 
adherence to the orthodox faith. In the accomplishment of this affair, 
they were assisted by Philagerius, governor of Egypt, who was an apos- 
tate, and who authorised them to commit all manner of outrage. 
Arming themselves with swords and clubs, they broke into one of the 
principal churches of Alexandria, where numbers of orthodox Christians 
were assembled at their devotions ; and falling upon them in a barbarous 
manner, without the least respect to sex or age, most of them were 
destroyed. Potamo, a venerable bishop of Heraclea, who had formerly 
lost one of his eyes in Diocletian's persecution, fell a martyr upon this 
occasion ; being so cruelly scourged and beaten that he died of his 
wounds. The Arians also broke into many places, public and private, 
under pretence of searching for Athanasius, and committed innumerable 
barbarities ; robbing orphans, plundering the houses of widows, impri- 
soning the clergy, burning churches and dwelling-houses belonging to 
the orthodox Christians, besides other enormous cruelties, which were 
perpetuated by a mob of fanatics, under a name which every part of 
their temper and conduct disgraced. 



CONDUCT OF JULIAN. 91 

SECTION III. 
THE PERSECUTION UNDER JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 

Julian the Apostate, was the son of Julius Constantius, and the nephew 
of Constantine the Great. He studied the rudiments of grammar under 
the inspection of Madronius, a heathen eunuch of Constantinople. His 
father sent him afterwards to Nicomedia, to be instructed in the Chris- 
tian religion by the bishop Eusebius, his kinsman ; but his principles 
were corrupted by the pernicious doctrines of Maximus the magician, 
and Ecebolius a professor of rhetoric. 

Constantius died in the year 361, when Julian succeeded him; but 
he had no sooner attained the imperial dignity, than he renounced Chris- 
tianity and embraced paganism. He restored idolatrous worship, by 
opening the several temples that had been shut up, rebuilding such as 
were destroyed, and ordering the magistrates and people to follow his 
example ; but he issued no public edicts against Christianity. He re- 
called all banished pagans, allowed the free exercise of religion to every 
sect; but deprived all Christians of office at court, in the magistracy, or 
in the army. He was chaste, temperate, vigilant, laborious, and 
apparently pious ; so that by his hypocrisy and pretended virtues, he for 
a time did more mischief to Christianity than the most profligate of his 
predecessors ; especially as he deprived the christian clergy of the pri- 
vileges which had been granted them by Constantine the Great. 

Accordingly, this persecution was more dangerous than any of the 
former, since Julian, under the mask of clemency, practised the greatest 
cruelty in striving to denude many thousands of their true belief ; and 
the christian faith was in more danger of being subverted than it ever 
had been, by means of a monarch at once witty and wicked, learned 
and hypocritical ; who, at first, made his attempts by flattering gifts 
and favours — bestowing offices and dignities ; and then, by prohibiting 
christian schools, he compelled the children of the gospel either to 
become idolaters or remain illiterate. 

Julian ordered that Christians might be treated coldly upon all occa- 
sions and in all parts of the empire, and employed witty persons to turn 
them and their principles into ridicule. Many were likewise martyred 
in his reign : for though he did not publicly persecute them himself, he 
connived at their being murdered by his governors and officers ; and 
though he affected never to patronize these murderers, he never offered 
to punish them for their delinquency. We shall recount the names, 
sufferings, and martyrdoms of such as have been transmitted to posterity. 

By his opposition to Arianism, Basil made himself famous, which, 
brought upon him the vengeance of the Arian bishop of Constantinople, 
who issued an order to prevent him from preaching. He continued, 
however, to perform his duty at Ancyra, the capital of Galatia, till his 
enemies accused him of being an incendiary, and a disturber of the 
public peace. The monarch, however, was too intent on an expedition 
to Persia, to take notice of the accusation, and their malice at that time 
was wholly frustrated. Basil therefore continued to preach against the 



02 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

idolatry of paganism on the one hand, and the errors of Arianism on 
the other ; and earnestly exhorted the people to serve Christ in the purity 
of faith and fervency of truth. By this conduct both heathens and 
Arians were exasperated against him, and the consequence might be 
conjectured. 

One day meeting with a number of pagans going in procession to a 
sacrifice, he boldly expressed his abhorrence of the idolatrous proceed- 
ings, and inveighed against the absurd worship. This liberty caused 
the people to seize him, and carry him before Saturninus, the governor, 
when they brought three accusations against him, viz. reviling the gods, 
abusing the emperor, and disturbing the peace of the city. Having 
heard these accusations, Saturninus desired to know the sentiments of 
Basil from his own mouth ; when finding him a strenuous Christian, he 
ordered him first to be put to the rack, and then committed to prison. 
The governor wrote an account of his proceedings to the emperor, who 
was at this time very busy in establishing the worship of Cybele, the 
fictitious mother of the fabulous deities. Julian, on receiving the letter, 
sent Pagosus and Elipidius, two apostates, to Ancyra, the city where 
Basil was confined, to employ both promises and threatenings to constrain 
him to renounce his faith ; and in case of their failure, they had orders 
to surrender him to the power of the governor. The emperor's agents 
tampered with Basil in vain by means of promises, threatenings, and the 
rack : he was firm in his faith, and remained in prison when the emperor 
by accident came to Ancyra. As soon as the people knew of Julian's 
approach, they met him in grand procession, and presented to him their 
idol, the goddess Hecate. The two agents then gave the emperor an 
account of what Basil had suffered, and of his firm resistance. Julian, 
on this, determined to examine the sufferer himself, when that holy man 
being brought before him, the emperor did every thing in his power to 
dissuade him from persevering in the faith. Basil, however, not only con- 
tinued firm, but with a prophetic spirit foretold the death of the emperor 
and that he might be tormented in the other world. Julian then lost 
his usual affection of clemency, and told Basil in great anger, that 
though he had an inclination to pardon him at first, yet he had put 
it out of his power to save his life by the insolence of his behaviour. 
He then commanded that the body of Basil should be torn every day 
in seven different parts, till his skin and flesh were entirely mangled. 
The inhuman sentence was executed with rigour, and the martyr expired 
under its severities on the 28th of June, A. D. 362. 

About the same time, Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, and Hilarinus, a 
hermit, suffered for the faith ; the first being beheaded, and the latter 
scourged to death One Gordian, a Roman magistrate, having a Chris- 
tian before him for examination, was so charmed with the confession of 
his faith, that he not only discharged the prisoner, but became himself 
a Christian. This so enraged the Roman prefect, that he ordered him 
to be scourged and beheaded. 

Two brothers, named John and Paul, of a good family, and in high 
offices under the emperor, on being accused of professing Christianity, 
were deprived of their posts, and allowed ten days to consider whether 
they would renounce their faith and be promoted, or retain their faith 



PERSECUTIONS UNDER JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 93 

and be martyred. Resolutely choosing the latter alternative, they were 
both beheaded. 

Artemius, commander in chief of the Roman forces in Egypt, being 
a Christian, had two charges exhibited against him by the pagans — 
That he had demolished several idols in the reign of Constantine ; and 
that he had assisted the bishop of Alexandria in plundering the temples. 
Julian, who was then at Antioch, on hearing these charges, ordered the 
general to repair thither to answer them. On his arrival he boldly con- 
fessed the charges, when he was first deprived of his commission, then 
of his estate, and finally of his head. 

Cassian, a school-master of Imola, in the province of Romagno, for 
refusing to sacrifice to the idols, was taken before a judge ; who being 
apprised of his profession, and informed that many of the boys had an 
aversion to him on account of the strictness with which he kept them to 
their studies, determined they should have permission to murder him. 
He was accordingly delivered to the boys, with his hands tied behind 
him, who fell upon him with rods, whips, and steel pencils, which were 
then used in writing, and at length murdered him. This singular 
martyrdom happened on the 13th of August, A. D. 362. 

Maximilian and Bonosus, two officers of the Herculean guards, upon 
Julian taking away Constantine the Great's standard of the cross of 
Christ, threw up their commissions. Being apprehended, the governor 
had them separately examined, and finding them inflexible, he ordered 
Bonosus to be beaten with whips with leaden bullets on the thongs, and 
Maximilian to be scourged with the usual weapon. When remanded to 
prison, they were allowed nothing but bread and water, and the bread 
was marked with the seal of the emperor, the impression of which was 
an idol ; on account of this they refused to eat it. They were soon after- 
wards re-examined, and then beheaded. 

Bibiana was the daughter of Flavian and Dafrosa, two Christians. 
Flavian, her father, held a considerable post under the government, but 
being banished for his faith, died in exile. Dafrosa, her mother, was, 
for the same reason, ordered to be starved ; but Apronianus, governor of 
Rome, to accelerate her death, had her beheaded. Bibiana and her 
sister Demetria, after the death of her parents, were stripped of all 
their effects, and being brought before the governor, were ordered to 
renounce their religion. Demetria suddenly died in the governor's pre- 
sence, and Bibiana resolutely refused to renounce her faith, on which 
account she was scourged to death. 

About the end of the year 363, the persecution raged with more than 
usual violence. In Palestine many were burnt alive, others were dragged 
by their feet through the streets till they expired ; some were scalded to 
death, many stoned, and great numbers had their brains beaten out with 
clubs. In Alexandria innumerable martyrs suffered by the sword, 
burning, crucifixion, and stoning. 

In Thrace, Emilianus was burnt at the stake ; and Domitius was mur- 
dered in a cave, whither he had fled for concealment. Sozomenus as- 
scribes the rage of the Arethusians against Christian virgins to the efforts 
of Constantine, who had prevented their being exposed in the temple of 
Venus at Heliopolis. 



94 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Theodorus, for singing the praises of God, was apprehended and put 
to the rack, though not to death. After being taken down, he was asked 
how he could so patiently endure such exquisite tortures ; to which he 
returned this remarkable reply : " At first I felt some pain, but after- 
wards there appeared to stand by me a young man, who wiped the sweat 
from my face, and frequently refreshed me with cold water, which so 
delighted me, that 1 regretted being let down." k 

Marcus, bishop of Arethusa, having destroyed a pagan temple in that 
city, erected a christian church in its room, on which account he was 
accused to Julian as a Christian. His persecutors stripped and cruelly 
beat him. He was then thrust into a filthy sewer till he was almost suf- 
focated ; afterwards he was goaded with sharp-pointed sticks; and lastly 
he was hung up in a basket in the heat of the sun, after being smeared 
over with honey, in order to be tormented to death by wasps. As soon 
as he was hung up, they asked him if he would rebuild their temple. 
To which he answered, that he would neither rebuild it nor advance a 
single doit towards its being rebuilt ; upon which they left him, and he 
fell a martyr to the venom of the insects. 

Maxentius and Juventius, two christian officers, were put to death 
about the same time, for reproving the emperor on account of his idola- 
tries. Eusebius and Nestabus, two brethren, with Nestor also, for their 
Christianity, were dragged through the streets and murdered by the 
idolatrous people of Gaza. 

"When Julian formed an expedition against the Persians, he imposed 
a large fine upon every one who refused to sacrifice to the idols, and by 
that means gained a great sum from the Christians towards defraying the 
expence. Many of the officers in collecting these fines, exacted more 
than was due, and some of them tortured the Christians to make them 
pay what they demanded, telling them in derision, " that when they 
were injured they ought to take it patiently, for so their God commanded 
them." The inhabitants of Csesarea were fined three hundred weight 
of gold, and several of the clergy obliged to serve in the wars, as a 
punishment for having overthrown the temples of Jupiter, Fortune, and 
Apollo. The governor at Meris, in Phrygia, having cleansed and opened 
a pagan temple, the Christians in the night broke in and demolished the 
idols. Next day the governor ordered all Christians that accidentally 
came in the way to be seized, that he might make examples of them, 
and by this means he would have executed several innocent persons ; 
but those who really perpetrated the act, being too just to suffer such 
retaliation, voluntarily delivered themselves up ; when they were scourged 
severely, and then put to a cruel and lingering death. 

Julian died of a wound which he received in his Persian expedition, 
A. D. 363, and even while expiring he uttered the most horrid blas- 
phemies. He was succeeded by Jovian, who restored peace to the 
church. After the decease of Jovian, Valentinian succeeded to the empire, 
and associated with himself Valens, who had the command in the East. 

k For many interesting particulars of this martyr, those acquainted with classical 
literature are referred to Ruff. 5, cap. 26; Theod. lib. 3, cap. 11 ; and Sozom. lib. 5, 
cap. 10, 20. 



PERSECUTIONS UNDER JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 95 

The latter was a great favourer of Arianism, and so incensed against the 
Christians, that on a certain day he ordered all in Edessa to be slain 
while they were at their devotion in the churches. The officers, how- 
ever, being more compassionate than the emperor, privately gave notice 
to the Christians not to assemble on the day appointed, so that they 
might escape death. 

The Christians thanked the officers for their advice, but disregarded 
both that and the emperor's menaces rather than neglect their duty. 
They repaired to the church, and the troops were put in motion to 
destroy them. As they marched along, a woman, with a child in her 
arms, broke through the ranks, when the officer ordered her to be 
brought before him, and asked her where she was going. She replied 
to church, whither others were making all the haste they could. " Have 
you not heard," said the officer, " of the emperor's order, to put to 
death all who are found there ?" " I have," said she, " and for that 
reason I make the more haste." " And whither," said the officer, " do 
you lead that child?" "I take him," replied she, "with me, that he 
also may be numbered among the martyrs." Upon this the humane 
officer returned to the emperor, and told him that all the Christians were 
prepared to die in defence of their faith, represented to him the rash- 
ness of murdering so great a multitude, and entreated him to drop the 
design, at least for the present: reluctantly he complied with the humane 
advice. 

Urbanus, Menidemus, and Theodorus, with several other orthodox 
clergymen, to the number of fourscore, at Constantinople, petitioned the 
emperor to relieve them from the oppressions and cruelties of the Arians. 
But the tyrant, instead of redressing their grievances, ordered them all 
to be embarked in a ship, and the vessel to be set on fire. This infernal 
order being executed, they all perished in the flames. 1 

1 Although the truth of these cruel martyrdoms cannot be doubted, yet many persons 
will wonder why the Almighty Director of all things would suffer his servants, who believed 
in his word, to be so horribly treated ; but as St. Jerome has justly observed, " We ought 
not to be moved with this iniquity of things, to see the wicked prevail against the body :" 
for even in the beginning of the world, we see Abel the just was killed by the wicked 
Cain ; and afterwards Jacob thrust out for Esau to reign in his father's house. The 
Egyptians, also, afflicted the sons of Israel; and the Lord himself was crucified by the 
Jews. The godly in this world therefore suffer for examples, and the wicked flourish and 
prevail ; yet we may be sure that these afflictions of God's people in the world have not 
come by chance or fortune, but by the provident appointment of God. For as by the 
affliction of the children of Israel, he hath prefigured the persecution of the Christians, so, 
by the words of Christ in the gospel did he forewarn his church of the troubles to come. 
Neither did he suffer these great afflictions to fall upon his servants before he had warned 
them by special revelation in the Apocalypse of John; in which he declared not only what 
troubles were coming upon them, and where and by whom they should come, but also 
assigned the true time, how long the said persecutions should continue, and when they 
should cease. The feelings of the Editor, and he is sure those of his readers, on perusing 
the accounts of such horrid cruelties, resemble those of Titus Livius, who, when writing of 
the wars of Carthage, was so astonished and afflicted, that he cried out, " Ac si in parte 
alequa labores, ac periculi ipse pariter fuisset." 



96 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

SECTION IV. 

THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS BY THE GOTHS, &c. 

During the reign of Constantine the Great several Scythian Goths 
embraced Christianity, the light of the gospel having spread consider- 
ably in Scythia, though the two kings who ruled that country and the 
majority of the people continued pagans. Fritegern, king of the 
Western Goths, was an ally of the Romans ; but Athanaric, king of 
the Eastern Goths, was at war with them. The Christians, in the 
dominions of the former, lived unmolested ; but the latter, having been 
defeated by the Romans, wreaked his vengeance on his Christian 
subjects. 

Sabas, a Christian, was the first who felt the king's resentment. He 
was humble and modest, yet fervent and zealous for the advancement of 
the church. Indeed the sanctity of his life and the purity of his manners 
gave the greatest force to his doctrines. 

In the year 370, Athanaric gave orders that all persons in his domi- 
nions should sacrifice to the pagan deities, and eat the meat which had 
been offered to idols, or be put to death for disobedienee. Some humane 
pagans, who had christian relations, endeavoured to save them by offer- 
ing them meat which had not received the idolatrous consecration, while 
the magistrates were made to believe that all had been done according 
to their direction. But Sabas too well knew St. Paul's principles, to 
imagine that the sin lay in eating : he knew that giving the enemies of 
the faith an advantage over the weak rendered that action criminal in 
Christians. He, therefore, not only refused to comply with what was 
proposed to him, but publicly declared, that those who sheltered them- 
selves under that artifice were not true Christians. 

Sabas was soon after apprehended on account of his faith, and car- 
ried before a magistrate, who enquired into his fortune and circumstances; 
when finding that he was a person of obscure station, he was dismissed 
with contempt. He then went to spend the Easter with Sansala, a chris- 
tian priest of great piety ; but on the third night after his arrival they 
were both seized by a party of soldiers. The priest was allowed to dress 
himself and to ride, but Sabas was obliged to leave his clothes behind 
him and to walk; and, during the journey, they drove him through 
thorns and briars, beating him almost continually. This cruelty he 
bore without a single murmur. In the evening they extended him be- 
tween two beams, fastening his legs to the one and his arms to the other; 
and in that posture left him for the night. The woman of the house, 
however, went and released him ; but though he was now at liberty, he 
did not avail himself of the opportunity to make his escape. The next 
morning the persecutors began to tamper with Sabas and the priest to 
renounce their religion, and eat the meat consecrated to the idols. 
They, however, positively declared that they were ready to suffer the 
most cruel death rather than comply. Sansala was at length discharged, 
and Sabas was ordered to be drowned. 

Nicetas was of Gothic extraction ; his parents lived near the banks 



EUSEBIUS AND THE ARIANS. 97 

of the Danube, and though he had long been a Christian he never met 
with inj ary on that account, till the persecution was begun by Atha- 
naric. That monarch ordered an idol to be drawn on a chariot through 
all places where the Christians lived ; and that it should be stopped at 
the door of every one who professed the gospel, and the christian inha- 
bitants ordered to pay it adoration. On a refusal being given, the 
house was immediately set on fire, and all within consumed. This hap- 
pened to Nicetas, who, on account of his religion, refusing to pay the 
respect demanded to the idol, had his house burnt, and himself was 
consumed in it. 

The celebrated Eusebius, bishop of Samostatia, was a distinguished 
example in ecclesiastical history, and was one of the most eminent 
champions of Christ against the Arian heresy. The Arians having ad- 
vanced Miletus to the see of Antioch, thinking Eusebius of their party, 
the warrant of advancement was placed in his hands. When Miletus 
preached his first sermon, the Arians, to their great surprise, found they 
had been greatly mistaken in him, for his doctrines were pure. They, 
therefore, persuaded the emperor to displace him, and likewise to get 
the instrument out of the hands of Eusebius. Miletus was accordingly 
deposed, and the emperor sent to Eusebius to deliver the instrument: 
but he answered that he could not give up a trust reposed in him by so 
great a number, without the consent of all concerned in it. The em- 
peror, incensed at this reply, wrote to him, that he had commissioned 
the bearer of the letter to cut off his right hand, if he refused to sur- 
render the instrument in question ; which threat was added to awe him 
into compliance. Eusebius, however, without the least emotion, offered 
his hands, and declared he would lose them both rather than part with 
the deed. The emperor was greatly surprised at his resolution, and 
professed a high esteem for him ever after. 

The Arians now looked upon Eusebius as a dangerous enemy. At 
the time Jovian restored peace to the church, Miletus convened a 
council at Antioch, which consisted of Eusebius and twenty-five other 
prelates, who unanimously confirmed the doctrines of the council of 
Nice. At this time the see of Ceesarea becoming vacant, Eusebius was 
instrumental in promoting Basil to it, on which occasion Gregory the 
younger calls him, "The pillar of truth, the light of the world, the 
fortress of the church, the rule of faith, the support of the faithful, and 
an instrument in the hands of God for bestowing favours on his people." 
When the Arians were the most vigilant to propagate their tenets, 
Eusebius was assiduous in taking measures to prevent their success; 
and his zeal was always so governed by prudence, that his attempts 
seldom failed, till at length the emperor, at their instigation, granted an 
order for banishing him into Thrace. He was at Samostatia when the 
messenger came with his commission; it was late in the evening, and 
Eusebius, who was beloved by his people, begged he would make no 
noise, but conceal his business; " for," says he, " if it be known, the 
people will fall on you, throw you into the river, and then I shall be 
charged with your death." Eusebius went through his usual devotions, 
and when the night was far advanced he left his house on foot, attended 
by only one trusty servant, who carried a pillow and book after him. 



98 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Thus accommodated he took a boat, and proceeded to Zeugma, about 
seventy miles down the river. 

The people next day missing Eusebius, and hearing which way he 
was gone, followed in a great number of boats, and overtaking would 
have rescued him, entreating him, with tears in their eyes, not to 
abandon them. Their cordiality deeply affected him; but he said he 
must go according to the emperor's order, putting them in mind of the 
authority of St. Paul for paying due reverence to the civil power. On 
finding they could not prevail, they provided him with things that would 
comfort him in his journey, and then left him. 

It happened that Thrace was now a scene of confusion, by means of 
the war carried on between the Goths and the emperor's forces; and in 
these contests, the life of Eusebius was in great danger. At length the 
emperor, in order to terminate the war with the greatest expedition, 
resolved to march against the Goths in person; but first, to engage the 
prayers of the Christians, he gave peace to the church, and allowed 
the prelates to return to their several stations. Thus was Eusebius re- 
stored to his see, which, however, he did not long enjoy, for an Arian 
woman threw a tile at him from the top of a house, fracturing his skull 
and terminating his life. This happened in the year 380. 

The bishop of Apamea, a prelate of great merit, was very active in 
endeavouring to suppress idolatry in his own diocese, on which account 
his life was in continual danger, till Cynegius, the prefect, arrived with 
a considerable body of troops, which kept the pagans in awe. This 
officer's design was to abolish idolatry, to effect which he determined to 
destroy the temple of Jupiter. He, however, found this a difficult at- 
tempt ; for the building was so strong, the stones so unwieldy, and the 
cement so durable, that he despaired of being able to accomplish the 
work; when a poor labouring Christian, recommended by Marcellus, 
undertook to accomplish what the prefect had abandoned, and the 
business was executed in the following manner : — The man examined the 
edifice, and finding it surrounded by a gallery, supported by stately 
pillars ten yards in circumference, he knew it would be more to his 
purpose to weaken the foundation than to attack the body of the build- 
ing; with this view he dug at the bottom of the pillars, and shored them 
with timber beams. When he had thus undermined three of the strongest 
pillars, he set fire to the wood, when the pillars fell, drew twelve more 
with them, and brought down one whole side of the building; upon 
which the Christians flocked from all parts of the town, and praised 
God for the demolition of the temple. 

The bishop and prefect continued destroying a great number of idol 
temples, when being at a town called Aulo upon this business, while the 
troops were busy in demolishing the buildings, some pagans privately 
seized upon the venerable prelate, and burnt him, A. D. 393. 



PERSECUTIONS UNDER THE ARIAX VANDALS, 99 



SECTION V. 
THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS 

CXDER THE ARIAX VANDALS. 

The Arian Vandals proceeding from Spain to Africa in the fifth century, 
under their leader Genseric, committed many cruelties. They perse- 
cuted the Christians wherever they went, and laid waste the country as 
they passed, in order that those left behind, who had escaped, might not 
be able to live. They plundered the churches, and murdered the bishops 
and ministers by a variety of cruel devices. They also wreaked their 
vengeance on several of the nobility, whom they loaded with heavy 
burdens, and obliged them to carry their baggage ; and if they did not 
travel fast enough, they goaded them with sharp weapons, so that several 
died under their burdens. Old men found no mercy, and even innocent 
and feeble infants felt the rage of their barbarity. Stately buildings 
were burned or destroyed ; and the chief churches in Carthage were 
perverted to heretical worship, or put to profane uses ; and where any 
castles held out against them, they brought great numbers of Christians 
and slew them, leaving their bodies under the walls, that the besieged 
might be forced to surrender by means of the offensive stench which 
arose from them. When they had seized and plundered the city of 
Carthage, they put the bishop and all the clergy into a leaky ship, and 
committed it to the mercy of the waves, thinking that they must all 
perish; but the vessel, through Divine Providence, arrived safe at 
Naples. 

Several Christians were beaten, scourged, and banished to Capsur, 
where it pleased God to make them the means of converting many of 
the Moors to Christianity; but this coming to the knowledge of Genseric, 
he sent orders, that they and their converts should be tied by the feet 
to chariots, and dragged till their life was extinct. Pempinian, bishop 
of Alansuetes, was burnt to death with plates of hot iron. The bishop of 
Urice was also burnt. The bishop of Habensa was banished, for refusing 
to deliver up the sacred books which were in his possession ; and a whole 
congregation, assembled in a church at their devotions, together with 
the clergyman who was conducting the service, were murdered by the 
barbarians who broke in upon them. 

The Vandal tyrant, having made an expedition into Italy, and plun- 
dered the city of Rome, returned to Africa, flushed with the success of 
his arms; and the xArians took this occasion to persuade him to persecute 
the Christians, who differed from them. 

Armogastus felt the rage of this persecution; Victor, the learned 
bishop of Vita, who was acquainted with Armogastus, and who wrote the 
history of this persecution, informs us, that " his legs were tied, and his 
forehead bound with cords severely ; which, though tightened, made not 
the least impression on his flesh, nor left any mark on his skin. After 
this, he was hung up by the feet; but in that posture seemed to be as 
much at his ease as if he reposed on a bed. Theodoric, one of the 



100 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

king's sons, finding all attempts on his life had hitherto proved unsuc- 
cessful, ordered his head to be struck off; but Jocundus, a priest, dis- 
suaded him, by telling him it would be much better to destroy him 
gradually, as a violent death would procure him the reputation of a 
martyr. The prince therefore sent him to the mines, and some time 
after removed him to a place near Carthage, where he was employed 
in tending cattle. While Armogastus was thus engaged, he became ex- 
ceedingly ill, and imagining that the end of his labours was near, he 
communicated his thoughts to Felix, a virtuous Christian, employed in 
that prince's service, from whom he received consolation. His disorder 
soon deprived him of life, and he was buried by Felix according to his 
own desire. 

There was a devout Christian, named Archinemus, upon whom various 
artifices were employed in vain to make him renounce his faith. At 
length Genseric himself undertook to persuade him, but finding his en- 
deavours ineffectual, he sentenced him to be beheaded. At the same 
time he privately ordered the executioner really to perform his office, if 
the prisoner seemed intimidated; " for then," said he, " the crown of 
martyrdom will be lost to him ; but if he seems courageous, and willing 
to die, strike not, for I do not intend that he shall have the honour of 
being deemed a martyr." The executioner finding Archinemus happy in 
the thought of dying for the sake of Christ, brought him back again. 
He was soon after banished, and never heard of more, though it is con- 
jectured that he was privately murdered by the king's order. 

Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, was eminent for his learning and piety, 
which brought upon him the hatred of the Arians, who took great pains 
to set the king Huneric against him and his orthodox brethren, several 
thousand of whom were banished to a desert, where many perished. 
Huneric also sent an edict to Eugenius, which he commanded him to 
read in the cathedral on Ascension-day, A. D. 483. By this it was 
ordered that the orthodox bishops should meet at Carthage on 
the first of February, for the purpose of disputing with the Arian pre- 
lates. The king's stratagem was discovered by Eugenius, and se- 
veral other bishops, particularly Victor bishop of Vita, the learned 
author of the account of this persecution ; and they determined 
after deliberation, to send a petition to the king : it was written by 
Eugenius, and presented by a person who had great interest at court. It 
stated, that the African prelates did not decline the proposed conference 
from the weakness of their cause, or a distrust of their own abilities to 
maintain their mode of faith ; but as the whole church was concerned 
in the dispute, they were of opinion that they could not engage in it 
without the bishops of Europe and Asia. Huneric answered, that what 
they desired was impossible, unless the whole world was in his hands. 
Upon this Eugenius desired his majesty would be pleased to write to 
Odoacer, king of Italy, and other princes in his interest ; and allow him 
to send to the bishops, that the common faith might be thus authorita- 
tively advocated. Disregarding this remonstrance, the king insisted 
upon being obeyed; and then, previous to the time appointed, banished 
several of the most learned of the orthodox prelates on various pre- 
tences, that the Arians might have the advantage. 



CRUELTIES OF HUNERIC. 101 

At the time appointed for the conference, the orthodox clergy chose 
ten of their number to speak in the name of the rest. Cyrilla, an Arian, 
took the title of patriarch upon the occasion, and was seated on a mag- 
nificent throne. The Arian prelates were allowed to sit near him, but 
the orthodox bishops were obliged to stand. They complained of this 
partial treatment as an infringement of their liberty ; and Eugenius, 
perceiving that they did not intend coming to any candid decision, pro- 
posed to adjourn ; but instead of complying with this, each orthodox 
prelate was threatened by the king's order with a hundred blows. 
Eugenius protested against such violence, but inyain ; the prelates wefe 
turned out of the place unheard, their churches were shut up, and the 
revenues of their bishoprics confiscated. They were then compelled to 
quit Carthage, and lay without the walls of that city, exposed to all the 
inclemency of the weather. The king passing out at one of the gates, 
the orthodox clergy presented themselves before him, and modestly com- 
plained of the treatment they had received : but instead of redressing 
their grievances, Huneric ordered his guards to chastise them. The 
soldiers, in consequence, treated them unmercifully ; and the king 
ordered them to appear on a future day at a certain place, where, at the 
time appointed, they assembled ; when one of his officers showed them 
a paper, and informed them that the king was inclined to forget what 
was past, and to restore them to their livings, if they would swear to the 
truth of what that paper contained. The prelates, surprised at this pro- 
posal declared that they could not in conscience swear to the truth of 
that to which they were total strangers ; but if they were suffered to 
read the writing, and approved of the contents, they would take the 
oath. The officer answered, that he would tell them the contents, which 
were of a political nature, and only required them to swear that they 
were willing prince Hilderic should succeed his father on the throne. 
Several of the prelates innocently thinking there could be no harm in 
taking such an oath, complied ; but the rest, with greater caution, refused 
the oath, as they judged some artifice was in contemplation. 

While they were disagreeing upon this head, the officer took ad- 
vantage of their discord, and committed them to separate prisons, 
those who were willing to swear to one, and those who were un- 
willing to another ; but they had not been long in confinement 
before the artifice was exposed by an order from the king for the 
banishment of both parties. Those who had been willing to swear were 
banished, under the pretence of offering to break the established pre- 
cept of the Scripture, "Swear not at all;" and those who had refused 
to swear, were banished as enemies to the legal succession. The former 
were obliged to work as slaves in distant colonies, and the latter were 
sent to the island of Corsica to cut timber. Eugenius was exiled to 
Tripoli, where Anthony a violent Arian bishop, threw him into a dungeon, 
and made him suffer severe hardship, in order to destroy him by a lin- 
gering death. The dampness of the place gave Eugenius the palsy, 
which Anthony hearing of went to the gaol, and finding him weak and 
lying on the floor, he poured strong vinegar down his throat to choke 
him. It had, however, a contrary effect; instead of suffocating, it promoted 
copious perspiration, which removed the palsy and restored him to health. 



102 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

When Huneric died, his successor recalled Eugenius and the rest of 
the orthodox clergy. The Arians taking the alarm, persuaded him to 
banish them again, which he did ; when Engenius, being exiled to 
Languedoc in France, died there of the hardships he underwent, on the 
6th of September, in the year 505. 

A widow lady of fortune, named Dionysia, being apprehended as an 
orthodox Christian, was stripped, exposed in a most indecent manner, 
and severely scourged. Her son, a mere youth, was seized at the same 
time, but seemed afraid of the torture, and looked piteously at his mother, 
who ordered him not to. fear torment, but to be constant to the faith in 
which she had brought him up. When he was upon the rack, she again 
comforted him with her pious speeches. On this the youth patiently 
persevered, and resigned his soul to his Creator. The mother saw the 
death of her son, and soon after herself received the crown of martyrdom. 

Cyrilla, the Arian bishop of Carthage, was a furious persecutor, and 
a determined enemy to those Christians who professed the faith in purity. 
He persuaded the king that he could never prosper in his undertakings, 
or enjoy his kingdom in peace, while he suffered any of the orthodox 
Christians to practise their principles : and the monarch believing the 
prediction, sent for several of the most eminent Christians, who were 
obnoxious to the prelate. He at first attempted to draw them from 
their faith by flattery, and to bribe them by the promise of immediate 
worldly rewards ; but they were firm and constant, declaring resolutely 
against Arianism, and saying, " We acknowledge but one Lord, and 
one faith; you may therefore do whatever you please with our bodies, 
for it is better that we should suffer a few temporary pains than to 
endure everlasting misery." The king being greatly exasperated at this 
remark, sent them to a dungeon, and ordered them to be put in irons. 
The keeper, however, suffered their friends to have access to them ; by 
which they became daily more confirmed in their resolution of dying for 
the sake of their Redeemer. 

The king heard of the indulgence they received, and was exceedingly 
angry, sending orders that they should be closely confined, and loaded 
with still heavier fetters. He then began to consider by what means he 
should put them to death, and at length determined to imitate the bar- 
barity of the emperor Valens, who caused fourscore clergymen to be 
burnt in a ship. Resolving upon this infernal precedent, he ordered 
these Christians to be put on board a vessel filled with combustible 
materials, and set on fire. The names of those who suffered by this cruel 
expedient were, Rusticus, Severus, Liberatus, Rogatus, Servus, Septimus 
and Boniface. 



103 



BOOK III. 



SECTION I. 

THE PERSECUTIONS FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTH, TO THE 
CONCLUSION OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 

Proterius was made a priest by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria. On 
the death of Cyril, the see of Alexandria was filled by Dioscorus, an 
inveterate enemy both to the memory and family of his predecessor. 
Dioscorus, however, knowing the reputation of Proterius, and his great 
interest, did all in his power to gain his confidence and favour, thinking 
he might be of service to him in carrying on his evil intentions; but 
Proterius was not to be corrupted, and no prospect of worldly prefer- 
ment could bribe him to forego his duty. At length Dioscorus being 
condemned by the council of Chalcedon for having embraced the errors 
of Eutyches, was deposed, and Proterius chosen to fill the see, and ap- 
proved of by the emperor On this an insurrection broke out, the city 
of Alexandria being divided into two factions; one espousing the cause 
of the old, and the other of the new prelate. Proterius was in immi- 
nent danger from a set of schismatics, who would neither obey the de- 
cision of the council nor the emperor's commands. 

The disorders becoming serious, the governor of Thebias marched with 
a body of troops in order to quell them. The people, however, were in 
a kind of phrenzy : when they heard of the approach of the governor, 
they armed themselves, marched out of Alexandria, gave him battle, 
and defeated him. The intelligence of this affair so exasperated the 
emperor, that he sent a detachment of two thousand men against them ; 
whose appearance, and the prudence of the governor of Alexandria, 
whose name was Florus, soon restored peace to the city. Still the dis- 
contented party beheld Proterius with resentment, so that he was obliged 
to have a guard for his personal safety; and at length, though naturally 
of a mild temper, was compelled to excommunicate some of his foes, 
and obtain their banishment from Alexandria. When the emperor 
Marcian's death, which happened two years after, gave a new turn to 
affairs, the exiles returned to Alexandria, renewed their cabals against 
Proterius, and resolved to be revenged on him for what they had suffered. 
Timothy, a priest, who was at the head of the designs that had been 
formed against -Proterius, employed every art to ruin his credit, drawing 
the people from his communion, and raising himself to the see. At 
last taking advantage of the absence of Dionysius, who commanded the 
forces of that province, and was then in Upper Egypt, he seized on the 
great church, and was uncanonically consecrated by two bishops of his 
faction, who had been deposed for heresy. He continued the exercise 
of the episcopal functions, till the commander's return, who, hearing of 
the disorders that had been committed, and that Timothy was the chief 
author of them, expelled and exiled him. 



104 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

This affair so enraged the Eutychians, that they determined to take 
vengeance on Proterius, who fled to the altar for sanctuary: but on 
Good Friday, A. D. 457, a large body of them rushed into the church, 
and murdered the prelate; after which they dragged his body through 
the streets, cut it in pieces, burnt it, and dispersed the ashes. 

When the Vandals sacked Carthage, a lady named Julia, was taken 
prisoner, and after being sold and resold as a slave, she became the pro- 
perty of a Syrian pagan, named Eusebius. Her master frequently took 
her with him upon his voyages : in one of these they touched upon the 
island of Corsica, where Eusebius joined in an idolatrous festival; but 
Julia kept from it. The heathens complained of this conduct, as dis- 
respectful to their gods, and informed the governor Felix of it, who sent 
for Eusebius, and demanded what young woman it was who had re- 
fused to join in worship to the gods. Eusebius replied, that the young 
woman was a Christian, and that all his authority over her could not 
induce her to renounce her religion ; but she was a very diligent and 
faithful servant. 

Felix pressed him to exert himself, either to oblige her to assist at the 
pagan worship, or to part with her ; and offered to give him his own 
price, or four of his best female slaves in exchange for her, which the 
pagan refused. When Felix found him inflexible, he determined to get 
her into his power by artifice, and invited Eusebius to an entertainment, 
when having intoxicated him, he sent for Julia in the name of her 
master. The slave, not suspecting the design, immediately went; when 
the governor told her that he would procure her liberty, if she would 
sacrifice to the heathen gods ; but not being able to prevail, he ordered 
her to be severely beaten, and finding her still resolute, he commanded 
that the hair of her head should be plucked by the roots. This bar- 
barity having no greater effect, he sentenced her to be hanged. Scarcely 
was Julia dead when Eusebius recovered from his intoxication, and un- 
derstanding what had past, he in the first transports of his resentment 
thought of complaining to the emperor, who being a Christian, would 
have punished the perfidy of the governor ; but reflecting that Felix had 
only acted with zeal for the deities he himself adored, he determined to 
put up with the loss, and retire from the place. 

Hermengildus, a Gothic prince, was the eldest son of Leovigildus, king 
of the Goths, in Spain. This prince, who was originally an Arian, be- 
came a convert to the orthodox faith, by means of his wife, whose name 
was Ingonda. The king, on hearing that his son had changed his reli- 
gious sentiments, stripped him of the command at Seville, where he was 
governor, and threatened to put him to death, unless he renounced the 
new faith. On this the prince, in order to prevent the execution of his 
father's menaces, began to prepare for defence; and many of the ortho- 
dox persuasion in Spain declared on his side. Exasperated at this act 
of rebellion, the king began to punish all the orthodox Christians who 
could be seized and thus originated a very severe persecution. He 
marched against his son at the head of a powerful army; and knowing 
that he could not oppose the formidable force that his father was bring- 
ing against him, the prince implored the assistance of the Roman troops 
left to garrison those parts of Spain which the emperor still possessed. 



HERMENG1LDUS CAPTURED AND SLAIN. 105 

The Roman commander undertook to assist Hermengildus, but being 
bribed by the king he broke his promise. Leovigildus then made it his 
business, as much as possible, to detach the orthodox Christians from the 
interest of his son ; and in this he was too successful, for it was effected in 
581, by convening the Arian prelates at Toledo, who abolished the prac- 
tice of re-baptising such as came over to their sect; and he drew up a 
captious profession of faith which deceived many, and prevailed upon 
them to quit the interest of Hermengildus. Finding himself forsaken 
by numbers in whom he most confided, the prince was obliged to retreat 
towards Seville, where he soon after shut himself up, and sent to Con- 
stantinople for assistance from the emperor. The death of that 
monarch, however, prevented him from receiving relief; for Maurice, 
who succeeded him, had no opportunity to afford any succour to Her- 
mengildus. The king, who knew of the conduct of his son, proceeded 
to Seville and laid siege to it : the prince defended the place with great 
bravery, and held out for twelve months ; but finding that it must soon 
be taken, he privately made his escape, and fled to the Roman troops 
to beg protection. Being informed that they intended to give him up, 
he hastily fled to Corduba, and from thence went to Asseto, which he 
fortified and prepared for his defence. On the escape of the prince 
from Seville that city surrendered, and the king having placed a gar- 
rison in it, pursued his son, laid siege to Asseto, and soon obliged it to 
surrender. The prince being driven to this distress, flew to a church, 
when the king respecting the sanctity of the place, sent an officer, 
named Reccaredus, to assure him of pardon, upon his submitting to 
ask it. The prince believing his father to be sincere, immediately went 
and threw himself at his feet : the king, however, instead of forgiving 
him, loaded him with chains, and carried him to Seville, where he endea- 
voured by promises and menaces to make him renounce the christian 
faith. Nevertheless, the prince remained true, and at Easter, when 
the king sent an Arian bishop to him to administer the eucharist, Her- 
mengildus refused to receive it ; which so enraged the king, that he or- 
dered some of his guards to go and cut him to pieces. 

Anastasius, a Persian, was brought up a Pagan, and bore arms as a 
soldier under Cosroes, king of Persia, at the time that monarch plun- 
dered Jerusalem. Among other things they are said to have carried off 
the very cross on which Christ was crucified. Anastasius could not 
imagine why the Christians had such veneration for a person who died 
so mean a death as that of crucifixion ; for that mode of death was 
held by the Persians in the greatest contempt. At length some Christian 
captives instructed him in the Christian mystery, and being charmed 
with the purity of the faith, he left the army, and retired to Syria : here 
he learned the trade of a goldsmith, and then going to Jerusalem, he 
supported himself by that business, was baptized by Modestus, vicar- 
general of Jerusalem, and stayed a week with his godfather Elias. When 
the time was over, and he was to quit the white clothes which he wore 
at his baptism, according to the practice of the church, he desired the 
priest to put him in a way of renouncing the world. Elias recommend- 
ed him to Justin, abbot of a seminary four miles from Jerusalem, who 



106 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

employed a person to instruct him in the Greek tongue, and teach him 
the Psalms ; and then admitted him into his community. Anastasius 
passed seven years in that house, dividing his time between humble 
domestic employments, and administering the word of God ; and at 
length he conceived a strong desire to lay down his life for his 
Redeemer. 

On going to Csesarea, which was in the hands of the Persians, he was 
taken as a spy, and brought before Marzabanes, the governor, to whom 
he owned that he was a Christian, and was -sent to prison. Many at- 
tempts were made to convert him, and at length Justin being apprised 
of his sufferings, recommended him to the prayers of the whole commu- 
nity, and sent two of his people to encourage him to perseverance. 
At last the governor wrote to the king concerning Anastasius, and 
the sovereign did all in his power to engage him to renounce his religion, 
but finding his endeavours vain, he ordered him to be executed in a sin- 
gular and severe manner : he was hung up by one hand, with a weight 
fastened to his foot ; and after being strangled, his head was cut off, 
and sent to the king. 

Martin, bishop of Rome, was born at Todi, in Italy. He was natu- 
rally virtuous, and his parents bestowed on him an excellent education. 
He took orders, and on the death of Theodore, bishop of Rome, was 
advanced to that important see by an unanimous election, in which all 
parties gave him the fullest praise, and admitted that he well merited a 
trust of such importance. 

The first vexation he received in his episcopal capacity, was from a set 
of heretics called Monothelites ; who not daring, after the express deci- 
sions of the council of Chalcedon, to maintain the unity of nature in 
Christ, artfully asserted that he had but one will, one operation of mind. 
This sect was patronized by the emperor Heraclius ; and the first who 
attempted to stop the progress of these errors was Sophronius, bishop 
of Jerusalem. Martin, who on this occasion coincided with the bishop 
of Jerusalem, called a council consisting of 105 bishops, and they 
unanimously condemned the errors in question. But the emperor pro- 
voked at these proceedings, ordered Olympius, his lieutenant in Italy, to 
repair to Rome and seize the bishop. The lieutenant performed the 
journey; but on his arrival at Rome he found the prelate too much 
beloved to induce him to attempt any open violence: he therefore 
suborned a ruffian to assassinate the bishop at the altar; but the fellow, 
after promising compliance, was seized with such horror of conscience, 
that he had not the power to execute the bloody deed. Olympius finding 
it would be difficult to destroy Martin, put himself at the head of his 
troops, and marched against the Saracens, who had made inroads into 
Italy; but during this expedition he died. His successor was Calliopas, 
who received express orders to seize Martin, which, with the assistance 
of a considerable body of soldiers, he effected ; shewing the clergy the 
imperial mandate, which commanded him to dispossess Martin of his 
bishopric, and convey him prisoner to Constantinople. Having endured 
various hardships, during a tedious voyage, he reached Constantinople, 
and was thrown into prison. While in confinement, he wrote two 
epistles to the emperor to refute the calumnies forged against him 



ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS MARTYRS. 107 

concerning his faith and loyalty : for a proof of the soundness of the 
former, he appealed to the testimony of the whole clergy, and his own 
solemn protestation to defend the truth as long as he lived; and in 
answer to objections against the latter, he declared he never sent either 
money, letters, or advice to the Saracens; but only remitted a sum for 
the relief of poor Christians among those people. He concluded with 
saying, that nothing could be more false than what the heretics had 
alleged against him concerning the blessed Virgin, whom he firmly 
believed to be the mother of God, and worthy of all honour after her 
divine Son. In his second letter he gave a particular account of his 
being seized at Rome, and his indisposition and ill usage after he was 
dragged from that city; and ended with wishing and hoping his perse- 
cutors would repent of their conduct, when the object of their hatred 
should be removed from this world. 

The fatigues that Martin had undergone, and his infirmities were so 
great, that on the day appointed for his trial, he was brought oat of 
prison in a chair, unable to walk. When he sat a moment before the 
court, the judge commanded him to stand, which not being able to do, 
two men were ordered to hold him up. Twenty witnesses were produc- 
ed against him, who swore as they were directed, and charged him with 
assumed and imaginary crimes. Martin began his defence, but as 
soon as he entered upon an investigation of the errors which he had 
combated, one of the senators stopped him, and said, that he was only 
examined respecting civil affairs, and consequently ecclesiastical matters 
must not be introduced. Martin was then ordered to be exposed in the 
most public places of the town, and to be divested of all marks of dis- 
tinction ; rigours which he bore with Christian patience and submission, 
and without a murmuring word. After laying some months in prison, 
he was sent to an island at some distance, and there barbarously put to 
death. 

John, bishop of Bergamo in Lombardy, a learned man and a good 
Christian, did his utmost to clear the church from the errors of Arianism, 
and joining with John, bishop of Milan, he was very successful against 
the heretics. Grimoald an Arian, having usurped the throne of Lom- 
bardy, the orthodox Christians feared that heresy would rise once more 
in that country ; but the bishop of Bergamo used such persuasive argu- 
ments with Grimoald, that he brought him to profess the orthodox 
faith. On the death of Grimoald, and his son who succeeded him, 
Pantharit came to the crown, and again introduced those errors 
which had been combated with such spirit by the true clergy. The 
bishop of Bergamo exerted himself strenuously to prevent the heresy 
from spreading, on w T hich account he was assassinated on the 11th of 
July, A. D. 683. 

Kilien was born in Ireland, and received from his parents a pious and 
Christian education. His favourite study was theology, and hence he 
was very assiduous in bringing many to the light of the gospel. In the 
course of time he crossed the sea, with eleven other persons, in order to 
make converts on the continent. On landing, they directed their route 
to the circle of Franconia, in Germany. On arriving at the city of 
Wurtzburg, they found the people *in general with their governor 



108 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Gozbert to be pagans ; but conceived great hopes of converting them to 
the gospel faith. Previous to making this attempt, however, he deemed 
it necessary to go to Rome, in order to obtain his mission from the 
pontiff. He according went thither, attended by one Coloman a priest, 
and Totman a deacon, two of those who had accompanied him from 
Ireland, and found Conon in Peter's chair. He gave them a favourable 
reception, and being informed of Kilien's business at Rome, after some 
questions about his faith and doctrine, consecrated him bishop, with full 
permission to preach to the infidels wherever he found them. Thus 
authorized, Kilien returned to Wurtzburg, where he opened his mission; 
but he had not long been employed in this labour when Gozbert sent 
for him, and desired to know the nature and tendency of the new reli- 
gion, which he so boldly recommended. The new bishop had several 
conferences with the governor on the subject, and God gave such a 
blessing to his endeavours, that Gozbert not only received the faith and 
was baptised, but gave him leave to preach wherever he pleased in his 
dominions. Gozbert also commanded the attention of his pagan sub- 
jects to what our prelate had to offer ; and the greater part of them 
became Christians in less than two years. 

Gozbert had married his brother's widow, but Kilien, though he held 
the sinfulness of the thing, did not choose to rebuke him till he was 
thoroughly confirmed in his faith. When he thought him fully instruct- 
ed in the principles of Christianity, he entreated him, as the last proof 
of the sincerity of his conversion, to quit the person whom he had 
hitherto looked upon as a wife, as he could not retain with her without 
committing sin. Gozbert, surprised at the proposal, told the bishop 
this was the hardest demand he had ever made upon him. ''But," said 
he, " since I have renounced my own inclinations and pleasures in so 
many particulars for the love of God, I will make the work complete, 
by complying with your advice in this too." The wife of the governor 
in consequence, determined to be revenged on those who had persuaded 
Gozbert into such a resolution. She accordingly sent to the place were 
they usually assembled, and had them all beheaded. Kilien, and his 
companions, submitted without resistance, the former telling them, that 
they need not fear those who had no power of the soul, but could only 
kill the body, which in a short time, would of itself decay. This hap- 
pened, A. D. 689, and the martyrs were privately buried in the night, 
together with their books, clothes, and all that they had. It is said that 
some days after this impious tragedy Gozbert, surprised that he had not 
seen Kilien lately, ordered diligent search to be made for him. Geilana, 
his wife, to stop the inquiry, reported that he and his companions had 
left the town, without giving any account of their movements ; but the 
executioner, filled with remorse, ran about like a mad man, and declared 
that the spirit of Kilien was consuming his conscience. Thus distracted 
he was seized, and Gozbert was considering what to do, when a creature 
of the wife's and a pretended convert advised him to leave the God of 
the Christians, to do himself justice on his enemies, and proposed the 
event as a test of his power. Gozbert was weak enough to tempt God, 
by putting it on that issue ; and the murderer being set at liberty, went 
raving mad, tore his own flesh wfth his teeth, and died in a miserable 



BONIFACE THE ARCHBISHOP. 109 

condition. Geilana was so agonized in her conscience, that she soon 
after expired in despair ; while Gozbert's criminal condescension was 
punished by a violent death, and in a few years his whole race was ex- 
terminated. 



SECTION II. 

THE SEVERAL PERSECUTIONS FROM THE EARLY PART OF THE EIGHTH TO 
NEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 

Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, and father of the German church, 
was an Englishman," 1 and is looked upon in ecclesiastical history, as one 

m As we are speaking of a celebrated English martyr, and have already mentioned the 
first person who was martyred in England for the christian faith, it will be interesting to the 
reader to learn, that before the coming of St. Augustine into England, there were four 
persecutions in Britain. 

The first was under Diocletian, about the year 210; and that not only in England, but 
generally throughout all the Roman monarchy, as is already specified. In this persecution, 
Albanus, Julius, Aaron, with a great number of other christian Britons were martyred for 
the cause of Christ. 

The second persecution was by the invasions of Gnavius and JMelga : the first was captain 
of the Huns, the other of the Picts. These tyrants, after the cruel slaughter of Ursula 
and 11,000 noble virgins, entered Britain, hearing it to be destitute of a sufficient military 
force. They spoiled and wasted churches, without having mercy either on women or 
children. 

The third persecution was by Hengist and the Saxons; who likewise destroyed the 
christian congregations within the land, like raging wolves flying upon sheep, and shedding 
the blood of Christians, till the time of Aurelius Ambrosius, who restored the churches of 
the land. 

The fourth destruction of the christian faith and religion was by Gurmundus, a king of 
the Africans; who joining in league with the Saxons, did much injury to the holy cause. 
Theonus, bishop of London, and Thadioceus, bishop of York, and the rest of the people, 
having no place to remain in with safety, fled some to Cornwall and some to the mountains 
of Wales, about the year of our Lord 550. This persecution continued till the time of 
Ethelbert, king of Kent, in the year 589. 

In the reign of Ethelbert, who was the fifth king of Kent, the faith of Christ was first 
received by the Saxons or English, by the means of Gregory, bishop of Rome, in the 
following manner. It should be observed, that the christian faith first received of king 
Lucius, endured in Britain till this time, about 400 years, when, by Gurmundus Africanus, 
fighting with the Saxons against the Britons, it was nearly extinct in all the land, for the 
space of about forty-four years. So that the first springing of Christ's gospel in this land, 
was in the year of our Lord 180. The coming of the Saxons was in the year 449. The 
coming of Augustine, who was sent by Gregory, was in the year 596. The occasion on 
which Gregory sent him hither was this : — 

In the days of Pelagius, bishop of Rome, Gregory chanced to see certain children in the 
market-place of Rome, brought thither from England for sale, being fair and beautiful, 
demanded out of what country they were ; and understanding they were heathens from 
England, lamented the case of a land so beautiful in its people, and yet in pagan 
darkness. Inquiring out of what province they were, he was answered out of Deira, a part 
of Northumberland. Then alluding to the name of Deira, " These people," said he, " are 
to be delivered de Dei ira," which is, from God's wrath. Also understanding the king of 
that province to be named Alle, alluding to it, he said, "There ought Allelujah to be sung 
to the living God." Some time afterwards becoming bishop himself after Pelagius, he sent 
thither Augustine, with about forty other priests; but as the company were travelling, a 
sudden fear entered into their hearts, that, as Antonius says, they all returned. Others 
write, that Augustine went back to Gregory again, to solicit that they might not be sent on 



110 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the brightest ornaments of his country. His name originally was 
Winfred, or Winfrith, and he was born at Kirton, in Devonshire, then 
part of the West-Saxon kingdom. When only six years of age, he dis- 
covered a propensity to study, and was solicitous to gain information on 
religious subjects ; and some evangelical missionaries coming by chance 
to Kirton, happened to fix their abode at his father's house, and profit- 
ing by their discourse, he determined to devote himself to a religious 
life. When he informed his father of his resolution, he would have 
dissuaded him from it ; but finding him fully resolved, he permitted him 
to go and reside at a monastery in Exeter. Wolfrad, the abbot, observ- 
ing that he possessed a bright genius, had him removed to Nutscelle, a 
seminary of learning in the diocese of Winchester, where he would have 
a great opportunity of attaining improvement. The abbot of Nutscelle, 
who was celebrated for his superior learning, took uncommon pains with 
the young pupil, who, in time, became a prodigy in divine knowledge, 
and was, at length, employed in the college as a principal teacher. 

We are informed by the ancient Saxon historians, that those who 
studied under him had no need to remove to any other place to finish 
what they had begun, for he gave them lessons in grammar, poetry, 
rhetoric, and philosophy, and explained the holy scriptures in the 
literal, moral, and mystical senses. His example was as instructive as 
his lectures, and while he formed his scholars to learning by his dic- 
tates, he encouraged them to the practice of virtue by his own prudent 
conduct. The abbot, finding him qualified for the priesthood, obliged 
him to receive that holy order, when he was about thirty years old. 
From this he began to labour for the salvation of his fellow-creatures; 
in the progress of which he gave the first proofs of that apostolical 
zeal, which afterwards made such glorious conquests in this once 
savage and barbarous part of the world. 

There arose an important occasion to assemble a synod of bishops in 
the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and it was judged expedient to 
depute one of their body to the archbishop of Canterbury to inform him 
of the exigency of affairs ; and Boniface being proposed, was unani- 
mously chosen by the synod. He discharged this trust with great pru- 
dence, and obtained the applause of every member of the synod ; but 
far from being vain of the reputation he had acquired, he proposed to 
forsake his country, relations, and friends, in order to be of service to 
the faith, and extend Christianity on the continent. At first, the abbot 
and monks of Nutscelle would have dissuaded him from his purpose ; 
but finding him resolute, two of their number were ordered to assist him. 
Boniface accordingly left Nutscelle, and arrived in Friesland about the 
year 716 ; when he found that country in the utmost disorder and con- 
fusion. It had belonged to the crown of France, but was at this time 
in the possession of prince Radbord, who had established paganism in 
it, persecuted the Christians, and was at war with Charles Martel, mayor 
of the palace of Austrastia. 

a voyage so dangerous and uncertain, among a barbarous people, whose language they 
neither knew, nor were able to resist their rudeness. Gregory however sent him again with 
letters to the bishop of Arelatensis, and his companions, exhorting him to go boldly forward 
on the work of Christ. 






CONVERSIONS BY BONIFACE. Ill 

Boniface, therefore, went to Utrecht, where he found the infidel prince, 
and made him a tender of the gospel ; but he being obdurate, Boniface 
imagined the time for converting that nation was not yet come, and 
returned to his monastery in England. He had not been many months 
there when the abbot died. Boniface undertook to comfort his brethren 
under the calamity, and discovered such zeal and charity in the transac- 
tion, that they desired he would supply the place of their deceased father 
and friend. Either, however, he never accepted of the post, or quitted 
it very soon ; for he obtained letters from Daniel, bishop of Winchester 
his diocesan, recommending him to the pope, and all the bishops, abbots, 
and princes, he should find in his way to Rome, where he arrived in the 
beginning of the year 719. He was received by Gregory the Second 
with great friendship, and after several conferences with him, finding 
him full of zeal, he dismissed him with a commission to preach the 
gospel to the pagans, wherever he found them. 

Having passed through Lombardy and Bavaria, he came to Thuringia, 
which country had before received the light of the gospel ; but at the 
time he arrived there it had made little progress. The first exertions of 
Boniface were to bring the corrupted Christians back to a profession of 
the gospel in its purity ; and having completed this pious work with 
great assiduity, and hearing that Radbord, whom he had formerly at- 
tempted to convert, was dead, he repaired to Utrecht, to assist Willebrod, 
the first bishop of that city. During three years these worthy pastors 
laboured in extirpating idolatry and propagating the faith in north 
Holland; and so far succeeded, that most of the people received 
baptism, and many of the pagan temples were converted into christian 
churches. At this time Willebrod being infirm, thought he could not 
do better than appoint Boniface to succeed him; but this the English 
missionary absolutely refused, pleading he could not stay so long in any 
place, as he had many other evangelical labours to perform. Willebrod 
consented to his departure, and Boniface repaired to Hesse, where he 
brought to a knowledge of the truth two brothers, who though they 
called themselves Christians, were sunk into most of the errors of pa- 
ganism. They, however, became such zealous converts, that they gave 
their estate to Boniface, who instead of applying its revenues to his own 
use, built and endowed a religious community with them ; after which 
he proceeded to Saxony, where he converted some thousands to the 
christian faith. Exerting himself in this new field with prodigious suc- 
cess about a year, he dispatched one of his companions to Rome, with 
an account of what he had done ; upon which Gregory II. sent him a 
letter, desiring him to repair to that city. On his arrival, the bishop 
gave him every mark of esteem and affection, and was resolved not to 
let him return to his labours without the episcopal character, that he 
might pursue them with more authority and to greater advantage. He 
was accordingly consecrated on the last day of November, 723 : from 
which time he took upon himself the name of Boniface. 

On being qualified for forming new churches, he left Rome having 
with him six letters from the pope ; one to Charles Martel ; a second 
to all bishops, priests, dukes, and counts; a third to the clergy and 
people under his more immediate direction ; a fourth to the five princes 



112 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of Thuringia and their christian subjects ; a fifth to the pagans in every 
dominion ; and a sixth to the whole body of Saxons. The purport of 
these was, to recommend him to the protection of the christian powers, 
and exhort the pagans to hear him, and exchange their errors and super- 
stitions for the pure religion of Christ. Having made converts in dif- 
ferent parts, he returned to his mission in Germany, and was very suc- 
cessful, though he met with many that would willingly have been Chris- 
tians only in a partial degree. They were ready enough to acknowledge 
Christ, but did not care to adhere strictly to his precepts : and some 
were so far deluded, as to be exceeding fond of worshipping a large 
oak-tree, which was dedicated to Jupiter. This tree Boniface ordered 
to be cut down ; and when the pagans, finding that Jupiter did not take 
any notice of those who had destroyed it, owned the weakness of their 
cause, and desired to receive Christian baptism. 

Being naturally diffident of his own abilities, Bonifice had frequent 
recourse to such persons as he thought might be of service to him in his 
present difficult station. Pope Gregory and Daniel, his old diocesan, 
were his most able and frequent counsellors ; but by the care of the 
bishops of Winchester, he received from this island large supplies of 
missionaries who rendered him valuable aid, and greatly advanced the 
gospel in Europe. 

In the year 731, Gregory the Third succeeded to the pontifical chair, 
on whose accession Boniface sent proper persons to Rome, to acquaint 
him with the success of his labours, testifying his allegiance, and desir- 
ing assistance in some difficulties which occurred in his mission. The 
pope not only answered the message by assuring him of the communion 
and friendship of the see of Rome, but as a mark of respect sent him 
the mantle of office newly consecrated, granted him the title of arch- 
bishop, or metropolitan of all Germany, and empowered him to erect 
new bishoprics wherever he should have opportunity. Boniface not 
only did this, but also built several monasteries. He then made a third 
journey to Rome in 738, when Gregory the Third, who had as great an 
esteem as his predecessors for him, detained him the larger portion of 
the year. 

At length having left Rome, he went to Bavaria, upon the invitation 
of Odillo, duke of that country, to reform some abuses introduced by 
persons who had never received holy orders. At this time Bavaria had 
only one bishop ; he therefore, pursuant to his commission from Rome, 
erected three new bishoprics, one at Saltzburg, a second at Freisignen, 
and a third at Ratisbon, and thus the country was divided into four dio- 
ceses ; a regulation which was soon after confirmed by the pope. Boni- 
face next established four other bishoprics in Germany : at Erford, for 
Thuringia ; at Barabourg, for Hesse ; at Wurtzburg, for Franconia 
at Achstat, for Bavaria. The bishopric of Barabourg is at present 
translated to Paderborn, in Westphalia. Willebald, the original author 
of the life of Boniface, was by him made bishop of Achstat. 

In the year 741, Gregory the Third was succeeded in the popedom 
by Zachary, who confirmed Boniface in his power and approved of all 
he had done in Germany, making him at the same time archbishop of 
Mentz, and metropolitan over thirteen bishoprics. He did not however, 



CRUELTIES OF THE SARACENS. 113 

Lose his simplicity, or forget his character in his ecclesiastical dignity 
and ministerial popularity. 

During this period Pepin was declared king of France ; and it being 
that prince's ambition to be crowned by the most holy prelate he could 
find, Boniface was solicited to perform that ceremony, which he did at 
Soissons in 752. The next year his great age and many infirmities soafflict- 
ed him, that, with the consent of the new king, and the bishops of his 
diocese, he consecrated Lullus, his countryman and faithful disciple, and 
placed him in the see of Mentz, desiring him to finish the church at Fulda, 
and see him buried in it, as his end was approaching. He then took a boat 
for the Rhine, and went to Friesland, where he converted and baptised 
several thousands of the natives, demolished the temples, and raised 
christian churches on their ruins. He appointed a day for confirming a 
number of new converts, and ordered them to assemble in an open plain 
near the river Bourde, whither he repaired the day before; and pitching 
a tent, determined to remain on the spot all night, in order to be ready 
in the morning early. Several pagans having intelligence of this inten- 
tion, poured down upon him and the companions of his mission in the 
night, with a view to massacre them. The servants of Boniface would 
have repelled the barbarians by force of arms ; but he told them and his 
clergy, that the moment he had long wished for was now come, and 
exhorted his assistants in the ministry to prepare themselves for martyr- 
dom. While he was thus employed, the pagans rushed in upon them, 
and killed him and fifty-two of his companions and attendants. This 
happened on June 5, A. D. 755. Thus fell the great father of the 
Germanic church, the honour of England, and the glory of his barba- 
rous age. n 

Forty-two persons of Armorian, in Upper Phrygia, were martyred 
in the year 845, by the Saracens, the circumstances of which are thus 
related : — In the reign of Theophilus, the Saracens ravaged many parts 
of the eastern empire, gained considerable advantage over the Christians, 
and at length laid siege to the city of Armorian. The garrison bravely 
defended the place for a considerable time, and would have obliged 
their enemies to raise the siege, but the place was betrayed by a re- 
negado. Many were put to the sword; and two general officers, with 
some persons of distinction, were carried prisoners to Bagdad, where 

n Having given the fair side of the character of Boniface, the archbishop, it behoves us 
to say, that he was a great abettor of all the superstitions of popery: though for this he is 
not so much to be blamed, because in his time the lamp of the true gospel was not lighted. 
When he was appointed by pope Gregory archbishop of Mentz, he brought many countries 
under the pope's influence, held many great councils, ordained bishops, built monasteries, 
canonized saints, commanded relics to be worshipped, and permitted religious fathers to be 
attended by nuns in their ministerial excursions. Among other works he founded the great 
monastery of Fulda, in Germany, of English monks, into which no women were allowed 
to enter but only Lieba and Tecla, two English nuns. By authority, which he received 
from pope Zachary, Childeric, king of France, was deposed from the right of his crown, 
and Pepin, the betrayer of his master, was confirmed in the sovereignty. From Boniface 
proceeded the doctrine which now stands registered in the pope's decrees, that in case the 
pope were of unholy living, and forgetful or negligent of himself, and of Christianity, in 
such a degree, that he led innumerable souls with him to hell ; yet ought no man to rebuke 
him for so doing, " for he hath power to judge all men, and ought of no man to he judged 



114 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

they were loaded witli chains and thrown into a dungeon. They con- 
tinued in prison for some time without seeing any persons but their 
gaolers, or having scarcely food enough for their subsistence. At length 
they were informed that nothing could preserve their lives but renounc- 
ing their religion and embracing Mahometanism. To induce them to 
comply, the caliph pretended great zeal for their welfare, and declared 
that he looked upon converts in a more glorious light than conquests. 
Agreeably with these maxims he sent some of the most artful Maho- 
metans, with money and clothes, and the promise of other advantages 
which they might secure to themselves by an abjuration of Christianity; 
but the martyrs rejected the proposal with horror and contempt. 

After this they were attacked with that fallacious and delusive argu- 
ment which the Mahometans still use in favour of themselves, and were 
desired to judge of the merits of the cause by the success of those who 
were engaged in it, and choose that religion which they saw flourished 
most, and was best rewarded with the good things of this life, which 
they called the blessings of heaven. Yet the noble prisoners were 
proof against all temptation, and argued strenuously in opposition to 
the authority of the false prophet. This incensed the Mahometans, 
and drew greater hardships upon the Christians during their confinement, 
which lasted seven years. Boldizius, the renegado who had betrayed 
Armorian, then brought them the welcome news that their sufferings 
would end in martyrdom the next day : when taken from their dungeon, 
they were again solicited to embrace the tenets of Mahomet; but nei- 
ther threats nor promises could induce them to adopt what they de- 
clared to be the doctrines of an impostor. Perceiving that their faith 
could not be shaken, the caliph ordered them to be executed. Theodore, 
one of the number, had formerly received priest's orders, and officiated 
as a clergyman ; but afterwards quitting the church, he had followed 
a military life, and raised himself by the sword to considerable posts of 
honour, which he enjoyed at the time when he was taken prisoner. 
The officer who attended the execution, being apprized of these circum- 
stances, said to Theodore, " You might, indeed, pretend to be ranked 
amongst the Christians, while you served in their church as a priest; 
but the profession you have taken up, which engages you in bloodshed, 
is so contrary to your former employment, that you should not now 
think of passing upon us for one of that religion. When you quitted 
the altar for the camp you renounced Jesus Christ. Why then will 
you dissemble any longer? Would you not act more conformably to 
your own principles, and make your conduct consistent, if you came to 
a resolution of saving your life by owning our great prophet?" 

Theodore, covered with religious confusion at this speech but still un- 
shaken in his faith, made the following answer: — " It, is true I did in 
some measure abandon my God when I engaged in the army, and scarce 
deserve the name of a Christian; but the Almighty has given me the 
grace to see myself in a true light, and made me sensible of my fault; 
and I hope he will be pleased to accept my life as the only sacrifice I can 
now offer to expiate my guilt." ° 

° This, if accurate, shews a distressing defect in evangelical views and spiritual percep- 
tions on the part of this individual. To think of expiating one crime by the voluntary 



MARTYRDOM OF TWO LADIES. 115 

This firm answer confounded the officer, who only replied, that he 
should presently have an opportunity of giving that proof of his fidelity 
to his Master. Upon which, Theodore and the rest, forty-two in number, 
were beheaded. Two ladies of distinction, Mary and Flora, suffered 
martyrdom at the same time. Flora was the daughter of an eminent 
Mahometan at Seville ; from whence he removed to Corduba, where the 
Saracen king resided and kept his court. Her father dying when she 
was young, Flora was left to the care of her mother, who being a 
Christian, brought her up in the true faith, and inspired her with senti- 
ments of virtue and religion. Her brother being a professed enemy to 
Christianity, and of a barbarous and savage temper, Flora was for some 
time obliged to use great caution in the practice of such virtues as must 
have exposed her to persecution. She was too zealous to bear this 
restraint long ; for which reason she left Corduba, in company with her 
sister. Her departure soon alarmed her brother, who guessed her 
motives, and in revenge informed against several Christians of Corduba; 
for as he did not know whither his sister was gone, he determined to wreak 
his vengeance on such Christians as were present. When Flora was 
informed of these proceedings, she considered herself as the cause of 
what the Christians had suffered at Corduba, and having an inward 
conviction that God called her to fight for her faith, she returned to that 
city, and proceeded to the persecutors, among whom she found her 
brother. " If," said this glorious martyr, " I am the object of your 
inquiry; if the servants of God are tormented on my account, I now 
freely offer myself to your disposal. I declare that I believe in Jesus 
Christ, glory in his cross, and profess the doctrines which he taught." 
None of the company seemed so much enraged at this declaration as 
her brother, who, after some threats, struck her; but soon endeavoured 
to win her by expressions of pretended kindness. Finding her insen- 
sible to all he could say, he then informed against her. He insinuated, 
that Flora had been educated in the religion of Mahomet, but had re- 
nounced it at the suggestion of Christians, who inspired her with the 
utmost contempt of the great prophet. When she was called to answer 
to the charge, she declared she had never owned Mahomet, but sucked 
the Christian religion in with her milk, and was from infancy devoted to 
the Redeemer of mankind. The magistrate finding her resolute, de- 
livered her to her brother, and gave him orders to use his utmost endea- 
vours to make her a Mahometan. She soon found an opportunity of 
escaping over a wall in the night, and of secreting herself in the house 
of a Christian. She then withdrew to Tucci, a village of Andalusia, 
where she met with her sister, and they never separated again till her 
martyrdom. 

Mary, who was martyred at the same time, was the daughter of a 
Christian tradesman at Estremadura, who afterwards removed to a 
town near Corduba. When the persecution began under Abderrama, 
king of the Saracens, in Spain, Mary's brother was one who fell a 

sacrifice of life, sounds too harsh in modern christian ears for any thing like cordial 
approval of the religion of such a man. His military habits might strengthen him to face 
death with courage; but his self-righteousness ill prepared him to have boldness in the day 
of judgment. 



116 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

victim to the rage of the infidels. Hearing of his martyrdom, she was 
filled with confusion at being left behind by one younger than herself, 
and went to Corduba, where, going into a church, she found Flora, who 
had left her retreat on the same motive. Conversing together, and find- 
ing they acted upon the same heroic principles, and proposed the same 
glorious end of their labours, they agreed to go together, and declare 
their faith before the judge. Accordingly they proceeded to the magis- 
trate, where Flora boldly told him, she looked on Mahomet as no better 
than a false prophet, an adulterer, and a magician. Mary also told the 
magistrate, that she professed the same faith, and entertained the same 
sentiments as Flora, and that she was sister to Walabonzus, who had 
already suffered for being a Christian. This behaviour so enraged the 
magistrate, that he ordered them to be committed to prison for some 
time, and then to be beheaded. The horrid sentence was executed on 
the 4th of November, A. D. 850. 

Perfectus was born at Corduba, and brought up in the christian 
faith. He made himself master of all the useful and polite literature 
of that age; and at length took priest's orders, and performed the 
duties of his office with great assiduity and punctuality. One day 
walking in the streets of Corduba, some Arabians entered into conver- 
sation with him, and among other questions, asked him his opinion of 
Jesus Christ and of Mahomet. Perfectus gave them an exact account 
of the christian faith, respecting the divinity of Christ, and the re- 
demption of mankind : but would not deliver his sentiments concerning 
Mahomet. The Arabians pressed him to speak freely; but he said 
that what he should utter would not be agreeable to their ideas, and 
therefore he would be silent, as he did not wish to offend any one: 
they however still entreated him to utter his thoughts, declaring at the 
same time, that they would not be offended at any thing he should say. 
Believing them sincere, and hoping this might be the favourable time 
allotted by God for their conversion, Perfectus told them that the 
Christians looked on Mahomet as one of the false prophets foretold in 
the gospel, who were to seduce and deceive great numbers to their 
eternal ruin. To illustrate this assertion, he descanted on some of the 
actions of the impostor; endeavoured to show the impious doctrines, 
and abominable absurdities of the Alcoran; and exhorted them, in very 
strong terms, to quit the miserable state in which they then were, and 
which would certainly be followed by eternal perdition. 

The infidels could not hear such a discourse without conceiving indig- 
nation against the speaker. They thought proper, however, to disguise 
their resentment ; but were resolved not to let him escape. At first, 
indeed, they were unwilling to use any violence, because they had given 
him a solemn assurance he should come to no harm : but they were soon 
eased of that scruple ; and, watching a favourable opportunity, seized 
on him, hurried him away to one of their chief magistrates, and accused 
him of blaspheming their great prophet. On this the judge ordered him 
to be put in chains and confined in prison, till the feast of their 
Ramadan, or Lent, when he should be made a victim to Mahomet. He 
heard the determination with joy, and prepared for his martyrdom with 
great fervency. At the time appointed he was led to the place of exe- 



ACTS OF THE EMPEROR WINCESLAUS. 117 

cution, where he again made a confession of his faith, declared Mahomet 
an impostor, and insisted that the Alcoran was filled with absurdities 
and blasphemies. In consequence of this he was sentenced to be be- 
headed, and was executed A. D. 850. His body was interred by the 
Christians. 

Winceslaus, duke of Bohemia, was educated in the faith of Christ. 
His father Wrattislaus, the preceding duke, was a valiant prince, and a 
pious Christian; but Drahomira, his mother, was a pagan, whose morals 
were as bad as her religion : she consented, however, to entrust her 
mother, Ludmilla, with the education of her eldest son. That holy lady 
had resided at Prague ever since the death of Boriver, her husband, the 
first duke of Bohemia who embraced the faith of Christ; and Winceslaus 
was sent to that city, to be brought up under her. Ludmilla undertook 
to form his heart to devotion and the love of God, and was assisted in 
the work by Paul her chaplain, a man of great sanctity and prudence, 
who likewise endeavoured to cultivate his mind in other branches of 
knowledge. The young prince consented to their endeavours; and by 
the grace of God, who had prepared him for their instructions, caused 
him to make astonishing progress: he was sent to a college at Budweis, 
about sixty miles from Prague, where several young persons of the first 
rank were placed, and studied under an excellent master, a native of 
Neisse in Silesia. 

When Wrattislaus died, his son Winceslaus was very young, on which 
account, Drahomira, his mother, declared herself regent during his 
minority. This princess, not having any one to controul her, gave vent 
to her rage against Christianity. She began her administration with an 
order for shutting up the churches, repealed the laws in favour of the 
Christians, and removed all magistrates of that profession, supplying 
their places with pagans. Thus finding themselves encouraged, the 
pagans upon every frivolous pretence murdered the Christians with 
impunity; and if a Christian in his own defence killed a pagan, his life 
and that of nine other Christians were forfeited. 

Ludmilla was afflicted at these proceedings, as she could not behold 
a religion which she professed despised, — a religion too which her 
consort had established with so much difficulty and zeal. Yet she 
could not think of any expedient to prevent the total extirpation of 
Christianity in Bohemia, except persuading Winceslaus, young as he 
was, to assume the reins of government. Winceslaus at first declined 
engaging in this task ; but upon his grandmother promising to assist 
him with her advice, he complied with her request; and, to prevent 
further disputes, divided the country between himself and his younger 
brother Bolislaw, whose name is still retained by a town and a consider- 
able district of that country. Drahomira now attached herself to 
Bolislaw, who was a pagan, and implicitly followed her maxims. Con- 
cerning the behaviour of Winceslaus after his assuming the sovereignty, 
and the fate of the aged and worthy Ludmilla, the annals of Bohemia 
state these particulars: "Winceslaus, pursuant to the impressions of 
virtue which he had received from his grandmother and others employed 
in his education, was more careful than ever to preserve the innocence 
of his morals, and acquired some new degree of wisdom and goodness 



118 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

every day. He was as humble, sober, and chaste, when master of his 
own motions, and in full possession of sovereign authority, as when 
under the government of those on whom he was taught to look as his 
superiors. He spent great part of the night in prayer, and the whole 
day in acts of piety; directing all his views to the establishment of 
peace, justice, and religion in his dominions. He was assisted in these 
charitable and Christian labours by able ministers; and nothing of con- 
sequence was done without the advice of Ludmilla. This excellent 
princess being informed that Drahomira, transported with rage at the 
success of her directions, had formed a design against her life, and that 
it would scarcely be in her power to save herself, was so far from being 
disturbed at the apprehension of death, or desisting from what had made 
her odious to that wicked woman, that she exerted herself more vigorously 
than ever for the maintenance of religion, and confirming the prince in 
his resolutions. Being now assured that her death was near, and that 
several persons were employed to dispatch her the first convenient op- 
portunity, she called her servants together, acknowledged their fidelity 
in her service with a liberal hand, and distributed her goods and money 
among the poor. Thus divested of all she possessed in the world, she 
went to her chapel, received the holy eucharist, and then employed 
herself in prayer, recommended her soul to God, and expected his will 
with the utmost tranquillity and resignation. This was her situation, 
when two ruffians entered the chapel, seized on her, and strangled her 
with her own veil. 

The young duke severely felt the loss of his grandmother, yet he did 
not punish the offenders, knowing that they had been instigated to what 
they did by his mother. He therefore addressed himself to God only, 
entreated the throne of grace for his mother's pardon and conversion, 
and patiently submitted to the dispensations of Providence. As many 
factions were erected in his dominions by means of his mother and 
brother, and as Winceslaus himself seemed of an unwarlike disposition, 
a neighbouring prince, Radislaus of Gurima, determined to invade that 
part of Bohemia which belonged to him. He accordingly entered 
Bohemia at the head of a considerable army, and immediately com- 
menced hostilities. Winceslaus, on hearing of these proceedings, sent 
a message to the invader, to know what offence he had given him, and 
what terms he required to quit his dominions. Radislaus, mistaking the 
temper of Winceslaus, looked upon this message as arising from timidity ; 
he therefore answered in a haughty manner, made frivolous excuses for 
having commenced the quarrel, and concluded by insisting that Win- 
ceslaus should surrender to him his dominions. This insolent demand 
obliged Winceslaus to put himself at the head of an army in defence 
of himself and his people. He accordingly raised a considerable body 
of forces, and marched against the enemy. When the two armies were 
ready to engage, Winceslaus obtained a conference with Radislaus, and 
observed, that as it would be unjust to hazard the lives of so many in- 
nocent men, the most eligible method of putting an end to the dispute 
would be by single combat. Radislaus accepted the proposal with joy, 
thinking that he was much more expert in the use of arms than his anta- 
gonist. They accordingly engaged in sight of the two armies, and the 



WINCESLAUS TREACHEROUSLY MLRDERED. 119 

victory seemed doubtful for some time, till, at length, it declared in 
favour of Winceslaus ; when his antagonist was obliged to relinquish 
his pretended claim, and retire into his own country. 

Winceslaus being thus freed from the fears of a foreign enemy, turned 
his thoughts to domestic reformation. He removed corrupt judges and 
magistrates, and filled their places with persons of integrity : he put an 
end to oppression, punished such nobles as tyrannized over their vassals, 
and made other wise regulations, which while they relieved the poor and 
helpless, gave great offence to the great and rich, as they abridged their 
power, and took from them their self importance and assumed conse- 
quence. Hence many became factious, and the malcontents censured 
his best actions, and spoke contemptuously of his application to prayer, 
fasting, and other acts of religion, which they insinuated were low em- 
ployments for a prince, and incompatible with the courage and policy 
necessary for the government of a state. His mother and brother were 
still the most inveterate of his enemies, and they resolved to remove him 
by the first favourable expedient. Drahomira and Bolislaw were con- 
certing measures for executing their wretched purpose, when they under- 
stood that Winceslaus had desired the pope to send some priests into 
his dominions, with whom he proposed to spend the remainder of his 
days in a religious retreat. This news suspended the execution of their 
conspiracy against him for some time ; but, perceiving the affair did not 
come to a conclusion as soon as was necessary for their ambitious views, 
they resumed their cruel artifices against him, and gained their ends in 
the following treacherous manner : — 

Bolislaw having been some time married, his princess at length brought 
him forth a son. This circumstance, which should have diffused joy 
throughout the family, furnished Drahomira and Bolislaw with an idea 
of the most horrid nature, and the innocent infant was made the occasion 
of perpetrating a deed of unexampled cruelty. The scheme concerted 
between the bigoted Bolislaw and his wicked mother was to get Winces- 
laus into their power. The birth of the child furnished them with a 
pretence, and a polite message was dispatched to the unsuspecting duke 
to partake of an entertainment given upon the occasion. Winceslaus 
not having the least suspicion of their purpose repaired to the court of 
Bolislaw, where he was received with the greatest appearance of cor- 
diality. He partook of the entertainment, and was festive till it grew 
rather late, when he retired before the rest of the company, as he was 
not fond of late hours, and never neglected his devotions to the 
Almighty before he lay down to rest. When he had withdrawn, Dra- 
homira urged Bolislaw to follow his brother instantly, and murder him. 
The prince took his mother's sanguinary advice, and repairing to his 
brother's chamber, he found him kneeling, and in fervent prayer, when 
he rushed upon him, and plunged a dagger to his heart. Thus fell 
Winceslaus, the third duke of Bohemia, by a most infernal act of 
treachery and fratricide. 

Adalbert, bishop of Prague, was a Bohemian by birth. His parents 
were persons of rank, but more distinguished for virtue and piety than 
for opulence and lineage. They had the highest expectations of their 
son, and gave him a complete education; but their joy was in some 



120 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

measure damped by his falling into a dropsy, from which he was with 
difficulty recovered. When cured they sent him to Magdeburg, and 
committed him to the care of the archbishop of that city, who completed 
his education. The rapid progress which Adalbert made in human and 
divine learning made him dear to the prelate, who, to the authority of a 
teacher, joined all the tenderness of a parent. Having spent nine years 
at Magdeburg, he retired to his own country upon the death of the 
archbishop, and entered himself among the clergy at Prague. Dithmar, 
bishop of Prague, died soon after the return of Adalbert to that city ; 
and, in his last moments, expressed great contrition for having been 
ambitious and solicitous of worldly honours and riches. Adalbert, who 
was present, was so sensibly affected at the bishop's dying sentiments, 
that he received them as an admonition to the strict practice of virtue, 
which he afterwards exercised with the greatest attention, spending his 
time in prayer, and relieving the poor with his fortune. 

Soon after the decease of Dithmar, an assembly was held for the 
choice of a successor, which consisted of the clergy of Prague, and the 
chief men of Bohemia. Adalbert's character determined them to raise 
him to the vacant see, which they did on the 19th of February, 983, 
and immediately dispatched messengers to Verona to desire that Otho II. 
would confirm the election. The emperor granted the request, ordered 
Adalbert to repair to court for investiture, gave him the ring and crosier, 
and then sent him to the archbishop of Mentz for consecration. The 
ceremony was performed on the 29th of June the same year, and 
he was received at Prague with great demonstrations of public joy. 
He divided the revenue of his see into four parts, according to the 
direction of the canons extant in the fifth century. The first was 
employed in building and ornaments of the church ; the. second went 
to the maintenance of the clergy ; the third was laid out for the relief 
of the poor; and the fourth reserved for the support of himself and 
family, which always comprehended twelve indigent persons, to whom 
he allowed daily subsistence. He performed his duty with the utmost 
assiduity, and spent a great portion of his time in preaching and exhort- 
ing the people. His conduct was discreet and humane, and his man- 
ners neither too severe nor too indulgent. Yet some things which he 
could not remedy gave him great uneasiness, particularly having a 
plurality of wives, and selling Christians to the Jews for trivial offences. 
Hence he determined to consult the pope, and made a journey to Rome. 
John, who then occupied the papal chair, received him with cordiality, 
and advised him to give up his bishopric rather than be witness of enor- 
mities which he could not remedy. He determined to take the pope's 
advice, and to devote the remainder of his days to mortification and 
silence ; and began by giving all his treasures to the poor. He was 
desirous however before he entirely secluded himself from mankind, of 
seeing the Holy Land, and set off accordingly in company with three 
persons. 

On their way they arrived at Mount Cassino, where the chiefs of the 
monastery received them in a very friendly manner, and being apprised 
of the cause of their journey, when they were about to depart, the 
superior of the monastery addressed himself to Adalbert, observing, that 



ACCOUNT OF ADALBERT, BISHOP OF PRAGUE. 121 

the journey he had undertaken would give him more trouble and un- 
easiness than he was aware of; that the frequent desire of travelling 
often proceeded more from a restless disposition than real religion. 
" Therefore," said he, "if you will listen to my advice, leave the world 
at once with sincerity, and settle in some religious community, without 
desiring to see more than you have already seen." Adalbert adopted 
the sentiments of the superior, and took up his residence in that monas- 
tery, where he then thought he might live entirely recluse : but he was 
mistaken ; for the priests by accident came to a knowledge of the rank 
and dignity of their colleague, and began to treat him with great defer- 
ence and respect, which occasioned him to leave the place. Nilus, a 
Grecian, being then at the head of a community not far from Mount 
Cassino, Adalbert went to him and begged to be received into his mon- 
astery. He assured him he would comply with his request, if the prac- 
tice of his religious family would be agreeable to him : he told him that 
the house in which he and his people lived was given to them by those 
of Mount Cassino ; and therefore it might not be safe for him to receive 
one that had left that community ; but he advised him to return to 
Rome, and apply to Leo, an abbot of his acquaintance there, to whom 
he gave him a letter of recommendation. Adalbert went to Rome, 
where he found Leo, who, after putting his virtue and courage to a pro- 
per test, conducted him to the pope, and, with the consent of that pon- 
tiff and the whole college of cardinals, gave him the habit on Holy 
Thursday, in the year 990. Of the three persons by whom he had been 
attended since he had had the pope's advice for resigning his bishopric, two 
of them had now left him; but the third, his brother Gaudentius, follow- 
ed his example, and engaged in the same community. Adalbert, full 
of humility, took a particular pleasure in the lowest employments of the 
house, and lived an excellent pattern of christian simplicity and 
obedience. 

The archbishop of Mentz, the metropolitan, being exceedingly afflict- 
ed at the disorders in the church of Prague, and wishing for the return 
of the bishop, with whose retreat he was not for some time acquainted, 
after five years absence heard that Adalbert was at Rome, whither he sent 
a deputation to press his return to his diocese. The pope summoned a 
council to consider of the deputation, and after a warm dispute between 
the monks and deputies, the latter carried their point, and Adalbert was 
ordered to return to his diocese ; but at the same time had permission to 
quit his charge again if he found his flock incorrigible as before. The 
inhabitants of Prague met him on his arrival with great joy, and promised 
obedience to his directions : but they soon forgot their promises, and 
relapsed into their former vices, which obliged him a second time to leave 
them, and return to his monastery. Then the archbishop of Mentz sent 
another deputation to Rome, and desired that his suffragan might be 
again ordered back to his diocese. Gregory V. who was then pope, 
commanded him to return to Prague ; and with great reluctance he 
obeved. 

The Bohemians, however, did not look upon him as before, but 
deemed him the censor of their faults, and the enemy of their pleasures, 
and threatened him with death upon his arrival; but not having him 



122 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

yet in their power, contented themselves with falling on his relations, 
several of whom they murdered, plundered their estates, and set fire to 
their houses. Adalbert had intelligence of these outrageous proceed- 
ings, and did not judge it prudent to proceed on his journey. He 
therefore went to the duke of Poland, who had a particular respect 
for him, and engaged that prince to sound the Bohemians in regard to 
his return ; but could get no better answer from that wretched people 
than "that they were sinners hardened in iniquity; and Adalbert a 
saint, and consequently not fit to live among them; for which reason he 
was not to hope for a tolerable reception at Prague." The bishop thought 
this message discharged him from any further concern for that church, 
and began to direct his thoughts to the conversion of infidels; for which 
purpose he repaired to Dantzic, where he converted and baptised many, 
which so enraged the pagan priests, that they fell upon him and dis- 
patched him with darts, on the 23rd of April, A. D. 997. p 

p In concluding the second book of this history, the reader's attention is recalled to the 
state of religion in this kingdom. It is true that no persecutions had taken place for the 
sake of Christ, though many crimes were committed during the Saxon heptarchy, from the 
time of Lucius to that of Egbert; and these kings, not aware what danger would ensue to 
their own souls from their mistaken zeal, though acting as they thought in support of the 
church of Christ, conceived that the greatest exertions they could make for the Christian 
religion would be to build monasteries and nunneries, and fill them with monks and virgins. 
Accordingly, during the Saxon heptarchy, which lasted about 200 years, they founded no 
less than twenty-seven monasteries and nunneries in England; and not satisfied with 
sending their children, and in some cases their wives, to inhabit them, many of them 
became monks themselves. The following are examples: — 

1. Kinigilsus, king of the West-Saxons. 6. Kenred, king of Mercia. 

2. Ina, king of the West-Saxons. 7. Otfa, king of the East-Saxons. 

3. Ceolulf, king of Northumberland. 8. Sebbi, king of the East-Saxons. 

4. Edbert, king of Northumberland. 9. Sigebert, king of the East-Angles. 

5. Ethelred, king of Mercia. 

Among ladies of rank who entered nunneries were, Hilda, daughter of the nephew of 
Edwin, king of Northumberland, abbess of Ely ; Ercongota, with her sister Ermenilda, 
daughters of Ercombert, king of Kent; Ethelberga, queen of Edwin, king of Northum- 
berland, and daughter of Ethelbert, king of Kent ; Etheldreda, called St. Eldred, wife to 
Egfrid, king of Northumberland, who being married to two husbands, could not give her 
consent to either of them, during the space of twelve years, but lived a virgin, and was 
a nun at Ely : Werburga, the daughter of Wolfer, king of the Mercians, a nun at Ely ; 
Kinedreda, sister of Wolfer, and Kineswida, her sister, both professed nuns; Sexburga, 
daughter of Anna, king of Mercia, and wife of Ercombert, king of Kent; was abbess at 
Ely ; Elfrida, daughter of Oswy, king of Northumberland, was abbess of Whitby; Mil- 
dreda, Milburga, and Milguida, three daughters of Merwald, king of the West-Mercians, 
took the profession and vow of virginity ; Kineburga, wife of Alfnd, king of Northumber- 
land, and sister to Osric, king of the Mercians, and daughter of king Penda, was pro- 
fessed abbess of the monastery of Gloucester ; Elfleda, daughter of king Oswy, and 
wife of Peda, son of king Penda, likewise committed herself to the profession and vow 
of Romish chastity ; as did Alfrida, wife to king Edgar, and Editha, daughter to the said 
Edgar, with Wolfride, her mother, etc. All these holy nuns, with many more, the Roman 
catholics have canonized for saints, and put the greater part of them in their calendar, only 
because of the vow of their chastity. Concerning this chastity, it is not that which makes 
saints before God, but only the merit of Christ Jesus, and a true faith in him. 

While we are upon the subject of nuns and nunneries, we shall forcibly call the attention 
of our readers to the increase of popery in our own country at the present day. In the 
25th volume of the Anti-Jacobin Review, it is stated, that a body of nuns have purchased 
the extensive domain of New-Hall, the property of the late Lord Waltham. The ladies 
are natives of this kingdom, and they are charged with attempting to make proselytes, by 
allowing English ladies to take the veil. 



123 



SECTION III. 

A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN THE 
ELEVENTH CENTURY. 

Alphage, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, came from a considerable 
family in Gloucestershire, and received an education suitable to his birth. 
His parents were Christians, and he seemed to inherit all their virtues. 
He was prudent, humble, pious and chaste; and made a rapid progress 
both in polite literature and theological learning. In order to be more 
at leisure to contemplate the beauties of sacred history, he determined 
to renounce his fortune, quit his home, and become a recluse. He ac- 
cordingly retired to a monastery of Benedictines at Deerhurst, in 
Gloucestershire, and soon after took the monastic habit. Here he lived 
with the utmost temperance, and spent the greater part of his time in 
prayer. But not thinking the austerities he underwent in this monastery 
sufficiently severe, he retired to a lonely cell near Bath, and lived in a 
manner still more rigid; but some devout persons finding out his retreat, 
his austerity soon became the subject of conversation in the neigh- 
bouring villages, where many flocked to him and begged to be taken 
under his pastoral care. Consenting to their importunities, he raised a 
monastery near the cell by the contributions of several well-disposed 
persons; formed his new pupils into a community, and placed a prior 
over them. Having prescribed rules for their regulation, he again 
retired to his cell, fervently wishing to pass the remainder of his days in 
religious security ; when the following affair again drew him from his 
retreat:— 

The see of Winchester being vacant by the death of Ethelwold, a 
dispute arose respecting a successor to that bishopric. The clergy had 
been driven out of the cathedral for their scandalous lives, but were 
admitted again by king Ethelred, upon certain terms of reformation. 
The monks who had been introduced upGn their expulsion, looked upon 
themselves as the chapter of that church ; and hence arose a violent 
contest between them and the clergy who had been re-admitted, about 
the election of a bishop; while both parties were vigorously determined 
upon promoting their own favourite. This dispute at last ran so high, 

We have no wish to censure the conduct of those who devote themselves to a religious 
life, merely because they are Catholics ; but it is evident by historical authorities of the most 
indubitable nature, that in the earliest ages the greatest disorders prevailed in houses of 
nuns, whose professed vows have never yet been good to the church, nor profitable to the 
common-wealth, and least of all to themselves. Of such young and wanton women, 
St. Paul in his time complains, (1 Tim. v.) because they would take upon them the pro- 
fession of single life, which they were not able to perform, but falling into shameless luxury, 
deserved to be reprehended. How much better had it been for these lascivious nuns not 
to refuse the safe yoke of christian matrimony, rather than to entangle themselves in a 
superstitious vow of perpetual virginity, which neither was required of them, nor were they 
able to keep. 



124 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, was 
obliged to interpose, and he consecrated Alphage to the vacant bishopric, 
to the general satisfaction of all concerned in the election. 

The behaviour of Alphage was a proof of his being equal to the dig- 
nity of his vocation. Piety flourished in his diocese ; unity was esta- 
blished among his clergy and people; and the conduct of the church 
of Winchester made the bishop the admiration of the whole kingdom. 
Dunstan had an extraordinary veneration for Alphage, and when at the 
point of death, made it his ardent request to God that he might suc- 
ceed him in the see of Canterbury, which accordingly happened, though 
not till about eighteen years after Dunstan's death. In the interval the 
metropolitan church was governed by three successive prelates, the last 
of whom was Alfric; upon whose decease, 1006, Alphage was raised to 
the see of Canterbury. The people belonging to the diocese of Win- 
chester were too sensible of the loss they sustained by his translation 
not to regret his removal to Canterbury. Soon after he was made arch- 
bishop he went to Rome, and received the pall from pope John XVIII. 

When Alphage had governed the see of Canterbury about four years 
with great reputation, the Danes made an incursion into England. 
Ethelred, who then reigned, was a prince of very weak mind and 
pusillanimous disposition. Being afraid to face the enemy himself, and 
too irresolute to furnish others with the means of acting, he suffered 
his country to be ravaged with impunity, and the greatest depredations 
to be committed by the enemy. Upon this occasion, archbishop Alphage 
acted with great resolution and humanity : he went boldly to the Danes, 
purchased the freedom of several whom they had made captives, found 
means to send food to others whom he had not money enough to redeem, 
and even made converts of some of the Danes: but the latter circum- 
stance made the Danes, who still continued pagans, greater enemies to 
him than they would otherwise have been, and they were determined 
upon revenge. Edric, an English malcontent and traitor, gave the 
Danes every encouragement, and assisted them in laying siege to 
Canterbury. When the design of attacking the city was known, many 
of the principal people made a precipitate flight, and would have per- 
suaded Alphage to follow their example ; but he refused to listen to such 
a proposal, assured them he could not think of abandoning his flock 
when his presence was more necessary than ever, and was resolved to 
hazard his life in their defence. While he was employed in assisting 
his people, Canterbury was taken by storm, the enemy poured into the 
town, and destroyed all that came in their way. The monks endea- 
voured to detain the archbishop in the church, where they hoped he 
might be safe : but concern for his flock made him break from them and 
run into the midst of danger. On this occasion he addressed the enemy, 
and begged the people might be saved, and that they would discharge 
their whole fury upon him. They accordingly seized him, bound, in- 
sulted, and abused him, and obliged him to remain on the spot till his 
church was burnt, and the monks were massacred. They then decimated 
all the inhabitants; after which they confined the archbishop in a dun- 
geon, where they kept him for several months. During his confinement 
they proposed to him to redeem his liberty with the sum of 3,000/. and 



GERARD THE VENETIAN. 12,5 

to persuade the king to purchase their departure out of the kingdom 
with a farther sum of 10,000/. His circumstances not allowing him to 
satisfy their exorbitant demand, they bound him, and put him to severe 
torments, to oblige him to discover the treasures of his church; upon 
which they assured him of his life and liberty. They then remanded 
him to prison, confined him six days longer, and taking him with them 
to Greenwich, brought him to trial. He still remained inflexible with 
respect to the church treasures; but exhorted them to forsake their 
idolatry and embrace Christianity. This so greatly incensed the Danes, 
that the soldiers dragged him out of the camp, and beat him unmerci- 
fully. Alphage bore this treatment patiently, and even prayed for his 
persecutors. One of the soldiers who had been converted and baptised 
by him, was greatly afflicted that his pains should be so lingering, as he 
knew his death was determined on: he, therefore, in a kind of barbarous 
compassion, cut off his head, and thus completed his martyrdom. This 
happened on April 19, A. D. 1012, on the very spot where the church 
at Greenwich, which is dedicated to him, now stands. After death his 
body was thrown into the Thames, but being found the next day, it was 
buried in the cathedral of St. Paul's by the bishops of London and 
Lincoln; whence it was in the year 1023, removed to Canterbury by 
Ethelwoth, the archbishop of that province. 

Gerard, a Venetian, having devoted himself to the service of God 
from youth, entered into a religious house for some time, and then 
determined to visit the Holy Land. On arriving in Hungary, he became 
acquainted with Stephen, the king of that country, who acted the parts 
of prince and preacher, and not only regulated his subjects by whole- 
some laws, but taught them religious duties. Finding Gerard qualified 
to instruct his people, he tried to detain him in his kingdom ; and, at 
length, founding several churches, he made Gerard bishop of that of 
Chonad. Here the new prelate had a very difficult task to perform, the 
people of his diocese being accustomed to idolatry. Gerard however, 
assiduous in his zeal for the salvation of his flock, laboured to bring 
them to a sense of their duty, and soon had the pleasure to find that his 
endeavours were successful, his sweetness of disposition winning greatly 
upon the people. His success was not confined to his own diocese, but 
extended to the adjacent country, where his doctrines successfully spread, 
and many became converts to the pure faith of Christ. Wherever the 
Gospel made its way by his ministry, he took care to establish eccle- 
siastical discipline for the preservation of religion, and made several 
useful regulations in the public service of the church. His exemplary 
conduct was as instructive as his exhortations, and did much to convince 
his converts of the truth and dignity of their new profession. He was 
remarkable for an uncommon tenderness for the poor, especially those 
who suffered sickness, or were incapable of following their accustomed 
employments. During the life of Stephen, Gerard received every assist- 
ance which that excellent monarch could afford him; but on his demise, 
his nephew Peter, who succeeded him, was of so different a temper, that 
Gerard was greatly perplexed. At length, the tyranny of Peter exas- 
perated his subjects so much, that they deposed him, and placed Ouvo 
on the throne. They, however, soon found that they had changed from 



126 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

bad to worse; for Ouvo proved a greater monster of cruelty than his 
predecessor. At Easter, he repaired to Chonad, in order to receive the 
crown from the hands of Gerard. When he arrived, the other prelates 
of the kingdom, who were assembled, assured the prince of their affec- 
tion for his person, and promised to concur in his coronation; but 
Gerard refused to pay that compliment to a public and malicious enemy ; 
and told him, that he could not look on Peter's exclusion as regular, and 
consequently should not proceed to do any thing to the prejudice of his 
title : he then said that if he persisted in his usurpation, Providence 
would soon put an end to his life and reign. Ouvo, growing more in- 
supportable than his predecessor, was brought to the scaffold in the year 
1044 ; upon which Peter was recalled, and placed on the throne a second 
time ; but his deposition and retirement had made no alteration in his 
temper, so that he was again deprived of the royal dignity in less than 
two years. 

An offer was then made of the crown to Andrew, son of Ladislaws, 
cousin-german of Stephen, on condition that he would employ his 
authority in extirpating the Christian religion from Hungary. The 
ambitious prince consented to the proposal, and promised to do his 
utmost to re-establish the idolatrous worship of his deluded ancestors. 
Gerard, informed of this impious bargain, remonstrated against the 
enormity of Andrew's crime, and persuaded him to withdraw his promise. 
He undertook to go to that prince, attended by three other prelates, 
full of zeal for religion. The king was at Alba Regalis; but as the 
four bishops were about to cross the Danube, they were stopped by a 
party of soldiers posted there by order of a man of quality in the 
neighbourhood, remarkable for his aversion to the christian religion, 
and to Stephen's memory. They were attacked with a shower of stones, 
and the soldiers beat them unmercifully, and at length dispatched them 
with lances. Their martyrdom happened in the year 1045. 

Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow, was of an illustrious popish family. 

The piety of his parents was equal to their opulence, and they rendered 

their wealth subservient to every purpose of benevolence. Stanislaus 

was their only child, and when he was of proper age, they employed 

masters in several branches of learning to instruct him. He possessed 

a penetrating genius, retentive memory, and solid understanding; hence 

study became his amusement. His disposition was not inferior to his 

abilities; and he voluntarily gave himself, in the dawn of youth, to such 

austerities as might have acquired reputation for a hermit. In process 

of time he was sent to a seminary of learning in Poland, and afterwards 

to the university of Paris. Continuing several years in France, he 

returned to his own country, and on the demise of his parents became 

possessed of a great fortune ; but he devoted most of his property to 

charitable uses, retaining only a small portion for his own expenses. 

His views were now solely directed to the ministry ; but he remained for 

some time undetermined whether he should embrace a monastic life, or 

engage among the active clergy. He was at length persuaded to the 

latter by Lambert Zula, bishop of Cracow, who gave him holy orders, 

and made him a canon of his cathedral. In this capacity he lived in a 

most exemplary manner, and performed his duties with unremitting 



DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT OF BOLISLAUS. 127 

assiduity. Lambert was charmed with the many virtues which so par- 
ticularly distinguished Stanislaus, and would fain have resigned his 
bishopric to him, alleging as a reason his great age ; but Stanislaus 
absolutely refused to accept of the see, for the contrary reason, his own 
want of years: being then only 36 years old, he deemed that too early 
an age for a man to undertake the important care of a diocese. Lambert, 
however, made him a substitute upon various occasions, by which he 
became thoroughly acquainted with all that related to the bishopric : 
and the former dying on November 25, 1071, all concerned in the 
choice of a successor declared for Stanislaus: but he declined the 
acceptance for the same reason as before. At length the king, clergy, 
and nobility unanimously joined in writing to pope Alexander the Second 
who, at their entreaty, sent an express order that Stanislaus should accept 
the bishopric. He then obeyed, and exerted himself to the utmost in 
improving his flock. He was equally careful with respect both to clergy 
and laity, kept a list of all the poor in his diocese, and by feeding the 
hungry, clothing the naked, and administering remedies to the sick, he 
proved himself not only the godly pastor, but the physician and bene- 
factor of the people. 

Bolislaus, the second king of Poland, had many good qualities, but 
giving way too much to his passions, he committed several enormities, 
till from being deemed a good king, he at length had the appellation of 
cruel. The nobility were shocked at his conduct, and the clergy saw 
his proceedings with grief; but Stanislaus alone had the courage to tell 
him of his faults. The king was greatly exasperated at this freedom ; 
but awed by the virtues of the bishop, he dissembled his resentment, and 
appearing to be convinced of his errors, promised to reform his conduct. 
However, so far from designing to perform his promise, he complained 
to some of his sycophants of the freedom that Stanislaus had taken with 
him, and they condemned the boldness of the bishop. The king soon 
after attempted the chastity of a married lady, who rejected his offers 
with disdain, which piqued his pride so much that he seized her by force 
and ruined her. This greatly alarmed all the nobility : none knew how 
long his own wife, daughter, or sister, might be safe ; they therefore 
assembled, and calling the clergy to their assistance, entreated Peter, 
archbishop of Gresne, to remonstrate to the king on the impropriety of 
his conduct. Nevertheless, the archbishop declined the task ; for though 
a man of virtue, he was of an uncommonly timid disposition. Several 
other prelates imitated his example, and Stanislaus was, as before, the 
only one who had courage and zeal sufficient to perform what he looked 
upon as an indispensable duty. He, therefore, put himself at the head 
of a select number of ecclesiastics, noblemen, and gentlemen; and pro- 
ceeding to court, addressed the king in a solemn manner on the heinous- 
ness of his crime. The king, as soon as he had done speaking, flew into 
a violent passion, complained of the want of respect to his royal dignity, 
and vowed revenge for what he called an insult to his person. Stanislaus, 
however, not in the least intimidated by his menaces, visited him twice 
more, and remonstrated with him in a similar manner, which only 
increased his anger. 

The nobility and clergy finding that the admonitions of the bishop 



128 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

had not the desired effect upon the king, thought proper to interpose. 
The nobility entreated the bishop to refrain from exasperating a monarch 
of so ferocious a temper ; and the clergy endeavoured to persuade the 
king not to be offended with Stanislaus for his charitable remonstrances. 
But the haughty sovereign determined at any rate to get rid of a prelate, 
who, in his opinion, was so censorious; and hearing that the bishop was 
by himself in the chapel of St. Michael, at a small distance from the 
town, he dispatched some soldiers to murder him. The men readily 
undertook the task; but when they came into the presence of Stanislaus, 
the venerable aspect of the prelate struck them with such awe, that they 
could not effect what they had promised. On their return, the king 
finding they had not obeyed his orders, flew into a rage, snatched a 
dagger from one of them, and ran furiously to the chapel, where, finding 
Stanislaus at the altar, he plunged the weapon into his heart. This 
occurred on the 8th of May, A. D. 1079. 



SECTION IV. 

THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES IN FRANCE. 

Before this time the church of Christ was more than tainted with the 
errors of popery, and superstition began to predominate; but a few, who 
perceived the pernicious tendency of such errors, determined to preserve 
the light of the gospel in its purity and splendour, and to disperse the 
clouds which artful priests had raised about it in order to delude the 
people. The principal of these worthies was Berengarius, who, about 
the year 1000, boldly preached evangelical truth according to its primi- 
tive simplicity. Many from conviction embraced his doctrine, and were 
on that account, called Berengarians. Berengarius was succeeded by 
Peter Bruis, who preached at Toulouse, under the protection of the earl 
Hildephonsus; and the tenets of the reformers, with the reasons of their 
separation from the church of Rome, were published in a book written 
by Bruis, under the title of Antichrist. 

In the year 1140, the number of the reformed was so great, that the 
probability of their increasing alarmed the pope, who wrote to several 
princes to banish them from their dominions, and employed many learned 
men to write against them. In 1147, Henry, of Toulouse, being deemed 
their most eminent preacher, they were called Henricians; and as they 
would not admit of any proofs relative to religion but what could be 
deduced from the scriptures, the popish party gave them the name of 
Apostolics. Peter Waldo, a native of Lyons, at this time became a 
strenuous opposer of popery; and from him the reformed received the 
appellation of Waldoys, or Waldenses. Waldo was a man eminent for 
learning and benevolence; his doctrines were very generally admired, 
and he was followed by multitudes of all classes. The bishop of Lyons 
taking umbrage at the freedom with which he treated the pope and the 
Romish clergy, sent to admonish him to refrain in future from such 
discourses; but Waldo answered, "That he could not be silent in a 



TENETS OF THE WALDENSES. 129 

cause of such importance as the salvation of men's souls, wherein he 
must obey God rather than man." His principal charges against the pope 
and popery were, that the Roman Catholics affirm the church of Rome 
to be the infallible church of Christ upon earth, and that the pope is its 
head, and the vicar of Christ; that they hold the absurd doctrine of 
transubstantiation, insisting that the bread and wine given in the sacra- 
ment is the identical body and blood of Christ who was nailed to the 
cross ; that they believe there is a place called purgatory where souls 
after this life are purged from the sins of mortality, and that the pains 
and penalties here inflicted may be abated according to the masses said 
by and the money paid to the priest; that they teach the communion of 
one kind, and the receiving the bread only to be sufficient for the laity, 
though the clergy must be indulged with both bread and wine; that 
they pray to the Virgin Mary and saints, though their prayers ought to 
be immediately to God ; that they pray for souls departed, though God 
decides their fate immediately on the decease of the person ; that they 
will not perform the service of the church in a language understood by 
the people in general ; that they place their devotion in the number of 
prayers, and not in the intent of the heart ; that they forbid marriage to 
the clergy though Christ allowed it ; and that they use many things in 
baptism, though he used only water. When pope Alexander the Third 
was informed of these transactions, he excommunicated Waldo and his 
adherents, and commanded the bishop of Lyons to exterminate them. 
Thus began the papal persecutions against the Waldenses. 

The following were the tenets maintained by the Waldenses : — 

1. Holy oil is not to be mingled with water in baptism. 

2. Prayers used over things inanimate are superstitious. 

3. Flesh may be eaten in Lent; the clergy may marry; and auricular 
confession is unnecessary. 

4. Confirmation is no sacrament; we are not bound to pay obedience 
to the pope; ministers should live upon tythes; no dignity sets one 
clergyman above another, for their superiority can only be drawn from 
real worth. 

5. Images in churches are absurd; image-worship is idolatry; the 
pope's indulgences are ridiculous ; and the miracles pretended to be 
done by the church of Rome are false. 

6. Fornication and public stews ought not to be allowed; purgatory 
is a fiction; and deceased persons, though saints, ought not to be 
prayed to. 

7. Extreme unction is not a sacrament; and masses, indulgences, 
and prayers, are of no service to the dead. 

8. The Lord's prayer ought to be the rule of all other prayers. 
Waldo remained three years undiscovered in Lyons, though the utmost 

diligence was used to apprehend him, but at length he found an oppor- 
tunity of escaping from the place of his concealment to the mountains 
of Dauphiny. He soon after found means to propagate his doctrines in 
Dauphiny and Picardy, which so exasperated Philip, king of France, 
that he put the latter province, which contained most of his followers, 
under military execution ; destroying above 300 gentlemen's seats, 



130 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

erasing some walled towns, burning many of the reformed, and driving 
others into Normandy and Germany. 

Notwithstanding these persecutions the reformed religion continued to 
flourish, and the Waldenses, in various parts, became more numerous 
than ever. At length the pope accused them of heresy, and the monks 
of immorality; the former asserting that they had fallen into many 
errors, and the latter that they committed many evils. These slanders 
however they refuted; but the pope, incensed at their increase, used 
all manner of arts for their extirpation; such as excommunications, 
anathemas, canons, constitutions, decrees, &c. by which they were 
rendered incapable of holding places of trust, honour, or profit; their 
lands were seized, their goods confiscated, and they were not permitted 
to be buried in consecrated ground. Some of the Waldenses having 
taken refuge in Spain, Aldephonsus, king of Arragon, at the instigation 
of the pope, published an edict, strictly ordering all Roman catholics 
to persecute them wherever they could be found ; and decreeing that all 
who gave them the least assistance should be deemed traitors. The year 
after this edict Aldephonsus was severely punished by the hand of Provi- 
dence; for his son was defeated in a great battle, and 50,000 of his men 
slain, by which a considerable portion of his kingdom fell into the hands 
of the Moors. 

The reformed ministers continued to preach boldly against the Romish 
church; and Peter Waldo, in particular, wherever he went, asserted, 
that the pope was antichrist, that mass was an abomination, that the 
host was an idol, and that purgatory was a fable. These proceedings of 
Waldo and his reformed companions, occasioned the origin of the 
inquisition; for pope Innocent III. elected certain monks inquisitors, to 
find and deliver over the reformed to the secular power. The monks 
upon the least surmise or information delivered over the reformed to the 
magistrate, and the magistrate delivered them to the executioner; for the 
process was short, as an accusation was deemed adequate to guilt, and a 
fair trial was never granted to the accused. 

When the pope found that these cruel means had not the desired 
effect, he determined to try others of a more mild nature ; he therefore 
sent several learned monks to preach among the Waldenses, and induce 
them to change their opinions. Among these was one Dominic, who 
was extremely zealous in the cause of popery. He instituted an order, 
which from him was called the order of Dominican friars; and the 
members of this order have ever since been principal agents in the 
various inquisitions of the world. The power of the inquisitors was 
unlimited ; they proceeded against whom they pleased without consider- 
ation of age, sex, or rank. If the accusers were ever so infamous, the 
accusation was deemed valid ; and even anonymous informations sent 
by letter were thought sufficient evidence. To be rich was a crime 
equal to heresy; therefore many who had money were accused of it, or 
of being favourers of heretics. The dearest friends and kindred could 
not, without danger, serve any one who was imprisoned on account of 
religion : to convey to those who were confined a little straw, or give 
them a cup of water, was called favouring the heretics: no lawyer dared 
to plead even for his own brother, or to note or register any thing in 



CRUEL PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES. 131 

favour of the reformed. The malice of the papists, indeed, went beyond 
the grave, and the bones of many Waldenses, who had been long dead r 
were dug up and burnt. If a man on his death-bed were accused of 
being a follower of Waldo, his estates were confiscated, and the heir 
defrauded of his inheritance; and some were even obliged to make 
pilgrimages to the Holy Land, while the Dominicans took possession of 
their houses and properties, and when the owners returned would often 
pretend not to know them. 

A knight named Enraudus, being accused of embracing the opinions 
of Waldo, was burnt at Paris, A. D. 1201. About twenty years after, 
such numbers of the reformed were apprehended, that the archbishops 
of *Aix, Aries, and Narbonne, took compassion on them, and thus ex- 
pressed themselves to the inquisitors — " We hear that you have appre- 
hended such a number of Waldenses, that it is not only impossible to 
defray the charge of their food and confinement, but to provide lime 
and stone to build prisons for them." 

In the year 1380, a monk inquisitor, named Francis Boralli, had a 
commission granted him by pope Clement VII. to search for and punish 
the Waldenses in Aix, Ambrone, Geneva, Savoy, Orange, Aries, 
Vienna, Venice, and Avignon. He went to Ambrone, and summoned 
all the inhabitants to appear before him ; when those who were found to 
be of the reformed religion, were delivered over to the secular power, 
and burnt ; and those who did not appear were excommunicated for 
contumacy, and had their effects confiscated. In the distribution of 
these effects, the clergy had the lion's share, more than two thirds of 
every man's property who was condemned, and the secular power less 
than one third, and sometimes next to nothing. All the reformed in- 
habitants of the other places named in the commission of this ecclesiastic 
were equal sufferers. 

In the year 1400, the Waldenses who resided in the valley of Pragela, 
were, at the instigation of some priests, suddenly attacked by a body of 
troops, who plundered their houses, murdered the inhabitants, or drove 
them to the Alps, where great numbers were frozen to death, it being in 
the depth of winter. In 1460, a persecution was carried on in Dauphiny 
against the same people, by the archbishop of Ambrone who employed 
a monk, named John Vayleti ; and this monk proceeded with such vio- 
lence, that not only the Waldenses, but even many papists were suf- 
ferers : for if any of them expressed compassion or pity for the unoffend- 
ing people, who were so cruelly treated, they were sure to be accused 
of partiality to heretics, and to share their fate. At length Vayleti's pro- 
ceedings became so intolerable, that a great number of the papists them- 
selves signed a petition against him to Louis XI. king of France, who 
granted the request of the petitioners, and sent an order to the governor 
of Dauphiny to stop the persecution. Vayleti, however, by order of the 
archbishop, still continued it ; for taking advantage of the last clause 
of the edict, he pretended that he did nothing contrary to the king's 
precept, who had ordered punishment to such as affirmed any thing 
against the holy catholic faith. This persecution at length concluded 
with the death of the archbishop, which happened in 1487. 

Pope Innocent VIII. in 1488, determined to persecute the Waldenses 



132 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

To this end he sent Albert de Capitaneis, archdeacon of Cremona, to 
France; who, on arriving in Dauphiny, craved the assistance of the king's 
lieutenant to exterminate them from the valley of Loyse. The lieutenant 
readily granted his assistance, and marched a body of troops to the 
place ; but when they arrived in the valley, they found that it had been 
deserted by the inhabitants, who had retired to the mountains, and hid 
themselves in dens and caves of the earth. The archdeacon and lieu- 
tenant immediately followed them with their troops, and catching many 
cast them headlong from precipices, by which they were dashed to pieces. 
Several, however, retired to the innermost parts of the caverns, and 
knowing the intricacies, were able to conceal themselves. The arch- 
deacon and lieutenant not being capable of finding them ordered'the 
mouths of the caves to be filled with faggots, which being lighted, those 
within were suffocated. On searching the caves, numerous children were 
found smothered, either in their cradles or in their mothers' arms ; and 
upon the whole, about 3000 men, women, and children, were destroyed 
in this persecution. After this tragical work, the lieutenant and arch- 
deacon proceeded with the troops of Pragelo and Frassaniere, to perse- 
cute the Waldenses in those parts. But these having heard the fate of 
their brethren in the valley of Loyse, thought proper to arm themselves; 
and by fortifying the different avenues, and bravely disputing the passages 
through them, they so harassed the troops that the lieutenant was com- 
pelled to retire without effecting his purpose. 

In 1594, Anthony Fabria and Christopher de Salience, having a com- 
mission to persecute the Waldenses of Dauphiny, put some to death, 
sequestered the estates of others, and confiscated the goods of many ; 
but Louis XII. coming to the crown in 1598, the Waldenses petitioned 
him for a restitution of their properties. The king determined to have 
the affair impartially canvassed, and sent a commissioner of his own, 
together with a commissary from the pope, to make the proper inquiries. 
Witnesses against the Waldenses having been examined, the innocence 
of those poor people evidently appeared, and the king's commissioner 
therefore declared — " That he only desired to be as good a Christian as 
the worst of them." This favourable report being made to the king, he 
immediately gave orders that the Waldenses should have their property 
restored to them. The archbishop of Ambrone, having the greatest 
quantity of their goods, it was generally imagined that he would set a 
laudable example to others by being the first to restore them. However, 
to the surprise of the people in general, and the affliction of the Wal- 
denses in particular, the prelate protested that he would not restore any 
of the property, for it was incorporated and become part of his arch- 
bishopric. He, however, with an affectation of candour, offered to re- 
linquish several vineyards, of which he had dispossessed the sufferers, 
provided the lords of Dauphiny would restore all they had taken from 
them; but this the lords absolutely refused, being as fond of keeping 
their plunder as the archbishop himself. 

The Waldenses finding that they were not likely to recover any of their 
property, again appealed to the king ; and the monarch having attended 
to their complaints, wrote to the archbishop ; but that artful and avari- 
cious prelate replied, — " That at the commencement of the persecution 



UPRIGHTNESS OF THE WALDENSES. 133 

the Waldenses had been excommunicated by the pope, in consequence 
of which their goods were distrained ; therefore, till the sentence of 
excommunication was taken off, which had occasioned them to be seized 
they could not be restored with propriety." This plea was allowed to 
be reasonable : and application was ineffectually made to the pope to 
remove the sentence of excommunication ; the archbishop having used 
all his interest at the court of Rome to prevent the petition from suc- 
ceeding. Thus were the poor Waldenses robbed of their property, only 
because they would not sacrifice their consciences to the will of their 
enemies. 

At length this sect having spread from Dauphiny into several other 
parts, became very numerous in Provence. At their first arrival Pro- 
vence was almost a desert, but by their great industry it soon abounded 
with corn, wine, oil, fruit, &c. The pope, by being often near them at 
his seat at Avignon, heard occasionally many things concerning their 
differences with the church of Rome, which greatly exasperated him, 
and he determined to persecute them on this ground with severity. 
Proceeding to extremities, under the sanction of ecclesiastical authority 
only, without consulting the king of France, the latter became alarmed 
and sent his master of requests, and his confessor to examine the affair. 
On their return they reported that the Waldenses were not such danger- 
ous people as they had been represented ; that they lived with perfect 
honesty, were friendly to all, caused their children to be baptised, had 
them taught the Lord's prayer, creed, and ten commandments ; expounded 
the scriptures with purity, kept the Lord's day sacred, feared God, 
honoured the king, and wished well to the state. 

" Then," said the king, " they are much better Christians than myself 
or my catholic subjects, and therefore they shall not be persecuted." 
The king was as good as his word, and sent orders to stop the per- 
secution. 

Some time after the inhabitants of Merindol received a summons, that 
the heads of the families of that town should appear before the eccle- 
siastical court. When they appeared, and confessed themselves Wal- 
denses, they were ordered to be burnt, their families outlawed, their 
habitations laid waste, and the woods that surrounded the town cut 
down two hundred paces square, so that the whole should be rendered 
desolate. The king, however, being informed of this barbarous decree, 
sent to countermand the execution of it ; but his order was suppressed 
by cardinal Tournon, and the greatest cruelties were consequently per- 
petrated with impunity. 

The president of Opede sent several companies of soldiers to burn 
some villages occupied by protestants : this commission they too faith- 
fully executed, exceeding it by a brutal treatment of the inhabitants, 
in which neither infancy, age, or sex, was spared. He also proclaimed 
that none should give any manner of assistance or sustenance to the suf- 
ferers. On reaching another small town, the president found only a boy, 
who had surrendered himself to a soldier, the other inhabitants having de- 
serted the place. The boy he ordered to be shot by the soldier to whom 
he had surrendered, and then destroyed every house in the place. He 
next marched against Cabrieres, and began to cannonade it. At this time 






134 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

there were not above sixty poor peasants with their families in the to\.«» , 
and they sent him word that he need not expend powder and shot upon 
the place, as they were willing to open the gates and surrender, provided 
they might be permitted to retire unmolested to Geneva or Germany. 
This was promised them ; but the gates were no sooner opened, than the 
president ordered all the men to be cut to pieces, which cruel command 
was immediately executed. Several women and children were driven 
into a large barn, which was set on fire, and every one perished in the 
flames. Other women and children having taken refuge in a church, 
the president ordered one of his officers to go and kill them all : the 
captain at first refused, saying, " unnecessary cruelty is unbecoming a 
military man." The president, displeased at his reply, said, " I charge 
you, on pain of being accused of mutiny, immediately to obey my 
orders." When the captain, afraid of the consequences, thought pro- 
per to comply. The president then sent a detachment of his troops to 
ravage the town of Costa, which was done with the greatest barbarity. 

At length the judgment of God overtook this monster of cruelty; he 
was afflicted with a dreadful bloody-flux, and a painful strangury. In 
this extremity he sent for a surgeon from Aries, who, on examining his 
disorders, told him they were of a singular nature, and much worse than 
he had ever seen in any other person. He then took occasion to repre- 
hend him for his cruelties, and told him that unless he repented, he 
might expect the hand of Heaven to fall still heavier upon him. On 
hearing this, the president flew into a violent passion, and ordered his 
attendants to seize the surgeon as a heretic. The surgeon, however, 
found means to escape, and soon after the president's disorder increased 
to a terrible degree. As he had found some little ease from the surgical 
operations, he again sent for the faithful operator, having been informed 
of the place of his retirement : his message was accompanied with an 
apology for his former behaviour, and a promise of personal security. 
The surgeon forgiving what was past, went to him, but too late to be of 
any service; for he found the tyrant raving like a madman, and crying 
out that he had a fire within him. After blaspheming for some time he 
expired in dreadful agonies ; and his body in a few hours became so 
offensive, that hardly any one could endure the place where it lay. 

John de Roma, a monk, having a commission from the pope to search 
for heretics, executed it with great severity in Provence. The king of 
France hearing of his proceedings, sent an order to the parliament of 
Provence to apprehend him : the monk, however, made his escape to 
Avignon, and thought to live luxuriously upon what he had taken from 
the Waldenses. But in this he was mistaken, for robbers soon after 
plundered him of the greater part of his treasure; and his grief on this 
account brought on a violent disorder, which turned him, while living, 
into a mass of putrefaction, and soon put a period to his existence. 

The bishop of Aix, with some priests, being at Avignon together, 
were one day walking along the streets with some courtezans, and seeing 
a man who sold obscene pictures, they purchased several, and presented 
them to the women. A bookseller, who had a number of bibles in the 
French language for sale, lived at hand. The bishop stepping up to him, 
said, " How darest thou be so bold as to sell French merchandize in 



VILLANY OF THE BISHOP OF A1X. 133 

this town ?" The bookseller replied with a kind of sneer, " My lord, 
do you not think that bibles are so good as those pictures which you 
have bought for the ladies'?" Enraged at the sarcasm, the bishop ex- 
claimed — " I'll renounce my place in paradise if this fellow be not one 
of the Waldenses. Take him away, take him away to prison." These 
expressions occasioned him to be cruelly treated by the rabble; and the 
next day he was brought before the judge, who, at the instigation of the 
bishop, condemned him to the flames. He was accordingly burnt, with 
two bibles hanging about his neck, the one before and the other 
behind. 1 ! 

<i The principal persecutor of the Merindolians was this bishop of Aix, who persuaded 
the president and counsellors of the court of parliament to send an army through all 
Provence to destroy those who professed the reformed religion. The people, on seeing the 
army, commended themselves to God, and prepared for death. While they were in this 
distress, mourning and lamenting together, suddenly there was news brought them that the 
army had retired, and no man knew how, or by what means ; yet afterwards it was known 
that the lord of Alenc, a wise man, and learned in scripture and the civil law, moved with 
the love of justice, declared to the president Cassanee, that he ought not to proceed 
against the inhabitants of Merindol by force of arms, without judgment or condemnation: 
and after more arguments to the same effect, he addressed Cassanee, who was a monster of 
cruelty, and reminded him of a statement which the president had made in a book, called 
" Catalogus Glorias, Mundi." This statement, which appears to have been a fact, is of so 
ludicrous a nature, that nothing but a knowledge of the absurdities of the popish supersti- 
tions can render it plausible. The president says, that in the bishopric of Autun, a process 
was instituted against the rats by the officers of the court and jurisdiction of the bishop; 
for it happened there was throughout all the bailiwick of Laussois such a number of rats, 
that they destroyed and devoured all the corn of the country. Whereupon they sent to 
the bishop of Autun's official, to have the rats excommunicated; and it was decreed by 
him, after he had heard the plaintiff of the procurator fiscal, that before he would proceed 
to excommunication, the rats should have admonition and warning according to the order of 
justice; and it was ordained, that by the sound of a trumpet, and open proclamation made 
throughout all the streets of the town of Autun, the rats should be cited to appear wkhin 
three days; and if they did not appear, the court should proceed against them. 

The three days passed, and the procurator came into court against the rats, and for want 
of appearance obtained default, by virtue whereof he required that they should proceed to 
excommunication. Whereupon it was judicially acknowledged that the said rats, being 
absent, should have their advocate appointed them to hear their defence, because the 
question was for the whole destruction and banishment of the said rats. "And you, my 
lord president," says the lord of Alenc, "being at that time the king's advocate at Autun, 
were chosen to be the advocate to defend the rats. And having taken the charge upon you 
in pleading the matter, it was by you there declared, that the citation was of no effect, for 
certain causes by you there alleged. Then it was decreed that the said rats should be 
again cited through the parishes where they were; and after the citations were duly served, 
the procurator came again into the court as before; and there it was alleged by you, my 
lord president, that the term of appearance given to the rats was too short, and that there 
were so many cats in every town and village that they.had to pass through, that they hud just 
cause to be absent. Wherefore, my lord president, you Ought not so lightly to proceed 
against these poor men, but ought to look upon the holy scriptures, and there find how to 
proceed in this matter: and you my lord, have alleged many places of scripture concerning 
the same ; and by this plea of a matter which seemeth to be of a small importance you 
have obtained great fame and honour, for the upright declaration of the form- how judges 
ought gravely to proceed in criminal causes. Then, my lord president, you who have 
taught others, will you not also learn by your own books? which will manifestly condemn 
you, if you proceed any further to the destruction of these poor men of Merindol. For 
are they not christian men, and ought you not to minister right and justice unto them, as 
you have done to the rats'?" By these humorous demonstrations the president was per- 
suaded, and immediately recalled his commission, caused the army to retire, and spared his 
intended victims. 

The Merindolians understanding that the army was retired, gave thanks to God, eomfuit* 



136 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



SECTION V. 






THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE ALBIGENSES. 

The Albigenses were a people of the reformed religion, who inhabited 
the country of Albi. They were condemned on account of religion in 
the council of Lateran, by order of pope Alexander III. but they in- 
creased so rapidly, that many cities were inhabited exclusively by persons 
of their persuasion, and several eminent noblemen embraced their doc- 
trines. Among the latter were two distinguished noblemen of the name 

ing one another with admonition and exhortation always to have the fear of God before 
their eyes, to be obedient to his holy commandments, subject to his most holy will, and 
every man to submit himself to his providence, patiently attending and looking for the hope 
of the blessed, the true life, and the everlasting riches, having all before them in the 
example of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who entered into his glory by many tribulations. 

Shortly after the bishop of Cavaillon came to Merindol, and calling before him the 
children, gave them money, and commanded them to learn the Pater-noster and the Creed 
in Latin. Most of them answered, that they knew the Pater-noster and Creed already in 
Latin, but they could make nothing of what they spake, except in the vulgar tongue. The 
bishop answered, that it was not necessary they should be so wise, but that it was sufficient 
they knew it in Latin ; and that it was not requisite for their salvation to understand the 
articles of their faith ; for there were many bishops and doctors of divinity whom it would 
trouble to expound the Pater-noster and the Creed. Here the bailiff of Merindol, named 
Andrew Maynard, asked what purpose it would serve to say the Pater-noster and the Creed, 
and not to understand the same : for in so doing they would but mock and deride God. 
Then said the bishop, "Do you understand what is signified by these words, I believe in 
God?" The bailiff answered, "I should think myself very miserable if I did not under- 
stand it :" and he began to give an account of his faith. Then said the bishop, " I should 
not have thought there had been such great doctors in Merindol." The bailiff answered, 
" The least of the inhabitants of Merindol can do it more readily than I : but I pray you 
question one or two of these young children, that you may understand whether they be well 
taught or no." But the bishop either knew not how to question them, or would not. On 
this a person named Pieron Roy, said, " Sir, one of these children may question with 
another, if you think fit;" and the bishop consented. Then one of the children began to 
question his fellows, with as much grace and gravity as if he had been a schoolmaster; and 
the children, one after another, answered so much to the purpose, that it was wonderful to 
hear them : for it was done in the presence of many, among whom there were four religious 
men who came lately from Paris, one of whom said to the bishop, " I must needs confess 
that I have been at the schools of Sorbon in Paris, where I have heard the disputation of 
the divines, but yet I never learned so much as I have done by hearing these young 
children." Then said William Armant, a child, " Did you never read that which is written 
in the eleventh chapter of St. Matthew, where it is said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord 
of Heaven and Earth, that thou hast hid these things from the sage and wise men of the 
world, and hast revealed them unto babes : but behold, O Father, such was thy good will 
and pleasure." 

When the bishop saw he could not prevail, he tried another way, and went about by 
flattering words to effect his purpose. Causing the strangers to go apart, he said, that he 
now perceived they were not so bad as many thought them ; notwithstanding, for the sake 
of those who were their persecutors, it was necessary that they should make some abjuration, 
which only the bailiff, with two officers, might make generally in his presence, in the name 
of the rest, without any notary to record it in writing ; and in doing so they should be loved 
and favoured by all men, and even by those who now persecuted them : and that they 
should sustain no infamy thereby, for there should be no report made, but only to the pope, 
and the parliament of Provence. The children, however, unanimously refused, and said, 
that they conceived the way in which they had been instructed to be the pure faith of 
Jesus Christ! 



FIRMNESS OF THE ALBIGENSES. 137 

of Raymond, earls of Toulouse and Foix. The pope at length pretended 
that he wished to draw them to the Romish faith by sound argument 
and clear reasoning, and for this end ordered a general conference; in 
which, however, the popish doctors were entirely overcome by the ar- 
guments of Arnold, a reformed clergyman, whose reasonings were so 
strong, that they were compelled to yield submission. 

A friar, named Peter, having been murdered in the dominions of the 
earl of Toulouse, the pope made the murder a pretence to persecute 
that nobleman and his subjects. He sent agents throughout Europe, to 
raise forces to act coercively against the Albigenses, and promised 
paradise to all that would enter this war, which he termed a holy war, 
and bear arms for forty days. The same indulgence was held out to all 
who entered for this purpose, as to such as engaged in crusades to the 
Holy Land. He also sent orders to all archbishops and bishops to ex- 
communicate the earl of Toulouse every sabbath and festival; at the 
same time absolving all his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and 
commanding them to pursue his person, possess his land, destroy his 
property, and murder such of his subjects as continued faithful. The 
earl hearing of these mighty preparations against him, wrote to the pope 
in a very candid manner, desiring not to be condemned unheard, and as- 
suring him that he had not the least hand in Peter's death: for that 
friar was killed by a gentleman, who, immediately after the murder, fled 
out of his territories. But the pope, being determined on his destruc- 
tion, was resolved not to hear his defence; and a formidable army, with 
several noblemen and prelates at the head of it, began their march 
against the Albigenses. The earl had only the alternative to oppose 
force by force, or submit: and as he despaired of success in attempting 
the former, he determined on the latter. The pope's legate being at 
Valence, the earl repaired thither, and said, " He was surprised that 
such a number of armed men should be sent against him, before the 
least proof of his guilt had been produced. He therefore came volun- 
tarily to surrender himself, armed with the testimony of a good con- 
science, and hoped that the troops would be prevented from plundering 
his innocent subjects, as he thought himself a sufficient pledge for any 
vengeance they chose to take on account of the friar's death." The 
legate replied, that he was very glad the earl had voluntarily surrendered; 
but, with respect to the proposal, he could not pretend to countermand 
the orders to the troops, unless he would consent to deliver up seven of 
his best fortified castles as securities for his future behaviour. At this 
demand the earl perceived his error in submitting, but it was too late ; 
he knew himself to be a prisoner, and therefore sent authority for the 
surrender of the castles. The pope's legate had no sooner garrisoned 
these places, than he ordered the respective governors to appear before 
him. When they came, he said, " That the earl of Toulouse having 
delivered up his castles to the pope, they must consider that they were 
now the pope's subjects, and not the earl's ; and that they must there- 
fore act conformably to their new allegiance." The governors were 
astonished to see their lord thus in captivity, and themselves compelled 
into a new allegiance, so much against their inclinations and consciences. 
But what afflicted them still more were the affronts afterwards put upon 



138 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






the earl ; for he was stripped, led nine times round the grave of friar 
Peter, and severely scourged before all orders of people. Not contented 
with this, they obliged him to swear that he would be obedient to the 
pope during the remainder of his life, conform to the church of Rome, 
and make irreconcilable war against the Albigenses. The legate even 
ordered him, by the oaths he had newly taken, to join the troops, and 
inspect the siege of Bezieres. But thinking this too hard an injunction 
he took an opportunity privately to quit the army, and determined to 
go to the pope and relate the ill usage he had received. The army, how- 
ever, proceeded to besiege Bezieres; and the earl of Bezieres, who was 
likewise governor of that city, thinking it impossible to defend the place 
came out, and presenting himself before the pope's legate, implored 
mercy for the inhabitants ; intimating that there were as many Roman 
Catholics as Albigenses in the city. The legate replied, that all excuses 
were useless ; that the place must be delivered up at discretion, or the 
most dreadful consequences would ensue. 

The earl of Bezieres returning to the city, told the inhabitants he 
could obtain no mercy, unless the Albigenses would adjure their religion 
and conform to the worship of the church of Rome. The Roman 
Catholics pressed the Albigenses to comply with his request ; but the 
Albigenses nobly answered, that they would not forsake their religion 
for the base price of a frail life : that God was able if he pleased to 
defend them ; but if he would be glorified by the confession of their 
faith unto death, it would be a great honour to them to die for his sake. 
They added, that they had rather displease the pope, who could but 
kill their bodies, than God, who could cast both body and soul into hell. 
On this their enemies, finding importunity ineffectual, sent their bishop 
to the pope's legate, beseeching him not to include them in the chas- 
tisement of the Albigenses ; and representing that the best means to 
win the latter over to the Roman Catholic persuasion was by gentle- 
ness, and not by rigour. Upon hearing this the legate flew into a 
violent passion with the bishop, and declared that " If all the city did 
not acknowledge their fault, they should taste of one curse without dis- 
tinction of religion, sex, or age." The inhabitants refusing to yield 
upon such terms, a general assault was made, and the place taken by 
storm, when every cruelty that barbarous superstition could devise was 
practised ; nothing was to be heard but the groans of men who lay wel- 
tering in their blood ; the lamentations of mothers, who, after being 
violated by the soldiery, had their children taken from them, and dashed 
to pieces before their faces. The city being fired in various parts, new 
scenes of confusion arose : in several places the streets were streaming 
with blood. Those who hid themselves in their dwellings, had only the 
dreadful alternative to remain and perish in the flames, or rush out and 
fall by the swords of the soldiers. The bloody legate, during these in- 
fernal proceedings, enjoyed the carnage, and even cried out to the 
troops, " Kill them, kill them all ; kill man, woman, and child ; kill 
Roman Catholics as well as Albigenses, for when they are dead the Lord 
knows how to select his own." Thus the beautiful city of Bezieres was 
reduced to a heap of ruins ; and 60,000 persons of different ages and 
both sexes were murdered. 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE ALBIGENSES. 139 

The earl of Bezieres and a few others made their escape, and went to 
Carcasson, which they endeavoured to put into the best posture of de- 
fence. The legate, not willing to lose an opportunity of shedding 
blood during the forty days which the troops were to serve, led them 
immediately against Carcasson. As soon as the place was invested a 
furious assault was made, but the besiegers were repulsed with great 
slaughter ; and upon this occasion the earl of Bezieres gave the most 
distinguished proofs of his courage, animating the besieged by crying 
out — " We had better die fighting than fall into the hands of such 
bigoted and bloody enemies." Two miles from Carcasson was a small 
town of the same name, which the Albigenses had likewise fortified. 
The legate being enraged at the repulse he had received from the city, 
determined to wreak his vengeance upon the town : the next morning 
he made a general assault; and, though the place was bravely de- 
fended, the legate took it by storm and put all within it to the sword. 

During these events the king of Arragon arrived at the camp, and 
after paying obedience to the legate, told him, he understood the earl 
of Bezieres, his kinsman, was in the city of Carcasson, and that if he 
would grant him permission, he would go thither, and endeavour to 
make him sensible of the duty he owed both to the pope and church : 
the legate acquiescing, the king repaired to the earl, and asked him 
from what motives he shut himself up in the city against so great an 
army? The earl answered it was to defend his life, goods, and sub- 
jects, that he knew the pope, under pretence of religion, resolved to 
destroy his uncle, the earl of Toulouse, and himself; that he saw the 
cruelty which they had used at Bezieres, even against the priests; 
adding also what they had done to the town of Carcasson, and that 
they must look for no mercy from the legate or his army; he, therefore, 
rather chose to die, defending himself with his subjects, than fall into 
the hands of so inexorable an enemy as the legate ; that though he had 
in the city some that were of another religion, yet they were such as 
had not wronged any, were come to his succour in his greatest ex- 
tremity, and for their good service he was resolved not to abandon 
them; that his trust was in God, the defender of the oppressed; and 
that he would assist them against those ill-advised men who forsook 
their own houses to burn those of other men, without reason, judgment, 
or mercy. 

The king reported to the legate what the earl had said : the legate, 
after considering for a time, replied, " For your sake, Sir, I will re- 
ceive the earl of Bezieres to mercy, and with him twelve others shall 
be safe, and be permitted to retire with their property; but as for the 
rest, I am determined to have them at my discretion." This answer 
displeased the king ; and when the earl heard it, he absolutely refused 
to comply with such terms. The legate then commanded another as- 
sault, but his troops were again repulsed with great slaughter, and the 
dead bodies occasioned a stench that was exceedingly offensive both to 
the besieged and besiegers. The legate, provoked and alarmed at this 
second disappointment, determined to act by stratagem. He sent a 
gentleman who was well skilled in dissimulation and artifice to the 
earl of Bezieres, with a seeming friendly messsage. The design was, by 



140 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

any means, to induce the earl to leave the city, in order to have an in- 
terview with the legate; and to this end the gentleman was to promise, 
nay swear, whatever he thought proper; for, said the legate, " Swear 
to whatever falsehoods you will in such a cause, I will give you abso- 
lution." The infamous plot succeeded: the earl believing the promises 
made him of personal security, and crediting the solemn oaths that the 
perjured agent swore upon the occasion, left the city and went with 
him. The legate no sooner saw him, than he told him he was a pri- 
soner, and must remain so till Carcasson had surrendered, and the in- 
habitants taught their duty to the pope. The earl on hearing this, 
cried out that he was betrayed, and exclaimed against the treachery of 
the legate, and the perjury of the agent he had employed. But he was 
ordered into close confinement, and the place summoned to surrender 
without delay. 

The people, on hearing of the captivity of the earl, were thrown into 
the utmost consternation, when one of the citizens informed the rest, 
that he had been formerly told by some old men, that there was a very 
capacious subterraneous passage, leading from thence to the castle of 
Camaret, three leagues distant. " If," continued he, " we can find 
this passage, we may all escape before the legate can be apprised of our 
flight." The information was joyfully received; all were employed to 
search for the passage, and at length it was discovered. Early in the 
evening the inhabitants began their flight, taking with them their wives, 
children, a few days' provisions, and such property as was most valuable 
and portable. They reached the castle by the morning, and escaped to 
Arragon, Catalonia, and such other places as they thought would secure 
them from the power of the sanguinary legate. Next morning the troops 
were astonished, not hearing any noise, nor seeing any stir in the 
city; yet they approached the walls with much fear, lest it should be but 
a stratagem to endanger them; but finding no opposition, they mounted 
the walls, crying out, that the Albigenses were fled ; and thus was the 
city with all the spoils taken, and the earl of Bezieres committed to 
prison in one of the strongest towers of Carcasson, where he soon after 
died. 

The legate called all the prelates and lords of his army together, 
telling them, that though it was requisite there should be always a legate 
in the army, yet it was likewise necessary that there should be a secular 
general, wise and valiant, to command in all their affairs. This charge 
was first offered to the duke of Burgogne, then to the earl of Ennevers, 
and thirdly, to the earl of St. Paul ; but they all refused it. At length 
it was offered to Simon, earl of Montfort, who after some excuses ac- 
cepted it. Four thousand men were left to garrison Carcasson, and the 
deceased earl of Bezieres was succeeded in title and dignity by earl 
Simon, a bigoted Roman Catholic, who threatened vengeance on the 
Albigenses, unless they conformed to the worship of the church of Rome. 
But the king of Arragon, who was in his heart of the reformed persua- 
sion, secretly encouraged the Albigenses, and gave them hopes, that if 
they acted with prudence, they might cast off the yoke of the tyranni- 
cal earl Simon. They took his advice, and while Simon was gone to 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE ALBIGENSES. 141 

Montpellier, they surprised some of his fortresses, and were successful 
in several expeditions against his officers. 

These proceedings so enraged earl Simon, that returning from Mont- 
pellier, he collected together some forces, marched against the Albi- 
genses, and ordered every prisoner he took to be immediately burnt. 
But not succeeding in some of his enterprises, he grew disheartened, 
and wrote to every Roman Catholic power in Europe to send him as- 
sistance, otherwise he should not be able to hold out against the Albi- 
genses. He soon received assistance with which he attacked the castle 
of Beron, and making himself master of it, ordered the garrison to be 
cruelly mutilated and deprived of sight: one person alone excepted, 
and he was but partially blinded that he might conduct the rest to 
Cabaret. Simon then undertook the siege of Menerbe, which, on ac- 
count of the want of water, was obliged to yield to his forces. The 
lord of Termes, the governor, was put in prison, where he died ; his 
wife, sister, and daughter were burnt, and 180 persons were committed 
to the flames. Many other castles surrendered to the forces of earl 
Simon, and the inhabitants were butchered in the most barbarous 
manner. 

In the mean time the earl of Toulouse, through letters of recom- 
mendation from the king of France, was reconciled to the pope : at 
least the pope pretended to give him remission for the death of friar 
Peter, and to absolve him from all other crimes he had committed. 
But the legate by the connivance of the pope, did all he could to ruin 
the earl. Altercations having passed between them, the legate excom- 
municated the earl; and the Roman Catholic bishop of Toulouse, upon 
such encouragement, thought proper to send this impudent message to 
the earl — " That as he was an excommunicated person, he commanded 
him to depart the city; for an ecclesiastic could not say mass with pro- 
priety while a person of such a description was near him." 

Greatly exasperated at the bishop's insolence, the earl sent him an 
order immediately to depart from the place on pain of death. This 
order was all the prelate wanted, as it would give him some reason to 
complain of his lord. The bishops, with the canons of the cathedral, 
marched out of the town in solemn procession, barefooted and bare- 
headed, taking with them the cross, banner, and host, and proceeded 
in that array to the legate's army, where they were received with great 
respect as persecuted martyrs, and the legate thought this a sufficient 
excuse to proceed against the earl of Toulouse for having, as he termed 
it, relapsed from the truth. The legate attempted to get him into his 
power by stratagem, but the earl being apprised of the design, escaped. 
Enraged at his disappointment, the legate laid siege to the castle of 
Montferrand, which belonged to the earl and was governed by Baldwin 
his brother. On the first summons, Baldwin not only surrendered, but 
abjured his religion and turned papist. This event, which severely 
afflicted the earl of Toulouse, was followed by another that gave him 
still greater mortification ; for his old friend the king of Arragon for- 
sook his interest; and it was stipulated that the king's daughter should 
be married to earl Simon's eldest son. The legate's troops were then 
joined by the forces of Arragon and those belonging to earl Simon, on 



142 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

which they jointly laid siege to Toulouse. Still the earl determined to 
interrupt the besiegers by frequent sallies. In the first attempt he met 
with a severe repulse ; but in the second he took the earl Simon's son 
prisoner, and in the third he unhorsed the earl himself. After several 
furious assaults by the popish army, and some other successful sallies of 
the Albigenses, the earl of Toulouse compelled his enemies to raise the 
siege. In their retreat they did much mischief in the countries through 
which they passed, and put many defenceless Albigenses to death. 

The earl of Toulouse now did all he could to recover the friendship of 
the king of Arragon ; and as the marriage ceremony between that mo- 
narch's daughter and earl Simon's son had not been performed, he 
entreated him to break off the preposterous match, and proposed another 
more proper, that his eldest son and heir to the earldom of Toulouse 
should wed the princess of Arragon, and by this match their friend- 
ship should be reunited and more firmly cemented. His majesty was 
easily persuaded, not only to agree to this proposal, but to form a league 
with the principal Albigenses, and to put himself as captain-general at 
the head of their united forces, consisting of his own people, and the 
troops of the earls of Toulouse, Foix, and Cominges. The papists 
were greatly alarmed at these proceedings ; earl Simon sent to engage 
the assistance of the Roman catholic powers, and the pope's legate began 
hostilities by entering the dominions of the earl of Foix, and committing 
the most cruel depredations. 

As soon as the army of the Albigenses was ready, the king of Arragon 
began his operations by laying siege to Marat, a town near Toulouse 
belonging to the Roman catholics, strongly fortified, and pleasantly 
situated upon the river Garonne. Earl Simon by forced marches came 
to the assistance of the place, at a time when the king of Arragon, who 
kept very little discipline in his army, was feasting and revelling. 
Simon suddenly attacked the Albigenses while they were in confusion, 
when the united forces of the reformed were defeated, and the king of 
Arragon was killed. The loss of this battle was imputed to the negli- 
gence of the king, who would have as much entertainment in a camp as 
if he had been securely at peace in his capital. The victory made the 
popish commanders declare they would entirely extirpate the whole race 
of the Albigenses ; and earl Simon sent an insolent message to the 
earls of Toulouse, Foix, and Cominges, to deliver to him all the castles 
and fortresses of which they were possessed. These noblemen, instead 
of answering the demand, retired to their respective territories, to put 
them into the best condition for resistance. 

Soon after, earl Simon marched towards the city of Toulouse, when 
the earl who had retired to Montalban, sent word to the citizens of the 
former place, to make the best terms they could with the Roman 
catholics, as he was confident they could not hold out a siege ; but he 
recommended them to preserve their hearts for him, though they sur- 
rendered their persons to another. The citizens of Toulouse, on receiving 
this intimation, sent deputies to earl Simon with offers of immediate 
surrender, provided the city itself, and the persons and properties of its 
inhabitants, should be protected from devastation. These conditions 
were agreed to immediately, and earl Simon, to ingratiate himself at 



STRATAGEM OF THE LEGATE. 143 

court, wrote a letter to prinee Louis, the son of Philip king of France, 
informing him that the city of Toulouse had offered to surrender to him ; 
but being willing that the prince should have the honour of receiving 
the keys and homage of the people, he begged that he would repair to 
the camp for that purpose. The prince, pleased with the invitation, 
went directly to the army, and had the city of Toulouse surrendered to 
him in due form. The pope's legate was greatly displeased at the mild 
conditions granted to the people of Toulouse, and insisted, that though 
the prince might take upon him the sovereignty of the place, and receive 
the homage of the people, yet the plunder belonged to the holy pilgrims 
(so the popish soldiers employed in these expeditions were called ; ) and 
that the place, as a receptacle of heretics, ought to be dismantled. 
The prince and earl Simon in vain remonstrated against proceedings so 
contrary to the conditions granted at the surrender : the legate was 
peremptory, when earl Simon and the prince, unwilling to come to an 
open rupture with him, gave up the point. The legate immediately set his 
holy pilgrims, as he termed them, to work, when they soon dismantled 
the city, and plundered the inhabitants of all their property, when they 
thought themselves perfectly secured by the articles of the surrender. 

The legate finding that among the Albigenses many lucrative places 
would fall to the disposal of the prince, determined by an artifice, to 
deprive him of any advantage which might accrue from this source ; 
he therefore gave absolution to the Albigenses, which, though they had 
not in the least changed their religious opinions, he called reconciling 
them to the church. The prince, not apprised of this stratagem, was 
going to put such of his officers as he thought merited encouragement 
into the possession of some places of profit ; when, to his great astonish- 
ment, the legate informed him, that he had no power to dispose of those 
places. The prince demanded an explanation of his meaning, " My 
meaning," replied the legate, " is, that the people have received abso- 
lution, and being reconciled to the church are consequently under its 
protection ; therefore, all places among or connected with them are in 
the disposal of the church only." 

The prince, offended at this mode of reasoning, and highly displeased 
at the meanness of the subterfuge, still thought proper to dissemble his 
resentment. But being determined to quit the legate, he put the troops 
under his command in motion, and marched to attack some other for- 
tresses : he found, however, that the legate had played the same trick, 
and plainly perceived, if he continued his military operations, that when 
unsuccessful he should bear all the blame, and when successful the legate 
would pilfer all the profit ; he therefore left the army in disgust and 
returned to court. On this earl Simon, with his own forces, those the 
prince had just quitted, and some other auxiliaries, undertook the 
siege of Foix, being chiefly incited to it by the death of his brother, 
who was slain by the earl of Foix, who was of the reformed persuasion. 
He lay before the castle of Foix for the space of ten days, during 
which time he frequently assaulted it, but was always repulsed. 
Hearing that an army of Arragonians were in full march towards 
him, to revenge the death of their king, he raised the siege and 
went to meet them. The earl immediately sallied out and harassed his 







144 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

rear, while the Arragonians in front gave him a total defeat, which com- 
pelled him to shut himself up in Carcasson. 

Soon after, the pope's legate called a council at Montpellier for 
renewing military operations against the Albigenses, and for doing pro- 
per honour to earl Simon who was present ; for the Arragonians not 
taking advantage of their victory, had neglected to block up Carcasson, 
by which omission earl Simon had an opportunity to repair to Montpel- 
lier. On meeting the council, the legate, in the pope's name, paid 
many compliments to earl Simon, and declared that he should be prince 
of all the countries that might in future be taken from the Albigenses : 
at the same time, by order of the pontiff, he styled him the active and 
dexterous soldier of Jesus Christ, and the invincible defender of the 
catholic faith. Just as the earl was going to return thanks for these 
great honours and fine encomiums, a messenger brought word, that the 
people had heard earl Simon was in the council, and that they had taken 
up arms, and were coming thither to destroy him as a common disturber. 
This intelligence threw the whole council into great confusion ; and earl 
Simon, though a minute before styled an invincible defender of the 
faith, was glad to jump out of the window and steal away from the city. 
The affair becoming serious in the opinion of the papists, the pope soon 
after called a council to be held at Lateran, in which great powers were 
granted to Roman Catholic inquisitors, and many Albigenses were im- 
mediately put to death. This council likewise confirmed to earl Simon 
all the honours intended him by the council of Montpellier, and em- 
powered him to raise another army against the Albigenses. Earl Simon 
immediately repaired to court, received his investiture from the French 
king and began to levy forces. Having now a considerable number of 
troops, he determined, if possible, to exterminate the Albigenses, when 
lie received advice that his countess was besieged in Narbonne by the 
earl of Toulouse. He proceeded to her relief, when the Albigenses met 
him, gave him battle and defeated him ; but he found means to escape 
from the field into the castle of Narbonne. After this Toulouse was 
recovered by the Albigenses ; but the pope espousing earl Simon's cause 
raised forces on his account, and enabled him once more to undertake 
the siege of that city. The earl assaulted the place furiously, but being 
repulsed with great loss, he sunk into affliction ; when the pope's legate 
said, to comfort him, " Fear nothing, my lord, make another vigorous 
attack : let us by any means recover the city, and destroy the inhabi- 
tants ; and those of our men who are slain in the fight, I will assure 
you shall immediately pass into Paradise." One of the earl's principal 
officers, on hearing this, said with a sneer, " Monsieur cardinal, you 
talk with great assurance; and if the earl believes you, he will as before 
pay dearly for his confidence." 

Earl Simon, however, took the legate's advice, made another assault 
and was again repulsed. To complete his misfortune, before the troops 
could recover from their confusion, the earl of Foix made his appearance 
at the head of a formidable army, attacked the already dispirited forces 
of earl Simon, and easily put them to the rout. The earl himself 
narrowly escaped drowning in the Garonne, into which he had hastily 
plunged, in order to avoid being captured. This discomfiture almost. 




SIEGE OF TOULOUSE. 145 

broke earl Simon's heart; but the pope's legate continued to encourage 
him, and offered to raise him another army, which promise, with some 
difficulty and three years' delay, he at length performed, and that 
bigoted nobleman was once more enabled to take the field. On this 
occasion he turned his whole force against Toulouse, which he besieged 
for the space of nine months, when in one of the sallies made by the 
besieged his horse was wounded. The animal being in great anguish, 
ran away with him, and bore him directly under the ramparts of the 
city, when an archer shot him in the thigh with an arrow ; and a woman 
immediately after throwing a large stone from the wall, it struck him 
upon the head and killed him. The siege was raised ; but the legate, 
incensed at his disappointment of vengeance on the inhabitants, engaged 
the king of France in the cause, w T ho sent his son to besiege the city. 
The French prince, with some chosen troops, furiously assaulted it : but 
meeting with a severe repulse, he abandoned Toulouse to besiege Miro- 
mand. This place he soon took by storm, and put to the sword all the 
inhabitants, consisting of 5000 men, women, and children. 

The legate, whose name was Bertrand, being very old, grew weary 
of following the army ; but his passion for murder still remained, as 
appears by his epistle to the pope, in which he begs to be recalled on 
account of his age and infirmities ; but entreats the pontiff to appoint a 
successor who might continue the war, as he had done, with spirit and 
perseverance. In consequence, the pope recalled Bertrand, and ap- 
pointed Conrade, bishop of Portua, to be legate in his room. The 
latter determined to follow the steps of his predecessor, and to persecute 
the Albigenses with the greatest severity. Guido, earl of Montfort, the 
son and heir of earl Simon, undertook the command ot the troops, and 
immediately laid siege to Toulouse, before the walls of which he was 
killed. His brother Almaric succeeded to the command ; but the 
bravery of the garrison soon obliged him to raise the siege. On this the 
legate prevailed upon the king of France to undertake the siege of 
Toulouse in person, and reduce to the obedience of the church those 
obstinate heretics, as he called the brave Albigenses. The earl of Tou- 
louse hearing of the great preparations made by the king of France, 
sent the women, children, and cattle into secret and secure places among 
the mountains, ploughed up the land that the king's forces should not ob- 
tain forage, and did all that a skilful general could perform to distress 
the enemy. By these expedients the French army, soon after entering the 
earldom of Toulouse, suffered all the extremities of famine, which obliged 
the troops to feed on the carcasses of horses and dogs, which unwhole- 
some food produced the plague. 

This unexpected distress broke the king's heart ; but his son, who 
succeeded him, determined to carry on the war, when he was soon 
defeated in three engagements by the earl of Toulouse. The king, the 
queen-mother, and three archbishops raised another formidable army, 
and had the art to persuade the earl of Toulouse to come to conference, 
when he was treacherously seized upon, made a prisoner, forced to 
appear barefooted and bareheaded before his enemies, and compelled to 
subscribe to the following ignominious conditions — 1. That he should 
abjure the faith that he had hitherto defended. 2. That he should be 
4 . L 



I 



146 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

subject to the church of Rome. 3. That he should give his daughter 
Joan in marriage to one of the brothers of the king of France. 4. That 
he should maintain in Toulouse six popish professors of the liberal arts, 
and two grammarians. 5. That he should take upon him the cross, 
and serve five years against the Saracens in the Holy Land. 6. That 
he should level the walls of Toulouse with the ground. 7. That he 
should destroy the fortifications of thirty of his other cities and castles, 
as the legate should direct. 8. That he should remain prisoner in the 
Louvre at Paris till his daughter was delivered to the king's commissioners. 
After these cruel conditions a severe persecution took place against the 
Albigenses, many of whom suffered for the faith ; and express orders 
were issued that the laity should not be permitted to read the sacred 
writings ! 

The persecution against the Albigenses was renewed in 1620. At a 
town called Tell, while the minister was preaching to a congregation of 
the reformed, the papists attacked and murdered a number of the 
people. A lady of principal eminence being exhorted to change her 
religion, if not for her own sake, at least for that of the infant she held 
in her arms, said, with undaunted courage, " I did not quit Italy my 
native country, nor forsake the estate I had there, for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, to renounce him here. With regard to my infant why should I 
not deliver him up to death, since God delivered up his son to die for 
me?" As soon as she had done speaking, they took the child from her, 
delivered it to a popish nurse to bring up, and then slew the mother. 
Dominico Burto, a youth of sixteen, refusing to turn papist, was set 
upon an ass with his face to the tail, which he was obliged to hold in 
his hand. In this condition he was led to the market-place, amidst the 
acclamations of the populace; after which he was sadly mutilated and 
burnt in several parts of his body, till at last he died with the pain. 
An Albigense young lady, of a noble family, was seized, and carried 
through the streets with a paper mitre upon her head. After mocking 
and beating her, the brutal multitude told her to call upon the saints ; 
when she replied, " My trust and salvation is in Christ only ; for even 
the virgin Mary, without the merits of her son, could not be saved." 
On this the multitude fell upon and destroyed her. 



SECTION VI. 

THE PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE, PREVIOUS TO, AND DURING 
THE CIVIL WARS OF THAT NATION. 

Almericus, a learned man, and six of his disciples, were, in the third 
century, ordered to be burnt at Paris for holding that God was no more 
present in the sacramental bread than in any other bread ; that it was 
idolatry to build altars or shrines or to offer incense to saints, and absurd 
to kiss relics. The martyrdom of Almericus and his pupils did not 
prevent many from acknowledging the justice of his notions, so that 
the faith of Christ continued to increase; and in time it not only spread 
over many parts of France, but various other nations. 



MARTYRDOM OF STEPHEN BRUNE. 147 

In the year 1524, at a town in France called Meaux, one John 
Clerk affixed a bill on the church door, in which he called the pope 
antichrist : for this offence he was repeatedly whipped, and then branded 
in the forehead. His mother, who saw the chastisement, cried with a 
loud voice, " Blessed be Christ, and welcome these marks for his sake." 
He went afterwards to Metz, in Lorraine, and demolished some images, 
for which he had his right hand and nose cut off, and his arms and 
breasts torn by pincers : while suffering these cruelties, he was sufficiently 
at ease to sing the 115th psalm, which expressly forbids superstition. 
On concluding the psalm he was thrown into the fire and burnt to 
ashes. About the same time several persons of the reformed persuasion 
were beaten, racked, scourged, and burnt to death, in several parts of 
France; but particularly at Paris, Limosin, and Malda. 

A native of Malda was burnt by a slow fire for saying that mass was 
a plain denial of the death and passion of Christ. At Limosin, John 
de Cadurco, a clergyman of the reformed religion, was apprehended, 
degraded, and ordered to be burnt. When under examination, a friar 
undertook to preach a sermon on the occasion ; when oprning the New 
Testament he selected his text from the first epistle of St. Paul the 
apostle to Timothy, chap. iv. ver. 1. " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, 
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to 
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." The friar began to expound 
this verse in favour of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and in con- 
demnation of the reformed religion, when John de Cadurco begged, that 
before he proceeded in his sermon, he would read the two verses which 
followed the one he had chosen for his text. The friar again opened the 
Testament, but casting his eye on the passage, he was confounded. 
Cadurco then desired that the book might be handed to him : this re- 
quest being complied with, he read thus — " Speaking lies in hypocrisy, 
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be re- 
ceived with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." 
The Roman Catholics, incensed at this exposure, condemned him to the 
flames. 

At Paris, Alexander Kanuse, a reformed clergyman, was burnt in a 
slow fire ; and four men were committed to the flames for distributing 
papers, ridiculing the performance of mass. One had his tongue bored 
through. Peter Gaudet, a Genoese, was burnt by the desire of his own 
uncle, a bigoted Roman Catholic ; and John Pointer, a surgeon, had 
his tongue cut out, and was then burnt. At Arras, Fontanis, and 
Rutiers, many were martyred for being of the reformed religion. At 
the latter place one Stephen Brune was condemned to be burnt for re- 
fusing to attend mass. When the fire was kindled, the flames were 
driven from him by a brisk wind, which occasioned the executioner to 
heap more fagots round him, and pour oil on them. Still, however, 
the wind blew the flames in a contrary direction, when the executioner, 
absurdly enraged with Brune, struck him on the head. Brune very 
calmly said, " As I am condemned only to be burnt, why do you strike 
me like a dog?" This expression so enraged the executioner, that he 
ran him through with a pike, and then burnt the lifeless body. 



148 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Aymond de Lavoy, a minister of Bourdeaux, had a complaint lodged 
against him by the Romish clergy of that city. His friends advised him 
to abscond, which he refused to do. He remained nine months in pri- 
son on the information only. Being brought to trial, he was ordered to 
the rack ; and when in the extremity of torture, he comforted himself 
with this expression: " This body must once die, but the soul shall 
live; for the kingdom of God endureth for ever." At length he 
swooned; but on recovering, prayed for his persecutors. The question 
was then put to him, whether he would embrace the Roman Catholic 
persuasion; which positively refusing, he was condemned to be burnt. 
At the place of execution he said, " O Lord, make haste to help me; 
tarry not ; despise not the work of thy hands." And perceiving some 
who used to attend his sermons, he addressed them thus: " My friends, 
I exhort you to study and learn the gospel; for the word of God 
abideth for ever : — labour to know the will of God, and fear not them 
that kill the body, but have no power over the soul." The executioner 
then strangled him, and burnt his body. 

Husson, an apothecary of Biois, went to Rouen, and there privately 
distributed several small pamphlets, explaining the tenets of the re- 
formed church, and exposing the Romish superstitions. These books 
gave a general alarm, and a council being called, an order was issued 
for search to be made for the author and distributer. It was discovered 
that Husson had brought them to Rouen, and that he was gone to 
Dieppe, and orders were given for a pursuit. Husson was brought back 
to Rouen, where he confessed he was both author and distributer of the 
books. This occasioned his condemnation, and he was executed in the 
following manner: his tongue being cutout, his hands and feet were 
tied behind, and he was drawn up by a pulley to a gibbet, and then 
let down into a fire kindled beneath : in which situation he called upon 
the Lord, and soon breathed his last. 1 " 

Francis Bribard, secretary to cardinal de Bellay, for speaking in fa- 
vour of the reformed, had his tongue cutout, and was burnt A. D. 1554. 
James Cobard, a schoolmaster in the city of St. Michael, was burnt 
A. D. 1545, for saying, "that mass was useless and absurd." About 
the same time, fourteen men were burnt at Malda, their wives being 
compelled to behold their martyrdom. Peter Chapot brought a number 
of bibles in the French tongue to France, and publicly sold them there 
in the year 1546, for which he was condemned to be burnt. Soon after 
a cripple of Meaux, a schoolmaster of Fera named Stephen Polliot, 
and a man named John English, were burned for their religion. 
Michael Michelot being told either to recant and be spared, or to per- 
severe and be burned ; he chose the latter, making use of these words : 
" God has given me grace not to deny the truth, and will give me 
strength to endure the fire." At Langres five men and two women 

r It is stated in Gallic. Hist. Johan. Crisp, lib. ii. that the Carmelite friar who attended 
Husson, and made great efforts to convert him to popery, though without success, was soon 
afterwards converted himself, and preached the gospel of Christ. The same writer adds, 
that the decree for cutting out the tongues of the martyrs at the stake, arose from the cir- 
cumstance of those worthies reviling the popish blasphemies even while the fire was burning 
around them. 



BURNING OF CLAUDIUS AND OTHERS. 149 

suffered for being of the reformed religion ; when the youngest woman 
encouraged the other, saying, "This day shall we be married to Jesus 
Christ, and be with him for ever." 

Monsieur Blondel, a rich jeweller, was in 1549 apprehended at 
Lyons, and sent to Paris, where he was burnt for the faith by order of 
trie high court. Hubert, a youth of nineteen years of age, was com- 
mitted to the flames at Dijon ; as was Florent Venote, at the same time, 
A lady, named Anne Audebert, who purposed on account of her faith 
to retire to Geneva, was seized and sent to Paris. She was led to 
execution by a rope placed round her waist. This rope she called her 
wedding girdle; and as it was on a Saturday, she said, " I was once 
married to a man on a Saturday, and now I shall be married to God on 
the same day of the week." 

Immediately after the coronation of Henry the Second, king of 
France, many singular circumstances happened. An artisan was appre- 
hended for working on a saint's day ; being asked why he gave such an 
offence to religion, his reply was, " I am a poor man, and have nothing 
but my labour to depend upon, necessity requires that I should be 
industrious, and my conscience tells me there is no day but the sabbath 
which I ought to keep sacred from labour." Having expressed himself 
thus, he was committed to prison, and the affair being soon after 
rumoured at court, some of the nobles persuaded the king to be present 
at the trial. On the day appointed, the monarch appeared in a superb 
chair of state, and the bishop of Mascon was ordered to interrogate the 
prisoner. On perceiving the king, the man paid obedience to him in 
the most respectful manner. The king was much affected with his 
arguments, and seemed to muse; on which the bishop exclaimed, " He 
is an obstinate and impudent heretic; let him be taken back to prison, 
and burnt to death." The officers proceeded to obey the mandate, when 
the bishop artfully insinuated, that the heretics, as he called the 
reformed, had many specious arguments, which at first appeared 
plausible ; but on examination, they were found to be false. He then 
did his utmost endeavours to persuade the king to be present at the 
execution, who at length consented, and repaired to a balcony which 
overlooked the place. On seeing the king, the prisoner fixed his eyes 
stedfastly upon him; and even while the flames were consuming him, 
kept gazing in such a manner as threw the monarch into visible con- 
fusion, and obliged him to retire before the martyr was dead. The king 
was so shocked, that he could not recover his spirits for some time; and 
it was reported that the royal dreams were for some time greatly disturbed 
by the visionary appearance of the martyr, with the same intense gaze 
upon the king. 

A pious man named Claudius was burnt at Orleans. A Genoese youth 
called Thomas, having rebuked a Roman catholic for profane swear- 
ing, was informed against as a heretic, and burnt at Paris; as were 
three men at Lyons: two of them with ropes about their necks; the 
third, having been an officer in the king's service, being exempted from 
that disgrace. He, however, begged to be treated in the same manner 
as his companions, in honour of the Lord : his request was complied 



150 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

with ; and after having sung a psalm, with great fervency, they were all 
three consumed. 

A citizen of Geneva, Simon Laloe; Matthew Dimonet, a converted 
libertine ; and Nicholas Naile, a bookseller of Paris, were burnt for 
professing the reformed religion. Peter Serre, originally a priest, but 
reflecting on the errors of popery, at length embraced the reformed 
religion, and learned the trade of a shoemaker. Having a brother at 
Toulouse, a bigoted Roman catholic, Serre, out of fraternal love, made 
a journey to that city, to dissuade him from his superstitions: the 
brother's wife not approving of his design, lodged a complaint against 
him, on which he was apprehended, and made a full declaration of his 
faith. The judge asked him concerning his occupation, to which he 
replied, " I have of late practised the trade of a shoemaker. " " Of 
late!" said the judge; " and what did you practise formerly?" " That 
I am almost ashamed to tell you," exclaimed Serre, " because it was 
the most vile and wicked occupation imaginable." All who were pre- 
sent, supposed he had been a murderer or a thief, and that what he 
spoke was through contrition. The judge ordered him to explain pre- 
cisely what he meant, when Serre, with tears in his eyes, exclaimed, 
"Oh, I was formerly a Popish Priest!" This reply so much exaspe- 
rated the judge, that he condemned Serre to be first degraded, then to 
have his tongue cut, and afterwards to be publicly burnt. 55 

In 1554, two men of the reformed religion, with the son and daughter 
of one of them, were committed to the Castle of Niverne. On exa- 
mination they confessed their faith, and were ordered for execution: 
they were first covered with grease, brimstone, and gunpowder; their 
tongues were then cut out, and they were then committed to the flames. 
Philip Hamlm ; a priest, was apprehended for having renounced .the 
errors of popery. Being brought to the stake, he began to exhort the 
people to quit the errors of the church of Pcome ; on which the officer 
who presided at the execution ordered the fagots to be lighted, and 
that a trumpet should be blown while the martyr was burning, that the 
people might not hear his voice. 

• Johan. Crispinus says, speaking of this worthy martyr, as he went to the stake, he 
passed by the college of St. Martial, where he was told to honour the picture of the Virgin 
standing at the gate; but refusing, the judge commanded his tongue to be cut out; and 
then being put to the fire, he stood quiet, looking up to Heaven all the time of burning, as 
if he had felt nothing, causing such admiration amongst the people, that one of the parlia- 
ment said, it was not judicious to bring the Lutherans to the fire, for that would do more 
harm than good by strengthening their cause. 



151 



BOOK IV. 

CONTAINING AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS 
IN SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY, &c. 

This book contains whatever relates to the cruelties of the Inquisition. It has been ne- 
cessary to depart in a small degree, from the chronological order with which the volume 
commenced, and to prefer combining all the transactions of christian martyrdoms in 
the foreign parts. The martyrdoms and persecutions which took place in this kingdom 
from the reign of Henry VIII. will therefore be given distinct from those of other 
countries; and the history of the persecutions abroad will thus be kept connected. 

SECTION I. 
THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND CRUELTIES OF THE INQUISITION. 

In the time of pope Innocent III. the reformed religion had occa- 
sioned such a noise throughout Europe, that the Catholics began to fear 
their church was in danger, and the pope was determined to impede as 
much as possible the progress of the reformation: he accordingly in- 
stituted a number of inquisitors — persons who were to make inquiry after, 
apprehend, and punish the reformed heretics. At the head of these 
was one Dominic, who had been canonized in order to render his 
authority the more respectable. He and the other inquisitors spread 
themselves into various Roman Catholic countries, and treated the 
Protestants with the utmost severity. At length the pope not finding 
them so useful as he had imagined, resolved upon the establishment of 
fixed and regular courts of inquisition ; the first office of which was 
established in the city of Toulouse, and Dominic became the first in- 
quisitor-general. 

Courts of inquisition were soon erected in other countries; but the 
Spanish inquisition became the most powerful and the most dreadful 
of any. Even the kings of Spain themselves, though arbitrary in all 
other respects, were taught to dread the power of the lords of the in- 
quisition ; and the horrid cruelties they exercised compelled multitudes, 
who differed but slightly in opinion from the catholics, carefully to con- 
ceal their sentiments. The Dominicans and Franciscans were the most 
zealous of all the monks : these, therefore, the pope invested with an ex- 
clusive right of presiding over and managing the different courts of inqui- 
sition. The friars of those two orders were always selected from the very 
dregs of the people, and therefore were not much troubled with scruples 
of conscience : they were obliged, however, by the rules of their respective 
orders, to lead very austere lives, which rendered their manners unsocial, 
and better qualified them for their employment. 

The pope gave the inquisitors the most unlimited powers, as judges 
delegated by him, and immediately representing his person: they were 
permitted to excommunicate, or sentence to death, whom they thought 
proper, upon the slightest information of heresy; they were allowed to 
publish crusades against all whom they deemed heretics, and enter into 
leagues with sovereign princes, to join those crusades with their forces. 
About the year 1244, their power was further increased by the emperor 



152 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Frederic the Second, who declared himself the protector and friend 
of all inquisitors, and published two cruel edicts — that heretics who 
continued obstinate should be burnt ; and that those who repented 
should be imprisoned for life. This zeal in the emperor for the inqui- 
sitors, and the Roman Catholic persuasion, arose from a report, which 
had been propagated throughout Europe, that he intended to turn 
Mahometan; he therefore attempted, by the height of bigotry and cruelty, 
to establish beyond all doubt his attachment to the popish system. 

The officers of the inquisition are, three inquisitors or judges, a 
procurator fiscal, two secretaries, a magistrate, a messenger, a receiver, 
a gaoler, an agent of confiscated possessions, and several assessors, 
counsellors, executioners, physicians, surgeons, door-keepers, familiars, 
and visitors, who are all sworn to profound secrecy. Their chief accusa- 
tion against those who are subject to this tribunal is heresy, which com- 
prises all that is spoken or written against the creed, or the traditions of 
the Romish church. The other articles of accusation are, renouncing 
Roman Catholic persuasion, and believing that persons of any other 
religion may be saved, or even admitting that the tenets of any but 
papists are either scriptural or rational. There are two other things 
which incur the most severe punishments, to disapprove of any action 
done by the inquisition, or doubt the truth of any thing asserted by 
inquisitors. 

Heresy comprises many subdivisions, and, upon a suspicion of any of 
these, the party is immediately apprehended. Advancing an offensive 
proposition; failing to impeach others who may advance one; con- 
temning church ceremonies ; defacing idols ; reading books condemned 
by the inquisition; lending such books to others; deviating from the 
ordinary practices of the Romish church ; letting a year pass without 
going to confession; eating meat on fast-days; neglecting mass; being 
present at a sermon preached by a heretic ; not appearing when sum- 
moned by the inquisition; lodging in the house of, contracting a friend- 
ship with, or making presents to a heretic ; assisting a heretic to escape 
from confinement, or visiting one in confinement, all matters of suspi- 
cion, and prosecuted accordingly. All Roman Catholics were even 
commanded, under pain of excommunication, to give immediate infor- 
mation, even of their nearest and dearest friends, if they judged them 
to be heretics, or any ways inclining to heresy. All who give the least 
assistance to protestants are called fautors or abettors of heresy, and the 
accusations against them are for comforting such as the inquisition have 
begun to prosecute ; assisting, or not informing against them, if they 
should happen to escape ; concealing, abetting, advising, or furnishing 
heretics with money ; visiting, or writing to, or sending them subsistence; 
secreting or burning books and papers, which might serve to convict 
them. The inquisition also takes cognizance of such as are accused of 
being magicians, witches, blasphemers, soothsayers, wizards, common 
swearers; and of such as read or even possess the bible in the common 
language, the Talmud of the Jews, or the Alcoran of the Mahometans. 
Upon all occasions the inquisitors carry on their process with the utmost 
severity. A protestant is seldom shewn any mercy; and a Jew, who 
turns Christian, is far from being secure; for if he is known to keep 



PROCESS OF THE INQUISITION. 153 

company with another converted Jew, suspicion arises that they pri- 
vately practise together some Jewish ceremonies ; if he keep company 
with a person who was lately a protestant, but now professes popery, they 
are accused of plotting together; but if he associate with a Roman 
Catholic, an accusation is often laid against the former for only pretend- 
ing to be a papist, and the consequence is, a confiscation of Ms effects, 
and the loss of life if he complain of ill usage. A defence is of little 
use to the prisoner; for suspicion only is deemed cause of condemnation, 
and the greater his wealth the greater his danger. Most of the inqui- 
sitors' cruelties are owing to their rapacity : they destroy life to possess 
the property of their victims, and, under pretence of zeal, plunder 
individuals of their rights. A prisoner of the inquisition is never 
allowed to see the face of his accuser, or of the witnesses against him, 
but every method is taken by threats and tortures to oblige him to 
criminate himself. If the jurisdiction of the inquisition be not fully 
allowed, vengeance is denounced against such as call it in question; or 
if any of its officers are opposed, those who oppose them are almost 
certain of becoming sufferers for their temerity; the maxim of the in- 
quisition being to strike terror, and awe those who are the objects of its 
power into obedience. High birth, distinguished rank, great dignity, 
or eminent employments, are no protection from its severities; and the 
lowest officers of the inquisition can make the highest characters tremble 
at their authority. These are the circumstances which subject persons to 
the rage of the inquisition ; and the methods of beginning the process 
are, 1. to proceed by an imputation, or prosecute on common report; 2. 
to proceed by the information of an indifferent person who wishes to im- 
peach another; 3. to prosecute on the information of spies retained by 
the inquisition; and, 4. to prosecute on the confession of the prisoner 
himself. The inquisitors never forget or forgive ; length of time cannot 
efface their resentments; nor can the humblest concessions or most 
liberal presents obtain a pardon : they carry their desire of revenge to 
the grave, and are gratified with nothing short of the property and lives 
of those who have offended. Hence, when a person once accused to 
the inquisition, after escaping, is retaken, he ought seriously to prepare 
himself for martyrdom, for pardon is next to an impossibility. If a 
positive accusation be given, the inquisitors direct an order to the exe- 
cutioner, who takes a certain number of familiars with him to assist in 
the execution. Father, son, brother, sister, husband, or wife, must 
quietly submit; none dare resist or even speak — as either would subject 
them to the punishment of the devoted victim. No respite is allowed, 
but the prisoner is instantaneously hurried away. 

This dreadful engine of tyranny may at any time be introduced into 
a country where the catholics have the ascendancy ; and hence how 
careful ought we to be, who are not cursed with such an arbitrary court, 
to prevent its introduction. In speaking of this subject, an elegant 
author pathetically says, " How horrid a scene of perfidy and inhu- 
manity ! What kind of community must that be whence gratitude, 
love, and mutual forbearance with human frailties, are banished ! What 
must that tribunal be, which obliges parents not only to erase from their 
minds the remembrance of their own children, to extinguish all those 






154 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

keen sensations of tenderness and affection wherewith nature inspires 
them, but even to extend their inhumanity so far as to force them to 
become their accusers, and consequently the cause of the cruelties inflicted 
upon them ! What ideas ought we to form of a tribunal which obliges 
children not only to stifle every soft impulse of gratitude, love, and respect, 
due to those who gave them birth ; but even forces them, under the most 
rigorous penalties, to be spies over their parents, and to discover to a set 
of merciless inquisitors the crimes, the errors, and even the infirmities 
to which they are exposed by human frailty ! In a word, a tribunal 
that will not permit relations, when imprisoned in its horrid dungeons, 
to give each other the succours, or perform the duties which religion 
enjoins, must be of an infernal nature. What disorder and confusion 
must such conduct give rise to in a tenderly affectionate family! 
An expression, innocent in itself, and, perhaps, but too true, shall, from 
an indiscreet zeal or a panic of fear, give infinite uneasiness to a family ; 
shall entirely ruin its peace and perhaps cause one or more of its mem- 
bers to be the unhappy victims of the most barbarous of all tribunals. 
What distractions must necessarily break forth in a house where the 
husband and wife are at variance, or the children loose and wicked ! 
Will such children scruple to sacrifice a father, who endeavours to 
restrain them by his exhortations, by reproofs, or paternal corrections ? 
Will they not rather, after plundering his house to support their extrava- 
gance and riot, readily deliver up their unhappy parent to all the horrors 
of a tribunal founded on the blackest injustice? A riotous husband, or 
a loose wife, has an easy opportunity, assisted by the system in question, 
to rid themselves of one who is a check to their vices, by delivering him 
or her up to the rigours of the inquisition. " 

When the inquisitors have taken umbrage against an innocent person, 
all expedients are used to facilitate condemnation ; false oaths and tes- 
timonies are employed to find the accused guilty ; and all laws and 
institutions are sacrificed to satiate the most bigoted vengeance. If a 
person accused be arrested and imprisoned, his treatment is deplorable. 
The gaolers may begin by searching him for books and papers which 
tend to his conviction, or for instruments which might be employed in 
self-murder or escape, and on this pretext they often rob him of valuables 
and even wearing apparel. When the prisoner has been searched and 
robbed, he is committed to prison. Innocence, on such an occasion, is a 
weak reed ; nothing being easier than to ruin an innocent person. The 
mildest sentence is imprisonment for life ; yet the inquisitors proceed by 
degrees at once subtle, slow, and cruel. The gaoler first insinuates 
himself into the prisoner's favour, by pretending to wish and advise 
him well ; and among other hints of false kindness tells him to petition 
for an audit. When he is brought before the consistory, the first 
demand is, " What is your request? " To this the prisoner very naturally 
answers, that he would have a hearing. On this one of the inquisitors 
replies, " Your hearing is — confess the truth, conceal nothing, and 
rely on our mercy." If now the prisoner make a confession of any 
trifling affair, they immediately found an indictment upon it; if he is 
mute, they shut him up without light, or any food but a scanty allow- 
ance of bread and water till he overcomes his obstinacy, as they call it; 



>tli 




ACCOUNT OF AN AUTO DA FE. 155 

and if he declare his innocence, they torment him till he either dies 
with the pain, or confesses himself guilty. 

On the re-examination of such as confess, they continually say, " You 
have not been sincere, you tell not all; you keep many things con- 
cealed, and therefore must be remanded to your dungeon." When 
those who have been silent are called for re-examination, if they con- 
tinue mute, such tortures are ordered as either make them speak, or 
kill them; and when those who proclaim their innocence are re-exa- 
mined, a crucifix is held before them, and they are solemnly exhorted 
to take an oath of their confession of faith. This brings them to the 
test; they must either swear they are Roman catholics, or acknowledge 
they are not. If they acknowledge they are not, they are proceeded 
against as heretics : if they acknowledge they are, a string of accusa- 
tions is brought against them, to which they are obliged to answer ex- 
tempore; no time being given even to arrange their thoughts. On 
having verbally answered, pen, ink, and paper, are brought them, in 
order to produce a written answer, which must in every degree coincide 
with the verbal one. If the verbal and written answers differ, the 
prisoners are charged with prevarication ; if one contain more than the 
other, they are accused of wishing for concealment; if they both agree, 
they are charged with premeditated artifice. 

After a person impeached is condemned, he is either severely whipped, 
violently tortured, sent to the galleys, or sentenced to death; in either 
case the effects are confiscated. After judgment, a procession is arranged 
to the place of execution, and the ceremony is called an Auto daFe t 
or act of Faith. The following is an exact account of one of these 
solemn farces, performed at Madrid in the year 1682. 

The officers of the inquisition, preceded by trumpets, kettle-drums, 
and their banner, marched on the 30th of May, in cavalcade, to the 
palace of the great square, where they declared by proclamation, that 
on the 30th of June the sentence of the prisoners would be put in exe- 
cution. There had not been a spectacle of this kind at Madrid for 
several years before, for which reason it was expected by the inhabitants 
with as much impatience as a day of the greatest festivity and triumph. 
When the day appointed arrived, a prodigious number of people 
appeared dressed as gaily as their respective circumstances would 
admit. In the great square was raised a high scaffold ; and thither, 
from seven in the morning till the evening, were brought criminals of 
both sexes; all the inquisitions in the kingdom sending their prisoners 
to Madrid. Twenty men and women, with one renegado Mahometan, 
were ordered to be burned; fifty Jews and Jewesses, never having 
before been imprisoned, and repenting of their crimes, were sen- 
tenced to a long confinement, and to wear a yellow cap; and ten 
others, indicted for bigamy, witchcraft, and other crimes, were sentenced 
to be whipped, and then sent to the galleys; these last wore large paste- 
board caps, with inscriptions on them, having a halter about their necks, 
and torches in their hands. On this occasion the whole court of 
Spain was present. The grand inquisitor's chair was placed in a sort 
of tribunal higher than that of the king. Nobles acted the part of the 
sheriff's officers in England, leading such criminals as were to be 



156 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

burned, and holding them when fast bound with thick cords : the rest 
of the victims were conducted by familiars of the inquisition. There 
was among them a young Jewess of exquisite beauty, but seventeen 
years of age. Being on the same side of the scaffold where the queen 
was seated, she addressed her, in hope of obtaining pardon, in the 
following pathetic speech: " Great queen! will not your royal presence 
be of some service to me in my miserable condition? Have regard to 
my youth; and, oh! consider that I am about to die for professing a 
religion imbibed from my earliest infancy!" Her majesty seemed to 
pity her distress, but turned away her eyes, as she did not dare speak a 
word in behalf of a person who had been declared heretic by the in- 
quisition. Mass now began, in the midst of which the priest came 
from an altar placed near the scaffold, and seated himself in a chair 
prepared for that purpose. Then the chief inquisitor descended from 
the amphitheatre, dressed in his cope, and having a mitre on his head. 
After bowing to the altar, he advanced towards the king's balcony, 
attended by some of his officers, carrying a cross and the gospels, with 
a book containing the oath by which the kings of Spain oblige them- 
selves to protect the catholic faith, to extirpate heretics, and support 
with all their power the decrees of the inquisitions. On the approach 
of the inquisitor presenting this book to the king, his majesty rose up 
bare-headed, and swore to maintain the oath, which was read to him 
by one of his counsellors : after which the king continued standing till 
the inquisitor had returned to his place; when the secretary of the holy 
office mounted a sort of pulpit, and administered a like oath to the 
counsellors and the whole assembly. Mass commenced about twelve 
at noon, and did not end till nine in the evening, being protracted by 
a proclamation of the sentences of the several criminals, which were all 
separately rehearsed aloud one after the other. Next followed the 
burning of the twenty-one men and women, whose intrepidity in suffering 
that horrid death was truly astonishing : some thrust their hands and 
feet into the flames with the most dauntless fortitude ; and all yielded 
to their fate with such resolution, that many of the amazed spectators 
lamented that such heroic souls had not been more enlightened. The 
situation of the king was so near to the criminals, that their dying 
groans were audible to him : his coronation oath obliges him to give 
sanction by his presence to all the acts of the tribunal. 

Another Auto da Fe is thus described by the reverend Dr. Geddes : — 
" At the place of execution there are as many stakes set as there are 
prisoners to be burned, a large quantity of dry furze being piled about 
them. The stakes of the protestants, or as the inquisitors call them, the 
professed, are about four yards high, and have each a small board, 
whereon the prisoner is seated within half a yard of the top. The pro- 
fessed then go up a ladder betwixt two priests, who attend the whole 
day of execution. When they come even with the board they turn 
about to the people, and the priests spend a quarter of an hour in ex- 
horting them to be reconciled to the see of Rome. On their refusing, 
the priests come down, and the executioner ascending, turns the pro- 
fessed from off the ladder upon the seat, chains their bodies close to the 
stakes, and leaves them. Then the priests go up a second time to renew 



REGULATIONS OF THE INQUISITION. 157 

their exhortations, and if they find them ineffectual, usually tell them 
at parting, that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their 
elbow ready to receive their souls, and carry them with him into the 
flames of hell-fire, as soon as they are out of their bodies. A general 
shout is then raised, and when the priests get off the ladder, the universal 
cry is, ' Let the dogs' beards be burnt,' which is accordingly done by 
means of flaming furzes thrust against their faces. This barbarity is 
repeated till their faces are burnt, and is accompanied with loud accla- 
mations. Fire is then set to the furzes, and the criminals are consumed." 

The inquisition belonging to Portugal is on a similar plan to that of 
Spain, having been instituted much about the same time, and put under 
the same regulations, and the proceedings nearly resemble each other. 
The house or rather palace of the inquisition is a noble edifice. It 
contains four courts, each about forty feet square, round which are 
about 300 dungeons or cells. The dungeons on the ground floor are for 
the lowest class of prisoners, and those on the second story for superior 
rank. The galleries are built of freestone, and hid from view both 
within and without by a double wall of about fifty feet high. So exten- 
sive is the whole prison, which contains so many turnings that none but 
those acquainted with it can find their way through its various avenues. 
The apartments of the chief inquisitor are spacious and elegant ; the 
entrance is through a large gate, which leads into a court-yard, round 
which are several chambers, and some large saloons for the king, royal 
family, and the rest of the court to stand and observe the executions. 

A testoon, which is sevenpence-halfpenny English money, is allowed 
every prisoner daily ; and the principal gaoler, accompanied by two 
other officers, visits every prisoner monthly to enquire how he would 
have his allowance laid out. This visit, however, is only a matter of 
form, for the gaoler usually lays out the money as he pleases, and com- 
monly allows the prisoner daily a porringer of broth, half a pound of 
beef, a small piece of bread, and a trifling portion of cheese. Centinels 
walk about continually to listen, and if the least noise is heard, to 
address and threaten the prisoner ; if the noise is repeated, a severe 
beating ensues. The following is said to be a fact : a prisoner having 
a violent cough, one of the guards came and ordered him not to make 
a noise ; to which he replied, that from the violence of his cold, it was 
not in his power to forbear. The cough increasing, the guard went into 
the cell, stripped the poor creature naked, and beat him so unmercifully 
that he soon died. 

Sometimes a prisoner passes months without knowing of what he is 
accused, or having the least idea when he is to be tried. The gaoler 
at length informs him that he must petition for a trial. This ceremony 
being gone through he is taken bare-headed for examination. When 
they come to the door of the tribunal, the gaoler knocks three times, to 
give the judges notice of their approach. A bell is rung by one of the 
judges, when an attendant opens the door, admits the prisoner, and 
accommodates him with a stool. The prisoner is then ordered by the 
president to kneel down, and lay his right hand upon a book, which is 
presented to him close shut. This being complied with, the following 
question is put to him : " Will you promise to conceal the secrets of the 



I 



158 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

holy office, and to speak the truth?" Should he answer in the negative, 
he is remanded to his cell and cruelly treated. If he answer in the 
affirmative, he is ordered to be again seated, and the examination pro- 
ceeds ; when the president asks a variety of questions, and the clerk 
minutes both them and the answers. When the examination is closed, 
the bell is again rung, the gaoler appears, and the prisoner is ordered to 
withdraw with this exhortation : "Tax your memory, recollect all the 
sins you have ever committed, and when you are again brought here, 
communicate them to the holy office." The gaolers and attendants, 
when apprized that the prisoner has made an ingenuous confession, and 
readily answered every question, make him a low bow, and treat him 
with affected kindness as a reward for his candour. He is brought in 
a few days to a second examination, with the same formalities as before. 
The inquisitors often deceive prisoners by promising the greatest lenity, 
and even to restore their liberty, if they will accuse themselves : the 
unhappy persons who are in their power frequently fall into this snare, 
and are sacrificed to their own simplicity. Instances have occurred of 
some, who relying on the faith of the judges, have accused themselves 
of what they were totally innocent, in expectation of obtaining their 
liberty ; and thus become martyrs to their own folly. 

There is another artifice made use of by the inquisitors : if a prisoner 
has too much resolution to accuse himself, and too much foresight to be 
ensnared by their sophistry, they proceed differently. A copy of an 
indictment against the prisoner is given him, in which, among many 
trivial accusations, he is charged with the most enormous crimes of which 
human nature is capable. This rouses his temper, and he exclaims 
against such falsities. He is then asked which of the crimes he can deny. 
He naturally mentions the most atrocious, and begins to express his 
abhorrence of them, when the indictment being snatched out of his hand, 
the president says, "By your denying only those crimes which you 
mention, you implicitly confess the rest, we shall therefore proceed 
accordingly." Sometimes they make a ridiculous affectation of equity, 
by pretending that the prisoner may be indulged with a counsellor, if he 
chooses to demand one. Such a request is sometimes made, and a 
counsellor appointed : but upon these occasions, as the trial itself is a 
mockery of justice, so the counsellor is a mere cypher : for he is not 
permitted to utter any thing that might offend the inquisitor, or to 
advance a syllable that might benefit the prisoner. 

Though the inquisitors allow the torture to be used only three times, 
yet it is so severely inflicted, that the prisoner either dies under it, or 
ever after continues a cripple. The following is a description of the 
severe torments occasioned by the torture, from the account of one 
who suffered it the three usual times, but happily survived its cruelties. 

THE FIRST TIME OF TORTURING. 

A prisoner on refusing to comply with the iniquitous demand of the 
inquisitors, by confessing all the crimes they thought proper to charge 
him with, was immediately conveyed to the torture-room, where no 
light appeared but what issued from two candles. That the cries of the 
sufferers might not be heard by other prisoners, the room was lined with 



PROCESS OF TORTURING. 159 

a kind of quilting, covering all the crevices and deadening the sound. 
The prisoner's horror was extreme on entering this infernal place, when 
suddenly he was surrounded by six wretches, who, after preparing the 
tortures, stripped him naked to his drawers. He was then laid upon his 
back on a kind of stand, elevated a few feet from the floor. They 
began by putting an iron collar round his neck, and a ring to each foot, 
which fastened him to the stand. His limbs being thus stretched out 
they wound two ropes round each arm and each thigh ; these being 
passed under the scaffold, were all drawn tight at the same instant of 
time, by four of the men on a given signal. The pains which immediately 
succeeded were intolerable ; the ropes, which were of a small size, cut 
through the prisoner's flesh to the bone, making the blood gush out at 
all the different places bound at a time. As he persisted in not making 
any confession of what the inquisitors required, the ropes were drawn 
in this manner four times successively. A physician and surgeon 
attended, and often felt his temples, to judge of the danger he might be 
in ; by these means his tortures were for a short time suspended ; but 
only that he might have sufficient opportunity of recovering his spirits 
to sustain further torture. During this extremity of anguish, while the 
tender frame is tearing, as it were, in pieces, while at every pore it feels 
the sharpest pangs of death, and the agonized soul is just ready to burst 
forth and quit its wretched mansion, the ministers of the inquisition 
have the obduracy to look on without emotion, and calmly to advise the 
poor distracted creature to confess his imputed guilt, that he may obtain 
pardon and receive absolution. All this, however, was ineffectual with 
the prisoner, whose mind was strengthened by a sweet consciousness of 
innocence, and the divine consolation of religion. Amidst his bodily 
suffering, the physician and surgeon were so barbarous as to declare, 
that if he died under the torture he would be guilty, by his obstinacy, 
of self-murder. The last time the ropes were drawn tight he grew so 
exceedingly weak, by the stoppage of the circulation of his blood, and 
the pains he endured, that he fainted away ; upon which he was unloosed 
and carried back to his dungeon. 

THE SECOND TIME OF TORTURING. 

The inhuman wretches of the inquisition, finding that all the torture 
they inflicted, instead of extorting a discovery from the prisoner, only 
served the more fervently to excite his supplications to Heaven for 
patience and power to persevere in truth and integrity, were so inhuman, 
in six weeks after, as to expose him to another kind of torture, more 
severe, if possible, than the former; the manner of inflicting which was 
as follows : they forced his arms backwards, so that the palms of his 
hands were turned outward behind him; when, by means of a rope 
that fastened them together at the wrists, and which was turned by an 
engine, they drew them by degrees nearer each other, in such a manner 
that the back of each hand touched, and stood parallel to each other. 
In consequence of this violent contortion, both his shoulders became 
dislocated, and a considerable quantity of blood issued from his mouth. 
This torture was repeated thrice; after which he was again taken to 



160 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the dungeon, and delivered to the physician and surgeon, who, in setting 
the dislocated bones, put him to the most exquisite torment. 

THE THIRD TIME OF TORTURING. 

About two months after the second torture, the prisoner, being a 
little recovered, was again ordered to the torture-room ; and there, for 
the last time, made to undergo another kind of punishment, which was 
inflicted twice without intermission. The executioners fastened a thick 
iron chain twice round his body, which, crossing upon his stomach, 
terminated at the wrists. They then placed him with his back against 
a thick board, at each extremity whereof was a pulley, through which 
there run a rope that caught the ends of the chain at his wrists. Then 
the executioner stretching the end of this rope, by means of a roller 
placed at a distance behind him, pressed or bruised his stomach in pro- 
portion as the ends of the chain were drawn tighter. They tortured 
him in this manner to such a degree, that his wrists, as well as his 
shoulders, were quite dislocated. They were, however, soon set by the 
surgeons ; but the barbarians, not yet satisfied with this series of cruelty, 
made him immediately undergo the torture a second time; which he 
sustained with equal constancy and resolution. He was then remanded 
to his dungeon, attended by the surgeon to dress his bruises and adjust 
the parts dislocated; and here he continued till their gaol delivery 
restored him to a miserable freedom in this world, or their Auto da Fe 
removed him to a better state. 

It may be judged from these accounts what dreadful agony the 
sufferer must have laboured under, by being so frequently put to the 
torture. Most of his limbs were disjointed ; so much was he bruised and 
exhausted, as to be unable, for weeks, to lift his hands to his mouth ; 
and his body became greatly swelled from the inflammation caused by 
frequent dislocations. After his discharge he felt the effects of this 
cruelty for the remainder of his life, being frequently seized with thrilling 
and excruciating pains, to which he had never been subject, till after 
he had the misfortune to fall under the merciless and bloody lords of the 
inquisition. The unhappy females who fall into the hand of the inqui- 
sitors, have not more favour shewn them on account of the tenderness 
of their sex ; but are tortured with as much severity as the male pri- 
soners, with the additional mortification of having the most shocking 
indecencies added to the most savage barbarities. 

Should these modes of torturing force a confession from the prisoner, 
he is remanded to his horrid dungeon, and left a prey to the melancholy 
of his situation, to the anguish arising from what he has suffered, and to 
the dreadful ideas of future cruelties. Should he refuse to confess, he 
is still remanded to his dungeon; but a stratagem is used to draw from 
him what the torture fails to do. A companion is allowed to attend 
him, under the pretence of comforting his mind till his wounds are 
healed : this person, who is always selected for his cunning, insinuates 
himself into the good graces of the prisoner, laments the anguish he 
feels, sympathises with him, and, taking advantage of the hasty expres- 
sions forced from him by pain, does all he can to dive into his secrets. 
This companion sometimes pretends to be a prisoner like himself, and 



MARTYRS TO THE INQUISITION. 161 

imprisoned for similar charges; to draw the unhappy person into un- 
suspecting confidence, and persuade him in unbosoming his grief, to 
betray his private sentiments. 

Frequently these snares succeed, as they are the more alluring by 
being glossed over with the appearance of friendship, sympathy, pity, 
and every tender passion. In fine, if the prisoner cannot be found 
guilty, he is either tortured or harassed to death, though a few have 
sometimes had the good fortune to be discharged; but not without 
having first of all suffered the most dreadful cruelties. If he is found 
guilty, all his effects are confiscated, and he is condemned to be whipped, 
imprisoned for life, sent to the gallies, or put to death. Having men- 
tioned the barbarities with which the prisoners are treated by the inqui- 
sitors, we shall proceed to recount the severity of their proceedings 
against publications. 

When a book is published, it is carefully read by some of the fami- 
liars belonging to the inquisition. These wretched critics are too 
ignorant and bigoted to search for truth, and too malicious to appreciate 
sound wisdom and virtue. They scrutinize not for the merits, but for 
the defects of an author, and pursue the slips of his pen with unremit- 
ting diligence. Hence they read with prejudice, judge with partiality, 
pursue errors with avidity, and strain that which is innocent into an 
offensive meaning. They misapply, confound, and pervert the sense ; 
and when they have gratified the malignity of their disposition, charge 
their blunders upon the author, that a prosecution may be founded upon 
their false conceptions, and designed misinterpretations. Any trivial 
charge causes the censure of a book. There is a catalogue of con- 
demned books annually published under three different heads of cen- 
sures, and being printed on a large sheet of paper, is hung up in the 
most public and conspicuous places. After this, people are obliged to 
destroy all such books as come under either of the censures, unless the 
exceptionable passages have been expunged, and the corrections made, 
as in either case disobedience would be of the most fatal consequence : 
for the possessing and reading the proscribed books are deemed very 
atrocious crimes. Every publisher of such books is usually ruined in 
his circumstances, and sometimes obliged to pass the remainder of his 
life in a cell of the inquisition. 



SECTION II. 

CRUELTIES EXERCISED BY THE INQUISITIONS OF SPAIN AND 
PORTUGAL, FROM THE MOST AUTHENTICATED RECORDS. 

Francis Romanus, a native of Spain, was employed by the merchants 
of Antwerp to transact some business for them at Bremen. He had 
been educated in the Romish persuasion, but going one day into a 
protestant church, he was struck with the truths which he heard, and 
beginning to discern the errors of popery, he determined to search farther 
into the matter. Perusing the sacred scriptures, and the writings of some 
protestant divines, he perceived the falsehood of the principles he had 

M 



162 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

formerly embraced; and soon renounced the impositions of popery for 
the doctrines of the reformed church, in which religion appeared in its 
genuine purity. Resolving to think only of his eternal salvation, he 
studied religious truth more than earthly trade, and purchased books 
rather than merchandize, convinced that the riches of the body are 
trifling to those of the soul. He resigned his agency to the merchants 
of Antwerp, giving them an account at the same time of his conver- 
sion ; and then, resolved on the conversion of his parents, he returned 
without delay to Spain for that purpose. But the Antwerp merchants 
writing to the inquisitors, he was seized, imprisoned for some time, and 
then condemned to the flames as a heretic. He was led to the place of 
execution in a garment painted with demon figures, and had a paper mitre 
put on his head by way of derision. As he passed by a wooden cross, one 
of the priests bade him kneel to it ; but he absolutely refused to do so, 
saying, "It is not for Christians to worship wood." Having been 
placed on a pile of fagots, the fire quickly reached him, when he sud- 
denly lifted up his head ; the priests thinking he meant to recant, or- 
dered him to be taken down. Finding, however, that they were mistaken, 
and that he still retained his constancy, he was placed again upon the 
pile, where, as long as he had life and voice remaining, he kept repeat- 
ing these verses of the seventh psalm — " O Lord my God, in thee I put 
my trust! O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but 
establish thou the just. My defence is of God, who saveth the upright 
in heart. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness; and 
will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high !" 

At St. Lucar, in Spain, resided a carver named Rochus, whose prin- 
cipal business was to make images of saints and other popish idols. 
Becoming, however, convinced of the errors of the Romish persuasion, 
he embraced the protestant faith, left off carving images, and for sub- 
sistence followed the business of a seal engraver only. But he had 
retained one image of the Virgin Mary for a sign ; when an inquisitor 
passing by, asked if he would sell it. Rochus mentioned a price ; the 
inquisitor objected to it, and offered half the money. Rochus replied, 
" I would rather break it to pieces than take such a trifle." — " Break 
it to pieces," said the inquisitor, "break it to pieces if you dare!" 
Rochus being provoked at this expression, snatched up a chisel, and cut 
off the nose of the image. This was sufficient; the inquisitor went 
away in a rage, and soon after sent to have him apprehended. In vain 
did he plead that what he defaced was his own property ; and that if it 
was not proper to do as he would with his own, it was not proper for 
the inquisitor to bargain for the image in the way of trade. Nothing, 
however, availed him ; his fate was decided ; he was condemned to be 
burnt, and the sentence was executed without delay. 

A doctor Cacalla, his brother Francis and sister Blanche, were burnt 
at Valladolid, for having spoken against the inquisitors. A gentle- 
woman with her two daughters and niece, were apprehended at Seville, 
professing the protestant religion. They were all put to the torture: 
and when that was over, one of the inquisitors sent for the youngest 
daughter, pretended to sympathize with her, and pity her sufferings; 
then binding himself with a solemn oath not to betray her, he said, 



VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION. 163 

M If you will disclose all to me, I promise you I will procure the dis- 
charge of your mother, sister, cousin, and yourself." Rendered con- 
fident by this oath, and ensnared by specious promises, she revealed all 
the tenets they professed; when the perjured wretch, instead of acting 
as he had sworn, immediately ordered her to be put to the rack, saying, 
" Now you have revealed so much, I will make you reveal more." 
Refusing, however, to say any thing further, the whole family were con- 
demned to the flames, and the horrid sentence was executed at the next 
Auto da Fe. 

The keeper of the castle of Triano, belonging to the inquisitors of 
Seville, happened to be of a more mild and humane temper than is 
usual with persons in his situation. He gave all the indulgence he 
could to the prisoners, and shewed them every favour in his power with 
as much secrecy as possible. At length the inquisitors became ac- 
quainted with his kindness, and determined to punish him severely for 
it, that the gaolers might be deterred from shewing the least trace of 
that compassion which ought to glow in the breast of every human being. 
With this view they superseded him, threw him into a dismal dungeon, 
and used him with such dreadful barbarity that he lost his senses. His 
deplorable situation, however, procured him no favour ; for, frantic as 
he was, they brought him from prison at an Auto da Fe to the usual 
place of punishment, with a sanbenito (or garment worn by criminals) 
on him, and a rope about his neck. His sentence was then read — that 
he should be placed upon an ass, led through the city, receive 200 
stripes, and then be condemned six years to the galleys. The unhappy 
frantic wretch, just as they were about to begin his punishment, sud- 
denly sprang from the back of the ass, broke the cords that bound him, 
snatched a sword from one of the guards, and dangerously wounded an 
officer of the inquisition. Being overpowered, he was prevented from 
doing further mischief, seized, bound more securely to the ass, and 
treated according to his sentence. So inexorable were the inquisitors, 
that for the rash effects of his madness, which they had caused, four 
years were added to his slavery in the galleys. 

A maid-servant to another gaoler belonging to the inquisition was 
accused of humanity, and detected in bidding the prisoners keep up 
their spirits. For this heinous crime, as it was called, she was publicly 
whipped, banished her native place for ten years, and had her forehead 
branded by red hot irons with these words, " A favourer and aider of 
heretics." 

John Pontic, a Spanish gentleman and a protestant, was, principally 
on account of his great estate, apprehended by the inquisitors, and 
charged with heresy. On this charge all his effects were confiscated to 
the use of the inquisitors, and his body was burnt to ashes. John 
Gonsalvo, originally a priest, but who now embraced the reformed re- 
ligion, was, with his mother, brother, and two sisters, seized by the 
inquisitors. Being condemned, they were led to execution singing part 
of the 106 psalm. At the place of execution they were ordered to 
repeat the creed, which they immediately complied with, but coming to 
these words, " the holy catholic church," they were commanded to add 
the monosyllables " of Rome," which absolutely refusing, one of the 



164 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

inquisitors said, " Put an end to their lives directly," when the execu- 
tioners obeyed, and strangled them. 

Four protestant women were seized at Seville, tortured, and after- 
wards ordered for execution. On the way they began to sing psalms; 
but the officers thinking that the words of the psalms reflected on 
themselves, used the most cruel means to silence them. They were then 
burnt, and the houses they resided in ordered to be demolished. A 
protestant schoolmaster of the name of Ferdinando, was apprehended 
by order of the inquisition, for instructing his pupils in the principles of 
protestantism; and after being severely tortured, committed to the 
flames. 

A monk, who had abjured the errors of popery, was imprisoned at 
the same time as Ferdinando ; but through the fear of death, he said he 
was willing to embrace his former communion. Ferdinando hearing of 
this, obtained an opportunity to speak to him, reproached him with his 
weakness, and threatened him with eternal perdition; when the monk, 
sensible of his crime, re-embraced and promised to continue in the 
protestant faith, and declared to the inquisitors that he solemnly re- 
nounced his intended recantation. Sentence of death was therefore 
passed upon him, and he was burned at the same stake with his friend. 

A Spanish Roman catholic, named Juliano, travelling into Germany, 
became a convert to the protestant religion ; and undertook to convey 
to his own country a great number of Bibles, concealed in casks, and 
packed up like Rhenish wine. He succeeded so far as to distribute the 
books. A pretended protestant, however, who had purchased one of 
the Bibles, betrayed him, and laid an account of the affair before the 
inquisition. Juliano was seized, and means being used to find out the 
purchasers of the Bibles, 800 persons were apprehended. They were 
indiscriminately tortured, and then most of them were sentenced to 
various punishments. Juliano was burnt, twenty were roasted upon 
spits, several imprisoned for life, some were publicly whipped, many 
sent to the galleys, and a very small number were acquitted. 

A protestant tailor of Spain, named John Leon, travelled to Germany, 
and from thence to Geneva, where hearing that a number of English 
protestants were returning to their native country, he and some other 
Spaniards determined to go with them. The Spanish inquisitors being 
apprised of their intentions, sent a number of familiars in pursuit of 
them, who overtook them at a sea-port in Zealand. The prisoners were 
heavily fettered, handcuffed, had their heads and necks covered with a 
kind of iron net- work, and in this miserable condition they were con- 
veyed to Spain, thrown into a dungeon, almost famished, barbarously 
tortured, and then burnt. 

A young lady having been forced into a convent, absolutely refused 
to take the veil ; and on leaving the cloister she embraced the protestant 
faith, on which she was apprehended and condemned to the flames. 
An eminent physician and philosopher of the name of Christopher 
Losada, became obnoxious to the inquisitors, on account of exposing the 
errors of popery, and professing the tenets of protestantism. He was ap- 
prehended, imprisoned, and racked ; but these severities not making 
him confess the Roman catholic church to be the only true one, he was 




A LADY RROUGHT BEFORE THE INQUISITORS AFTER THE TORTURE.— PACK I&. 



A NOBLE LADY TORTURED. 16.5 

sentenced to the fire ; which he bore with exemplary patience, and re- 
signed his soul to his Creator. 

Arias, a monk of St. Isidore's monastery at Seville, was a man of 
great abilities, but of a vicious disposition. He sometimes pretended to 
forsake the errors of the church of" Rome, and become a protestant, and 
soon after turned Roman catholic. Thus he continued a long time 
wavering between both persuasions, till God thought proper to touch 
his heart. He now became a true protestant ; and the sincerity of 
his conversion soon after becoming known, he was seized by the officers 
of the inquisition, severely tortured, and afterwards burned at an Auto 
da Fe. 

A young lady named Maria de Coccicao, who resided with her brother 
at Lisbon, was taken up by the inquisitors, and ordered be put to the 
rack. The torments she felt made her confess the charges against her. 
The cords were then slackened, and she was re-conducted to her cell, 
where she remained till she had recovered the use of her limbs ; she was 
then brought again before the tribunal, and ordered to ratify her con- 
fession. This she absolutely refused to do, telling them, that what she 
had said was forced from her by the excessive pain she underwent. The 
inquisitors, incensed at this reply, ordered her again to be put to the 
rack, when the weakness of nature once more prevailed, and she re- 
peated her former confession. She was immediately remanded to her 
cell ; and being a third time brought before the inquisitors they ordered 
her to sign her first and second confessions. She answered as before, 
but added, " I have twice given way to the frailty of the flesh, and per- 
haps may, while on the rack, be weak enough to do so again : but 
depend upon it, if you torture me a hundred times, as soon as I am 
released from the rack I shall deny what was extorted from me by pain." 
The inquisitors then ordered her to be racked a third time; and, during 
this last trial, she bore the torments with the utmost fortitude, and could 
not be persuaded to answer any of the questions put to her. As her 
courage and constancy increased, the inquisitors, instead of putting her 
to death, condemned her to a severe whipping through the public streets, 
and banishment for ten years. 

A lady of a noble family of Seville, named Jane Bohorquia, was 
apprehended on the information of her sister, who had been tortured and 
burnt for professing the protestant religion. While on the rack, she 
confessed she had frequently conversed with her sister concerning protes- 
tantism, and upon this extorted confession Jane was seized and ordered to 
be racked, which was done with such severity, that she expired a week after 
of the wounds and bruises. Upon this occasion the inquisitors affected 
some remorse, and in one of the printed acts of the inquisition, which 
they always publish at an Auto da Fe, this young lady is thus mentioned : 
" Jane Bohorquia was found dead in prison ; after which, upon reviving 
her prosecution, the inquisitors discovered she was innocent. Be it 
therefore known, that no further prosecution shall be carried on against 
her ; and that her effects, which were confiscated, shall be given to the 
heirs at law." One sentence in this passage is as remarkable as it is 
ridiculous, that no further prosecution shall be carried on against her. 
This alludes to the absurd custom of prosecuting and burning the bones 



160 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the dead : for when a prisoner dies in the inquisition, the process 
continues the same as if he was living ; the bones are deposited in a 
chest, and if sentence of guilt is passed they are brought out at the 
next Auto da Fe ; the sentence is read against them with as much 
solemnity as against a living prisoner, and they are at length committed 
to the flames. In a similar manner are prosecutions carried on against 
prisoners who escape ; and when their persons are far beyond the reach 
of the inquisitors, they are burnt in effigy. 

Isaac Orobio, a learned physician, having beaten a Moorish servant 
for stealing, was accused by him of professing Judaism, and the inquisitor 
seized the master upon the charge. He was kept three years in prison 
before he had the least intimation of what he was to undergo, and then 
suffered the following modes of torture : — A coarse coat was put upon 
him, and drawn so tight that the circulation of the blood was nearly 
stopped, and the breath almost pressed out of his body. After this the 
strings were suddenly loosened, when the air forcing its way hastily into 
his stomach, and the blood rushing into its channels, he suffered the most 
incredible pain. He was seated on a bench with his back against a 
wall to which iron pullies were fixed. Ropes being fastened to 
several parts of his body and limbs, were passed through the pulleys, 
and being suddenly drawn with great violence, his whole frame was 
forced into a distorted mass. After having suffered for a considerable 
time the pains of this position, the seat was suddenly removed and he 
was left suspended against the wall. The executioners fastened ropes 
round his wrists, and then drew them about his body. Placing him 
on his back with his feet against the wall, they pulled with the 
utmost violence, till the cord had penetrated to the bone. He suffered 
the last torture three times, and then lay seventy days before his wounds 
were healed. He was afterwards banished, and in his exile wrote the 
account of his sufferings. 

A protestant author of Toledo was fond of producing fine specimens 
of writings, and having them framed to adorn the different apartments 
of his house. Among other curious examples of penmanship, was a 
large piece containing the Lord's prayer, creed, and ten commandments, 
in verse. This piece, which hung in a conspicuous part of the house, 
was one day seen by a person belonging to the inquisition, who observed 
that the numerical arrangement of the commandments was not accord- 
ing to the church of Rome, but according to the protestant church ; 
for the protestants retain the whole ten commandments as they stand 
in the bible, but the papists omit the second which forbids the worship 
of images. The inquisition soon had information of the circumstance, 
and this gentleman was seized, prosecuted, and burnt, only for adorning 
his house with a specimen of his skill. 

SECTION III. 

THE TRIAL AND SUFFERINGS OF MR. ISAAC MARTIN. 

In the year 1714, about Lent, Mr. Martin arrived at Malaga, with 
his wife and four children. On the examination of his baggage, a 



CRUELTIES TOWARDS MR. MARTIN. 167 

bible and some other books were seized. He was accused soon after 
of being- a Jew, for these curious reasons, that his own name was Isaac 
and one of his sons was named Abraham. The accusation was laid in 
the bishop's court, and he informed the English consul of it, who said 
it was nothing but the malice of some of the Irish papists, whom he 
advised him always to shun. The clergy sent to Mr. Martin's neighbours 
to know their opinion concerning him, and the result of the enquiry was 
this — " We believe him not to be a Jew, but a heretic." After this, 
being continually pestered by priests, particularly those of the Irish 
nation, in order to change his religion, he determined to dispose of what 
he possessed and retire from Malaga. When, however, his purpose 
became known his house was assailed after dark by a loud knocking at 
the door. He demanded who was there. The persons without said they 
wanted to enter. He desired they would come the next morning ; but 
they replied, if he would not open the door they would break it open ; 
and they were as good as their word. Then about fifteen persons entered, 
consisting of a commissioner, with several priests and familiars belonging 
to the inquisition. Mr. Martin would fain have gone to the English 
consul ; but they told him the consul had nothing to do in the matter, 
and then said, " Where are your beads and fire arms ?" To which he 
answered, " I am an English protestant, and as such carry no private 
arms, nor make use of beads." They took away his watch, money, and 
other things, carried him to the bishop's prison, and loaded him with 
heavy fetters. His distressed family was turned out of doors till the 
house was stripped : and when they had taken every thing away, they 
returned the key to his wife. Four days after his commitment, Mr. 
Martin was told he must be sent to Grenada to be tried : he earnestly 
begged to see his wife and children before he went, but this request was 
cruelly denied. Oppressed with fetters, he was mounted on a mule, 
and set out towards Grenada. By the way, the mule threw him upon 
a rocky part of the road, and almost broke his back. He was three 
days on the journey of 72 miles. 

On his arrival at Grenada he was detained at an inn till it was dark. 
No one is ever put into the inquisition by day light — fit arrangement for 
so black a deed. At night he was taken along a range of galleries till 
he arrived at a dungeon, with a few things brought from Malaga by the 
carrier, consisting of an old bed, some clothes, and a box of books. 
The gaoler nailed up the latter, and said, they must remain in that state 
till the lords of the inquisition chose to inspect them, for prisoners were 
not allowed to read books. He also took an inventory of whatever Mr. 
Martin had about him ; and having asked a great number of frivolous 
questions, at length gave him this order : " You must observe as great 
silence as if you were dead ; you must not speak, nor whistle, nor sing, 
nor make any noise that can be heard ; and if you hear any body cry or 
make a noise, you must be still and say nothing, on pain of receiving 
200 lashes." Mr. Martin asked if he might have liberty to walk about 
the room ; the gaoler replied he might, but it must be very softly. After 
giving him some wine, bread, and half a dozen walnuts, the gaoler 
left him till morning. It was frosty weather, and the walls of the 
dungeon were between two and three feet thick, the floor was bricked, 



168 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






and a great wind came through an aperture which served as a window. 
The next morning the gaoler came to light his lamp, and bade him light 
a fire in order to dress his dinner. He then took him to a wheel usually 
found at the doors of convents, on which a person on the other side, 
unseen turns the provisions round. He had then given him half a pound 
of mutton, two pounds of bread, some kidney beans, a bunch of raisins, 
and a pint of wine, which formed his allowance for three days. He 
was also furnished with some charcoal, and earthen stove, and a few 
other articles. 

In about a week Mr. Martin was summoned to an audience: he fol- 
lowed the gaoler, and coming to a large room found a man sitting 
between two crucifixes ; and another with a pen in his hand, who was 
evidently secretary to the inquisition. The chief lord inquisitor, the 
person between two crucifixes, seemed about sixty years of age, and 
was a bony slender man, meagre and hideous as could well be imagined. 
He commanded Mr. Martin to sit down upon a little stool that fronted 
him. A frivolous examination then took place, the questions related to 
his family, their religion, and his own tenets and professions. The 
prisoner admitted that he was a protestant, pleaded that Christ admitted 
of no persecution, and concluded with saying, that he hoped to remain 
in the religion he had hitherto adopted. He underwent five examinations 
without any thing serious being alleged against him. 

In a few days he was called to his sixth audience, when, after some 
immaterial interrogatories, the inquisitor told him the charges against him 
should be read, and that he must give an explicit and prompt answer to 
each charge. 

First accusation. Soon after your coming to Malaga, you went and 
abused the schoolmaster for teaching your children the christian doctrine, 
telling him that you would teach them your own religion, and that you 
sent them to school to learn to read and write, and not to learn religion. 

Answer. My lord, I did go to the schoolmaster, and told him that I 
sent my children to read and write, and not to learn prayers; that I would 
have them brought up in my own religion, and would teach them how 
to pray ; but I did not abuse him. I believe, my lord, I have liberty to 
bring up my children in my own faith without being called to an account 
for it. 

The inquisitor, displeased at this reply, bid the secretary write him 
down guilty of the first accusation. 

Second accusation. At divers times it was remarked, that you did not 
pull off your hat, in homage to images, but turned your back on them. 

Answer. My lord, in my religion we pay no respect to graven images. 
I profess myself to be a protestant, it is against my conscience to bow to 
wood or stone, and I am not obliged by the articles of peace to do so. 

The inquisitor told him, that as he lived in a country where it was 
done, he ought to comply with the custom of the place in which he 
resided. The secretary was then ordered to record the answer. 

Third accusation. You once said, walking in your own apartment with 
an English captain, a heretic like yourself, that purgatory was but an 
invention of the church of Rome to get money. There was one present 
who could understand your language, and heard you say so. 



EXAMINATION OF MR. MARTIN. 169 

Answer. My lord, I cannot remember every thing I have said during 
four years time. It may be that I have said such a thing ; but if I did, 
it was not to a Roman catholic. If there was one in the room that 
heard me say so he must have been an Irishman, who was not very 
welcome there, for he came as a spy upon my words and actions. 

The inquisitor asking if he thought he knew him, Mr. Martin named 
the person on whom his suspicions fell. The inquisitor then having 
blamed him for giving his tongue such liberties in Roman catholic coun- 
tries, demanded if he was sorry for having said so ; he replied, " My 
lord, if I have said amiss, I beg your lordship's pardon." When the 
inquisitor, turning to the secretary, said, " Write down that the heretic 
begs pardon for the third accusation." 

Fourth accusation. You were once walking with another person who 
pulled off his hat to the crucifix. You asked him why he did this. He 
replied, I honour the crucifix : when you said, " We have no such things 
in our country," and passed by without pulling off your hat. 

Answer. My lord, I remember the time very well; it is true, I never 
pulled off my hat to a crucifix, unless it was carried in procession ; 
and then I used to pull off my hat, not in respect to the image, but to 
cause no scandal, by appearing to deny my superiors salutation as they 
passed. 

Guilty of this accusation by his own confession. 

Fifth accusation. You have several times spoken in religious disputes 
against our faith; and though you have been frequently admonished to 
embrace the Roman catholic persuasion, without which no man can be 
saved, you would never listen to the salutary advice. 

Answer. My lord, at my first arrival in the inquisition you allowed 
that a man might defend his religion; it is what I have done. As for 
being admonished to change it, that has happened very often; but I 
have no inclination to change. 

Then the inquisitor asked him if he could not defend his own religion 
without speaking against the church of Rome. To which Mr. Martin 
made answer, that he really could not: " For," said he, " in disputing 
with others, when they spoke against my religion, I naturally spoke 
against theirs; and I brought proof of scripture for what I said." He 
was recorded as guilty of this charge by his own confession. 

Sixth accusation. Being on board an English ship with your wife and 
others, a female admonished your wife to change her religion, when you 
bade her be quiet and mind her own religion. This was on a Friday, 
and you ate meat without regarding the day. 

Answer. My lord, we were merry drinking Florence wine and punch, 
and the woman was always talking of religion to my wife, though she 
hardly knew what she said, and at best knew but little of the matter. 
Continuing to talk on in the same manner, she made us very uneasy, so 
that I bade her hold her tongue, and had a trifling quarrel with her. 
As for eating meat on a Friday, I generally do, and so did she, though 
she was a Roman catholic. 

Seventh accusation. Being in company with some English heretic 
captains at church, there were several people kneeling and praying to 
the image of the Virgin Mary. The captains asked if they prayed to 



170 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the image. You answered, "Yes; they know no better, for they are 
brought up in ignorance." 

Answer. My lord, I have been several times walking with captains. 
I do not remember this particular time : it may be that some person 
heard me say so. 

Eighth accusation. Walking with several merchants, the host passed 
by, when they took off their hats, and some kneeled ; but you did not 
so much as take off your hat, which occasioned such scandal, that some 
of the people were going to stab you. 

Answer. My lord, it is false : I have lived several years in Roman 
catholic countries, and know that by the articles of peace, I am obliged 
to have my hat off on all such occasions. As for people stabbing me, I 
have run those hazards many times on account of my religion. 

Ninth accusation. You have been threatened various times with the 
pope's authority in those countries, and you have said that you did not 
value him, and that he had no authority over you. 
Answer. My lord, it is true I have said so. 
This answer occasioned the following curious altercation : — 
Q. How came you to say so? Don't you value the holy father, who 
is God on earth? 

A. My lord, talking with some people who were very troublesome 
about religion, they threatened me with the authority of the pope; and 
being an English protestant, I thought he had nothing to do with me. 
Q. What ! then you value nobody ? 

A. I beg your lordship's pardon; I value all mankind as being 
fellow-creatures; I value the pope as bishop of Rome, but not for the 
authority he has over me, for I believe he has not any. 
Q. You are mistaken. Who is the head of the church? 
A. My lord, I see to my sorrow I was mistaken. Jesus Christ is the 
head of the church. 

Q. What! then you allow no head upon earth? 
A. No, my lord. 

Q. Hold your tongue; you are an unbeliever; he is God upon earth. 

The secretary was ordered to record Mr. Martin's several replies. 

Tenth accusation. Walking with some captains of ships, there was a 

procession passing, when you bade them retire, and not mind it, though 

it was their design to see it : but you hindered them through disrespect 

to the procession. 

Answer. My lord, processions are very frequent in Malaga. I have 
been in company with captains who were never in Roman catholic 
countries before : and they, not knowing that people went in procession 
for devotion, would laugh and not take their hats off: so that I desired 
them to retire to avoid confusion. 

Eleventh accusation. The procession mentioned in accusation the 
tenth went by, and the people kneeled down and worshipped : but you 
stood with your hat on, and took no notice of it. 

Answer. My lord, I remember nothing of the affair, but believe it is 
false ; or if I did not take off my hat, it was because the host was not 
there. But with respect to kneeling or bowing, I told your lordship I 
never do either. 



EXAMINATION OF MR. MARTIN. 171 

Twelfth accusation. Being in your own house, an English captain 
asked if you were a Jew ; when you burst into a fit of laughter, and 
answered, you did not value what scandalous people said, for you were 
ready to give an account of your religion. 

Answer. It is true, my lord, I little valued what such scandalous 
people said, and was always ready to give an account of my faith. 
Nor did I think of being sent here, that it might be examined whether I 
was a Jew or not, when the clergy are so numerous at Malaga. 

Thirteenth accusation. You refused to give any thing to such as 
begged alms for the souls that are in purgatory, and violently dis- 
missed them from your door. 

Answer. My lord, it is true; but do they mention the reason why 
I did so ? 

The inquisitor did not satisfy him, but bade him relate the reason, 
which he did, by stating, that one person in particular, who went about 
begging alms for souls in purgatory, did all he could to torment him, 
and the more Mr. Martin declared he would not bestow money for 
such a purpose, the more importunate the other became, calling him 
heretic dog, and telling him that he would be damned, which at length 
overcame his temper, and made him in some measure return the fellow's 
scurrility. 

Fourteenth accusation. You have been heard to say that you feared 
no ecclesiastical court of justice, not even the inquisition itself, which 
you affirmed had nothing to do with an English protestant. 

Answer. My lord, I have oftentimes said so. 

Fifteenth accusation. You have had Jews in your house without 
giving notice to the commissioners of the inquisition, that they might be 
taken up and prosecuted according to the laws of the country. How 
durst you do such a thing? Do you remember these circumstances? 

Answer. Yes, my lord, I do very well. 

Sixteenth accusation. It is confirmed by several people, that the said 
heretic, Isaac Martin, has often shewn himself disaffected to the holy faith 
of the church of Rome, and has hindered people from embracing it; so 
that had it not been for the sake of his family, he would have been 
murdered long ago. 

Answer. My lord, I suppose those are good christians who give me 
this character; God knows best what to do with them. I hope God will 
enable me to go through these afflictions. I am well assured that your 
lordship knows that I am no Jew. I have answered the truth in your 
examination to the best of my remembrance; and I believe your lord- 
ship knows it to be so, and know the people who informed against me 
are of a very indifferent character, and have envied me ever since I lived 
at Malaga. 

Seventeenth accusation. You hindered your family from being brought 
up in the christian faith, and if it was not for you they would be all 
Romans, and it is against the laws of the country to prevent their be- 
coming such. 

Answer. My lord, it is false that my family had any inclination to be 
Romans; neither can the law oblige them to be so, or hinder me from 
bringing them up in my religion. 



172 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Eighteenth accusation. You used to close your window-shutters when 
the procession passed by, to hinder your children from kneeling down, 
and would beat them if they shewed any inclination to be Roman 
catholics. 

Answer. My lord, it is true I have closed my shutters several times; 
for sometimes I have had captains of ships in my house, who would not 
pull their hats off when the procession passed. As for my children, 
they went to the window generally to laugh; and I often bade them not 
shew themselves till the procession was gone, that no scandal might be 
given. 

Nineteenth accusation. Your daughter being of age, hath often said 
in the neighbourhood, that she would be a Roman catholic, but was 
afraid you would beat her; and that you had sometimes beaten her upon 
that account. 

Answer. My lord, I have nothing to answer to lies; it is false as the 
devil is false. 

Twentieth accusation. In Lent, and other fast-days, you caused your 
family to eat meat, and forbade them to keep any of the fasts appointed 
by the church of Rome, and beat them if they did. 

Answer. My lord, these are poor accusations, and they are all false. 
I thank God my table afforded flesh and fish all the year round; I 
never troubled myself to see what the servants used to eat; and as for 
myself, wife, and children, we ate meat all the year, without any scruple 
of conscience. Your lordship knows the fact. 

You English mind nothing but eating and drinking and living at your 
ease, without doing any penance. 

My lord, I beg your pardon, we have souls to be saved as well as 
other nations. We are born in a plentiful country, and I believe we 
live as well as the people of any nation, and serve God as well. 

Your country was a good country formerly ; it produced a great 
many saints, but it now produces no such thing. 

My lord, I believe there are few saints now in the sense in which 
you use the word ; but I am persuaded it produces as many good men 
as ever it did. 

Hold your tongue, you are all lost men ; you are all fallen from the 
holy church, and there is no salvation for you if you do not return. 

Twenty -first accusation. Your children had often been at mass and at 
prayers in the neighbourhood, and would have done so every day if you 
would have let them ; but you beat them, and prevented their being 
Christians, and thereby endangered their souls. 

Answer. My lord, I never knew my children go to mass or prayers in 
the neighbourhood, nor did I ever beat them on that account; I hope 
God will save their souls in the religion to which they are brought up, 
though the church of Rome condemns them. The accusation is false. 

Twenty-second accusation. Living at Lisbon you had several disputes 
about religion, and you hid yourself for fear of being taken up as a 
Jew. 

Answer. My lord, God knows that I am no Jew, and your lordship 
knows it very well. The devil has invented this to frighten me; but 
God, who knows every thing, will plead and avenge my cause. 



CRUEL TREATMENT OF MR. MARTIN. 172 

Twenty-third accusation, You breed schisms among the people, per- 
suading them to turn heretics, and to leave the church of Rome, out of 
which no man can be saved. 

Answer. I wish your lordship or any one else would tell me whom I 
persuaded to change their religion. You may accuse me of any thing; 
hell can't invent greater lies. I can't think, my lord, who could have 
sent such accusations against me. 

Twenty -fourth accusation. Your name being Isaac, and your son's 
name Abraham, you must be a Jew, or related to Jews. 

Answer. My lord, I have sufficiently answered this matter; the 
Roman catholics that are in Holland and Flanders don't mind whether 
their children have names out of the Old or New Testament ; and I 
know a man at Malaga, who is a Fleming, and a Roman catholic, 
whose name is Jacob. As for my parents, I never knew any of them 
were Jews. 

Twenty -fifth accusation. You offered to dispose of your house, and 
retire for fear of being taken up by the inquisition. 

Answer. My lord, it is true I offered to dispose of my house, but not 
through fear of the inquisition, for I never thought it had any thing to 
do with English protestants. If I had been afraid of it, I would not 
have come to live in the country : I had opportunities enough to go on 
board English ships, and to retire if I had been afraid. 

What! then you thought the inquisition had nothing to do with 
the English protestants? You are mistaken. 

My lord, I see I am, to my sorrow. 

Twenty-sixth accusation. You took all opportunities of making game 
of the religion of the church of Rome. 

Answer. My lord, I don't deny that; being in company with some 
Roman catholics, as they have made game of my religion, I have made 
game of theirs; but it was not in a profane way. 

Mr. Martin being remanded to his dungeon, the next day one of the 
gaolers gave him some frankincense to be put into the fire, as he was to 
receive a visit from the lords of the inquisition. Two of them accord- 
ingly came, asked many trivial questions, concluding them as usual, 
with, " We will do you all the service we can." Mr. Martin complained 
of their having promised him a lawyer to plead his cause; when, in- 
stead of a proper person, there was a man they called a lawyer, but he 
never conversed with him. To this one of the inquisitors gravely re- 
plied, " Lawyers are not allowed to speak here." The gaoler and 
secretary went out of the dungeon to laugh, and Mr. Martin could 
scarce refrain from smiling, to think that his cause was to be defended 
by a man who scarce dared to open his lips. Some time after Mr. Martin 
was ordered to dress himself very clean : as soon as he was ready, one 
of the gaolers came and told him that he must, go with him : but that 
first he must have a handkerchief tied about his eyes. This alarmed 
Mr. Martin, who now thought of nothing but the torture. The gaoler 
then led him for some time, till he heard a voice say, " Stop, and pull 
off your clothes." He was then examined to know if he had been cir- 
cumcised. Finding that he had not, he was remanded to his dungeon. 

In a month after, he was brought to a room filled with a great number 



174 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of persons, had a rope put round his neck, and was led by it to the 
altar of the great church. Here his sentence was pronounced, which 
was, that for the crimes of which he stood convicted, the lords of the 
holy office had ordered him to be banished out of the dominions of 
Spain, to receive 200 lashes, and be sent five years to the galleys; and 
that he should at present receive 200 lashes through the common streets 
of the city of Grenada. 

He was sent again to his dungeon for the night, and the next morning 
the executioner came, stripped him, tied his hands together, put a rope 
about his neck, and led him out of the inquisition. He was then 
mounted on an ass, and received 200 lashes, amidst the shouts and 
peltings of the people. He remained a fortnight after this in gaol, and 
at length was sent to Malaga. Here he was put in goal for some days, 
till he could be sent on board an English ship ; which had no sooner 
happened, than news was brought of a rupture between England and 
Spain, and the ship with many others was stopped. Mr. Martin not 
being considered as a prisoner of war, was put on board a Hamburgh 
trader, and his wife and children soon came to him ; but he was obliged 
to put up with the loss of his effects, which had been embezzled by the 
inquisition. 

The case of Mr. Martin was published and authenticated by Mr. Se- 
cretary Craggs, the archbishop of Canterbury, the archbishop of York, 
the bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Norwich, Sarum, Chichester, 
St. Asaph, Lincoln, Bristol, Peterborough, and Bangor. 



SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF ENORMITIES OF THE INQUISITION. 

In the beginning of the last century, when the crown of Spain was 
contested by two princes, who had equal pretensions to the sovereignty, 
France espoused the cause of one competitor, and England of the other. 
The duke of Berwick, a natural son of the apostate James II. com- 
manded the Spanish and French forces, and defeated the English at 
the celebrated battle of Almanza. The army was then divided into two 
parts ; the one consisting of Spaniards and French, headed by the 
duke of Berwick, advanced towards Catalonia; the other body, consist- 
ing of French troops only, commanded by the duke of Orleans, pro- 
ceeded to the conquest of Arragon. On the troops approaching the 
city of Arragon, the magistrates came to offer the keys to the duke ; 
but he told them haughtily, they were rebels, and that he would not 
accept the keys, for he had orders to enter the city through a breach. 
Accordingly, he made a breach in the walls, with his cannon, and then 
entered the city with his whole army. When he had made regulations 
here, he departed to subdue other places, leaving a strong garrison under 
the command of his lieutenant-general, M. de Legal. This gentleman, 
though brought up a Roman catholic, was totally free from superstition : 
he united great talents with great bravery ; and was at once the accom- 
plished gentleman and the skilful officer. Before his departure, the 
duke had ordered heavy contributions to be levied upon the city. 

The money demanded of the magistrates and principal inhabitants, 



DE LEGAL'S PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE INQUISITION. 175 

and of every house, was immediately paid; but when the collectors 
applied to the heads of the convents and monasteries, they found that 
these were not so willing to part with their ill-gotten wealth. On this 
the lieutenant-general sent to the Jesuits a peremptory order to pay the 
money without delay. The superior of the Jesuits returned for answer, 
that for the clergy to pay money to the army was against all ecclesiastical 
law; and that he knew of no argument to authorize such a procedure. 
M. de Legal then sent four companies of dragoons to quarter in the 
college, with this sarcastic message : "To convince you of the neces- 
sity of paying, I have sent four substantial arguments to your college, 
drawn from the system of military logic ; and therefore 1 hope you will 
not need further admonition to direct your conduct." 

The Jesuits, greatly perplexed at these proceedings, dispatched an 
express to court to the king's confessor, who was of their order; but the 
dragoons were much more expeditious in plundering and doing mischief, 
than the courier in his journey : so that the Jesuits, seeing every thing 
going to ruin, thought proper to adjust the matter, and paid the money 
before the return of the messenger. The Augustins and Carmelites 
taking warning by what had happened to the Jesuits, prudently went and 
paid the money, and by that means escaped the study of military argu- 
ments, and of being taught logic by the dragoons. 

On the other hand the Dominicans, who are all familiars or agents of 
the inquisition, imagined that this very circumstance would be their pro- 
tection ; but they were mistaken, for M. de Legal neither feared nor 
respected the inquisition. The chief of the Dominicans sent word to the 
military commander, that his order was poor, and had no money what- 
ever to pay the donative ; " for," said he " the whole wealth of the 
Dominicans consists in the silver images of the apostles and saints, as 
large as life, which are placed in our church, and which to remove would 
be accounted sacrilege." 

This insinuation was meant to terrify the French commander, who the 
inquisitors thought would not dare be so profane as to wish for the pos- 
session of the precious idols. He, however, sent word that the silver 
images would make admirable substitutes for money, and would be more 
in character in his possession than in that of the Dominicans themselves; 
" for," said he, " while you possess them in the manner you do at pre- 
sent, they stand up in niches, useless and motionless, without being of 
the least benefit to mankind ; but when they come into my possession, 
they shall be useful, I will put them in motion ; for I intend to have 
them coined, that they may travel like the apostles." The inquisitors 
were astonished at an answer which they never expected to receive even 
from crowned heads ; they therefore determined to deliver their precious 
images in solemn procession, that they might excite the people to an 
insurrection. The Dominican friars were accordingly ordered to march 
to De LegaTs house, with the silver apostles and saints, in a mournful 
manner, having lighted tapers with them, and bitterly crying all the 
way, "Heresy! heresy!" 

When M. de Legal heard of these proceedings, he ordered four com- 
panies of grenadiers to line the streets which led to his house ; each 
grenadier was ordered to have his loaded fusee in one hand, and a lighted 



176 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

taper in the other; so that the troops might either repel force with force, 
or do honour to the farcical ceremony. The friars did all they could to 
raise a tumult, but the people were too much afraid of the troops under 
arms; the silver images were, therefore, peaceably delivered up to M. 
de Legal, who sent them to the mint to be melted into money. 

The inquisitors, on this, determined to excommunicate M. de Legal, 
unless he would release their precious saints from imprisonment in the 
mint, before they were melted down. The French commander absolutely 
refused to release the images, upon which the inquisitors drew up the 
form of excommunication, and ordered their secretary to proceed and 
read it to M. de Legal. This commission the secretary punctually per- 
formed, reading the excommunication deliberately and distinctly. The 
French commander heard it with great patience, and politely told the 
secretary he would answer it next day. As soon as the secretary of 
the inquisition was gone, M. de Legal ordered his own secretary to 
prepare a form of excommunication exactly like that sent by the in- 
quisition ; but instead of his own name, to put in the names of the 
inquisitors. 

The next morning he ordered four regiments under arms, and com- 
manded them to accompany his secretary, and act according to his 
direction. The secretary went to the inquisition, and insisted on admit- 
tance, which, after considerable altercation, was granted. As soon as 
he entered, he read in an audible voice the excommunication sent by 
M. de Legal of the inquisitors. They were all present, and heard it with 
astonishment. Crying out against De Legal as a heretic, they said this 
was a daring insult against the catholic faith. But, to surprise them still 
more, the French secretary told them they must remove from their pre- 
sent apartments ; for the French commander wanted to quarter the 
troops in the place, it being the most commodious place in the whole 
city for a military purpose. On this the inquisitors exclaimed loudly, 
when the secretary put them under a strong guard and sent them to a 
place appointed by M. De Legal to receive them. The inquisitors, 
finding how things went, begged that they might be permitted to take 
their private property, which was granted, and they immediately set out 
for Madrid, where they made the most bitter complaints to the king ; 
but the monarch told them, he could not grant them any redress, as the 
injuries they had received were from the troops of his grandfather, the 
king of France, by whose assistance alone he could be firmly established 
in his kingdom. In the mean time, M. De Legal set open the doors of 
the inquisition, and released its prisoners, amounting to four hundred, 
among whom were sixty beautiful young women, who appeared to form 
a seraglio for the three principal inquisitors ! 

This discovery, which laid open the enormity of the inquisitors, 
greatly alarmed the archbishop, who desired M. De Legal to send the 
women to his palace, and he would take proper care of them ; at the 
same time he published an ecclesiastical censure against all such as 
should ridicule or blame the holy office of the inquisition. But the 
French commander sent word to the archbishop, that the prisoners had 
either escaped, or were securely concealed by their friends, or even by 
his own officers, so that it was impossible for him to send them to him ; 



ATROCIOUS CONDUCT OF THE INQUISITORS. 177 

therefore the inquisition, having committed such atrocious actions, must 
now submit as it could to the shameful exposure. 

One of the ladies thus delivered from captivity was afterwards married 
to the French officer who opened the door of her dungeon and released 
her. She related the following circumstance to her husband, and to M. 
Gavin, author of the Master- Key to Popery, who has in that work given 
it to the public. 

" I went one day with my mother, to visit the countess of Attarass, 
and I met there Don Francisco Tirregon, her confessor, and second 
inquisitor of the holy office. After we had taken chocolate, he asked . 
my . age, my confessor's name, and many intricate questions about 
religion. The severity of his countenance frightened me ; which he 
perceiving, told the countess to inform me, that he was not so severe as 
he appeared. He then caressed me in the most obliging manner, pre- 
sented his hand, which I kissed with great reverence and modesty; and, 
as he went away, he made use of this remarkable expression — ' My 
dear child, I shall remember you till the next time/ I did not, at the 
time, mark the sense of the words : for I was inexperienced in matters 
of gallantry, being, at that time, but fifteen years old. Indeed, he 
unfortunately did remember me; for the same night, when our whole 
family were in bed, we heard a great knocking at the door. The maid, 
who slept in the room with me, went to the window, and inquired who 
was there. The answer was, ' The holy inquisition.' On hearing this 
I screamed out, ' Father ! father ! dear father, I am ruined for ever ! ' 
My father got up, and came to me to know the occasion of my crying 
out. I told him the inquisition were at the door. On hearing this, 
instead of protecting, he hurried me down stairs as fast as possible; 
and, lest the maid should be too slow, opened the street door himself: 
under such abject and slavish fears are bigoted minds! As soon as he 
knew they came for me, he fetched me with great solemnity, and de- 
livered me to the officers with much submission. 

" I was hurried into a coach, with no other clothing than a petticoat 
and a mantle. My fright was so great, I expected to die that very 
night; but judge my surprise, when I was ushered into an apartment 
decorated with all the elegance that taste, united with opulence, could 
bestow. Soon after the officers left me, a servant appeared with a silver 
salver, on which were sweet-meats and cinnamon-water. She desired 
me to take some refreshments before I went to bed. I told her I could 
not, but should be glad if she could inform me whether I was to be put 
to death. 'To be put to death!' exclaimed she; 'you do not come here 
to be put to death, but to live like a princess, and you will want for 
nothing but the liberty of going out; so pray don't be afraid, but go, to 
bed and sleep easy, for to-morrow you shall see wonders; and, as I am 
chosen to be your waiting maid, I hope you'll be very kind to me/ 

" I was going to ask some questions, but she told me she must not 
answer any thing more till the next day, and assured me that nobody 
would come to disturb me. She then left me for about a quarter of an 
hour, and returned, saying, 'Madam, pray let me know when you will 
be pleased to have your chocolate ready in the morning?' This* greatly 
surprised me; so that, without replying to her question, I asked her 



178 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

name. She said, * My name is Mary.' 'Mary, then,' said I, 'for 
Heaven's sake, tell me whether I am brought here to die or not?' 'I 
have told you already,' replied she, ' that you come here to be one of 
the happiest ladies in the world.' 

"We now went to bed, but the fear of death prevented me from 
sleeping. When Mary waked she was surprised to find me up, but soon 
rose; and after leaving me for about half an hour, she brought in two 
cups of chocolate, and some biscuits on a silver plate. I drank one 
cup of chocolate, and desired her to drink the other, which she did ; 
when we had done, I said, ' Well, Mary, can you give me any account 
of the reasons for my being brought here?' To which she answered, 
' Not yet, Madam ; you must have patience,' and immediately slipped 
out of the room. 

" In about half an hour she brought a great quantity of elegant 
clothes suitable to a lady of the highest rank, and told me, I must dress 
myself. Among several trinkets which accompanied the clothes, I 
observed with surprise a snuff-box, in the lid of which was a picture of 
Don Francisco Tirregon. This unravelled the mystery of my confine- 
ment, and at the same time roused my imagination to contrive how to 
evade receiving the present. If I absolutely refused it, I thought im- 
mediate death must ensue ; and to accept it, was giving him too much 
encouragement against my honour. At length I hit upon a medium, 
and said to Mary, ' Pray present my respects to Don Francisco Tirregon, 
and tell him, that, as I could not bring my clothes along with me last 
night, modesty constrains me to accept of these garments, which are 
requisite to keep me decent ; but since I do not take snuff, I hope his 
lordship will excuse me not accepting his box.' 

" Mary took my answer, and soon returned with Don Francisco's 
picture elegantly set in gold, and richly embellished with diamonds. 
This message accompanied it, that his lordship had made a mistake; 
his intent not being to send me a snuff-box, but his picture. I was at 
a great loss what to do; when Mary said, 'Pray, Madam, take my 
poor advice; accept of the picture, and every thing else his lordship 
sends you; for if you do not, he can compel you to what he pleases, 
and put you to death when he thinks proper, without any body being 
able to defend you. But if you are obliging to him, he will be very 
kind, and you will be as happy as a queen; you will have elegant 
apartments to live in, beautiful gardens to range in, and agreeable 
ladies to visit you : therefore I advise you to send a civil answer, and 
even not to deny a visit from his lordship, or perhaps you may repent 
of your disrespect.' 

" O, my God!" I exclaimed, "must I sacrifice my honour to my 
fears, and give up my virtue to his despotic power ? Alas ! what can I 
do? To resist is vain. If I oppose his desires, force will obtain what 
chastity refuses.' I now fell into the greatest agonies, and told Mary 
to return what answer she thought proper. She said she was glad of 
my humble submission, and ran to acquaint Don Francisco with it. In 
a few minutes she returned, with joy in her countenance, telling me his 
lordship would honour me with his company to supper. ' And now give 
me leave, Madam,' she said, ' to call you mistress, for I am to wait upon 



ATROCITIES OF THE INQUISITION. 179 

you. I have been in the holy office fourteen years, and know all the 
customs perfectly well; but as silence is imposed upon me, under pain 
of death, I can only answer such questions as immediately relate to your 
own person. But I would advise you never to oppose the holy father's will ; 
or if you see any young ladies about, never ask them any questions. You 
may divert yourself sometimes among them, but must never tell them 
any thing: three days hence you will dine with them; and at all times 
you may have music, and other recreations. In fine, you will be so 
happy, that you will not wish to go abroad ; and when your time is 
expired, the holy fathers will send you out of the country, and marry 
you to some nobleman.' After saying these words she left me over- 
whelmed with astonishment, and scarce knowing what to think. As 
soon as I recovered myself I began to look about, and finding a closet, 
I opened it, and perceived that it was rilled with books; they were 
chiefly upon historical and profane subjects, but not on any religious 
matters. I chose out a book of history, and so passed out the interval 
with some degree of composure till dinner time. 

" When dinner was over, Mary left me, and told me, if I wanted any 
thing I might ring a bell, which she pointed out to me. I read to amuse 
myself during the afternoon, and at seven in the evening Don Francisco 
came to visit me in his night-gown and cap, not with the gravity of an 
inquisitor, but with the gaiety of a gallant. He saluted me with great 
respect, and told me, that he came to see me in order to shew the great 
respect he had for my family, and to inform me, that it was my lover 
who had procured my confinement, having accused me in matters of 
religion ; and that the information was taken, and the sentence was 
pronounced against me, to be burned alive over a gradual fire ; but that 
he, out of pity and love to my family, had stopped the execution of it. 

"These words were like daggers. I dropped at his feet, and said, 'Ah, 
my lord, have you stopped the execution for ever?' He replied, ' That 
belongs to yourself only;' and abruptly wished me good night. When 
he was gone I burst into tears, when Mary came and asked what could 
make me cry so bitterly. To which I answered, ' Oh, Mary ! what is 
the meaning of the gradual fire by which I am to die?' 

" 'Alas, madam,' said she, ' never fear; you shall see, ere long; it is 
made for those who oppose the holy father's will, not for you who are so 
good as to obey it.' But pray, was Don Francisco very obliging?' ' I 
don't know,' said I, ' for he frightened me out of my wits by his dis- 
course; he saluted me with civility, but left me in an abrupt manner.' 
* Well,' said Mary, ' you do not yet know his temper : he is extremely 
obliging to them that are kind to him ; but if they are disobedient, he 
is as unmerciful as Nero; so, for your own sake, take care to oblige him 
in all respects. And now, dear Madam, pray go to supper, and be easy.' 
I went to supper, indeed, and afterwards to bed; but I could neither 
eat nor sleep, for the thought of the gradual fire deprived me of appetite, 
and banished drowsiness. 

" The next morning early, Mary said, that as nobody was stirring, if 
I would promise her secrecy, she would shew me what so much disturbed 
me; so taking me down stairs, she brought me to a large room with a 
thick iron door, which she opened. Within it was an oven, with fire in 



180 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

it at the time, and a large brass pan upon it, with a cover of the same, 
and a lock to it. In the next room there was a great wheel, covered on 
both sides with thick boards. Opening a little window in the centre, 
Mary desired me to look in with a candle : there I saw all the circum- 
ference of the wheel set with sharp razors, which made me shudder. 

" Mary then took me to a pit, which was full of venomous animals. 
On my expressing great horror at the sight, she said, ' Now, my good 
mistress, I'll tell you the use of these things. The brass pan is for 
heretics, and those who oppose the holy father's will and pleasure. They 
are put alive into it; and the cover being locked down, the executioner 
puts a small fire into the oven, and by degrees augments it, till the body 
is reduced to ashes. The wheel is designed for those who speak against 
the pope, or the holy fathers of the inquisition; for they are put into 
that machine through the little door, which is locked after them, and 
then the wheel is turned swiftly, till they are all cut to pieces. The pit 
is for those who contemn the images, and refuse to give proper respect 
to ecclesiastical persons; for they are thrown into the pit, and so 
become the food of poisonous animals/ 

" We went back again to my chamber; and Mary said, that another 
day she would shew me the torments designed for other transgressors; 
but I was in such agonies at what I had seen, that I begged not to be 
terrified with any more such sights. She soon after left me, but not 
without enjoining my strict obedience to Don Francisco; l for if you do 
not comply with his will,' says she, ' the gradual fire will be your fate.' 
The horrors which the sight of these things and Mary's injunctions im- 
pressed on my mind, almost bereaved me of sense, and left me in such 
a state of stupefaction, that I seemed to have no will of my own." 

In this state the ruin of this lovely and timid creature wa§ effected ; 
on which sad result she has these bitter reflections — " Thus to avoid a 
dreadful death did I entail upon myself perpetual infamy; and to 
escape the so much dreaded gradual fire, give myself up to the flames 
of lust. Wretched alternative, where the only choice is an excruciating 
death, or everlasting pollution ! 

" Mary the next morning served us with chocolate in the most sub- 
missive manner ; she kneeled down by the bed-side to present it. When 
I was dressed, Mary took me into a very delightful apartment, which I 
had never yet seen. It was furnished with the most costly elegance ; 
but what gave me the greatest astonishment was the prospect from 
its windows of a beautiful garden and a fine meandering river. Mary 
told me that the young ladies she had mentioned would come to 
pay their compliments to me before dinner, and begged me to remem- 
ber her advice, in keeping a prudent guard over my tongue. In a 
few minutes a great number of very beautiful young ladies, richly 
dressed, entered the room, and successively embracing me, wished me 
joy. I was so surprised, that I was unable to answer their compliments; 
which one of the ladies perceiving, said, ' Madam, the solitude of this 
place will affect you in the beginning, but when you begin to feel the 
the pleasures and amusements you may enjoy, you will quit those pensive 
thoughts. We at present beg the honour of you to dine with us to-day, 
and henceforward three days in a week.' I returned them suitable thanks 



ATROCITIES OE THE INQUISITION. 181 

in general terms, and so went to dinner, in which the most exquisite and 
savoury dishes of various kinds were served up, with the most delicate 
and pleasant fruits and sweetmeats. The room was long, with two 
tables on each side, and a third in the front. I reckoned fifty-two 
young ladies, the eldest not exceeding twenty-four years of age. There 
were five maid-servants, besides Mary, to wait upon us ; bat Mary con- 
fined her attention to me alone. After dinner we retired to a capacious 
gallery, where some played on musical instruments, a few diverted them- 
selves with cards, and the rest amused themselves with walking about. 
Mary at length entered the gallery, and said, ' Ladies, this is a day of 
recreation, and so you may go into whatever rooms you please, till eight 
o'clock in the evening.' They unanimously agreed to adjourn to my 
apartment. Here we found an elegant cold collation, of which all the 
ladies partook, and passed the time in conversation and mirth; but 
none mentioned a word concerning the inquisition or the holy fathers, 
or gave the least distant hint concerning the cause of their confinement. 

" On the fourth morning Mary came into Don Francisco's chamber, 
and told me I must immediately rise, for a lady wanted me in her own 
chamber. She spoke with a kind of authority which surprised me; but 
as Don Francisco did not speak a syllable, I got up and obeyed. Mary 
then conveyed me to a dismal dungeon, not eight feet in length, and 
said sternly to me, ' This is your room, and this lady your bed-fellow 
and companion.' She then left me in the utmost consternation and in 
the most dreadful agonies. Tears came to my relief, and I exclaimed, 
' What is this place, dear lady ! Is it a scene of enchantment, or is it a 
hell upon earth ? Alas ! I have lost my honour and my soul for ever V 
The lady took me by the hand, and said, in a sympathetic tone of voice, 
' Dear sister, forbear to cry and grieve, for you can do nothing by such 
an extravagant behaviour, but draw upon yourself a cruel death. Your 
misfortunes, and those of all the ladies you have seen, are exactly of a 
piece : you suffer nothing but what we have suffered before you : but 
we dare not shew our grief through fear of greater evils. Pray take 
courage, and hope in God, for he will surely deliver us from this hellish 
place ; but be sure you discover no uneasiness before Mary, who is the 
only instrument either of our torments or comfort. Have patience until 
we go to bed, and then I will venture to tell you more of the matter. ' 

" My perplexity and vexation were inexpressible ; but my new com- 
panion, whose name was Leonora, prevailed on me to disguise my un- 
easiness from Mary. I dissembled tolerably well when she came to 
bring our dinners; but I could not help remarking, in my own mind, 
the difference between this repast, and those I had before partook of. 
This consisted only of plain, common food, and of that a scanty allow- 
ance, with only one plate, and one knife and fork for us both, which 
she took away as soon as we had dined. 

" When we were in bed, Leonora was as good as her word ; and upon 
my solemn promise of secrecy, thus began to open her mind to me : ' My 
dear sister, you think your case very hard, but I assure you, all the ladies 
in the house have gone through the same. In time you will know all 
their stories, as they hope to know yours. I suppose that Mary has been 
the chief instrument of your fright, as she has been of ours ; and I 



182 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

warrant she has shewn you some horrible places, though not all : and 
that, at the very thought of them, you were so terrified, that you chose 
the same way we have done, to redeem yourself from death. By what 
hath happened to us, we know that Don Francisco hath been your Nero, 
your tyrant ; for the three colours of clothes are distinguishing tokens 
of the three holy fathers. The red silk belongs to Don Francisco, 
the blue to Don Guerro, and the green to Don Aliapa ; and they always 
give those colours to those ladies whom they bring here for their re- 
spective use. We are strictly commanded to express all the demonstra- 
tions of joy, and to be very merry for three days, when a young lady 
first comes amongst us, as we did with you, and as you must now do 
with others. But afterwards we live like the most wretched prisoners, 
without seeing any body but Mary, and the other maid-servants, over 
whom Mary has a kind of superiority, for she acts as house-keeper. 
Our situation is miserable indeed, and we have only to pray that the 
Almighty will pardon the crimes which we are compelled to commit. 
Therefore, my dear sister, arm yourself with patience, for that is the 
only palliative to give you comfort, and put a firm confidence in the 
providence of Almighty God.' 

" This discourse of Leonora greatly affected me; but I found every 
thing to be as she told me in the course of time, and I took care to 
appear as cheerful as possible before Mary. In this manner I continued 
eighteen months, during which time eleven ladies were taken from the 
house ; but in lieu of them we got nineteen new ones, which made our 
number just sixty, at the time we were so happily relieved by the French 
officers, and providentially restored to the joys of society, and to the 
arms of our parents and friends. On that happy day, the door of my 
dungeon was opened by the gentleman who is now my husband, who, 
with the utmost expedition, sent both Leonora and me to his father's ; 
and soon after the campaign was over he returned home and thought 
proper to make me his wife, in which situation I enjoy a recompense 
for all the miseries I before suffered." 

It is wonderful that superstition has, with respect to the inquisition 
especially, always overcome common sense, and custom operated against 
reason. One prince, indeed, Don Carlos, the amiable son of Philip 
the Second, king of Spain, and grandson of the celebrated emperor 
Charles V. intended to abolish this cruel court; but he lost his life 
before he became able to accomplish the merciful purpose. He pos- 
sessed all the good qualities of his grandfather, without any of the bad 
ones of his father. He had sense enough to see the errors of popery, 
and abhorred the very name of the inquisition. He inveighed publicly 
against the court, ridicuW the affected piety of the inquisitors, and 
declared, that if he ever carav. to the crown, he would abolish the inqui- 
sition, and exterminate all its agents. This irritated the inquisitors 
against him, and they accordingly determined on his destruction. They 
employed all their agents and emissaries to spread the most artful in- 
sinuations against the prince, and at length raised such a spirit of dis- 
content among the people, that the king was under the necessity of 
removing Don Carlos from court. They even pursued his friends, 
obliged the king to banish Don John, duke of Austria, his own brother, 



PERSECUTION OF DR. .EGIDIO AND OTHERS. 183 

and uncle to the prince; together with the prince of Parma, nephew of 
the king and cousin of the prince, because both the duke of Austria and 
the prince of Parma had a most sincere attachment to Don Carlos. 

Shortly after, the prince having shewn great lenity and favour to the 
protestants in the Netherlands, the inquisition loudly exclaimed against 
him, declaring that as the persons in question were heretics, the prince 
himself must be one, since he gave them countenance. Thus they 
gained such an ascendancy over the mind of the king, who was abso- 
lutely a slave to superstition, that he sacrificed the feelings of nature to 
the force of bigotry, and through fear of incurring the anger of the in- 
quisition, passed sentence of death on his only son. The prince had 
what they termed an indulgence : that is, he was permitted to choose the 
manner of his death. He chose bleeding and the hot-bath. On an 
early day every thing was prepared as he wished; when veins in his arms 
and legs were opened, and he gradually sunk to death without apparent 
pain — falling a martyr to inquisitorial malice, strangely sanctioned and 
strengthened by parental bigotry and relative superstition. 



SECTION IV. 

ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS OF VARIOUS PROTESTANTS 

ABROAD. 

Dr. iEgidio was educated at the university of Alcala, and applied 
himself to the study of the sacred scriptures. The professor of theology 
dying, he was elected in his place, and acted so much to the satisfaction 
of every one, that his reputation for learning and piety was celebrated 
throughout Europe. The doctor's enemies, however, laid a complaint 
against him to the inquisitors, who sent him a citation, and when he 
appeared to it, cast him into a dungeon. 

As the greatest part of those who belonged to the cathedral church at 
Seville, and many persons belonging to the bishopric of Dortois approved 
of the doctrines of iEgidio, which they thought perfectly consonant 
with true religion, they petitioned the emperor in his behalf. Though 
the monarch had been educated a Roman Catholic, he was not a bigot; 
and therefore sent an immediate order for his liberation. Soon after he 
visited the church of Valladolid, did every thing he could to promote 
the cause of religion, and returning; home he fell sick, and died in an 
extreme old age. The inquisitors having been disappointed of gratifying 
their malice against him while living, determined, while the emperor's 
whole thoughts were engrossed by a military expedition, to wreak their 
vengeance on the doctor's corpse. They, therefore, soon after he was 
buried, ordered his remains to be dug up ; and a legal process being 
carried on, they were condemned to be burnt, and the wretched sentence 
was executed without further delay. 

Dr. Constantine, an intimate acquaintance of Dr. iEgidio, was a man 
of uncommon natural abilities and profound learning. His eloquence 
rendered him a pleasing and the soundness of his doctrines a profitable 



184 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



preacher; and he was so popular, that he never preached but to a 
crowded audience. 

When fully confirmed in protestantism by Dr. iEgidio, he preached 
boldly such doctrines only as were agreeable to gospel purity, and un- 
contaminated by the errors which had crept into the Romish church. 
For these reasons he had many enemies in that church, and some of 
them were determined on his utter ruin. One Scobarta, a worthy gen- 
tleman, having erected a school for divinity lectures, appointed 
Dr. Constantine to be reader therein. He immediately undertook the 
task, and read lectures by portions on the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and 
Canticles; but while beginning to expound the book of Job, the in- 
quisitors seized him. When brought to examination, he answered with 
such precaution that they could not find any explicit charge against him, 
but remained doubtful in what manner to proceed, when the following 
circumstance occurred : — 

The doctor had deposited with a woman, named Martin, several books, 
which to him were very valuable, but which he knew were exceptionable 
in the eyes of the inquisition. This woman was apprehended, and after 
a small process, her goods were ordered to be confiscated. Previously, 
however, to the officers coming to her house, the woman's son had 
removed several chests full of the most valuable articles, and in these 
were the books of Dr. Constantine; but a treacherous servant having 
given intelligence of this to the inquisitors, an officer was dispatched to 
the son to demand the chests. The son supposing the officer only came 
for Constantine's books, said, ' I know what you come for, and I will 
fetch them to you immediately.' He then fetched Dr. Constantine's 
books and papers, when the officer was greatly surprised to find what 
he did not look for. 

The inquisitors, thus possessed of Constantine's books and writings, 
soon found matter to form charges against him. When he was brought 
for re-examination, they presented one of his papers, and asked him if 
he knew the hand-writing. Perceiving it was his own, he guessed the 
whole matter, confessed the writing, and justified the doctrine it con- 
tained, saying, " In that and all my other writings, I have never departed 
from the truth of the gospel, but have always kept in view the pure pre- 
cepts of Christ, as he delivered them to mankind." Having been 
detained upwards of two years in prison, he was at last seized with a 
bloody flux, which put an end to his miseries. The process, however, 
was carried on against his body, which was publicly burnt at the ensuing 
Auto da Fe. 

Mr. Burton was a merchant of London who traded to Spain. Being 
at Cadiz, a familiar of the inquisition called upon him one day at his 
lodgings, pretending that he wanted to send a quantity of merchandize 
to London. Having asked as many questions as he thought proper, he 
departed, and the next day one of the inquisitorial officers took Mr. 
Burton into custody. The president, on this examination, demanded if 
he had said or insinuated any thing disrespectful to the Roman catholic 
persuasion. Mr. Burton replied in the negative, saying, that he was 
sensible, in whatever country he was, respect ought to be paid to the 
established religion. This defence, however, availed him nothing; 



DARING CONDUCT OF WILLIAM GARDINER. 185 

they proceeded to torture him, in order to gain information. Failing- in 
this, they condemned him for invincible obstinacy, and at the next Auto 
da Fe he was burnt. When the flames first touched him, he bore the 
torments with such exemplary patience, and appeared with so smiling 
a countenance, that one of the priests, enraged at his serenity, said 
with equal malice and absurdity, " The reason why he does not seem to 
feel is to me very evident : the devil has already got his soul, and his 
body is of course deprived of the usual sensations." Several other 
English in Spain were, about the time of Mr. Burton's martyrdom, put 
to death by the inquisitors ; particularly John Baker, William Burgate 
and William Burgess, who were burnt, and William Hooker was stoned 
to death. 

William Gardiner was born at Bristol, received a tolerable education, 
and was, at a proper age, placed under the care of one Paget, an 
eminent merchant. At the age of twenty-six he was sent to Lisbon as a 
British factor. Here he applied himself to the study of the Portugese 
language, conversed privately with a few whom he knew to be zealous 
protestants ; at the same time cautiously avoided giving the least offence, 
except by not resorting for divine worship to any of the popish churches. 
There being a marriage concluded between the king of Portugal's son 
and the infanta of Spain, upon the wedding-day the bridegroom, bride, 
and the whole court went to the cathedral attended by a multitude of all 
ranks of people, and among the rest William Gardiner, who stayed 
during the whole ceremony, and was greatly shocked at the supersti- 
tions he beheld. From this he conceived, the rash design of making a 
reform in Portugal, or perishing in the attempt, and determined to 
sacrifice his prudence to his zeal, though upon the occasion he became 
a martyr. For this purpose he settled all his worldly affairs, paid his 
debts, closed his books, and consigned over his merchandize. On the 
ensuing Sunday he went again to the cathedral church, and placed him- 
self near the altar, with a New Testament in his hand. In a short time 
the king and court appeared, and a cardinal began mass. At that part 
of the ceremony in which the people adore the wafer, Gardiner, spring- 
ing towards the cardinal, snatched the host from him, and trampled it 
under his feet. The whole congregation were thunder-struck, and one 
person drawing a dagger, wounded Gardiner in the shoulder, and would 
by repeating the blow, have finished him, had not the king called him to 
forbear. Thinking that he had been stimulated by some other person 
to act as he had done, the king demanded who was his abettor, to which 
he replied, " My conscience alone. I would not hazard what I have done 
for any man living ; but I owe that and all other services to my Creator." 
Hereupon he was sent to prison, and a general order issued to apprehend 
all Englishmen in Lisbon. This order was in a great measure put in 
execution, and many innocent persons were tortured to make them con- 
fess if they knew any thing of the matter; in particular a person who 
resided in the same house with Gardiner was treated with unparalleled 
barbarity, to induce him to acknowledge something which might throw 
a light upon the business. Gardiner himself was tormented in the 
most excruciating manner ; but in the midst of all his torments he 
gloried in the deed. Being ordered for death, a large fire was kindled 



186 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

near a gibbet, and he was drawn up to the gibbet by pulleys, and then 
let down near the fire, but not so close as to touch it ; so that he was 
burnt or rather roasted by slow degrees. Some embers were blown from 
the fire towards the haven, which burnt one of the king's ships of war, 
and did other considerable damage. The Englishmen who were taken 
up on this occasion were, soon after Gardiner's death, all discharged, 
excepting the person that resided in the same house with him, who was 
detained two years before he could procure his freedom. 

William Lithgow was descended from a good family, and having a 
propensity to travelling, he rambled when very young over the Northern 
and Western Islands ; after which he visited France, Germany, Switzer- 
land, and Spain. He set out on his travels in the month of March, 
1609, and the first place he went to was Paris, where he stayed for some 
time. He then prosecuted his travels through Germany and other parts, 
and at length arrived at Malaga, in Spain, the scene of all his embar- 
rassments. While he resided here, he contracted with the master of a 
French ship for his passage to Alexandria, but was prevented from going 
by unexpected circumstances. In the evening of the 17th of October, 
1620, the English fleet, at that time on a cruise against the Algerine 
rovers, came to anchor before Malaga, which threw the people of the 
town into the greatest consternation, as they imagined them to be Turks. 
The morning, however, discovered the mistake; and the governor of 
Malaga perceiving the cross of England in their colours, went on board 
Sir R. Mansell's ship, who commanded on that expedition, and after 
staying some time returned, and silenced all the people's fears. 

Many persons from on board the fleet came ashore the next day. 
Among these were several well known to Mr. Lithgow, who invited him 
on board. When Mr. Lithgow got on shore he proceeded towards his 
lodgings by a private way; in passing through a narrow, uninhabited 
street, he found himself suddenly surrounded by nine Serjeants who 
threw a black cloak over him, and forcibly conducted him to the gover- 
nor's house. After little time the governor appeared, when Mr. Lithgow 
earnestly begged he might be informed of the cause of such violent 
treatment. The governor only answered by shaking his head, and gave 
orders that the prisoner should be strictly watched till he returned from 
his devotions; directing, at the same time, that the captain of the town, 
the alcaid major, and the town notary should be summoned to appear 
at his examination, and that all this should be done with the greatest 
secrecy, to prevent the knowledge of it reaching the English merchants 
who resided in the town at that time. All these orders were strictly 
obeyed ; and on the governor's return, he with the officers having seated 
themselves, Mr. Lithgow was brought before them for examination. The 
governor began by asking several questions : but without being able to 
extort an answer upon which he could found a plausible charge. Then 
the governor proceeded to inquire the quality of the English commander 
and the prisoner's opinion of the motives that prevented his accepting 
an invitation to come on shore. He demanded also the names of the 
English captains of the squadron, and what knowledge he had of the 
embarkation, or preparation for it before its departure from England. 
The answers given to the several questions were set down in writing by 



SUFFERINGS OF MR. LITHCOW. 187 

the notary ; but the junta seemed surprised at Mr. Lithgow's denying 
any knowledge of the fitting out of the fleet. The governor said he lied, 
that he was a traitor and spy, and came directly from England to favour 
and assist in designs projected against Spain ; and that he had been for 
that purpose nine months in Seville, in order to procure intelligence of 
the time the Spanish navy was expected from the Indies. The inquisi- 
tors exclaimed against his familiarity with the officers of the fleet, and 
many other English gentlemen, between whom they said unusual civili- 
ties had passed; but all these transactions had been noticed with peculiar 
attention. In short, they pretended he came from a council of war held 
that morning on board the admiral's ship, in order to put in execution 
the orders assigned him. They upbraided him with being accessary to 
the burning of the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies ; " where- 
fore," said they, " these Lutherans, and sons of the devil, ought to 
have no credit given to whatever they say or swear." 

Mr. Lithgow in vain endeavoured to obviate the accusations laid 
against him, and to obtain belief from his prejudiced judges. A con- 
sultation was held to fix the place where the prisoner should be con- 
fined. The alcaid, or chief judge, was for putting him in the town 
prison ; but this was objected to, particularly by the corrigidore who 
said in Spanish, " In order to prevent the knowledge of his confine- 
ment from reaching his countrymen, I will take the matter on myself, 
and be answerable for the consequences ;" on which it was agreed, that 
he should be confined in the governor's house, and the greatest secrecy 
observed. At midnight the serjeant and two Turkish slaves removed 
Mr. Lithgow from this mild though unjust imprisonment to one more 
horrible. They conducted him through several passages to a chamber 
in a remote part of the palace towards the garden, where they loaded 
him with irons, and extended his legs by means of an iron bar, the 
weight of which was so great that he could neither stand nor sit, but 
was obliged to lie continually on his back. They left him in this con- 
dition for some time, when they returned with refreshment, consisting 
of boiled mutton and a loaf, with a small quantity of wine, of which he 
was allowed to partake. 

He received a visit from the governor the next day, who promised 
him his liberty, with many other advantages, if he would confess being 
a spy; but on his protesting that he was entirely innocent, the governor 
left him in a rage, saying, he should see him no more till further tor- 
tures constrained him to confess; commanding the keeper, to whose 
care he was committed, that his sustenance should not exceed three 
ounces of musty bread and a pint of water every second day; that he 
should be allowed neither bed, pillow, nor coverlet. " Close up," he 
added, " this window in his room with lime and stone ; stop the holes 
of the door with double mats; let him have nothing that bears any re- 
semblance to comfort." The unfortunate man continued in this melan- 
choly state, without seeing any person for several clays, in which time 
the governor received an answer to a letter he had written concerning 
his prisoner, from Madrid. Agreeably with this written instruction, he 
commenced a series of greater cruelties, which were hastened because 
Christmas approached, and it was not deemed expedient to interrupt 



183 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the ease and mirth of the usual holidays. Mr. Lithgow had now been 
more than six weeks in confinement. 

About three o'clock one morning he heard the noise of a coach in 
the street, and some time after the opening of the prison doors, not 
having had any sleep for two nights. Immediately after the doors were 
opened, the nine Serjeants who had first seized him, with the notary, 
entered the place where he lay, and without uttering a word, conducted 
him in his irons into the street, where the coach waited, and into which 
they laid him on his back, as he was not able to sit. Two of the 
Serjeants rode with him, and the rest walked by the coach-side, but all 
observed the most profound silence. They drove him to a vine-press 
house, about a league from the town, to which place a rack had been 
privately conveyed before; and here they shut him up for the night. 
At day-break the next morning the governor and the alcaid arrived, 
into whose presence he was immediately brought, to undergo another 
examination. The prisoner desired he might have an interpreter, but 
was refused; nor would they permit him to appeal to Madrid, the su- 
perior court of judicature. After an examination, which lasted the 
whole day, there appeared in all his answers so exact a conformity with 
what he had said before, that they declared he had learned them by 
heart. They pressed him again to make a full discovery; that is, to 
accuse himself of crimes never committed; the governor adding, " You 
are still in my power; I can set you free if you comply; if not, I must 
deliver you to the alcaid." Mr. Lithgow still persisting in his innocence, 
the*governor ordered him to be immediately tortured. 

He was then conducted to the end of a gallery where the rack was 
placed. The executioner immediately struck off his irons, which put 
him to very great pain, the bolts being so close rivetted, that the sledge 
hammer tore away above half an inch of his heel in forcing off the 
bolt; the anguish of which, together with his weak condition (not 
having taken the least sustenance for three days) occasioned him to 
groan bitterly; upon which the merciless alcaid said, " Villain, traitor, 
this is but the beginning of what you shall endure." As soon as his 
irons were off, he fell on his knees, uttering a short prayer, that God 
would be pleased to enable him to be stedfast, and firmly to undergo 
the trial he had before him. The alcaid and notary having seated 
themselves in chairs, he was stripped naked and fixed upon the rack. 
It is impossible to describe all the tortures inflicted upon him. He lay 
on the rack above five hours, during which time he received above sixty 
different tortures of the most infernal nature; and had they been con- 
tinued a few minutes longer he must have expired. 

On being taken from the rack, and his irons again put on, he was 
conducted to his former dungeon, receiving no other nourishment than 
a little warm wine, which was given rather to reserve him for future 
punishments than from any principle of pity. In this horrid situation 
he continued till Christmas-day, when he received some relief from 
Marianne, waiting-woman to the governor's lady. This woman having 
obtained leave to visit him, carried with her some refreshments, consist- 
ing of honey, sugar, raisins, and other articles. 

Mr. Lithgow at length received information which gave him little hope 



SUFFERINGS OF MR. LITHGOW. 189 

of ever being released. The substance of it was, that an English semi- 
nary priest and a Scotch cooper had been for some time employed by 
the governor to translate from the English into the Spanish language 
all his books and observations ; and that it was commonly said in the 
governor's house, that he was an arch and dangerous heretic. About 
two days after he had received this information, the governor, an inqui- 
sitor, and a canonical priest, accompanied by two Jesuits, entered his 
dungeon, and after several idle questions asked Mr. Lithgow if he was 
a Roman catholic, and acknowledged the pope's supremacy. He an- 
swered, that he neither was the one, nor did the other. In the bitter- 
ness of his soul he made use of some warm expressions not suited to his 
circumstances: — "As you have almost murdered me for pretended 
treason, so now you intend to make a martyr of me for my religion." 
He also expostulated with the governor on the ill return he made the 
king of England, whose subject he was, for the princely humanity exer- 
cised towards the Spaniards in 1588, when their armada was shipwrecked 
on the Scotch coast, and thousands of the Spaniards found relief, who 
must otherwise have perished in a miserable manner. 

After some silence the inquisitor addressed Mr. Lithgow in the follow- 
ing words: "You have been taken as a spy, accused of treachery 
and tortured, as we acknowledge, innocently, (which appears by the 
account lately received from Madrid of the intentions of the English ;) 
yet it was the divine power brought those judgments upon you, for 
presumptuously treating the blessed miracle of Loretto with ridicule, 
and expressing yourself in your writings irreverently of his holiness, the 
great agent and Christ's vicar upon earth; therefore you are justly 
fallen into our hands by special appointment: your books and papers 
are miraculously translated by the assistance of Providence influencing 
your own countrymen." When this harangue was ended, they gave the 
prisoner eight days to consider, and resolve whether he would become a 
convert to their religion ; during which time the inquisitor told him that 
he, with other religious officers, would attend to give him assistance. 
One of the Jesuits said, first making the sign of the cross upon his 
breast, " My son, behold you deserve to be burnt alive ; but by the 
grace of our lady of Loretto, whom you have blasphemed, we will both 
save your soul and body." 

The inquisitors with the three ecclesiastics, returned in the morning, 
when the former asked the prisoner what difficulties he had on his con- 
science that retarded his conversion; to which he answered, " He had 
not any doubts on his mind, being confident in the promises of Christ, 
and assuredly believing his revealed will signified in the gospel, as pro- 
fessed in the reformed Catholic church, being confirmed by grace, and 
having infallible assurance thereby of the true Christian faith." To 
these words the inquisitor replied, "Thou art no Christian, but an 
absurd heretic, and without conversion a member of perdition." The 
prisoner then told him, it was not consistent with the nature of religion 
and charity to convince by opprobrious speeches, racks, and torments, 
but by arguments deduced from the scriptures; and that all ether 
methods would with him be totally fruitless. 

So enraged was the inquisitor at the replies made by the prisoner, 



190 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that he struck him on the face, used many abusive speeches, and at- 
tempted to stab him, which he would certainly have done had he not 
been prevented by the Jesuits : and from this time he never visited the 
prisoner again. The two Jesuits returned the next day, and the superior 
asked him what resolution he had taken. To which Mr. Lithgow replied, 
that he was already resolved, unless he could shew substantial reasons 
to make him alter his opinion. The superior, after a pedantic display 
of their seven sacraments, the intercession of saints, transubstantiation, 
&c. boasted greatly of their church, her antiquity, universality, and 
uniformity; all which Mr. Lithgow denied : " For," said he, " the pro- 
fession of the faith I hold hath been ever since the first days of the 
apostles, and Christ had ever his own church, however obscure, in the 
greatest time of your darkness." 

The Jesuits finding their arguments had not the desired effect, and 
that torments could not shake his constancy, after severe menaces left 
him. On the eighth day after, being the last of their inquisition, when 
sentence is pronounced, they returned again quite altered both in words 
and behaviour. After repeating much the same kind of arguments as 
before, with seeming tears in their eyes they pretended sorrow from their 
hearts that he must be obliged to undergo a terrible death; but above 
all, for the loss of his most precious soul; and falling on their knees, 
cried out, " Convert, convert, O dear brother, for our blessed lady's 
sake, convert." To which he answered, " I fear neither death nor hell, 
being prepared against both." He received sentence that night of 
eleven different tortures; and if he did not die in the execution of them, 
he was after Easter to be carried to Grenada, and there burnt to ashes. 
The first part of the sentence was executed with great barbarity that 
night; and it pleased God to give him strength both of body and mind, 
to adhere to the truth, and to survive the horrid punishments. 

After these cruelties, they again fettered and conveyed him to his 
dungeon. The next morning he received some little comfort from a 
Turkish slave, who secretly brought him raisins and figs, which he ate 
in the best manner his strength would permit. It was to this slave 
Mr. Lithgow attributed his surviving so long in such a wretched situation ; 
for he found means to convey similar fruits to him twice every week. 
It is very extraordinary and exemplary that this poor slave, bred up 
from his infancy according to the maxims of his prophet, in the greatest 
detestation of Christians, should be so affected at the situation of 
Mr. Lithgow, that he became unwell and continued so for upwards of 
forty days. During this period Mr. Lithgow was attended by a female 
negro slave, who found means to furnish him with refreshments still 
more amply than the Turk, being more conversant with the house and 
family. She brought him wholesome food and nourishing wine every 
day. 

Mr. Lithgow now waited, with anxious expectation, for the day which 
by putting an end to his life, would also end his torments. But his 
melancholy expectations were, by the interposition of Providence, ren- 
dered abortive, and his deliverance obtained from the following in- 
cidents : — A Spanish gentleman of quality came from Grenada to 
Malaga; who, being invited to an entertainment by the governor, was 



HAPPY DELIVERANCE OF MR. LITHGOW. 191 

informed of what had befallen Mr. Lithgow from the time of his being 
apprehended as a spy, and the various sufferings he had endured. The 
governor told him, that after it was known the prisoner was innocent it 
gave him great concern. On this account he would gladly have released 
him, restored his money and papers, and made some atonement for 
the injuries he had received ; but that upon an inspection into his 
writings, several were found of a very blasphemous nature. On his 
refusing to abjure these heretical opinions, he was turned over to the in- 
quisition, who finally condemned him. 

While the governor was relating this tale, a Flemish youth, servant 
to the Spanish gentleman, who waited at table, was struck with amaze- 
ment and pity at the sufferings of the stranger thus described. On his 
return to his master's lodging he began to revolve in his mind what he 
had heard, which made such an impression on him that he could not 
rest in his bed ; and when the morning came, without disclosing his 
intentions to any person whatever, he went into the town and inquired 
for an English factor. He was directed to the house of one Mr. Wild, 
to whom he related the whole of what he had heard the preceding even- 
ing between his master and the governor; but could not tell Mr. 
Lithgow's name. Mr. Wild, however, conjectured who it was by the 
servant remembering the circumstance of his being a traveller. On the 
departure of the servant, therefore, he immediately sent for other 
English factors, to whom he related all the particulars relative to their 
unfortunate countryman. After a short consultation it was agreed that 
an information of the whole affair should be sent by express to Sir 
Walter Aston, the English ambassador to the king of Spain then at 
Madrid. This was accordingly done, and the ambassador having pre- 
sented a memorial to the king and council of Spain, he obtained an 
order for Mr. Lithgow's enlargement, and his delivery to the English 
factory. This order was directed to the governor of Malaga, and was 
received by the assembly of the bloody inquisition with the greatest 
surprise. 

Mr. Lithgow was released from his confinement on the eve of Easter- 
Sunday, when he was carried from his dungeon on the back of the 
slave that had attended him, to the house of one Mr. Busbich, where 
every possible comfort was given him. It happened that there was at 
this time a squadron of English ships in the road, commanded by Sir 
Richard Hawkins, who being informed of the past sufferings and pre- 
sent situation of Mr. Lithgow, came the next day ashore with a proper 
guard, and received him from the merchants. He was instantly carried 
in blankets on board the Vanguard, and three days after he was re- 
moved to another ship, by direction of the general Sir Robert Mansel. 
The factory presented him with clothes and all necessary provisions, 
besides which they gave him two-hundred reals, and Sir Richard 
Hawkins sent him two double pistoles. Sir Richard demanded of the 
inquisition the delivery of his papers, money, and books, before his 
departure from the Spanish coast, but could not obtain a satisfactory 
answer on that head. By such unexpected means does Providence 
frequently interfere in behaif of the virtuous and oppressed. 

Having lain twelve days in the road, the ship weighed anchor, and 



192 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

in about two months arrived safe at Deptford. The next morning Mr. 
Lithgow was carried on a feather-bed to Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, 
where at that time were the king and royal family. The sufferer was 
presented to him, and related the particulars of his sufferings, and his 
happy delivery ; at which the king was so affected that he expressed 
the deepest concern, and gave orders that he should be sent to Bath. 
By these means, under God, Mr. Lithgow, became restored from the 
most wretched spectacle to a great share of health and strength; but 
he lost the use of his left arm, and several of the smaller bones were so 
crushed and broken as to be rendered unserviceable ever after. Not- 
withstanding every effort he could never obtain any part of his money 
or effects, though his majesty and the ministers interested themselves 
in his behalf. Gondamore, the Spanish ambassador, promised that all 
should be restored, with the addition of 1000/. as some compensation 
for the tortures he had undergone ; which last was to be paid by the 
governor of Malaga. These engagements, however, were never kept; 
and though the king was a kind of guarantee for the performance of 
them, the cunning Spaniard found means to elude the order. 



book v. 



FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS, SUFFERINGS, AND CRUEL DEATHS OF PROTESTANT 
MARTYRS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES, DURING THE 16th AND 17th CENTURIES. 



SECTION I. 

A RELATION OF THE HORRTBLE MASSACRE IN FRANCE, ANNO 1572. 

After a long series of troubles in France, the papists seeing nothing 
effectual could be done against the protestants by open force, began 
to devise how they could entrap them by subtlety, and that by two 
ways : first, by a pretended commission sent into the Low Countries, 
which the prince of Navarre and Conde was to command. This was 
merely to understand what power and force the admiral had under him, 
who they were, and what were their names. The second was by a 
marriage between the prince of Navarre and the king's sister; to which 
were to be invited all the chief protestants of France. Accordingly 
they first began with the queen of Navarre, mother to the prince who 
was to espouse the king's sister, and who was then at Rochelle. Allured 
by many fair words to repair to the king, she consented to come to 
Paris, where she was at length won over to the king's mind. Shortly 
after she fell sick, and died within five days, not without suspicion of 
poison; but her body being opened, no sign thereof appeared. A 
certain apothecary, however, made his boast that he had killed the 
queen by venomous odours and smells prepared by himself. 



HORRID MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS. 193 

Notwithstanding this, the marriage still proceeded. The admiral, 
prince of Navarre and Conde, with many other eminent protestant 
chiefs, were induced by the king's letters and fair promises, to proceed 
to Paris, and were received with great solemnity. The marriage took 
place on the 18th of August, 1572, and was solemnized by the cardinal 
of Bourbonne, upon a high stage raised for the purpose without the 
church walls : the prince of Navarre and Conde came down, waiting 
for the king's sister, who was then at mass. This done, they all resorted 
to the bishop's palace to dinner. On the evening they were conducted 
to a palace in the centre of the city to supper. Four days after this the 
admiral coming from the council table, on his way was shot at with a 
pistol, charged with three bullets, and wounded in both his arms. He 
still remained in Paris, although his friends advised him to flee. Soldiers 
were appointed in different places of the city to be ready at the com- 
mand of the king; and upon the watch-word being given, they burst 
out to the slaughter of the protestants, beginning with the admiral him- 
self, who being wounded was cast out of the window into the street, 
where his head being struck off, was embalmed and sent to the pope. 
The savage people then cut off his arms, and drew his mangled body 
three days through the streets of Paris, after which they took him to 
the place of execution, and there hanged him by the heels to the scorn 
of the populace. 

The martyrdom of this virtuous man had no sooner taken place, than 
the armed troops with rage and violence ran about slaying all the pro- 
testants they knew or could find within the city gates. This continued 
many days ; but the greatest slaughter was in the first three days, in 
which were said to be murdered above 10,000 men and women, old and 
young, of all sorts and conditions. The bodies of the dead were carried 
in carts and thrown into the river, which, with other whole streams in 
certain places of the city was redenned with the blood of the slain. 
In the number of eminent men who fell in this dreadful slaughter were 
Petrus Ramus, Lambinus, Plateanus, Lomenius, Chapesius, and others. 

The brutal deeds of this period were not confined within the walls of 
Paris, but extended to other cities and quarters of the realm, especially 
to Lyons, Orleans, Toulouse, and Rouen, where the cruelties were if 
possible even greater than in the capital. Within the space of one 
month, thirty thousand religious protestants are said to have been slain. 
When intelligence of the massacre was received at Rome, the greatest 
rejoicings took place. The pope and his cardinals went in procession 
to the church of St. Mark, to give thanks to God ; and a medal was 
struck to commemorate the event. A jubilee was also published, and 
the ordnance fired from the castle of St. Angelo. To the person who 
brought the news the cardinal of Lorraine gave 1000 crowns. Similar 
rejoicings were also made all over France for this imagined overthrow of 
the faithful. 

The following are among the particulars recorded of the above enor- 
mities : — The admiral, on being wounded in both his arms, immediately 
said to Maure, preacher to the queen of Navarre, u Omy brother, I now 
perceive that I am beloved of my God, seeing that for his most holy 
name's sake I do suffer these wounds." He was slain by Bemjus, who 
afterwards reported, that he never saw man so constantly and confidently 
5 o 



194 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

suffer death. Among the honourable men and great personages who 
were at the same time murdered, were Count Rochfulcaud, Telinius, the 
admiral's son-in-law, Antonius Claromontus, marquess of Ravely, Lewis 
Bussius, Bandineus, Pluvialius, Bernius, and others. Francis Nompar 
Caumontius, being in bed with his two sons, was slain with one of them ; 
the other was strangely preserved, and afterwards came to great dignity. 
Stephen Cevalerie Prime, chief treasurer to the king of Poictiers, a very 
good man, and careful of the common-wealth, after he had paid for his 
life a large sum of money, was cruelly murdered. Magdalen Brissonet, an 
excellent and learned woman, the widow of Ivermus, master of requests to 
the king, flying out of the city in poor apparel, was taken, murdered, and 
cast into the river. Two thousand were murdered in one day ; and the 
same liberty of killing and spoiling continued certain days after. 

At Meldis two hundred were cast into prison, and being brought out 
as sheep to the slaughter, were cruelly murdered. There also were 
twenty-five women slain. At Orleans, a thousand men, women, and 
children, were massacred. The citizens of Augustobona, hearing of 
the massacre at Paris, shut the gates of their town that no pro- 
testants might escape, and cast all they suspected into prison, who 
were afterwards brought forth and murdered. At Lyons there were 
eight hundred most miserably and cruelly put to death ; the children 
hanging at their fathers' necks, and the fathers embracing their children. 
Three hundred were slain in the archbishop's house : the monks would 
not suffer their bodies to be buried. At Toulouse two hundred were 
murdered. At Rouen five hundred were put to death. At last, 
Thuanus records," this example passed unto other cities, and from 
cities to towns and villages, so that it is by many published, that in all the 
kingdom above 30,000 were in these tumults in divers ways destroyed." 

A little before this massacre, a man, nurse, and infant carried to be 
baptised, were all three murdered. Bricamotius, a man of seventy 
years, and Cavagnius, were laid upon hurdles and drawn to execution. 
The first might have been pardoned if he would publicly confess that 
the admiral had conspired against the king, which he refused to do. 
At Bourdeaux, by the instigation of a monk, named Enimund Angerius, 
two hundred and sixty-four were cruelly murdered, of whom some were 
senators. This monk continually provoked the people in his sermons 
to slaughter. At Agendicum in Maine, a cruel slaughter of protestants 
was committed by the instigation of iEmarus, inquisitor of criminal 
causes. A rumour being spread abroad that the protestants had taken 
secret counsel to invade and spoil the churches, above a hundred of 
every estate and sex were, by the enraged people, killed or drowned in 
the river Igonna. 

On entering Blois, the duke of Guise, notwithstanding the city had 
voluntarily opened its gates, gave it up to rapine and slaughter ; houses 
were spoiled, many protestants who had remained were slain, or drowned 
in the river; neither were women spared, of whom some were ravished, 
and more murdered. From thence he went to Mere, two leagues from 
Blois, where protestants had frequent assembly at sermons. For several 
days together they were worried from place to place, many of them 
killed, and Cassebonius, the pastor, was drowned in the next river. At 



CRUEL END OF THE PRINCE OF CONDE. 195 

Anjou, Alciacus, the pastor, was also murdered, and numerous women 
injured in a cruel manner, some in the sight of their parents, and others 
so as to deprive them of life. 

John Burgeolus, president of Turin, an old man, being suspected to be 
a protestant, having bargained for a sum of money for his life and safety, 
was, notwithstanding, taken and beaten cruelly with clubs and staves, 
and being stripped of his clothes, was brought to the bank of the river 
Liger, and hanged with his feet upward, and his head downwards in the 
water to his breast. 

When the city of Matiscon was taken, by corrupting the keeper of 
the keys, whom, notwithstanding, they killed, great cruelty was shewed, 
so that they counted it sport to maim whatever protestants were unable 
to resist them. A man of influence in the city, named Sapontius, invit- 
ing gentlewomen to supper, would walk with them, and having his 
soldiers about him, used to cast protestants from the bridge into the river 
and with that spectacle gratified his guests ; whom he would often ask, 
whether they ever saw men leap better. At Albia of Cahors, on the Lord's 
day, the papists, at the ringing of a bell, broke open the doors where 
protestants were assembled, and killed without distinction all they could 
find : among whom was one Guacerius, a rich merchant, whom they 
drew into his house, and then murdered him together with his family. 

In a town called Penna, three hundred protestants notwithstanding 
the safety of their lives was promised them, were cruelly murdered by 
Spaniards, who were newly come to serve the French king. The town 
of Nonne having capitulated to the papists, on condition that the foreign 
soldiers should depart safe with horse and armour, leaving their ensigns, 
and that the enemy's soldiers should not enter into the town ; and that 
no harm should be done to the inhabitants, who might go into the castle; 
after its surrender the gates were set open, when, without regard to those 
conditions, the soldiers rushed in, and began murdering and spoiling all 
around them. Men and women without distinction were killed ; the 
streets resounded with miserable mourning, and blood flowed in every 
stream. Many were thrown down headlong from the heights. Among 
others, the following monstrous act of cruelty is reported : a woman 
being drawn out of a private place, into which to avoid the rage of the 
soldiers she had fled with her husband, was in his sight shamefully 
defiled : and then was commanded to draw a sword, and forced by 
others, who guided her hand, to give her husband a dreadful and mortal 
wound. 4 

Bordis, a captain under the prince of Conde, at Mirabellum, was, con- 
trary to promise, cruelly killed, and his naked body- cast into the street. 
The prince of Conde of the Bourbon family, being taken prisoner, and his life 
promised him, was shot in the neck by Montisquius, captain of the duke 

1 The author mentions this monstrous act of cruelty as a report, and it is to be hoped it 
was a mere report. The record of it is retained, not because the present editor believes it 
to have actually taken place; but as a sample of the credulous taste of the times, which 
so easily received and so gravely recorded incidents too often because they were monstrous, 
without consulting either their delicacy or their truth — without suspecting their falsehood 
or shrinking at their impropriety. This is, perhaps, the proper place to intimate that several 
reports of this repulsive sort have already been expunged. 



198 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of Anjou's guard. Thuanus thus speaks of him: "This was the end 
of Lewis Bourbon, prince of Conde, of the king's blood, a man higher 
in birth, most honourable in courage and virtue ; in valour, constancy, 
wit, wisdom, experience, courtesy, eloquence, and liberality, all which 
virtues excelled in him, had few equals, and none, even by the confes- 
sion of his enemies, superior to him." 

The enemies of the truth, glutted with slaughter, began every where 
to triumph in the fallacious opinion, that they were the sole lords of 
men's conscience ; and, truly, it might appear to human reason that by 
the destruction of his people, God had abandoned the earth to the 
ravages of his enemy. But he had otherwise decreed, and thousands 
who had not bowed the knee to Baal, were called forth to glory and 
virtue. The inhabitants of Rochelle, hearing of the cruelties committed 
on their brethren, resolved to defend themselves against the power of the 
king; and their example was followed by various other towns, with 
which they entered into a confederacy, exhorting and inspiriting one 
another in the common cause. To crush this, the king shortly after 
summoned the whole power of France, and the greatest of his nobility, 
among whom were his royal brothers : he invested Rochelle by land 
and sea, and commenced a furious siege, which, but for the immediate 
hand of God, must have ended in its destruction. Seven principal 
assaults were made against the town; but none of them succeeded. At 
one time a breach was made by the tremendous cannonade; but through 
the undaunted valour of the citizens, assisted even by their wives and 
daughters, who could not be restrained, the soldiers were driven back 
with great slaughter. It is worthy of record, that amidst every scarcity 
of provisions, there was found in the river a great multitude of fish, 
which the people used instead of bread; these fish on the conclusion of 
the siege, entirely disappeared. The siege lasted seven months, when 
the duke of Anjou being proclaimed king of Poland, he, in concert 
with the king of France, entered into a treaty with the people of 
Rochelle, which ended in a peace: conditions, containing twenty-five 
articles, having been drawn up by the latter, embracing many immu- 
nities both for themselves and other protestants in France, were con- 
firmed by the king, and proclaimed with great rejoicings at Rochelle 
and other cities. 

The year following died Charles IX. of France, the tyrant who had 
been so instrumental in the calamities above recorded. He was only in 
the 28th year of his age, and his death was remarkable and dreadful. 
When lying on his bed, the blood gushed from various parts of his body. 
Amidst his slumbers, his dreams and exclamations were horrid beyond 
description. He rolled about his bed and on the floor of his chamber 
a most dreadful spectacle, and at last was suffocated in the effort to 
discharge a quantity of blood from the cruel mouth, whose edicts had 
occasioned such torrents of his subjects' blood to stain the face of the 
country. 



197 



HISTORY OF ROBERT OGUIER, HIS WIFE, AND THEIR SONS, WHO 
WERE BURNED AT LISLE. 

On Saturday March 6, 1556, about ten o'clock at night, the provost 
of the city with his Serjeants armed themselves, and went to seek any 
protestants met together in houses : but there was then no assembly. 
They therefore came to the house of Robert Oguier, which was a little 
church, where both rich and poor were familiarly instructed in the 
scriptures. Having entered they found certain books, which they carried 
away. But he whom they principally sought was not there, namely, 
Baudicon, the son of Oguier, who was gone abroad to commune and 
talk of the word of God with some of the brethren. On his return 
home, he knocked at the door, when Martin, the younger brother, 
watching his coming, bade him be gone: but Baudicon, thinking his 
brother mistook him for some other, said, " It is I, open the door :" 
with that the Serjeants opened the same, and let him in, saying, " Ah, 
sir, you are well met!" to whom he answered, " I thank you my friends, 
you are also welcome hither." Then said the provost, " I arrest you 
all in the emperor's name;" and with that commanded the husband, his 
wife, and their two sons to be bound and imprisoned, leaving their two 
daughters to look to the house. A few days after, the prisoners were 
brought before the magistrates who examined them concerning their 
Course of life. They directed their speech first to Robert Oguier, in 
these words : " It is told us that you never come to mass, yea, and also 
dissuade others from coming to it. We are further informed that you 
maintain conventicles in your house, causing erroneous doctrines to be 
preached there, contrary to the ordinance of our holy mother the church, 
whereby you have transgressed the laws of his imperial majesty." 

Robert Oguier answered, " Whereas, first of all you lay to my 
charge that I go not to mass. I refuse so to do indeed, because the 
death and precious blood of the Son of God, and his sacrifice, are 
utterly abolished there, and trodden under foot ; ' For Christ by one 
sacrifice hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' Do we read in 
all the scriptures, that either the prophets, Christ, or any of his apostles, 
ever said mass? They knew not what it meant. Christ indeed insti- 
tuted the holy supper, in which all Christians communicate together, but 
they sacrifice not. If you please to read the Bible over, you will never 
find the mass once mentioned therein ; therefore it is the mere invention 
of men. You know then what Christ saith, ' In vain do they worship 
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' If either 
myself, or any of mine, had been at mass, which is ordained by men, 
Christ would have told us we had worshipped him in vain. 

" As for the second accusation, I will not deny but there have met 
together in my house honest people fearing God : I assure you not with 
intention to wrong any, but rather for the advancement of God's glory, 
and the good of many. I knew indeed that the emperor had forbidden 
it, but what then ? I knew also that Christ in his gospel had com- 
manded it : ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them.' Thus you see I could not well obev 



198 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the emperor, but 1 must disobey Christ. In this case I chose rather to 
obey God than man." 

One of the magistrates demanded what they did when they met to- 
gether. To which Baudicon, the eldest son, answered, " If it please 
you to give me leave, I will open the business at large unto you." The 
sheriffs seeing his promptness, looking upon one another, said, " Well, 
let us hear it." Baudicon lifting up his eyes to heaven, began thus : — 
" When we meet together in the name of .our Lord Jesus Christ, to hear 
the word of God, we first of all prostrate upon our knees before God, 
and in the humility of oar spirits do make a confession of our sins 
before his Divine Majesty. Then we pray that the word of God may 
be rightly divided, and purely preached : we also pray for our sovereign 
lord the emperor, and for all his honourable counsellors, that the 
common-wealth may be peaceably governed to the glory of God; yea, 
we forget not you whom we acknowledge our superiors, entreating our 
good God for you, and for this whole city, that you may maintain it in 
all tranquillity. Thus I have exactly related unto you what we do : 
think you now, whether we have offended so highly in this matter of our 
assembling." 

While they were thus examined, each of them made an open con- 
fession of their faith ; and being returned again to prison, they not long 
after were put to the torture, to make them confess who they were that 
frequented their house ; but they would discover none, unless such as 
were well known to the judges, or else were at that time absent. Four 
or five days after they were convened again before their judges, namely, 
the father and his two sons; and after many words passed, they asked 
them whether they would submit themselves to the will of the magis- 
trates. Robert Oguier, and Baudicon his son, with some deliberation 
said, " Yea, we will." Then demanding the same of Martin, the 
younger brother, he answered, That he would not submit himself thereto, 
but would accompany his mother ; so he was sent back again to prison, 
whilst the father and the son were sentenced to be burnt alive to ashes. 
One of the judges, after sentence pronounced, said, " To-day you shall 
go to dwell with all the devils in hell-fire," which he spake as one 
transported with fury in beholding the great patience of these two ser- 
vants of Christ. Having received the sentence of death, they were 
returned to the prison from whence they came, being joyful that the 
Lord did them the honour to enroll them in the number of his martyrs. 
They no sooner entered the prison than a band of friars came thither; 
one amongst the rest told them, the hour was come in which they must 
finish their days. Robert Oguier and his son answered, " We know it 
well ; but blessed be the Lord our God, who now delivering our bodies 
out of this vile prison, will receive our souls into his glorious and hea- 
venly kingdom." 

One of the friars endeavoured to turn them from their faith, saying, 
" Father Robert, thou art an old man, let me entreat thee in this thy 
last hour, to think of saving thine own soul; and if thou wilt give ear 
unto me, I warrant thee thou shalt do well." The old man answered, 
" Poor man, how darest thou attribute that to thyself which belongs to 
the eternal God, and so rob him of his honour? for it seems by thy 



CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE OF A FATHER AND SON. 199 

speech, that if I will hearken to thee thou wilt become my Saviour. No, 
no, I have only one Saviour, Jesus Christ, who by and by will deliver 
me from this miserable world. I have one Doctor whom the heavenly 
Father hath commanded me to hear, and I purpose to hearken to none 
other." 

Another exhorted him to take pity on his soul. " Thou wiliest me," 
said Robert," to pity mine own soul; dost thou not see what pity I have 
on it, when for the name of Christ I willingly abandon this body of 
mine to the fire, hoping to-day to be with him in paradise? I have put 
all my confidence in God, and my hope wholly is fixed upon the merits 
of Christ, his death and passion ; he will direct me the right way to his 
kingdom. I believe what the holy prophets and apostles have written, and 
in that faith will I live and die." The friar hearing this, said, " Out, dog! 
thou are not worthy the name of Christian ; thou and thy son with thee 
are both resolved to damn your bodies and souls with all the devils in hell." 

As they were about to separate Baudicon from his father, he said, 
" Let my father alone, and trouble him not thus : he is an old man, and 
hath an infirm body; hinder him not, I pray you, from receiving the 
crown of martyrdom." Baudicon was then conveyed to a chamber 
apart, and there being stripped of his clothes, was prepared to be sacri- 
ficed. While one brought him gunpowder to put to his breast, an odd 
fellow standing by, said, " Wert thou my brother, I would sell all that 
I am worth to buy fagots to burn thee — thou findest but too much 
favour." The young man answered, " Well, sir, the Lord shew you 
more mercy." Whilst they spake thus to Baudicon, some of the friars 
pressed about the old man, persuading him at least to take a crucifix 
into his hands, lest the people should murmur against him ; adding fur- 
ther, that he might for all that lift up his heart to God. Then they 
fastened it between his hands; but as soon as Baudicon was come down 
and espied what they had done to his father, he said, " Alas ! father, 
what do you now ? will you play the idolater even at our last hour ?" 
And then pulling the idol out of his hands, which they had fastened 
therein, he threw it away, saying, " What cause hath the people to be 
offended at us for not receiving a Christ of wood ? We bear upon our 
hearts the cross of Christ, the Son of the ever-living God, feeling his 
holy word written therein in letters of gold." 

A band of soldiers attended them to execution, no less than if a 
prince had been conducted into his kingdom. Being come to the place 
where they were to suffer, they ascended the scaffold ; when Baudicon 
asked leave of the sheriffs to make a confession of his faith before the 
people : answer was made that he was to look unto his spiritual Father, 
and confess to him. He was then dragged to the stake, where he began 
to sing the 16th Psalm. The friar cried out, " Do you not hear, 
my masters, what wicked errors these heretics sing, to beguile the 
people with ?" Baudicon hearing him, replied, " How, simple idiot, 
callest thou the psalms of the prophet David errors ? But no wonder, 
for thus you are wont to blaspheme against the Spirit of God." Then 
turning his eyes towards his father, who was about to be chained to the 
stake, he said, " Be of good courage, father, the worst will be past very 
soon." Then he often reiterated these short breathings, " O God, 



•^00 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Father everlasting, accept the sacrifice of our bodies, for thy well beloved 
Son Jesus Christ's sake." One of the friars cried out, " Heretic, thou 
liest; he is none of thy Father, the devil is thy father." During these 
conflicts, he lifted his eyes upwards, and speaking to his father, said, 
" Behold, I seethe heavens open, and millions of angels ready to receive 
us, rejoicing to see us thus witnessing the truth in the view of the world. 
Father, let us be glad and rejoice, for the joys of heaven are set open to 
us." Fire was forthwith put to the straw and wood, which burnt beneath, 
whilst they not shrinking from the pains spake one to another ; Baudicon 
often repeating this in his father's ears, " Faint not, father, nor be 
afraid ; yet a very little while and we shall enter into the heavenly 
mansions." In the end, the fire growing hot upon them, the last words 
they were heard to pronounce were, " Jesus Christ, thou Son of God, 
into thy hand do we commend our spirits." And thus these two slept 
sweetly in the Lord. 

In eight days after, Jane, the mother, and Martin her son, were exe- 
cuted in the same city. But before we come to describe their happy 
ends, we will, as briefly as we can, take notice by the way of the very 
great conflicts of spirit which both of them sustained. There were sent 
unto them many of the popish rabble, to turn them from their faith. 
That their devilish enterprise might the better be effected, they separated 
one from the other, by the politic advice of a monk : the poor woman 
began to waver, and let go her first faith. At this their enemies rejoiced 
not a little, whilst the little flock of Christ hearing such sad news were 
in continual perplexity ; but the Lord left them not in their mournful 
condition. 

One of the monks waited on her in the prison, counselling her to win 
over her son Martin, and to draw him from his errors, which she promised 
to do. But when he was come to his mother, and perceived that she 
was not only fallen, but also quite turned out of the right way, he 
began with tears to bewail her miserable state. " O mother," said he, 
"what have you done? Have you denied Him who hath redeemed 
you? Alas! what evil hath he done you, that you should requite 
him with so great injury and dishonour? Now I am plunged into 
that woe which I have most feared. Ah, good God, that I should live 
to see this, which pierceth me to the very heart !" His mother hearing 
these his pitiful complaints, and seeing the tears which her son shed for 
her, began again to renew her strength in the Lord, and with tears cried 
out, " O Father of mercies, be merciful unto me a miserable sinner, 
and cover my transgressions under the righteousness of thy blessed Son. 
Lord, enable me with strength from above to stand to my first con- 
fession, and make me to abide steadfast therein even unto my last 
breath." It was not long after this change that the emissaries of 
Satan who had seduced her came in, supposing to find her in the mind 
wherein they left her : whom she no sooner espied, but with detestation 
said, "Away, Satan, get thee behind me: for henceforth thou hast 
neither part nor portion in me. I will, by the help of God, stand to my 
first confession ; and if I may not sign it with ink, I will seal it with 
my blood." And from that time this frail vessel, who for awhile relented, 
after her recovery grew stronger and stronger. A certain temporizer 



MASSACRE AT VASSY. 201 

said to Martin, " Thou silly youth, thou sayest thou knowest not what ; 
thou art too much conceited of thyself and of thy cause. Seest thou 
not all these people about thee, what thinkest thou of them ? They 
believe not as thou dost, and yet I doubt not but they shall be saved. 
But you imagine to do that which will never come to pass, though you 
pretend so much that you are in the faith, and have the scripture for 
you." The good woman hearing this, answered, " Sir, Christ Jesus our 
Lord saith, that it is the wide gate and broad way which leads to des- 
truction, and therefore many go in thereat ; but the gate is narrow 
that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Do ye then doubt 
whether we are in the straight way or no, when ye behold our sufferings? 
Would you have a better sign than this, to know whether we are in the 
right way ? Compare our doctrine with that of your priests and monks : 
we, for our parts, are determined to have but one Christ, and him cru- 
cified ; we embrace only the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. 
Are we deceived in believing that which the holy prophets and apostles 
have taught V 

Soon after Martin and his mother were bound and brought to the 
place of their martyrdom. His mother having ascended the scaffold, 
cried to Martin, " Come up, come up, my son." And as he was 
speaking to the people, she said, " Speak out, Martin, that it may 
appear to all that we do not die heretics." Martin would have made a 
confession of his faith, but he was not permitted to speak. His mother 
being bound to the stake, said in the hearing of the spectators, " We 
are Christians ; and that which we now suffer is not for murder or theft, 
but because we believe no more than that which the word of God 
teacheth us : we both rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for the 
same." The fire being kindled, the vehemency thereof did not abate 
the fervency of their zeal, but they continued constant in the faith, and 
with uplifting hands to heaven, in a holy accord said, " Lord Jesus, 
into thy hands we commend our spirits." And thus they blessedly slept 
in the Lord. 



RELATION OF THE MASSACRE AT VASSY, IN THE COUNTRY OF 
CHAMPAIGNE, IN FRANCE. 

The duke of Guise, on his arrival at Joinville, asked whether those of 
Vassy used to have sermons preached constantly by their minister? It 
was answered they had, and that they increased daily. On hearing 
this he fell into a grievous passion; and upon Saturday, the last day of 
February, 1562, that he might the more covertly execute his deter- 
mined wrath against the religious people of Vassy, he departed from 
Joinville, accompanied by the cardinal of Guise, his brother, and 
those of their train, and lodged in the village of Damartin, distant 
from Joinville about two miles and a half. 

The next day, after he had heard mass very early in the morning, 
being attended by about two hundred armed men, heleft Damartin and 
went on to Vassy. As he passed the village of Bronzeval, which is 
distant from Vassy a quarter of a mile, the bell after the usual manner 



202 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

rang for sermon. The duke hearing it, asked those he met why the 
bell rang so loud at Vassy. A person named La Montague told him it 
was for the assembling of the Hugonots; adding, that there were many 
in Bronzeval who frequented the sermons preached at Vassy; therefore, 
that the duke would do well to begin there, and first offer them violence. 
But the duke answered, " March on, march on, we shall take them 
amongst the rest of the assembly." 

There were certain soldiers and archers accompanying the duke who 
surrounded Vassy, most of them being lodged in the houses of papists. 
The Saturday before the slaughter, they were seen to make ready their 
weapons, arquebuses, and pistols ; but the protestants, not dreaming of 
a conspiracy, thought the duke would offer them no injury, being 
the king's subjects; remembering that not above two months before, 
the duke and his brethren passed near Vassy, and gave no sign of their 
displeasure. 

The duke being arrived at Vassy with his troops, they, with the duke 
La Brosse, and La Montague, passed through the city with their soldiers, 
went directly to the common-hall or market-house, and then entered 
into the monastery ; where, having called to one Dessales, the prior of 
Vassy, and another whose name was Claude le Sain, provost of Vassy, 
the duke talked a while with them, then issuing hastily out of the 
monastery attended by many of his followers. Command was given to 
such as were papists, to retire into the monastery and not be seen in the 
streets, unless they would venture the loss of their lives. The duke per- 
ceiving others of his retinue to be walking to and fro under the town- 
hall, and about the church-yard, commanded them to march on towards 
the place where the sermon was, being in a barn about a hundred 
paces from the monastery. This command was soon after put in execu- 
tion by such of the company as went on foot. He that marched fore- 
most of this rabble was La Brosse, and on the side marched the horsemen, 
after whom followed the duke with another company of his own men, 
and then those of the cardinal of Guise his brother. By this time, 
Mr. Leonard Morel, the minister, after the first prayer, had begun his 
sermon before numerous auditors, which might amount to 1200 persons, 
consisting of men, women, and children. The horsemen first approach- 
ing to the barn within about twenty-five paces, shot off two arquebuses 
right upon those who were placed in the galleries joining to the windows. 
The people within perceiving their danger, endeavoured to shut the 
door, but were prevented by the ruffians rushing in upon them, who 
drawing their swords, furiously cried out, " Death of God! kill, kill 
these Hugonots." 

The first they seized on was a crier of wine, who stood next the door, 
asking him if he were not a Hugonot, and on whom he believed. Hav- 
ing answered that he believed in Jesus Christ, they smote him twice with 
a sword, which felled him to the ground. He got up again, thinking 
to recover himself, when they struck him a third time; whereby, being 
overcharged with wounds, he fell down and died instantly. Two othei 
men, at the same time, were slain at the entry of the door, as they were 
pressing out to escape. Then the duke of Guise, with his company, 
violently entered in among them, striking the poor people down with 



iliiliiiiilil 



m 



m^. 















MASSACRE AT VASSY, HEADED BY THE DUKE OF GUISE. — PAGE 203. 



MASSACRE AT VASSY. 203 

their swords, daggers, and cutlasses, not sparing any age or sex: the 
whole assembly were so astonished, that they knew not which way to 
turn, but running hither and thither, fell one upon another, flying as 
sheep before a company of ravening wolves. Some of the murderers 
shot off their carbines against them that were in the galleries; others 
cut in pieces such as were below; some had their heads cleft in twain, 
their arms and hands cut off; so that many of them died instantly on 
the spot. The walls and galleries of the place were dyed with the blood 
of those who were every where murdered : and so great was the fury of 
the murderers, that part of the people within were forced to break open 
the roofs of the houses, in hope of saving themselves upon the top. 
Being got thither, and then fearing to fall again into the hands of these 
cruel tigers, some of them leaped over the walls of the city, which were 
very high, flying into the woods and amongst the vines, which with 
most expedition they could soonest attain ; some hurt in their arms, others 
in their heads, and other parts of their bodies. The duke presented 
himself in the house with his sword drawn, charging his soldiers to kill 
especially the young men. Pursuing those who went upon the house 
tops, they cried, " Come down, ye dogs, come down!" using many cruel 
threatening speeches to them. The cause why some women escaped was, 
as the report went, for the duchess's sake, his wife, who, passing by the 
walls of the city, and hearing hideous outcries among these poor crea- 
tures, with the noise of the carbines and pistols continually discharging, 
sent in haste to the duke her husband with much entreaty to cease his 
persecution because of the women's terror. 

During this slaughter, the cardinal of Guise remained before the 
church of the city of Vassy, leaning upon the wall of the church-yard, 
looking towards the place where his followers were busied in killing and 
slaying whom they could. Many of this assembly being thus hotly pur- 
sued, did in the first brunt save themselves upon the roof of the house, 
not being discerned by those who stood without : but at length, some of 
the bloody crew espying were they lay, shot at them with long pieces, 
wherewith many were hurt and slain. The household servants of 
Dessales, prior of Vassy, shooting at the people on the roof, one of 
that wretched company was not ashamed to boast, after the massacre 
was ended, that he for his part had caused six at least to fall dead in 
that pitiful plight, adding that if others and all had done the same he 
should have rejoiced. 

The minister, in the beginning of the massacre, ceased not to preach, 
till one discharged his piece against the pulpit where he stood, after 
which, falling upon his knees, he entreated the Lord to have mercy upon 
himself, and also upon his poor persecuted flock. Having ended his prayer, 
he left his gown behind him, thinking thereby to keep himself unknown : 
but as he approached towards the door, in his fear he stumbled upon a 
dead body, where he received a blow with a sword upon his right 
shoulder. Getting up again, and then thinking to go forth, he was 
immediately laid hold of, and grievously hurt on the head with a sword, 
whereupon being felled to the ground, and thinking himself mortally 
wounded, he cried, " Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit, for 
thou hast redeemed me, God of truth." While he thus prayed, one of 



204 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the bloody crew ran upon him, with an intent to have ham-stringed him; 
but it pleased God his sword broke in the hilt. Two gentlemen taking 
knowledge of him, said, " He is the minister, let him be conveyed to 
my lord duke." These leading him away by both the arms, brought him 
before the gate of the monastery, from whence the duke and the cardinal 
his brother, coming forth, said, " Come hither;" and asked him, saying, 
" Art thou the minister of this place? who made thee so bold to seduce 
this people thus?" " Sir," said the minister, " I am no seducer, for I 
have preached to them the gospel of Jesus Christ." The duke perceiv- 
ing that this answer condemned his cruel outrages, began to curse and 
swear, saying, " Death of God, doth the gospel preach sedition? Pro- 
vost, go and let a gibbet be set up, and hang this fellow." At which 
words the minister was delivered into the hands of two pages, who cruelly 
misused him. The women of the city, being ignorant papists, caught 
up dirt to throw in his face, and with extended outcries, said, " Kill 
him, kill this varlet, who hath been the cause of the death of so many." 
In the mean time the duke went into the barn, to whom they presented 
a great Bible, which they used for the service of God. The duke taking 
it into his hands, calling his brother, the cardinal, said, " Lo, here is 
the title of the Hugonot books." The cardinal viewing it, said, " There 
is nothing but good in this book, for it is the bible, to wit, the holy 
scriptures." The duke being offended, that his brother suited not to his 
humour, grew into a greater rage than before, saying, " Blood of God, 
how now? What ! the holy scriptures. It is one thousand five hundred 
years ago since Jesus Christ suffered his death and passion, and it is but 
a year since these books were printed, how then say you that this is the 
gospel? You say you know not what." This unbridled fury of the 
duke displeased the cardinal, so that he was heard secretly to mutter, 
" An unworthy brother!" 

This massacre continued a full hour, the duke's trumpeters sounding 
the while several times. When any of the victims desired to have mercy 
shewed them for the love of Jesus Christ, the murderers in scorn would 
say unto them, " You use the name of Christ, but where is your Christ 
now?" There died in this massacre within a few days, fifty or three- 
score persons; besides those, there were about two hundred and fifty 
men and women that were wounded and injured, whereof some died, 
one losing a leg, another an arm, another his fingers. The poor's box, 
which was fastened to the door of the church with two iron hooks, con- 
taining twelve pounds, was wrested thence, and never restored. The 
minister was closely confined, and frequently threatened to be enclosed 
in a sack and drowned. He was, however, on the 8th of May, 1563, 
liberated at the earnest suit of the prince of Portien. 

Monsieur Pierre De la Place was a gentleman whose piety equalled 
his courage : he was president of the court of requests at Paris. On 
Sunday morning, about six o'clock, captain Michael, arquebuser to the 
king, came armed to his lodging, and presenting himself before De la 
Place, said, that the duke of Guise had slain the admiral of France by 
the king's orders, with many Hugonots ; and because the rest of them, 
of whatever quality, were destined to death, he was come to his lodging 
to exempt him from the common destruction ; and that he desired to 



ACCOUNT OF M. PIERRE DE LA PLACE. 205 

have a sight of what gold and silver were in his possession. The duke 
De la Place, amazed at his audacity, who, in the presence of several 
persons in the room, durst presume to utter such language, asked him if 
he knew where he was, or whether or not he thought there was a king? 
To this the captain roughly answered, that he must go with him to 
know the king's pleasure. De la Place hearing this, began to apprehend 
some danger, and therefore slipped out at a back door, proposing to 
secret himself in a neighbour's house. Meanwhile, most of his servants 
disappeared; and the captain, having plundered his chest of a thousand 
crowns, was entreated by the lady Marets to convey her father, with the 
lord Marets her husband, into the house of some Roman catholic; which 
he consented to do, and also performed it. 

De la Place, like a deer singled out for death, being refused admit- 
tance at three several houses, returned to his own, where he found his 
wife overwhelmed with grief; but the lord De la Place, being 
strengthened by the Spirit of God, with incredible constancy and 
calmness, demonstrated to her, that we must receive afflictions from the 
hand of God; and consoled her with the promises of the gospel. He 
then commanded all his servants that remained to be called together, 
when, according to his custom on the Lord's day, he made an exhort- 
ation and offered prayer. He then discoursed upon the justice and 
mercy of God, and shewed how needful afflictions were for Christians, 
and that it was beyond the power of Satan or men to hurt or wrong 
them, without permission of the Lord. "What need have we then," he 
added, " to dread their authority, which at the most can but prevail 
over our bodies?" He then exhorted them rather to endure all kind of 
torment, yea death itself, than to speak or do any thing that might tend 
to the dishonour of God. 

While thus employed, word was brought him that Seneca, the provost- 
martial, with a band of archers, was at the door, demanding admittance 
in the king's name, saying, that he came to secure the person of the lord 
De la Place, and to preserve his house from being pillaged by the rabble. 
De la Place immediately commanded the door to be opened to him. 
Seneca, on entering, declared the great slaughter that was made upon 
the Hugonots every where in the city by the king's command; adding, 
in Latin, that he would not suffer one to live. "Yet have I express 
charge from his majesty," he said, "to see that you sustain no wrong; 
only suffer me to conduct you to the Louvre, because the king is desirous 
to be informed about the affairs of those of the religion which he hath 
now in hand." De la Place answered, that it had always been his 
greatest wish, and nothing could render him more happy, than to gain 
any opportunity by which he might give an account to his majesty of 
his behaviour and actions ; but that such horrible massacres were every 
where committed, it was impossible for him to pass to the Louvre without 
danger of his life : he therefore prayed him to assure his majesty of his 
willingness to come, but to excuse his appearance until the fury of the 
people was somewhat abated. The provost agreed to this request, and 
left with him one of his lieutenants and four of his archers. 

Soon after came president Charron, with whom the provost conferred 
a little in secret, and then left him with four more of the city archers. 



206 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The whole night following was spent in fortifying all the passages and 
windows of the house with logs and flint stones, for the defence of 
De la Place and his family. Next day Seneca returning, declared that 
he had express charge from the king to bring him to his majesty without 
delay. He replied as before, that it was dangerous as yet to pass through 
the city. But Seneca insisted, saying, "It is the common speech of 
these Hugonots, to protest that they are the king's most loyal and obe- 
dient subjects and servants; but when they are to manifest their obedience 
to his commands, then they come slowly, seeming rather to abhor and 
detest it." When De la Place apprehended danger, Seneca answered, 
that he should have a captain of Paris, well known to the people, to 
accompany him. At that moment, the captain, named Pazon, a prin- 
cipal actor in this sedition, entered and offered his service to conduct 
him to the king. De la Place refused, telling Seneca that Pazon was 
one of the most cruel and bloody-minded men in all the city; and 
therefore, seeing that he must go to the king, he entreated him to be his 
guard. Seneca answered, that having now other affairs to look unto, 
he could not conduct him above fifty paces. 

The lady of De la Place then prostrated herself at the feet of Seneca, 
beseeching him to accompany her husband to the king; but her husband, 
who never shewed any sign of a dejected spirit, came to her, and lifting 
her from the ground, told her, that it was not an arm of flesh that we 
must stoop to, but unto God only. Then turning round, he perceived 
in his son's hat a white cross, which he had placed there to delude the 
enemy. His father sharply chid him, and commanded him to pluck 
that mark of apostasy thence; telling him, that they must now submit 
to bear the true cross of Christ, namely, those afflictions and tribulations 
which it shall please God to lay upon us, as pledges of that eternal 
happiness which he hath treasured up for his servants. Being now 
pressed by Seneca to go, as he foresaw, to death, he took his cloak, and 
embracing his wife, earnestly exhorted her above all things to have the 
fear of God and his honour in precious esteem; and then boldly went 
on his way. Coming into the street where the glass-house stood, 
assassins waited his approach with their daggers in readiness, and killed 
him as an innocent lamb in the midst of Seneca's archers, who led him 
into that butchery. They then plundered his house of all they could 
find, while his body being dragged into a stable, they covered his face 
over with dung, and the next day threw him into the river. 

Peter Ramus, the king's professor in logic, a man renowned for his 
learning, was not forgotten. He had taken refuge in the college of 
priests; but being discovered, he offered a great sum of money for his 
life. Nevertheless he was massacred, and cast down from a high chamber 
window upon the ground, so that his bowels came out on the stones, 
and were afterwards trailed through the streets, while the body was 
whipped by certain scholars, instigated by the envy and malevolence of 
their tutors." 

Philip le Doux, a great jeweller, on his return from a journey, had 

u It is remarkable that in this extensive massacre not more than two ministers were 
known to have suffered. 



MASSACRE OF PRISONERS AT TROTS. 207 

retired to rest, when he heard the furies below thundering at the door, 
and commanding it to be opened to them in the king's name. Ill as his 
wife was, she ventured down and opened it to these tigers, who presently 
stabbed her husband in his bed. They also took this poor woman, half 
dead with fear, and thrust into her a dagger to the very hilt. She finding 
herself mortally wounded, ran into a corn-loft, whither they pursued 
her, stabbed her a second time, and then threw her out of a window into 
the street, to the great astonishment and confusion of the papists them- 
selves, who were constrained to confess the cruelties of their own 
agents. One of the assassins having snatched up a little child in his 
arms, the innocent babe began to play with his beard and to smile upon 
him; but instead of being moved to compassion, the barbarian struck it 
with his dagger, and threw it all in gore into the river. 

Quintin Croyer, an elder of the reformed church, seeing many of his 
companions murdered before his eyes at the massacre at Meaux, kneeled 
down and prayed God to pardon the murderers; at which they fell a 
laughing, and not being able with their daggers to pierce a jerkin of 
double buff which he wore, and which they were loth to spoil, because 
it would be worth preserving as a good booty, they cut asunder the 
points, and then gave him several stabs with a dagger in his body. 

Faron Haren, formerly sheriff of the city, a man zealously affected to 
religion, having chased the mass out of Meaux, was mortally hated by 
the papists. They were, in consequence, not contented simply to kill 
him, without first cutting off his nose, ears, and other members, and 
giving him thrusts in divers parts of his body, driving him to and fro 
among them. Being weakened, and not able any longer to hold out, 
from loss of blood issuing from all parts of his body, he fell dead upon 
the ground. 

PERSECUTION OF THE FAITHFUL AT TROTS, TN CHAMPAIGNE. 

When" news arrived at Trois of the massacre at Paris, the greater 
part of the judges and officers of the king went to the bailiff, and com- 
manded a diligent search for protestants, and to imprison all they could 
find. 

In the city was a merchant, named Peter Belin, a man of turbulent 
temper. This man was at the massacre in Paris on St. Bartholomew's 
day, and was dispatched thence with letters from the king, dated the 
28th of August, to the mayor and sheriffs of Trois, to cause all perse- 
cutions to cease, and the prisoners to be set at liberty. He did not, 
however, arrive till the 3rd of September; and on entering Trois, pro- 
ceeded to the house of the bailiff, a man of the same stamp as himself. 
They agreed, before they published the letters, to murder all the Hugo- 
nots who were in prison ; and to make it appear that this act was 
sanctioned by authority, they requested the assistance of the city execu- 
tioner, whose name was Charles. More just and humane than they, he 
peremptorily refused to have any hand in an act of cruelty; answering, 
that it was contrary to his office to execute any man before sentence of 
death had first been pronounced by the magistrates ; and that he would 
not presume without a warrant to deprive any man of life : with these 



208 HTSTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

words he left them. Upon this, the bailiff sent for one of the gaolers 
of the prison, but he being confined by sickness, Martin de Bures was 
sent to know his pleasure. The bailiff told him what Belin had signified 
to him in private ; as also, that on a sudden all the prisoners of the 
religion must die, that the place might be purged of them; " and this," 
he added, " you must do." 

De Bures, however, made no haste to execute the command, acquainted 
no man with aught that passed between the bailiff and him ; not even 
Perennet the keeper, then sick in bed. The day following the bailiff 
came to the prison, and calling for Perennet, who was then recovered, 
asked him, with a smile, " Whether it was done?" "What?" said 
Perennet, knowing nothing of it. " Why," said the bailiff, " are not 
the prisoners dispatched ?" and was ready with his dagger to have stabbed 
him. But coming a little to himself, he told Perennet his purpose, 
and how he was to behave himself concerning the execution. At 
this, Perennet, standing amazed, (though otherwise forward enough to 
commit any outrages against the protestants) certified to the bailiff, that 
such an inhuman act could not be committed to him, apprehending that 
in time to come justice might rise up against him from the parents or 
friends of the prisoners. "No, no," said the bailiff, "fear not, I will 
stand between you and all harm. Others of the justices have consented 
besides myself, and would you have better security than that ?" 

In a short time after, the gaoler, coming into the yard of the prison 
where the prisoners were abroad recreating themselves, ordered each to 
his cabin, because the bailiff was coming to see whether the keepers had 
done their duty. Then began these poor sheep to fear they were destined 
to the slaughter, and therefore went presently to prayers. Perennet 
now called his companions about him, reported to them what the bailiff 
had given him in charge, on which they all took an oath to execute 
the same ; but approaching near to the prisoners they were so surprised 
with fear, and their hearts so failed them, that they stood gazing upon 
one another, having no courage to perform such a deed of blood : they 
therefore returned to the lodge without executing their commission. 
This repugnance, however, was of short duration ; for instead of 
considering it as a warning from above, they sent for wine, to drown 
every spark of conscience. Becoming drunk, they drew a list of the 
prisoners, which they delivered to one who was to call them forth in 
order. 

The first that came forth was Meurs, who was no sooner before them than 
one of them thrust at him with the point of his halberd, repeating the 
stroke often with intent to kill him ; on which the poor man took hold of 
the weapon and pointing it himself to his heart, cried to the murderer, 
" Here, soldier, here, right at the heart, right at the heart!" and was 
instantly slain. The rest met a similar fate ; and when the massacre was 
ended the murderers made a great pit on the back side of the chapel of the 
prison, wherein they cast the bodies, some of them yet breathing. One 
called Maufere, lying in the midst of them, being observed to raise 
himself above his fellow-martyrs, they poured earth upon him until 
they had stifled him. The blood ran in such abundance out of the 
prison door, and thence through a channel into a river, that the whole 
stream was deeply dyed. 



MASSACRE OF THE FAITHFUL AT TROTS. 209 

The following day, the sanguinary bailiff of Trois caused the king's 
letters to be published in all corners of the city with sound of trumpet. 

Dechampeaux, lord of Bonilli, a counsellor of Orleans, was murder- 
ed in the following manner. One called Texier came with a small 
troop to his house, inviting himself and company to supper with him. 
Dechampeaux bid them kindly welcome, being ignorant of what had 
happened at Paris. But supper being ended, Texier bade him deliver 
his purse, at which Dechampeaux laughed, thinking he was in jest. 
But the cruel guest, with blasphemous oaths, told him in a few words 
what had happened in the city of Paris, and what preparations there 
were among the Roman Catholics of Orleans to root out the protestants 
there. Dechampeaux finding it in vain to contest with him, gave him 
money ; when, to requite the courtesy and good entertainment he had 
received, Texier embrued his hand in the blood of his virtuous neighbour, 
a man of as upright a character as was in all the city. It is needless to 
add that the troop pillaged the house. 

On the 26th of August following, the miscreants began the execution 
about the ramparts in a violent manner. All night was heard nothing 
but shooting off guns and pistols, forcing open doors and windows, 
fearful outcries of the massacred, of men, women, and little children, 
trampling of horses, and rumbling of carts hurrying off dead bodies to 
and fro; the street resounding with exclamations of protestants blended 
with horrible blasphemies of their murderers, laughing at their barbarous 
exploits. 

On Wednesday the massacre began more fiercely, and so continued 
to the end of the week. " Where is now your God V* cried the mur- 
derers. "What is become of all your prayers and psalms now? Let 
your God, whom you call upon, save you if he can." Yea, some of 
them, who had been professors of the same religion, whilst they were 
massacreing the poor innocents, sung to them in scorn the beginning 
of the 43rd psalm : " Judge me, O God, and plead my cause." Others, 
striking them, said, " Sing now, ' Have mercy on me, O God/ " But 
these execrable outrages by no means damped the courage of the Chris- 
tians, who died steadfast in the faith. The murderers boasted that in 
this city they caused eighteen thousand men to perish, a hundred and 
fifty women, with a great number of children of nine years old and 
upwards. The manner of their death was, first to shoot them with 
pistols, then to strip them, and either sink their bodies in the river, or 
bury them in pits. 

At night several of this bloody crew knocked at the door of a doctor 
of the civil law, called Taillebous; who, opening a casement and under- 
standing that they had somewhat to say to him, came down immediately 
and opened the door to them. At the first greeting they told him he 
must die; — whereupon he uttered a prayer to heaven with such zeal 
and affection that the assassins being astonished and restrained by a 
secret power, contented themselves with taking his purse, in which were 
fifteen crowns, and left him to live some short season. The day following, 
several students resorted to his lodging requesting to see his library, 
into which having brought them, one asked this book of him, and 
another that, which he gave them. At length they told him they were 

p 



210 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

not as yet satisfied, their purpose being to kill him. Prostrating him- 
self on the ground, and having ended his prayer, he desired them to kill 
him there ; but they forced him out of his own house from one place to 
another, and at length gave him a violent and fatal blow. 

A rich burgess of the city, called Nicholas Bougars Sieur de Nove, 
a man of singular worth and highly esteemed, was at that time danger- 
ously ill. Some of the murderers came into his chamber with a purpose 
to kill him ; but seeing him in that case, spared him : yet, finding there 
Noel Chaperon, an apothecary, they cut off one of his arms, then drew 
him into the market-place, where they made sport and butchery of his 
mangled form. The next day an acquaintance came to the lodgings of 
Bougars, and as he was entering in he met his mother at the door. He 
then proceeded into the chamber, bearing the dead body of her son, 
and stabbing it as he passed along. The wretch then silently wiped his 
dagger, and, having left the mangled carcass of his innocent victim in 
the room, coolly walked out for further atrocities/ 

Francis Stample, a rich merchant, was threatened to have his throat 
cut if he refused the murderers money ; but having none about him, he 
wrote to his wife to send him his ransom : he had no sooner sealed the 
letter, but the monsters deprived him of both that and his life, laughing 
at what they had done. And though they extorted from his widow a 
considerable sum of money, yet could she not obtain from them the body 
of her husband. 

Among those that confessed the name of Jesus Christ, Francis le 
Bossu, a merchant, with his two sons, well deserve our notice ; for whilst 
he trampled in the blood of his brethren, he encouraged his children to 
take their death willingly and patiently, using this speech : " Children, 
we are not to learn now, that it hath always been the portion of believers 
to be hated, cruelly used, and devoured by unbelievers, as Christ's silly 
sheep of ravening wolves. If we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign 
with him. Let not those drawn swords terrify us, which only serve to 
cut that thread which ties us to a miserable life, and let loose the soul 
into endless felicity. We have resided long enough among the wicked, 
let us now go and live with our God ; let us joyfully march after this great 
company which is gone before us, and let us make way for them that shall 
follow after." When he saw the murderers come, he clasped his sons 
in his arms, and they likewise embraced their father ; as if the father 
meant to be a buckler to his children, and as if the children, by the bond 
of nature, meant to ward off the blows which were coming upon their 
father, though with the loss of their own lives : thus embracing, all were 
soon numbered with the dead. 

At the conclusion of this furious assault, the monster perpetrators 
went up and down the city, displaying their white doublets sprinkled 
with blood ; some boasting that they had killed a hundred, some more, 
some less. The people of Dauphine, of Languedoc, and Provence, 
were amazed to see so many bodies floating upon the water, some dis- 

v This barbarous deed reminds us of the enormities practised by some of the Irish Roman, 
Catholics in their massacre of the English Protestants in the reign of Charles I., when 
every social tie was banished from their remorseless hearts, and the oldest friends were 
murdered by the hands they had so often pressed in amity and brotherhood. 



PERSECUTIONS IN FRANCE. 211 

membered, others fastened together with long poles, others lying on the 
shore, some having their eyes put out, others their noses ears and hands 
cut off, stabbed with daggers in every part of their body, some among 
them having no shape remaining. 

Not many months after, when these tragedies were ended, the pope 
sent cardinal Uursin as legate to the king, who was received with great 
solemnity at Lyons. On his return from St. John's church, where he 
had been to hear mass, a great number of persons presented themselves 
before him at the door, and kneeled down for his absolution. But the 
legate not knowing the reason of it, one of the leaders told him they 
were those who had been the actors in the massacre. On which, the 
cardinal immediately absolved them all by making the sign of the cross. 

As soon as the massacre commenced at Paris, a gentleman, named 
Monsoreau, obtained a passport with letters to murder the protestants 
of Angiers. Being disappointed of his prey in one place, he came to 
the lodging of a reverend and learned minister, Mr. John Mason, sur- 
named de Launay, sieur of Riviere. Meeting his wife at the entrance 
of the house, he saluted and kissed her, as is the manner in France, 
especially among the courtiers, and asked her " where her husband 
was V She answered that he was walking in his garden, and directed 
him to the spot. 

Monsoreau having lovingly embraced la Riviere, said unto him, "Do 
you know wherefore I am come ? The king hath commanded me to kill 
you forthwith, and hath given me express charge to do it, as you shall 
see by his letters." The wretch then shewed him a pistol ready charged. 
Riviere replied, " I know not wherein I have offended the king; but 
seeing you seek my life, give me a little time to recommend my spirit 
into the hands of God." Having made a short prayer, he presented his 
body to the murderer, who shot him immediately. The minister's wife 
was soon after drowned, with nine others. Six thousand were also mur- 
dered at Rouen in the same deliberate and treacherous manner. 

The king of France proposed three things to the prince of Conde : 
w Either to go to mass, to death, or else perpetual imprisonment; and 
therefore weigh well with yourself which you like best." The prince 
answered, " By God's grace I will never choose the first; as for the 
latter, I refer myself to the king's pleasure." 

About three hundred were barbarously murdered at Toulouse. After 
taking all their goods, their enemies stripped them naked, exposed them 
to public view for two days, and then threw them in heaps into great 
pits. There were certain counsellors, who, after they were massacred, 
were hung up in their long gowns upon a great elm in the court of the 
palace. The massacre at Bourdeaux was begun and carried on much 
in the same manner. Many of the ministers found means to escape, 
hiding themselves in the rocks and marshes, till they had an opportunity 
to take shipping for England. The house of a counsellor in parliament 
was forced open, pillaged, and spoiled. His clerk seeing his master 
about to suffer a cruel death, embraced and comforted him, and being 
asked whether he were of the same religion, he answered, "Yea, and 
would die with my master for the same." They were then slain in one 
another's arms. Du Tour, a deacon of the reformed church, an old 



212 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



man, who in the days of his ignorance had been a priest in the popish 
church, being sick in bed, was dragged into the open street, and was 
asked whether he would go to mass, and thereby save his life? He 
freely answered, " No, particularly as I am now drawing so near my 
end, both from age and sickness. I hope I shall not so far forget the 
eternal salvation of my soul, as through fear of death to prolong this 
life for a few days; for thus I should buy a short term of life at too 
dear a rate." On this they slew him instantly. 

The poor protestants wandered up and down, not knowing where to 
save their lives : some were rejected of their own parents and relations, 
who shut their doors against them, pretending that they knew them not ; 
others were betrayed and delivered up by those to whose trust they had 
committed themselves : many were saved even by priests and others, 
from whom they would have expected no security. Some were saved 
by their very enemies, whose hearts relented at such detestable outrages. 
All the city was full of terror and horrible threats against them, saying, 
that the king's commandment was, that he would not have so much as 
one of them left in his kingdom; and if any one refused to go to mass, 
that a hole should be digged for him in the earth, in which he should 
be buried alive. 

The judgment of God was manifested upon one of these inhuman 
murderers called Vincent: he fell dangerously sick, but in the end re- 
covering again, as he thought, told some of his friends that he felt his 
arms strong enough to handle his cutlass as well as ever. Shortly after 
he was overtaken by the hand of God, with such a flow of blood from 
his nose, as could not be restrained nor diverted by any of the remedies 
that were then used. It was a hideous sight to see him bowing his head 
over a bason full of blood, which, without ceasing, poured forth from 
his nose and mouth till he could bleed and breathe no longer. Another 
was taken with such swelling in all the parts of his body that there was 
scarcely to be discerned in him the form of a man, and thus he con- 
tinued till at length he burst asunder, and like a more ancient and 
royal persecutor, his entrails gushed out, and he perished a spectre of 
misery. 

Thus, during the extreme afflictions of the reformed churches in many 
parts of France, there were within a few weeks nearly 30,000 put to 
death; leaving whole cities and almost whole provinces depopulated. 



ACCOUNT OF SANCERRE DURING THE SIEGE. 

Sancerre, in the year 1573, was a place where the faithful fled for 
refuge. It was soon encompassed with inveterate enemies. The want 
of provisions was soon felt by the inhabitants, on which they collected 
together all the asses and mules they had in the city ; but these were 
eaten up in less than a month. They then killed the horses and dogs; 
and after these were exhausted they seized the cats, moles, mice, and 
what other animals and vermin they could find. These being eaten they 
fed on ox and cow-hides, sheep-skins, parchment, old shoes, horse-hoofs, 
horns, ropes, and leather girdles. Towards the end of June a third part 



SIEGE OF SANCERRE. 213 

of the besieged had no bread to eat. Such as could get hemp seed 
ground it or bruised it in mortars, and made bread of it : they did the 
same with all sorts of herbs, mingling them with bran. They also eat 
meal of chaff, nut-shells, excrements of horses and men; and even the 
offal which lay in the streets. 

The 29th of July a poor man and his wife were executed for having 
eaten parts of a child three years old, which had died of hunger; 
having prepared other parts to eat at another meal. An old woman 
who lodged in the house having eaten part of this mournful diet, died 
in prison within a few hours after. All children under twelve years of 
age unable to bear the famine, died. It was lamentable to hear the 
pitiful groans uttered by poor parents, on beholding their languishing 
and dying infants. A boy ten years old being ready to yield up the 
ghost, seeing his father and mother weeping over him, said unto them, 
"Wherefore weep ye thus in seeing me famished to death, mother? I 
ask you not for bread, I know you have none; but seeing it is God's 
will I must die this death, let us be thankful for it. Did not the holy 
man Lazarus die of famine — have I not read it in my bible ?" In utter- 
ing these with similar speeches, he expired the 30th of July. 

That all the people died not of famine was by reason of some horses 
which were reserved for service, if needs should be, and six cows, which 
were left to give milk for the sustenance of young infants. These 
beasts were killed, and their flesh sold for the relief of such as were 
living, with a little corn, which by stealth some friends brought into the 
city. A pound of wheat was sold for half-a-crown. Not more than 
eighty-four persons died by the hand of the enemy, but of the famine 
more than five hundred perished. Many soldiers, in order to avoid the 
lingering death of hunger/ r fled from the city, and chose rather to die 
by the sword of the enemy; whereof some were mortally maimed, others 
imprisoned, and the rest put to death. Every hope, in fact, seemed cut 
off from the city, and death appeared both within and without the walls ; 
and so far was the king of France from relenting at the hapless state 
of this wretched people, that, enraged at their courage, he swore that if 
sustained they should eat up one another. But the King of kings 
ordained it otherwise; for the election of the duke of Anjou to the 
throne of Poland caused a general pacification, and the protestants 
once more enjoyed liberty of conscience and freedom from persecution. 



214 



BOOK VI. 

CONTAINING FARTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN VARIOUS PARTS. 

SECTION I. 

ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN BOHEMIA AND GERMANY 
UNDER THE PAPACY. 

The severity exercised by the Roman catholics over the churches of 
the Bohemians, induced them to send two ministers and four laymen to 
Rome, in the year 977, to seek relief from the pope. After some de- 
lay their request was granted and their grievances redressed. Two 
things in particular were permitted them, viz. to have divine service 
in their own language, and to give the cup in the sacrament to the 
laity. The disputes, however, soon broke out again, the succeeding 
popes exerting all their power to fetter their prejudices on the minds 
of the Bohemians ; and the latter with great spirit aiming to preserve 
their religious liberties. Some friends, zealous of the gospel, applied to 
Charles, king of Bohemia, A. D. 1375, to call a council for enquiry 
respecting the abuses which had crept into the church, and to make a 
thorough reformation. Charles, at a loss how to proceed, sent to the 
pope for advice; the latter incensed at the affair, only replied, " Punish 
severely those presumptuous and profane heretics." The king accord- 
ingly banished every one who had been concerned in the application, 
and to shew his zeal for the pope, imposed additional restraints on the 
religious liberties of the country. 

The martyrdom of John Huss and Jerom of Prague — two great men 
brought to the light of the truth by reading the doctrines of our coun- 
tryman, John Wickliffe, who, like the morning star of the reformation, 
first burst from the dark night of popish error, and illuminated the 
surrounding world — greatly increased the indignation of the believers, 
and gave animation to their cause. These two distinguished reformers 
were condemned by order of the council of Constance, when fifty-eight 
of the principal Bohemian nobility interposed in their favour. Never- 
theless they were burnt ; and the pope, in conjunction with the council 
of Constance, ordered the Romish clergy, every where, to excommu- 
nicate all who adopted their opinions or pitied their fate. In consequence 
of these orders great contentions arose between the papists and reformed 
Bohemians, which produced a violent persecution against the latter. 
At Prague it was extremely severe, till at length the reformed, driven to 
desperation, armed themselves, attacked the senate-house, and cast 
twelve of its members with the speaker out of the windows. The pope 
hearing of this, came to Florence, and publicly excommunicated the 
reformed Bohemians, exciting the emperor of Germany, and all other 
kings, princes, dukes, &c. to take up arms in order to extirpate the 
whole race; promising, by way of encouragement, full remission of all 
sins to every one who should kill a Bohemian protestant. The result 



PERSECUTIONS IN BOHEMIA. 215 

of this was a bloody war ; for several popish princes undertook the 
extirpation, or at least expulsion, of the proscribed people: while the 
Bohemians, arming themselves, prepared to repel the assault in the most 
vigorous manner. The popish army prevailing against the protestant 
forces at the battle of Cuttenburgh, they conveyed their prisoners to 
three deep mines near that town, and threw several hundred into each, 
where they perished in a miserable manner. 

A bigoted popish magistrate, named Pichel, seized twenty-four protes- 
tants, among whom was his daughter's husband. On their all confessing 
themselves of the reformed religion, he sentenced them to be drowned 
in the river Abbis. On the day of the execution a great concourse of 
people attended, among whom was Pichel's daughter. Seeing her 
husband prepared for death, she threw herself at her father's feet, be- 
dewed them with tears, and implored him to commiserate her sorrow, 
and pardon her husband. The obdurate magistrate sternly replied, 
"Intercede not for him, child; he is a heretic, a vile heretic." To 
which she nobly answered, " Whatever his faults may be, or however 
his opinions may differ from yours, he is still my husband, a name 
which, at a time like this, should alone employ my whole considera- 
tion." Pichel flew into a violent passion, and said, "You are mad! 
cannot you, after his death, have a much worthier husband ? " "No, 
Sir," she replied, " my affections are fixed upon him, and death itself 
shall not dissolve my marriage vow." Pichel, however, continued in- 
flexible, and ordered the prisoners to be tied with their hands and feet 
behind them, and in that manner thrown into the river. This being 
put into execution, the young lady watched the opportunity, leaped 
into the waves, and embracing the body of her husband, both sunk 
together. 

The emperor Ferdinand, whose hatred to the protestants was un- 
limited, not thinking he had sufficiently oppressed them, instituted a 
high court of judges, upon the plan of the inquisition, with this dif- 
ference, that the new court was to remove from place to place, and 
always to be attended by a body of troops. The greater part of this 
court consisted of Jesuits, from whose decisions there was no appeal. 
This bloody tribunal, attended by its ferocious guard, made the tour of 
Bohemia, and seldom examined or saw a prisoner; but suffered the 
soldiers to murder the protestants as they pleased, and then to make 
report of the matter in their own manner and time. 

The first who fell a victim to their barbarity was an aged minister, 
whom they killed as he lay sick in bed. Next day, they robbed and 
murdered another, and soon after shot a third while preaching in his 
pulpit. The soldiers abused the daughter of a protestant before his 
face, and then tortured her father to death. They tied a minister and 
his wife back to back and burnt them. Another minister they hung 
upon a cross beam, and making a fire under him, broiled him to death. 
One gentleman they hacked into small pieces; and filled a young 
man's mouth with gunpowder, and setting fire to it, blew his head to 
atoms. But their principal rage was directed against the clergy. They 
seized a pious protestant minister, whom they tormented daily for a 
month. They placed him amidst them, derided and mocked him. 



216 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

They hunted him like a wild beast, till ready to expire with fatigue, 
they made him run the gantlet, each striking him with a twig, their 
fists, or with ropes. They scourged him with wires; they tied him up 
by the heels till the blood started out of his nose and mouth ; they 
hung him up by the arms till they were dislocated, and then had them 
set again. Burning papers, dipped in oil, were placed to his feet; his 
flesh was torn with red-hot pincers; he was put to the rack, and 
mangled by every cruel device. Even boiling lead was poured upon 
his feet; and, lastly, a knotted cord was twisted about his forehead in 
such a manner as to force out his eyes. In the midst of these enor- 
mities, particular care was taken lest his wounds should mortify, and 
his sufferings be shortened; till the last day, when forcing out his eyes 
proved fatal. 

At length, winter being far advanced, the high court of judges, with 
their military ruffians, thought proper to return to Prague; but on 
their way meeting with a protestant pastor, they could not resist the 
temptation of feasting their barbarous eyes with a new kind of cruelty. 
It was to strip him naked, and to cover him alternately with ice and 
burning coals. This novel mode of tormenting a fellow-creature was 
immediately put in practice, and the unhappy victim expired beneath 
the torments, which seemed to delight his inhuman persecutors. Some 
time after a secret order was issued by the emperor, for apprehending 
all noblemen and gentlemen who had been principally concerned in 
supporting the protestant cause, and in nominating Frederic, elector 
Palatine of the Rhine, to be king of Bohemia. Fifty of these were seized 
in one night, and brought to the castle of Prague ; while the estates of 
those who were absent were confiscated, themselves made outlaws, and 
their names fixed upon a gallows as a mark of public ignominy. The 
court afterwards proceeded to try those who had been apprehended, 
and two apostate protestants were appointed to examine them. Their 
examiners asked many unnecessary and impertinent questions, which so 
exasperated one of the noblemen, that he exclaimed, opening his breast 
at the same time, " Cut here; search my heart ; you shall find nothing 
but the love of religion and liberty : these were the motives for which I 
drew my sword, and for these I am willing to die." 

As none of the prisoners would renounce their faith, or acknowledge 
themselves in an error, they were all pronounced guilty : the sentence 
was, however, referred to the emperor. When that monarch had read 
their names, and the accusations against them, he passed judgment on 
all, but in a different manner ; his sentences being of four kinds, viz. 
death, banishment, imprisonment for life, and imprisonment during 
pleasure. Twenty being ordered for execution, were informed they 
might send for Jesuits, monks, or friars, to prepare for their awful change, 
but that no communication with protestants would be permitted them. 
This proposal they rejected, and strove all they could to comfort and 
cheer each other upon the solemn occasion. The morning of the exe- 
cution being arrived, a cannon was fired as a signal to bring the prisoners 
from the castle to the principal market-place, in which scaffolds were 
erected, and a body of troops drawn up to attend. The prisoners left 
the castle, and passed with dignity, composure, and cheerfulness, through 



MARTYRDOM OF SEVERAL NOBLEMEN. 217 

soldiers, Jesuits, priests, executioners, attendants, and a prodigious con- 
course of people assembled to see the exit of these devoted martyrs. 
They were executed in the following order : 

I. Lord Schilik,a nobleman about the age of fifty. He possessed 
great abilities, natural and acquired. On being told that he was to be 
quartered, and his parts scattered in different places, he smiled with 
great serenity, and said, " The loss of a sepulchre is but a trifling con- 
sideration." A friend stood by, crying, "Courage, my lord." He 
replied, " I possess the favour of God, which is sufficient to inspire any 
one with courage : the fear of death does not trouble me. I have faced 
him in fields of battle to oppose Antichrist." After repeating a short 
prayer, he told the executioner he was ready, who cut off his right hand 
and head, and then quartered him. His hand and head were placed 
upon the high tower of Prague, and his quarters distributed in different 
parts of the city. 

II. Lord Viscount Winceslaus,avenerable nobleman, exalted by his piety, 
who had attained the age of seventy, and was esteemed equally for his 
learning and hospitality. He was so little affected by the loss of worldly 
riches, that on his house being broken into, his property seized, and his 
estates confiscated, he only said with great composure, " The Lord hath 
given, and the Lord hath taken away." Being asked why he could 
engage in a cause so dangerous as that of attempting to support the 
elector palatine Frederic against the power of the emperor, he replied, 
" I acted according to the dictates of my conscience, and, to this day, 
acknowledge him my king. I am now full of years, and wish to lay 
down my life, that I may not be witness of the evils which await my 
country. You have long thirsted for my blood : take it, and God will 
be my avenger." He then approached the block, stroked his grey 
beard, and said, " Venerable hairs, the greater honour now attends you; 
a crown of martyrdom is your portion." Then laying down his head, 
it was severed from his body, and afterwards placed upon a pole in a 
conspicuous part of the town. 

III. Lord Harant was a gentleman whose natural abilities were much 
refined and improved by travelling, having visited the principal places 
in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The accusations against him were, his 
being a protestant, and having taken an oath of allegiance to Frederic, 
the elector palatine of the Rhine, as king of Bohemia. When he as- 
cended the scaffold, he said, " I have travelled through many countries, 
and traversed many barbarous nations, yet have I never found so much 
cruelty as at home. I have escaped innumerable perils both by sea and 
land, and have surmounted all to suffer innocently in my native place. 
My blood is likewise sought by those for whom I and my ancestors have 
hazarded our lives and fortunes; but, almighty God ! forgive them, for 
they know not what they do." Then approaching the block, he kneeled 
down and exclaimed with great energy, " Into thy hands, O Lord, I 
commend my spirit; in thee have I always trusted; receive me, there- 
fore, my blessed Redeemer." The fatal stroke was soon given. 



218 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

IV. Lord Frederic De Bile suffered as a protestant, and an instigator 
of the war : he met his fate with firmness, and only said, he wished well 
to the friends whom he left behind, forgave his enemies, denied the 
authority of the emperor in that country, acknowledged Frederic to be 
the only true king of Bohemia, and trusted for salvation in the merits 
of his Redeemer. 

V. Lord Henry Otto on first coming upon the scaffold seemed greatly 
agitated, and said, as if addressing himself to the emperor, "Thou 
tyrant Ferdinand, thy throne is established in blood ; but if you kill my 
body, and disperse my members, they shall still rise up in judgment 
against you/' He was then silent ; and having walked about awhile, 
recovered his fortitude, and growing calm, said to a gentleman, " A few 
minutes I was greatly discomposed, but now I feel my spirits revive ; 
God be praised, death no longer appears as the king of terrors, but 
seems to invite me to participate of some unknown joys." Then kneel- 
ing before the block, he said, " Almighty God ! to thee I commend my 
soul, receive it for the sake of Christ, and admit it to the glory of thy 
presence." The pains of his death must have been severe, the execu- 
tioner making several strokes before his head was separated from his 
body. 

VI. The earl of Rugenia was distinguished for his great accomplish- 
ments and unaffected piety. On the scaffold he said, " We who drew 
our swords fought only to preserve the liberties of the people, and to 
keep our consciences sacred. As we were overcome, however, I am 
better pleased at the sentence of death than if the emperor had given 
me life; for I find that it pleases God to have his truth defended, not 
by our swords, but by our blood." He then went boldly on the block, 
saying, " I shall now soon be with Christ," and was almost instantly 
launched upon the ocean of eternity and glory. 

VII. Sir Gasper Kaplitz was a nobleman eighty-six years of age. 
On coming to the place of execution, he addressed the principal officer 
thus: " Behold an unworthy and ancient man, who hath often entreated 
God to take him out of this wicked world, but could not till now obtain 
his desire; for God reserved me till these years to be a spectacle to the 
world, and a sacrifice to himself: therefore God's will be done." An 
officer told him, that in consideration of his great age, if he would 
only ask pardon, he would immediately receive it. " Ask pardon !" 
exclaimed he, " I will ask pardon of God whom I have frequently 
offended, but not of the emperor whom I never injured. Should I sue 
for pardon, it might be justly suspected I had committed some crime for 
which I deserved this fate. No, no ; as I die innocent, and with a clear 
conscience, I would not be separated from these noble companions who 
have preceded me to heaven : so saying, he cheerfully resigned Jiis neck 
to the block. 

VIII. Procopius Dorzecki said on the scaffold, " We are now under 
the emperor's judgment; but in time he shall be judged, and we shall 



MARTYRDOM OF SEVERAL EMINENT GENTLEMEN. 219 

appear as witnesses against him." Then taking a gold medal from his 
neck, which was struck when the elector Frederic was crowned king, 
he presented it to one of the officers with these words — " As a dying 
man I request, that if ever king Frederic be restored to the throne of 
Bohemia, you will give him this medal. Tell him, for his sake I wore 
it till death, and that now I willingly lay down my life for God and my 
king." He then cheerfully submitted to the fatal blow. 

IX. Dionysius Zervius was a gentleman fifty-six years of age, and 
had been educated as a Roman Catholic ; but had embraced the reformed 
religion for some years. Just before his death the Jesuits used their 
utmost endeavours to make him recant and return to his former faith, 
but he gave not the least heed to their exhortations. Kneeling down, 
he said, "They may destroy my body, but cannot injure my soul; that 
I commend to my Redeemer." 

X. Valentine Cockan was a gentleman of great fortune, and eminent 
for piety and uprightness. His talents and acquirements were of an 
inferior order; yet his imagination seemed to brighten, and his faculties 
to improve on death's approach; and just before he was beheaded, he 
expressed himself with such eloquence, energy and precision, as amazed 
his hearers. This is one of innumerable instances in which unusual 
wisdom follows the acquisition of eminent piety. 

XI. Tobias Steffick was remarkable for his affability, and upon the 
approach of death displayed the greatest serenity. A few minutes 
before he died, he said, " I have received, during the course of my life, 
many favours from God; ought I not therefore cheerfully to take one 
bitter cup, when he thinks proper to present it? or rather, ought I not 
to rejoice that it is his will I should give up a corrupted life for that of 
immortality?" 

XII. Dr. Jessenius, a learned student of physic, who had been accused 
of speaking disrespectful words of the emperor, of treason in swearing 
allegiance to the elector Frederic, and of heresy in being a protestant. 
For the first accusation he had his tongue cut out; for the second he 
was beheaded; and for the third and last he was quartered, and the 
several parts of his body exposed on poles. 

XIII. Christopher Chober no sooner stepped upon the scaffold, than 
he said, " I come in the name of God to die for his glory. [ have fought 
the good fight, and finished my course; so, executioner, do your office." 
On this he instantly received the crown of martyrdom. 

XIV. John Shultis was by all who knew him beloved in life, and 
regretteo^at his death. The only words he spoke before his martyrdom 
were, ".The righteous seem to die in the eyes of fools, but they only go 
to rest. Lord Jesus! thou hast promised that those who come to thee 
shall not be cast out. Behold, I am come; look on me, pity me, par- 
don my sins, and receive my soul." 



220 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

XV. Maximilian Hostialick was celebrated for his learning, piety, 
and humanity. When he first came on the scaffold he seemed terrified 
at the approach of death. Soon after he said, " Christ will wash me 
from my crimes." He then told the officer he should repeat the song of 
Simeon ; at the conclusion of which the executioner might do his duty. 
He accordingly said, " Lord! now let thy servant depart in peace, ac- 
cording to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation:" at which 
words his head, at one blow, was severed from his body, 

XVI. John Kutnaur, not having been born independent, but having 
acquired a fortune by a mechanical employment, was ordered to be 
hanged. Just before he was turned off he said, " I die, not for having 
committed any crime, but for following the dictates of my conscience, 
and defending my country and religion." 

XVII. Simeon Sussickey was father-in-law to Kutnaur, and was 
ordered to be executed in the same manner. He appeared impatient to 
be gone, saying, " Every moment delays me from entering into the 
kingdom of Christ." 

XVIII. Nathaniel Wodnianskey, a gentleman, was hanged for having 
supported the protestant cause, and the election of Frederic to the 
Bohemian throne. At the gallows the Jesuits used all their persuasions 
to make him renounce his faith. Finding their attempts unavailing, 
one of them said, " If you will not abjure your heresy, at least repent 
of your rebellion." To which Wodnianskey replied, " You take away 
our lives under a pretended charge of rebellion; and, not content with 
that, seek to destroy our souls : glut yourselves with blood and be 
satisfied, but tamper not with our consciences." His son then ap- 
proached the gallows, and said, " Sir, if life should be offered to you 
on condition of apostasy, I entreat you to remember Christ." To this 
the father replied, " It is very acceptable, my son, to be exhorted to con- 
stancy by you, but suspect me not; rather endeavour to confirm in their 
faith your brothers, sisters, and children, and teach them to imitate my 
constancy." He had no sooner concluded these words than he received 
his fate with great fortitude. 

XIX. Wenceslaus Gisbitzkey, throughout his imprisonment, had great 
hopes given him, from which his friends became very apprehensive for 
the safety of his soul. He, however, continued stedfast in his faith, 
prayed fervently at the gallows, and met his end like a christian hero. 

XX. Martin Foster was an unfortunate cripple; the chief accusations 
against him were his being charitable to heretics, and his advancing 
money to the elector Frederic. It is supposed, however, that his great 
wealth was the principal cause of his death; as it no doubt was the 
ground on which many of the preceding gentlemen and noblemen were 
cruelly slain. 



221 



SECTION II. 

THE LIFE, SUFFERINGS, AND MARTYRDOM OF JOHN HUSS, WHO 
WAS BURNT AT CONSTANCE IN GERMANY. 

John Huss was a Bohemian, born in the village of Hussenitz about 
the year 1380. His parents gave him the best education they could 
bestow, and having acquired a tolerable knowledge of the classics at a 
private school, he was sent thence to the university of Prague, where 
the powers of his mind and his diligence in study soon rendered him 
conspicuous. In 1408 he commenced bachelor of divinity, and was 
after successively chosen pastor of the church of Bethlehem, in Prague, 
and dean, and rector of the university. These stations he discharged 
with great fidelity, and became at length so conspicuous for his preaching 
and the boldness of his truths, that he soon attracted the notice and 
excited the malignity of the pope and his creatures. The incident 
which most provoked the indignation of Huss was a papal bull, which 
offered remission of sin to all who would join the army of the pope 
in his contest with the king of Naples, who had invaded the holy see, 
and threatened destruction to the papal dominion. 

The English reformer, WicklifFe, had so kindled the light of refor- 
mation, that it began to illume the darkest corners of popery and 
ignorance. His doctrines were received in Bohemia with avidity and 
zeal by great numbers of people; but by none so zealously as John 
Huss, and his friend and fellow-martyr, Jerome of Prague. The re- 
formists daily increasing, the archbishop of Prague issued a decree to 
suppress the farther spreading of Wickliffe's writings. This, however, 
had an effect quite the reverse of what he expected, for it stimulated 
the converts to greater zeal, and at length almost the whole university 
united in promoting them. In that renowned institution the influence 
of Huss was very great, not only on account of his learning, eloquence, 
and exemplary life ; but also on account of some valuable privileges 
he had obtained from the king in behalf of the Bohemians. 

Strongly attached to the doctrines of WicklifFe, Huss strenuously 
opposed the decree of the archbishop, who, notwithstanding, obtained a 
bull from the pope, giving him commission to prevent the publishing of 
Wickliffe's writings in his province. By virtue of this bull the arch- 
bishop condemned those writings : he also proceeded against four doctors 
who had not delivered up some copies, and prohibited them to preach. 
Against these proceedings Dr. Huss, with some other members of the 
university, protested, and entered an appeal from the sentence of the 
archbishop. The pope no sooner heard of this, than he granted a com- 
mission to cardinal Colonno, to cite Huss to appear at the court of 
Rome, to answer accusations laid against him, of preaching both errors 
and heresies. From this Dr. Huss desired to be excused, and so greatly 
was he favoured in Bohemia that king Winceslaus, the queen, the 
nobility, and the university, desired the pope to dispense with such an 
appearance; as also that he would not suffer the kingdom of Bohemia 



222 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to lie under the accusation of heresy, but permit all to preach the 
gospel with freedom in their places of worship, according to their own 
honest convictions. 

Three proctors appeared for Dr. Huss before cardinal Colonno. They 
pleaded an excuse for his absence, and said they were ready to answer 
in his behalf. But the cardinal declared him contumacious, and ac- 
cordingly excommunicated him. On this the proctors appealed to the 
pope, who appointed four cardinals to examine the process : these 
commissioners confirmed the sentence of the cardinal, and extended 
the excommunication, not only on Huss, but to all his friends and fol- 
lowers. Huss then appealed from this unjust sentence to a future 
council, but without success; and, notwithstanding so severe a decree, 
and an expulsion from his church in Prague, he retired to Hussenitz, 
his native place, where he continued to promulgate the truth, in his 
writings as well as his public ministry. It was in this retirement and 
comparative seclusion that he compiled a treatise, in which he maintained 
that reading the books of protestants could not be forbidden or pre- 
vented. He wrote in defence of Wickliffe's work on the Trinity; and 
boldly protested against the vices of the pope, the cardinals, and the 
clergy of those corrupt times. In addition to these he was the author 
of several other productions, all of which were penned with such 
strength of argument as greatly facilitated the diffusion of protestant 
principles. 

In England persecution against the protestants had been carried on 
for some time with relentless cruelty. They now extended to Germany 
and Bohemia, where Dr. Huss, and Jerome of Prague, were particularly 
singled out to suffer in the cause of religion. In the month of November, 
in the year 1414, a general council was assembled at Constance, in 
Germany, for the purpose of determining a dispute then existing between 
three persons who contended for the papal throne. These were, John, 
set up by the Italians ; Gregory, by the French ; and Benedict, by the 
Spaniards. The council continued four years, in which the severest 
laws were enacted to crush the protestants. Pope John was deposed 
and obliged to fly : more than forty crimes being proved against him ; 
among which were, his attempt to poison his predecessor, his being a 
gamester, a liar, a murderer, an adulterer, and guilty of unnatural 
offences. 

John Huss was first summoned to appear at the council; and to 
dispel any apprehension of danger, the emperor sent him a passport, 
giving him permission freely to come to, and return from, the council. 
On receiving this information, he told the persons who delivered it, that 
he desired nothing more than to purge himself publicly of the imputa- 
tion of heresy; and that he esteemed himself happy in having so fair 
an opportunity for doing so as at the council to which he was summoned 
to attend. 

In the latter end of November he set out for Constance, accompanied 
by two Bohemian noblemen, who were among the most eminent of his 
disciples, and who followed him through respect and affection. He 
caused placards to be fixed upon the gates of the churches of Prague, 
in which he declared, that he went to the council to answer all charges 



TRIAL OF JOHN HUSS. 223 

that might be made against him. He also declared, in all the cities 
through which he passed, that he was going to vindicate himself at 
Constance, and invited all his adversaries to be present. On his way 
he met with every mark of affection and reverence from people of all 
descriptions. The streets, and even the roads, were thronged with 
people, whom respect rather than curiosity had brought together. He 
was ushered into several towns with great acclamations ; and he passed 
through Germany in a kind of triumph. " I thought," he said, " I had 
been an outcast. I now see my worst friends are in Bohemia." 

On arriving at Constance, he immediately took lodgings in a remote 
part of the city. Soon after there came to him one Stephen Paletz, 
who was engaged by the clergy at Prague to manage the intended pro- 
secution against him. Paletz was afterwards joined by Michel de Cassis, 
on the part of the court of Rome. These two declared themselves his 
accusers, and drew up articles against him, which they presented to the 
pope and the prelates of the council. Notwithstanding the promise of 
the emperor, to give him safe conduct to and from Constance, he 
regarded not his w r ord ; but, according to the maxim of the council, 
that " Faith is not to be kept with heretics," when it was known he was 
in the city, he was immediately arrested, and committed prisoner to a 
chamber in the palace. This breach was particularly noticed by one of 
Huss's friends, who urged the imperial passport : but the pope replied 
he never granted any such thing, nor was he bound by that of the 
emperor. 

While Huss was under confinement, the council acted the part of 
inquisitors. They condemned the doctrines of Wickliffe, and in their 
impotent malice ordered his remains to be dug up and burnt to ashes. 
While these orders were executing the nobility of Bohemia and Poland 
used all their interest for Huss ; and so far prevailed as to prevent his 
being condemned unheard, which appeared to have been resolved on by 
the commisioners appointed to try him. Before his trial took place, his 
enemies employed a Franciscan friar, to entangle him in his words, and 
then appear against him. This man of great ingenuity and subtlety, 
came to him in the character of an idiot, and with seeming sincerity 
and zeal, requested to be taught his doctrines. But Huss soon detected 
him, and told him that his manners wore a great semblance of simpli- 
city, but that his questions discovered a depth and design beyond the 
reach of an idiot. He afterwards found this pretended fool to be Didace, 
one of the deepest logicians in Lombardy. 

At length Huss was brought before the council, when the articles 
exhibited against him were read : they were upwards of forty in number, 
and chiefly extracted from his writings. The following extract, forming 
the eighth article of impeachment, will give a sample of the ground on 
which this infamous trial was conducted. " An evil and a wicked pope 
is not the successor of Peter, but of Judas." Answer. — " I wrote this in 
my treatise, if the pope be humble and meek, neglecting and despising- 
the honour and lucre of the world ; if he be a shepherd, taking his 
name from feeding of the flock of God; if he feed the sheep with the 
word, and with virtuous example, and that he become even like his flock 
with his whole heart and mind ; if he diligently and carefully labour 



224 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and travel for the church, then is he without doubt the true vicar of 
Christ. But if he walk contrary to these virtues, so much as there is 
no society between Christ and Belial, and Christ himself saith, * He 
that is not with me is against me,' how is he then the true vicar of Christ 
or Peter, and not rather the vicar of antichrist ? Christ called Peter 
himself, Satan, when he opposed him only in one word, and that with 
a good affection, even him whom he had chosen his vicar, and specially 
appointed over his church. Why should not any other then, being more 
opposed to Christ, be truly called Satan, and consequently antichrist, 
or at least the principal minister or vicar of antichrist. Infinite testi- 
monies of this matter are found in St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Cyprian, 
Chrysostome, Bernard, Gregory, Remigius, Ambrose, and all the holy 
fathers of the Christian church." 

On his examination being finished, he was taken from the court, and 
a resolution was formed by the council, to burn him as a heretic unless 
he retracted. He was then committed to a filthy prison, where, in the 
day-time, he was so laden with fetters that he could hardly move : and 
every night he was fastened by his hands to a ring against the wall. 
He continued some days in this situation, while many noblemen of 
Bohemia interceded in his behalf. They drew up a petition for his 
release, which was presented to the council by several of the most illus- 
trious men of the country; notwithstanding which, so many enemies 
had Huss in that court, that no attention was paid to it, and the perse- 
cuted reformer was compelled to endure all the ignominy and misery 
inflicted on him. Shortly after the petition was presented, four bishops 
and two lords were sent by the emperor to the prison, in order to pre- 
vail on Huss to make a recantation. But he called God to witness, 
with tears in his eyes, that he was not conscious of having preached or 
written any thing against the truth of God, or the faith of his orthodox 
church. The deputies then represented the great wisdom and authority 
of the council; to which Huss replied, "Let them send the meanest 
person of that council, who can convince me by argument from the 
word of God, and I will submit my judgment to him." This firm and 
faithful answer had no effect, because he would not take the authority 
of the council upon trusty in opposition to the plainest reasonings of 
scripture. The deputies, therefore, finding they could not make any 
impression on him, departed, greatly astonished at the strength of his 
resolution. 

On the 4th of July he was, for the last time, brought before the 
council. After a long examination he was desired to abjure, which he 
refused without the least hesitation. The bishop of Lodi then preached 
a bloody persecuting sermon, the text of which was, " Let the body of 
sin be destroyed." The sermon was the usual prologue to a cruel mar- 
tyrdom ; and when it was over his fate was fixed, his vindication rejected 
and judgment was pronounced. The council censured him for being 
obstinate and incorrigible, and ordained that he should be degraded 
from the priesthood, his books publicly burnt, and himself delivered to 
the secular power. He received the sentence without the least emotion ; 
and at the close of it he kneeled down with his eyes lifted towards 
heaven, and, with all the magnanimity of a primitive martyr, thus ex- 



MARTYRDOM OF JOHN HUSS. 225 

claimed : " May thine infinite mercy, O my God ! pardon this injustice 
of mine enemies. Thou knowest the iniquity of my accusations : how- 
deformed with crimes I have been represented : how I have been oppressed 
by worthless witnesses, and a false condemnation : yet, O my God ! let 
that mercy of thine, which no tongue can express, prevail with thee not 
to avenge my wrongs." 

These excellent sentences were received as so many expressions of trea- 
son, and only tended to inflame his adversaries. Accordingly, the bishops 
appointed by the council, stripped him of his priestly garments, de- 
graded him, and put a paper mitre on his head, on which were painted 
devils, with this inscription : "A ring-leader of heretics." This mockery 
was received by the heroic martyr with an air of unconcern, and it seemed 
to give him dignity rather than disgrace. A serenity appeared in his 
looks, which indicated that his soul had cut off many stages of a tedious 
journey in her way to the realms of everlasting happiness, and when the 
bishops urged him yet to recant, he turned to the people, and addressed 
them thus : — 

" These lords and bishops exhort and counsel me, that I should here 
confess before you all, that I have erred; the which, if it were such as 
might be done with the infamy and reproach of man only, they might, 
peradventure, easily persuade me thereunto; but now truly I am in the 
sight of the Lord my God, without whose great displeasure, and dis- 
quietude of mine own conscience, I could by no means do that which 
they require of me. For I well know that I never taught any of those 
things which they have falsely alleged against me, but I have always 
preached, taught, written, and thought contrary thereunto. With what 
countenance then should I behold the heavens? With what face should 
I look upon them whom I have taught, whereof there is a great number, 
if through me it should come to pass that those things, which they have 
hitherto known to be most certain and sure, should now be made 
uncertain? Should I by this example astonish or trouble so many 
souls, so many consciences, endued with the most firm and certain 
knowledge of the scriptures and gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and 
his most pure doctrine, armed against all the assaults of Satan? I will 
never do it, neither commit any such kind of offence, that I should seem 
more to esteem this vile carcass appointed unto death, than their health 
and salvation." 

At this most godly speech he was forced again to hear, by the consent 
of the bishops, that he obstinately and maliciously persevered in his 
pernicious and wicked errors. The ceremony of degradation being 
over, the bishops delivered him to the emperor, who put him into the 
care of the duke of Bavaria. His books were consumed at the gates of 
the church ; and on the 6th of July he was led to the suburbs of Constance 
to be burnt alive. When he had reached the place of execution, he fell 
on his knees, sung several portions of the Psalms, looked stedfastly 
towards heaven, and repeated, " Into thy hands, O Lord! do I commit 
my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O most good and faithful God." 
As soon as the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, with a 
smiling countenance, "My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder 
chain than this for my sake, why then should I be ashamed of this old 

Q 



226 , HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

rusty one?" When the fagots were piled around him, the duke of 
Bavaria was so officious as to desire him to abjure. His noble reply 
was, "No, I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency; and 
what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood." He then said 
to the executioner, "You are now going to burn a goose, (the name of 
Huss signifying goose in the Bohemian language,) but in a century you 
will have a swan whom you can neither roast nor boil." If this were 
spoken in prophecy, he must have meant Martin Luther, who shone 
about a hundred years after, and who had a swan for his arms — whether 
suggested by this circumstance or on account of family descent and 
heraldry is not known. As soon as the fagots were lighted, the heroic 
martyr sung a hymn, with so loud and cheerful a voice, thaf'he was 
heard through all the crackling of the combustibles, and the noise of 
the multitude. "At length his voice was interrupted by the flames, which 
soon put a period to his mortal life, and wafted his undying spirit, which 
no fire of earth could subdue or touch, to the regions of everlasting 
glory. 



SECTION III. 

ACCOUNT OF THE GENERAL PERSECUTIONS IN GERMANY. 

Martin Luther, by unmasking popery, and holding up to the long 
deluded world its deformity, and by the vigour with which he prosecuted 
his reforming career, caused the papal throne to shake to its foundation. 
So terrified was the pope at his rapid success, and the spreading of his 
truths, that he determined, in order to stop their career, to engage the 
emperor, Charles V, in his scheme of utterly extirpating all who had 
embraced the reformation. To accomplish if possible this desirable 
result, he gave the emperor two hundred thousand crowns in ready 
money; who was to maintain twelve thousand foot, and five thousand 
horse, for the space of six months, or during a campaign. He allowed 
the emperor to receive one half of the revenues of the clergy of the 
empire during the war; and permitted him to pledge the abbey-lands 
for five hundred thousand crowns, to assist in carrying on hostilities. 
Thus prompted and supported, the emperor, with a heart eager from 
interest and prejudice for the cause, undertook the extirpation of the 
protestants; and raised a forrnjdable army for his purpose, which he 
distributed in the states of Germany, Italy, and Spain. Meanwhile the 
protestant princes were not idle; but formed a powerful confederacy, in 
order to repel the impending blow. A great army was raised, and the 
command given to the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse- 
The imperial forces were commanded by the emperor of Germany in 
person, and all Europe waited in anxious suspense the event of the war. 

At length the armies met, and a desperate engagement ensued, in 
which the protestants were defeated, and the elector of Saxony and the 
landgrave of Hesse both taken prisoners. This calamitous stroke was 
succeeded by a horrid persecution, the severities of which were such, 
that lesser evils might in comparison be accounted happiness. A cave 



GENERAL PERSECUTIONS IN GERMANY. 22 7 

appeared a palace, wild roots delicacies, and a rock a bed of down. 
Those who were taken experienced the most dreadful tortures that 
cruelty could invent; and by their constancy evinced, that a real Chris- 
tian can encounter every difficulty, and despise every danger in the 
cause of truth. Among others, Henry Voes and John Esch were ap- 
prehended as protestants, and brought to examination: when Voes, 
answering for himself and his companion, gave the following replies to 
some questions asked by a priest, who examined them by order of the 
magistracy. 

Priest. Were you not both, some years ago, Augustin friars? 

Voes. Yes. 

Priest. How came you to quit the bosom of the church of Rome ? 

Voes. On account of her abominations. 

Priest. What do you believe? 

Voes. The Old and New Testament. 

Priest. Do you believe in the writings of the fathers, and the decrees 
of the councils? 

Voes. Yes, so far as they accord with scripture. 

Priest. Did not Martin Luther seduce you both? 

Voes. He seduced us even in the very same manner as Christ seduced 
the apostles; that is, he made us sensible of the frailty of our bodies, 
and the value of our souls. 

This confession was deemed sufficient; they were both condemned 
to the flames, and soon after suffered, with the usual fortitude of real 
Christians. 

An eloquent and pious preacher, named Henry Stutphen, was taken 
out of his bed at night, and compelled to walk barefoot a considerable 
way, so that his feet were terribly cut. On desiring a horse, his con- 
ductors said, in derision, "A horse for a heretic! no, no, heretics may 
go barefoot." On arriving at the place of his destination, he was con- 
demned to be burnt; and while suffering in the flames, many indignities 
were offered him by those who attended, who cut and slashed him in a 
manner the most terrible. Many were murdered at Halle. Middleburg 
being taken by assault, all the protestants were put to the sword. Great 
numbers were also burned at Vienna. Peter Spengler, a divine, of the 
town of Schalet, was thrown into the river and drowned. Wolfgang 
Scuch and John Huglin, two worthy ministers, were burned. Leonard 
Keyser, a student of the university of Wirtemburg, and George Car- 
penter, a Bavarian, were hanged for refusing to renounce protestantism. 

Persecution in Germany having been suspended many years, again 
broke out in 1630, on account of a war between the emperor and the 
king of Sweden; the latter being a protestant prince, the protestants of 
Germany in consequence espoused his cause, which greatly exasperated 
the emperor against them. The imperial army having laid siege to the 
town of Passewalk, then defended by the Swedes, took it by storm, and 
committed the most monstrous outrages on the buildings and people. 
They pulled down the churches, burnt the houses, pillaged the properties, 
massacred the ministers, put the garrison to the sword, hanged the 
townsmen, ravished the women, and smothered boys, girls, and infants. 

In the year 1631, a most bloody scene transpired at the protestant 



223 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



city of Magdeburg. The generals Tilly and Pappenheim having taken 
it by storm, upwards of 20,000 persons, without distinction of rank, 
sex, or age, were slain during the carnage, and 6,000 drowned in at- 
tempting to escape over the river Elbe. After which, the remaining 
inhabitants were stripped naked, severely scourged, had their ears 
cropped, and being yoked together like oxen, were turned adrift, or 
doomed to worse than the toil of beasts. On the popish army taking 
the town of Hoxter, all the inhabitants with the garrison were put to the 
sword. When the imperial forces prevailed at Griphenburg, they shut 
up the senators in the senate-chamber, and, surrounding it by lighted 
straw, suffocated them. Franhendal, notwithstanding it surrendered 
upon articles of capitulation, suffered as cruelly as other places, and at 
Heidelburg many were shut up in prison and starved. In fact, to enu- 
merate the various species of cruelty practised by the imperial troops, 
under count Tilly, would excite disgust and horror. That sanguinary 
monster, in his progress through Saxony, not only permitted every excess 
in his soldiers, but actually commanded them to put all their enormities 
in practice. Some of these are sounparallelled for indecency as well as 
atrocity, that they cannot with propriety be mentioned. Others, how- 
ever, not chargeable with the former character, may be mentioned as 
shocking samples of the proficiency made by the papists of that day in 
the latter quality. 

A band of soldiers, belonging to count Tilly, met with a company of 
merchants belonging to Basil, who were returning from the great market 
of Strasburg, and attempted to surround them; all escaped, however, 
but ten, leaving their properties behind. The ten who were taken 
begged hard for rheir lives; but the soldiers murdered them, saying, 
" You must die because you are heretics, and have got no money." 
The same soldiers met with two countesses, who, together with some 
young ladies, the daughters of one of them, were taking an airing in a 
landau. The soldiers spared their lives, but treated them with most 
cowardly insults, leaving them desolate in an exposed part of their route, 
and compelling their coachman and protector to proceed onward without 
the power of returning to their relief. In fact, wherever Tilly came, 
the most horrid barbarities and cruel depredations ensued : famine and 
conflagration marked his progress. He destroyed all the provisions he 
could not take with him, and burnt all the towns before he lelt them ; 
so that murder, poverty, and desolation followed him. In 1532, above 
30,000 protestants were, contrary to the treaty of Westphalia, driven 
from the archbishopric of Saltzburg in the depth of winter, with scarce 
clothes to cover them, and without provisions. These poor people 
emigrated to various protestant countries, and settled in places where 
they could enjoy the exercise of their religion, free from popish 
superstition and papal despotism. Peace at length, chiefly through the 
mediation of England, was restored to Germany, and the protestants, 
for several years, enjoyed the free exercise of their religion. 



BOOK VII. 

SECTION I. 

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE, SUFFERINGS, AND MARTYRDOM OF JEROME OF 
PRAGUE, WHO WAS BURNT AT CONSTANCE, IN GERMANY, FOR MAIN- 
TAINING THE DOCTRINE OF W1CKLIFFE. 

This hero in the cause of truth was born at Prague, and educated 
in its university, where he soon became distinguished for his learning 
and eloquence. Having completed his studies, he travelled over great 
part of Europe, and visited many of the seats of learning, particularly 
the universities of Paris, Heidelburg, Cologne, and Oxford. At the 
latter he became acquainted with the works of Wickliffe, and being a 
person of uncommon application, he translated many of them into his 
own language, having with great pains made himself master of the English. 
On his return to Prague, he openly professed the doctrines of Wickliffe ; 
and finding that they had made considerable progress in Bohemia, from 
the industry and zeal of Huss, he became his assistant in the great work. 

On the 4th of April, A. D. 1415, Jerome went to Constance. This 
was about three months before the death of Huss. He entered the 
town privately, and consulting with some of the leaders of his party, 
was easily convinced that he could render his friend no service. Find- 
ing that his arrival at Constance was publicly known, and that the 
council intended to seize him, he prudently retired, and went to 
Iberling, an imperial town at a short distance. While here he wrote to 
the emperor, and avowed his readiness to appear before the council, if 
he would give a safe-conduct; this, however, was refused. He then 
applied to the council, but met with an answer equally unfavourable. 
After this, he caused papers to be put up in all the public places of 
Constance, particularly on the door of the cardinal's house. In these 
he professed his willingness to appear at Constance in the defence of 
his character and doctrine, both which he said had been greatly falsi- 
fied. He farther declared, that if any error should be proved against 
him he would retract it; desiring only that the faith of the council 
might be given for his security. 

Receiving no answer to these papers, he set out on his return to 
Bohemia, previously adopting the precaution to take with him a cer- 
tificate signed by several of the Bohemian nobility then at Constance, 
testifying that he had used every prudent means in his power to procure 
an audience. Notwithstanding this he was seized on his way, without 
any authority, by an officer belonging to the duke of Sultzbach, who 
hoped thereby to receive commendations from the council for so accept- 
able a service. The duke of Sultzbach immediately wrote to the 
council, informing them what he had done, and asking directions how 
to proceed with Jerome. The council, after expressing their obligations 
to the duke, desired him to send the prisoner immediately to Constance. 
He was accordingly conveyed in irons, and, on his way, was met bv the 
elector palatine, who caused a long chain to be fastened to Jerome, by 
which he was dragged like a wild beast to the cloister, whence, after 
some insults and examinations, he was conveved to a tower, and fastened 



230 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



to a block with his legs in the stocks. In this manner he remained 
eleven days and nights, till becoming dangerously ill, they, in order to 
satiate their malice still farther, relieved him from that painful state. 
He remained confined till the martyrdom of his friend Huss ; after 
which he was brought forth and threatened with immediate torments 
and death if he remained obstinate. Terrified at the preparations of 
pain, in a moment of weakness he forgot his manliness and resolution, 
abjured his doctrines, and confessed that Huss merited his fate, and 
that both he and WicklifTe were heretics. In consequence of this his 
chains were taken off, and this harsh treatment done away. He was, 
however, still confined, with daily hopes of liberation. But his ene- 
mies suspecting his sincerity, another form of recantation was drawn 
up and proposed to him. He, however, refused to answer this, ex- 
cept in public, and was accordingly brought before the council, when, 
to the astonishment of his auditors, and to the glory of truth, he re- 
nounced his recantation, and requested permission to plead his own 
cause, which being refused, he thus vented his indignation : 

" What barbarity is this? For three hundred and forty days have I 
been confined in a variety of prisons. There is not a misery, there is 
not a want, which I have not experienced. To my enemies you have 
allowed the fullest scope of accusation : to me, you deny the least op- 
portunity of defence. Not an hour will you now indulge me in pre- 
paring for my trial. You have swallowed the blackest calumnies 
against me. You have represented me as a heretic, without knowing 
my doctrine; as an enemy to the faith, before you knew what faith I 
professed. You are a general council : in you centre all which this 
world can communicate of gravity, wisdom, and sanctity : but still you 
are men, and men are seducible by appearances. The higher your 
character is for wisdom, the greater ought your care to be not to 
deviate into folly. The cause I now plead is not my own, it is the 
cause of men : it is the cause of Christians : it is a cause which is to 
affect the rights of posterity, however the experiment is to be made in 
my person." 

This speech, the eloquence and force of which are worthy of the best 
ages, produced no effect on the obdurate foes of Jerome. They pro- 
ceeded with his charge, which was reduced to five articles — That he was 
a derider of the papal dignity — an opposer of the pope himself — an 
enemy to the cardinals — a persecutor of the bishops — and a despiser of 
Christianity ! To these charges Jerome answered with an amazing 
force of eloquence and strength of argument. " Now, whither shall I 
turn me? To my accusers? My accusers are as deaf as adders. To 
you, my judges? You are all prepossessed by the arts of my accusers." 
After this speech he was immediately remanded to his prison. The 
third day from this his trial was brought on, and witnesses were ex- 
amined in support of the charge. The prisoner was prepared for his 
defence, which appears almost incredible, when we consider he had 
been nearly a year shut up in loathsome dungeons, deprived of day-light, 
and almost starved for want of common necessaries. But his spirit 
soared above these disadvantages. 

The most bigoted of the assembly were unwilling he should be heard, 
dreading the effects of eloquence in the cause of truth, on the minds of 



TRIAL OF JEROME OF PRAGUE. 231 

the most prejudiced. This was such as to excite the envy of the 
greatest persons of his time. "Jerome," said Gerson, the chancel- 
lor of Paris, at his accusation, "when thou wast in Paris, thou wast 
thyself, by means of thine eloquence an angel ; and didst trouble the 
whole university." At length it was carried by the majority, that he 
should have liberty to proceed in his defence ; which he began in such 
an exalted strain, and continued with such a torrent of elocution, that 
the obdurate heart was seen to melt, and the mind of superstition seemed 
to admit a ray of conviction. He began to deduce from history the 
number of great and virtuous men who had, in their time, been con- 
demned and punished as evil persons, but whom after generations had 
proved to have deserved honour and reward. He laid before the assembly 
the whole tenor of his life and conduct. He observed that the greatest 
and most holy men had been known to differ in points of speculation, 
with a view to distinguish truth, not to keep it concealed. He expressed 
a noble contempt of all his enemies, who would have induced him to 
retract the cause of virtue and truth, and upbraided his late and momen- 
tary weakness, which led him to deny himself and forget his glory. He 
entered on a high encomium on Huss ; and declared he was ready to 
follow him to martyrdom. He then proceeded to defend the doctrines 
of the English luminary Wickliffe ; and concluded with observing, that 
it was far from his intention to advance any thing against the state of 
the church of God ; that it was only against the abuses of the clergy he 
complained ; and that it was certainly impious that the patrimony of the 
church, which was originally intended for the purpose of charity and univer- 
sal benevolence, should be prostituted to sensual and sordid gratification 
to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," which 
the apostle expressly declares " are not of the Father, but of the world." 
The trial being ended, Jerome received the same sentence as had 
been passed on his martyred countryman, and was, in the usual style of 
popish duplicity, delivered over to the civil power ; but being a layman 
he had not to undergo the ceremony of degradation. His persecutors, 
however, prepared for him a cap of paper, painted with red devils, which 
being put upon his head, he said, " Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he suf- 
fered death for me a most miserable sinner, did wear a crown of thorns 
upon his head ; and I, for his sake, will wear this adorning of derision 
and blasphemy." Two days they delayed the execution in hopes that 
he would recant ; meanwhile the cardinal of Florence used his utmost 
endeavours to bring him over : but they all proved ineffectual : Jerome 
was resolved to seal his doctrine with his blood. 

On his way to the place of execution he sung several hymns ; and on 
arriving at the spot, the same where Huss had suffered, he kneeled down 
and prayed fervently. He embraced the stake with great cheerfulness 
and resolution ; and when the executioner went behind him to set fire 
to the fagots, he said, " Come here, and kindle it before my eyes ; 
for had I been afraid of it, I had not come here, having had so many 
opportunities to escape." When the flames began to envelope him, he 
sung another hymn ; and the last words he was heard to sav were, 

" Heme animam in flam mis affero, Christe, tibi !" 
"This soul in flames I offer) Christ, to thee !" 



232 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

He was of a fine and manly form, and possessed a strong and healthy 
constitution, which served to render his death extremely painful, for he 
was observed to live an unusual time in the midst of the flames. He, 
however, sung till his aspiring soul took its flight from its mortal habi- 
tation, as in a fiery chariot, which seemed rather sent by God than 
prepared by man, to convey his blessed spirit from earth to heaven in 
the sight of a thousand witnesses. 



SECTION II. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

The glorious light of the gospel spreading over every part of the 
continent, and chasing thence the dark night of ignorance, increased 
the alarm of the pope, who urged the emperor, Charles the fifth, to 
commence a persecution against the protestants ; when many thousands 
fell martyrs to superstitious malice and barbarous bigotry ; among whom 
were the following: — 

A pious protestant widow, named Wendelinuta, was apprehended on 
account of her religion, when several monks endeavoured to persuade 
her to recant. Their attempts proving ineffectual, a Roman catholic 
lady of her acquaintance desired to be admitted to the dungeon in 
which she was confined, and did her utmost to perform the task she had 
undertaken ; but finding her endeavours fruitless, she said, " Dear 
"Wendelinuta, if you will not embrace our faith, at least keep the things 
which you profess secret within your own bosom, and strive to prolong 
your life." To which the widow replied, " Madam, you know not what 
you say ; for with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and with the 
tongue confession is made unto salvation." Still holding her faith against 
every effort of the powers of darkness, her goods were confiscated, and 
she was condemned to be burnt. At the place of execution, a monk 
presented a cross to her, and bade her kiss that in order to worship God 
aright. To which she answered, " I worship no wooden god, but the 
eternal God, who is in heaven." She was then fastened to the stake ; 
but, at the intercession of her friend, the lady just mentioned, she was 
strangled before the fagots were kindled. 

At Cologne there were two protestant clergymen burnt ; a tradesman 
of Antwerp, named Nicholas, was tied up in a sack, thrown into the 
river and drowned; and Pistorious, an accomplished scholar and student, 
was carried to the market of a Dutch village in a fool's coat, and burnt. 
A minister of the reformed church was ordered to attend the execution 
of sixteen protestants, who received sentence to be beheaded. This 
gentleman performed the important office with great propriety, exhorted 
them to repentance, and gave them comfort in the mercies of their 
Redeemer. As soon as the sixteen were beheaded, the magistrate cried 
out to the executioner, "There is another remaining stroke yet; you 
must behead the minister : he can never die at a better time than with 
such excellent precepts in his mouth, and 'such laudable examples be- 
fore him." He was accordingly beheaded, while many of the Roman 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



233 



Catholics themselves reprobated this piece of treacherous and wanton 
barbarism. 

George Scherter, a minister at Saltzburg, was apprehended and com- 
mitted to prison for instructing his flock in the truth of the gospel. 
While in confinement he wrote a confession of his faith ; soon after 
which he was condemned, first to be beheaded, and then to be burnt 
to ashes, which sentence was accordingly put in execution. Perceval, 
a learned man of Louviana, was murdered in prison ; and Justus Insparg 
was beheaded merely for having Luther's sermons in his possession. A 
cutler of Brussels, Giles Telleman, a man of singular humanity and 
piety, was apprehended as a protestant, and many vain attempts were 
made by the monks to persuade him to recant. Once, by accident, a 
fair opportunity of escaping from prison offered itself, but of which he 
did not avail himself. Being asked the reason, he replied, " I would 
not do the keepers so much injury, as they must have answered for my 
absence had I escaped." When he was sentenced to be burnt, he fer- 
vently thanked God for granting him an opportunity by martyrdom to 
glorify his name. Observing at the place of execution a great quantity 
of fagots, he desired that the principal part of them might be given to 
the poor, saying, " A small quantity will suffice to consume me." The 
executioner offered to strangle him before the fire was lighted, but he 
would not consent, telling him that he defied the flames; and, indeed, he 
died with such composure that he hardly seemed sensible of pain. 

In Flanders, in the years 1543 and 1544, persecutions raged with 
great violence. Many protestants were doomed to perpetual imprison- 
ment, others to final banishment : while most were put to death either 
by hanging, drowning, immuring, burning, the rack, or burying alive. 
John de Boscane, a zealous protestant, was apprehended in the city 
of Antwerp on account of his faith. On his trial he undauntedly 
professed himself to be of the reformed religion, on which he was im- 
mediately condemned. The magistrate, however, was afraid to exe- 
cute the sentence publicly, as Boscane was popular through his great 
generosity, and almost universally revered for his inoffensive life and 
exemplary piety. A private execution was therefore determined on, and 
an order was given to drown him in prison. The executioner accordingly 
forced him into a large tub ; but Boscane struggling, and getting his head 
above the water, the brutal wretch stabbed him in several places with a 
dagger till he expired. John de Boisons was about the same time secretly 
apprehended. In this city the number of protestants, being great, 
and the prisoner much respected, the magistrates, fearful of an insur- 
rection, ordered him to be beheaded in prison. 

In the year 1568 were apprehended at Antwerp, Scoblant, Hues, and 
Coomans. While under confinement they behaved with great fortitude. 
In an epistle to some protestant brethren they expressed themselves in 
the following words — " Since it is the will of the Almighty that we 
should suffer for his name, and be persecuted for the sake of his gospel, 
we patiently submit, and are joyful upon the occasion : though the flesh 
may rebel against the spirit, and hearken to the council of the old 
serpent, yet the truths of the gospel shall prevent such advice from being 
taken, and Christ shall bruise the serpent's head. We are not comfort- 



234 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAlTMARTYRDOM. 

less in confinement, for we have faith; we fear not affliefcion, for we 
have hope ; and we forgive our enemies, for we have charity. Be 
not alarmed for us, we are happy through the promises of God, 
glory in our bonds, and exult in being thought worthy to suffer for 
the sake of Christ. We desire not to^TTe released, but to be blest 
with fortitude ; we ask not liberty, but the power of perseverance ; 
and wish for no change in our condition, but that which places a 
crown of martyrdom upon our heads. " If eloquence of sentiment 
and language could have obtained remission or respite, these wise and 
holy men had not suffered : but their foes were as relentless as they were 
pious and prepared for death. 

The first brought to trial was Scoblant, who, persisting in his faith, 
received sentence of death. On his return to prison, he requested the 
gaoler not to permit any friar to come near him, saying, " They can 
do me no good, but may greatly disturb me. I hope my salvation is 
already sealed in Heaven, and that the blood of Christ, in which I firmly 
put my trust, hath cleansed me from mine iniquities. I am going to 
throw off this mantle of clay, to be clad in robes of eternal glory. I 
hope I may be the last martyr of papal tyranny, and that the blood 
already spilt will be found sufficient to quench its thirst of cruelty ; that 
the church of Christ may have rest here, as his servants will hereafter." 
On the day of execution he took a pathetic leave of his fellow-prisoners. 
At the stake he uttered with great fervency the Lord's prayer, and sung 
the 40th Psalm : he died commending his soul to God. 

A short time after, Hues died in prison; upon which occasion Coomans 
thus vents his mind to his friends : "lam now deprived of my friends 
and companions. Scoblant is martyred, "and Hues dead, by the visitation 
of the Lord; yet I am not alone : I have with me the God of Abraham, 
of Isaac, and of Jacob; he is my comfort, and shall be my reward." 
At his trial Hues had freely confessed himself of the reformed religion, 
and answered with a manly firmness to every charge brought against 
him, proving his doctrine from the gospel. " And will you die for the 
same faith?" asked the judge of the surviving brother of this holy band. 
" I am not only willing to die," replied Coomans, " but also to suffer 
the utmost stretch of inventive cruelty for it : after which my soul shall 
receive its confirmation from God himself, in the midst of eternal glory." 
Being condemned, he went cheerfully to the place of execution, and 
died with singular christian fortitude and resignation. 

Baltazar Gerard, a native of Franche Comte, a bigoted and furious 
Roman catholic, thinking to advance his fortune and his cause by one 
desperate act, resolved upon the assassination of the prince of Orange. 
Having provided himself with fire arms, he watched the prince as he 
passed through the great hall of his palace to dinner, and demanded a 
passport. The princess of Orange, observing in his tone of voice and 
manner something confused and singular, asked who he was, saying, 
she did not like his countenance. The prince answered, it was one that 
demanded a passport which he should presently have. Nothing farther 
transpired till after dinner, when on the return of the prince and prin- 
cess through the same hall, the assassin, from behind one of the pillars, 
fired at the prince; the ball entering at the leftside, and passing through 



PERSECUTIONS IN LITHUANIA. 235 

the right, wounded in its passage the stomach and vital parts. The 
prince had only power to say, " Lord, have mercy upon my soul, and 
upon this poor people," and immediately expired. 

The death of this virtuous prince, who was considered the father of 
his people, spread universal sorrow through the United Provinces. The 
assassin was immediately taken, and received sentence to be put to 
death in the most exemplary manner; yet such was his enthusiasm and 
blindness for his crime, that while suffering for it, he coolly said, 
" Were I at liberty I would repeat the same." The funeral of the 
prince of Orange was the grandest ever seen in the Low Countries, and 
the sorrow for his death perhaps the most sincere that ever attended a 
royal corpse to the tomb. In different parts of Flanders numbers fell 
victims to popish jealousy and cruelty. In the city of Valence, in 
particular, fifty-seven principal inhabitants were butchered in one day, 
for refusing to embrace the papal superstition ; besides great numbers 
who suffered in confinement, and perished through the hardships of their 
cruel captivity. 



SECTION III. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN LITHUANIA. 

The persecutions of Lithuania began in 1648, and were carried on 
with great severity by the Cossacs and Tartars. The cruelty of the 
Cossacs was such that the Tartars at last revolted from it, and rescued 
some of the intended victims from their hands. The Russian troops, 
perceiving the devastations which had been made in the country, and 
its incapability of defence, entered it with a considerable force, and 
carried ruin wherever they went. Every thing they met with was 
devoted to destruction. The ministers of the gospel were peculiarly 
singled out as the objects of their hatred, while every Christian was 
liable to their barbarity. Lithuania no sooner recovered itself from one 
persecution, than succeeding enemies again reduced it. The Swedes, 
the Prussians, and the Courlanders, carried fire and sword through it, 
and continual calamities for some years attended that unhappy district. 
It was afterwards attacked by the prince of Transylvania, who had in 
his army, exclusive of his own people, Hungarians, Moldavians, 
Servians, and Walachians. These, as far as they penetrated, wasted 
the country, destroyed the churches, rifled the nobility, burnt the 
houses, villages, and towns, murdering all classes of the inhabitants 
without distinction or mercy. 

One divine, writing an account of the misfortunes in Lithuania, in 
the seventeenth century, uses this sympathetic language': " In considera- 
tion of these extremities, we cannot but adore the judgment of God 
poured upon us for our sins, and deplore our sad condition. Let us 
hope for a deliverance through his mercy, and wish for restitution in his 
benevolence. Though we are brought low, though we are wasted, 
troubled, and terrified, yet his compassion is greater than our calami- 
ties, and his goodness superior to our afflictions. Our neighbours hate 



236 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

us at present, as much as our more distant enemies did before : they 
persecute the remnant of us who are left, deprive us of our few 
churches, banish our preachers, abuse our schoolmasters, treat us with 
contempt, and oppress us in the most degraded manner. In all our 
afflictions the truth of the gospel shone among us, and gave us comfort; 
and we only wished for the grace of Jesus Christ, not only to ourselves, 
but to soften the hearts of our enemies, and excite the sympathy of our 
fellow Christians." 

In no part have the followers of Christ been exempt from the rage 
and bitterness of their enemies; and well have they experienced the 
force of those scripture truths, that " they who will live godly in Christ 
Jesus shall suffer persecution," and those who are born after the flesh 
have always been enemies to such as are born after the spirit. Accord- 
ingly the protestants of Poland suffered in a dreadful manner. The 
ministers especially were treated with the most unexampled barbarism : 
some having their tongues cut out because they had preached the gospel 
of salvation; others being deprived of their sight on account of having 
read the Bible; and great numbers were cut to pieces for avowing their 
resolution not to recant. Several persons were privately put to death 
by various methods; the most cruel being usually preferred. Women 
were murdered without the least regard to their sex; and some perse- 
cutors went so far as to cut off the heads of sucking babes, and fasten 
them to the breasts of their unfortunate mothers! Even the habitations 
of the dead escaped not the malice of these hardened men; for they 
sacrilegiously exhumed the bodies of many eminent persons, and either 
cut them to pieces and exposed them to be devoured by birds and 
beasts, or hung them up in the most conspicuous places for public 
derision. The city of Lesna particularly suffered at this period: on its 
being captured the inhabitants were exiled or exterminated without 
remorse. 



SECTION IV. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN CHINA. 

At the commencement of the sixteenth century, three Italian mission- 
aries, Roger the Neapolitan, Pasis of Bologne, and Matthew Ricci of 
Mazerata, entered China with a view of establishing Christianity in that 
vast empire. In order to succeed in this important commission they had 
previously made the Chinese language their constant study. 

The zeal displayed by these missionaries in the discharge of their 
undertaking was very great; but Roger and Pasis in a few years re- 
turning to Europe, the whole labour devolved upon Ricci. His perse- 
verance was singly proportioned to the arduous task he had in hand. 
Though disposed to indulge his converts as far as possible, he was 
reluctant to allow those ceremonies which seemed idolatrous. At length, 
after eighteen years labour and reflection, he began to soften his 
opinion, and tolerated all those customs which were ordered by the laws 
of the empire, but strictly enjoined his converts to omit the rest; and 






PERSECUTIONS IN CHINA. 237 

thus, by not resisting too much, he succeeded in bringing over many 
Chinese to the truth. In 1630, however, his tranquillity was disturbed 
by the arrival of some new missionaries; who, being unacquainted with 
the Chinese customs, manners, and language, and with the limited 
extent of Ricci's toleration, were astonished when they saw christian 
converts fall prostrate before Confucius and the tables of their an- 
cestors, and accordingly exclaimed against the inconsistency. This 
occasioned a warm controversy between Ricci, seconded by his converts, 
and the new missionaries ; and not coming to any agreement, the latter 
wrote an account of the affair to the pope, and the society for the pro- 
pagation of the christian faith. They soon pronounced that the cere- 
monies were idolatrous and intolerable, and the sentence was confirmed 
by the papal seal. In this both the society and the pope were excusable, 
the matter having been misrepresented to them; for the enemies of 
Ricci had affirmed the halls in which the ceremonies were performed to 
be temples, and the ceremonies themselves the sacrifices to idols. 

The sentence was sent over to China, where it was received with great 
contempt, and matters remained in the same state for some time. At 
length a true representation was sent over, explaining that the Chinese 
customs and ceremonies alluded to were entirely free from idolatry, being 
merely political, and tending only to the peace and welfare of the empire. 
The pope finding that he had not weighed the affair with due consider- 
ation, sought to extricate himself from the difficulty in which he had 
been so precipitately entangled; he therefore referred the affair to the 
inquisition, which immediately reversed the sentence, at the desire of 
the pope. The christian church, notwithstanding these divisions, flou- 
rished in China till the death of the first Tartar emperor, whose successor 
was a minor. During the minority of the young emperor Cang-hi, the 
regents and nobles conspired to crush the christian religion. The exe- 
cution of this design was accordingly begun with expedition, and carried 
on with severity, so that every christian teacher in China, as well as those 
who professed the faith, were surprised at the suddenness of the event. 
John Adam Schall, a German ecclesiastic, and one of the principals of 
the mission, was thrown into a dungeon in the year 1664, but narrowly 
escaped with his life, being then in the seventy-fourth year of his age. 

In 1665, the ensuing year, the ministers of state publicly and una- 
nimously resolved and decreed — That the christian doctrines were false. 
That they were dangerous to the interest of the empire. That they should 
not be practised under pain of death. The result of this decree was a 
most furious persecution, in which some christians were put to death, 
many ruined, and all in some manner oppressed. Previous to this the 
christians had partially suffered; but the decree being general, persecu- 
tion now spread its ravages over the whole empire wherever its objects 
were scattered, and a single christian convert could be traced. Four 
years after the young emperor was declared of age, and took the reins 
of government upon himself; and one of the first acts of his reign was 
to stop this persecution, though his attachment to Christianity was more 
than doubtful. 



238 



ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN JAPAN. 

The first introduction of Christianity into the idolatrous empire of 
Japan took place in the year 1552, when some Portuguese missionaries 
commenced their endeavours to make converts to the truth of the gospel, 
and met with a degree of success that amply compensated their labours. 
They continued to augment the number of their proselytes till the year 
1616, when being accused of having concerned themselves in politics, 
and formed a plan to subvert the government and dethrone the emperor, 
great jealousies arose and prevailed till 1622, when the court commenced 
a dreadful persecution against both foreign and native Christians. Such 
was the rage of this persecution, that during the first four years upwards 
of ten thousand victims were offered up to the demon of the most 
cruel superstition that ever degraded and oppressed the world. Death 
was the consequence of a single avowal of Christianity, and all christian 
churches were shut up by order of government. Many, on a discovery 
of their religion by spies and informers, suffered martyrdom with great 
heroism. The persecution continued several years, when the remnant of 
the Christians with which Japan abounded, retired to the town and castle 
of Siniabara, in the island of Xinio, where they determined to make a 
stand, to continue in their faith, and to defend themselves to the very 
last extremity. To this place the Japanese army followed them, and 
laid siege to the fortress. The Christians defended themselves with great 
bravery, and held out against the besiegers three months ; but were at 
length compelled to surrender, when men, women, and children, were 
indiscriminately murdered. This event took place on the 12th of April, 
1638, since which few Christians except the Dutch have been allowed to 
land in the empire, and even they are obliged to conduct themselves with 
the greatest caution, and to carry on their commerce, and especially ob- 
serve their religion, with the utmost circumspection. 



BOOK VIII. 

CONTAINING INTERESTING PARTICULARS OF THE PERSECUTION OF 
PROTESTANTS IN DIFFERENT FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 

SECTION I. 

SUMMARY OF PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS 
IN ABYSSINIA. 

About the end of the fifteenth century, some Portuguese missionaries 
made a voyage to Abyssinia, and began to propagate the Pvoman catholic 
doctrines among the people of that interesting country, many of whom 
already professed the tenets and ceremonies of a purer Christianity. 



PERSECUTIONS IN TURKEY. 239 

The priests gained such influence at court, that the emperor consented 
to abolish the established rites of the Ethiopian church, and to admit 
those of Rome ; and soon after consented to receive a patriarch from 
the pope, and to acknowledge his supremacy. This innovation, how- 
ever, did not take place without great opposition. Several of the most 
powerful lords, and a majority of the people who professed the primitive 
Christianity, as at first established in Abyssinia, took up arms in their 
defence against the emperor. Thus, by the artifices of the court of 
Rome and its emissaries, the whole empire was thrown into commotion, 
and a war commenced which was carried on through the reign of many 
emperors, and which ceased not for above a century and a half. All 
this time the Roman catholics were strengthened by the power of the 
court, by means of which conjunction the primitive Christians of Abys- 
sinia were severely persecuted, and multitudes perished by the hands of 
their inhuman enemies. 

There is a striking contrast between the persecutions in Abyssinia and 
those in Japan, which the careful reader will on no account overlook. 
In Japan they were catholics who were the victims of pagan cruelty, 
and suffered under a superstition more gross and cruel than their own. 
But in Abyssinia the catholics were, as in most other instances which 
have been detailed, the aggressors; and a purer class of christians than 
themselves were the sufferers from their malice and policy, their jealousy 
and barbarity. When we witness the unrelenting and almost universal 
propensity of catholics to persecute whatever classes of christians may 
chance or choose to differ from them, we scarcely feel regret that they 
sometimes are made to drink of the bitter cup they force into the hands 
of others. A general lesson is, however, here taught to all — that in 
proportion as worldly and selfish maxims mingle themselves with religion, 
will that religion be perverted to an engine of mischief and misery, 
instead of benefit and happiness. 



SUMMARY OF PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS 
IN TURKEY. 

The arch impostor Mahomet ' v in his early career affected to respect 
the Christians. But no sooner was his power established, than he dis- 
played himself in his true colours as their determined and sanguinary 
enemy. This he proved by his persecution of them in his life-time, and 
by commanding that persecution to be continued by his deluded followers, 

w Mahomet was born at Mecca in Arabia, A. D. 571. His parents were poor, and his 
education mean; but by the force of his genius, and an uncommon subtlety, he raised 
himself to be the founder of Mahometanism, and the sovereign of kingdoms. His Alcoran 
is a jumble of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. It is adapted entirely to the sensual 
appetites and passions; and the chief promises held out to its believers are women and 
wine. Mahomet established his doctrine by the power of the sword: " The sword," said 
he, " is the key of heaven and of hell. Whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven him : 
his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk: the loss of his 
limbs shall be supplied with the wings of angels." He allowed that Christ was a great 
prophet and a holy man ; that he was born of a virgin, received up into glory, and that he 
shall come again to destroy antichrist. 



240 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

in his Alcoran, particularly in that part entitled, "The Chapter of the 
Sword." From him the Turks received their religion, which they still 
maintain. Mahomet and his descendants, in the space of thirty years, 
subdued Arabia, Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Egypt, and Persia. They 
soon, however, broke into divisions and wars amongst themselves. But 
the princes of the Saracens, assuming the title of sultan, continued their 
rule over Syria, Egypt, and Africa, for the space of about 400 years, 
when the Saracen king of Persia commenced war against the Saracen 
sultan of Babylon, and the latter brought to his aid the Turks. These 
feeling their own strength, soon turned their arms against their masters, 
and by the valour of Ottomanus, from whom are descended the present 
family who fill the Turkish throne, they soon subdued them and esta- 
blished their empire. 

Constantinople, after having been for many ages an imperial christian 
city, was invested in the year 1453, by the Turks under Mahomet the 
second, the ninth of the Ottoman race, and who, before his death, 
subdued all Greece. His army consisted of 300,000 men, and, after a 
bloody siege of six weeks, it fell into the hands of the infidels; and the 
Turks have, to this day, retained possession of it. About fifteen years 
before this event took place, the city had yielded the liberties of its 
church to the pope of Rome. A manifest want of patriotism was evinced 
in the inhabitants, who, instead of bringing forth their treasures to the 
public service and defence of the place, buried them in vast heaps; inso- 
much that when Mahomet, suspecting the case, commanded the earth to 
be dug up. Finding immense hoards, he exclaimed, " How was it that this 
place lacked ammunition and fortification amongst such abundance of 
riches?" The Turks in plundering found a crucifix, in the high temple 
of Sophia, on the head of which they wrote, "This is the God of the 
Christians," and then carried it by the sound of a trumpet round the 
city, and exposed it to the contempt of the soldiers, every one of whom 
was commanded to spit upon it. They no sooner found themselves 
masters of the city than they began to exercise on its inhabitants the 
most unremitting barbarities, destroying them by every method of in- 
genious cruelty. Three days and nights was the city given to spoil, 
when the soldiers were licensed to commit any enormity. The body of 
the emperor being found among the slain, Mahomet commanded his 
head to be stuck on a spear, and carried round the city for the mockery 
of the soldiers. The savage emperor of the Turks, every day before he 
rose from his dinner, had 300 nobles slain before his face, and so con- 
tinued till they were all killed, while he gave up the rest of the inhabi- 
tants to the brutal lusts of his troops. x 

x A story is related by Leonicus Chancoldina respecting the barbarity of this monster, 
which we cannot forbear to give. While at Constantinople, his general Omar sent him 
from Methone 500 christian prisoners. Mahomet commanded them to be cut asunder, and 
cast into the fields. While lying in this state, an ox feeding there appeared affected at the 
horrid spectacle, and after bellowing some time, ran to one of the dead halves, and lifting 
it upon his horns, conveyed it to the other part of the body, and placed the severed parts 
together in order to join them. This was witnessed by some persons, who conveyed the 
intelligence to Mahomet, who insisted on seeing it himself, and accordingly ordered the 
parts to be separated, when the animal again performed the same wonderful action, to the 
utter astonishment of the brutal Turk. 



SiEGE OF VIENNA BY THE TURKS. 241 

About the year 1521, Solyman the first took Belgrade from the 
Christians. Two years after, with a fleet of 450 ships, and an army of 
300,000 men, he attacked Rhodes, then defended by the knights of 
Jerusalem. These heroes resisted the infidels till all their buildings 
were levelled with the ground, their provisions exhausted, and their 
ammunition spent, when finding no succours from Christian princes, 
they surrendered, the siege having lasted about six months, in which 
the Turks suffered prodigiously, no less than 30,000 of them having 
died by a bloody flux. After this Solyman retook Buda from the 
Christians, in which place he let loose the reins of cruelty. The inha- 
bitants were cruelly maimed and mutilated; women as well as men 
suffered the greatest indignity and misery, and even children were cast 
out into the deserts to starve and perish ! 

Mad with conquest, Solyman now proceeded westward to Vienna, 
glutting himself with slaughter on his march, and vainly hoping in a 
short time to lay all Europe at his feet, and to banish Christianity from 
the earth. Having pitched his tent before the walls of the city, he 
sent three christian prisoners to terrify the citizens with an account of 
the strength of his army, while many more, whom he had taken in his 
march, he had torn asunder by horses. Happily for the Germans, three 
days only before the arrival of the Turks, the earl palatine Frederic, to 
whom was assigned the defence of Vienna, had entered it with 14,000 
chosen veterans, besides a considerable body of horse. Solyman sent a 
summons for the city to surrender ; but the Germans defying him, he 
instantly commenced the seige. It has before been observed that the 
religion of Mahomet promises to all soldiers who die in battle, whatever 
be their crimes, immediate admission to the joys of paradise. Hence 
arises that fierce temerity they usually display in fighting. They began 
with a most tremendous cannonade, and made many attempts to take 
the city by assault; but the steady valour of the Germans was superior 
to their enemies. Solyman, filled with indignation at this unusual check 
to his fortune, determined to exert every power to effect his project: to 
this end he planted his ordnance before the king's gate, and battered 
it with such violence that a breach was soon made; whereon the Turks, 
under cover of the smoke, poured in torrents into the city, and the 
soldiers began to give up all for lost. But the officers, with admirable 
presence of mind, causing great acclamations to be made in the city, as 
if fresh troops had just arrived, their garrison was inspired with fresh 
courage, while the Turks being seized with a panic, precipitately fled, 
and in the rush to escape overthrew each other, by which means the 
city was saved from destruction. 

Grown desperate by resistance, Solyman resolved upon another at- 
tempt, by undermining the Corinthian gate. Accordingly he set his 
Illyrians to work, who were expert at this mode of warfare. They suc- 
ceeded in reaching under ground to the foundations of the tower; but 
being discovered by the wary citizens, they, with amazing activity and 
diligence, countermined them; and having prepared a train of gun- 
powder, even to the trenches of the enemy, they set fire to it, and by 
that means rendered abortive their attempts, and blew up about 8000 
of them, a large majority of whom were destroyed. Foiled in every 
o R 



242 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

attempt, the courage of the Turkish chief degenerated into madness: 
he ordered his men to scale the walls, in which attempt they were 
destroyed by thousands, their very numbers serving to their own defeat, 
till, at length, the valour of his troops fainted; and, dreading the 
hardihood of their European adversaries, they began to refuse obedience. 
Sickness also seized their camp, and numbers perished from famine; for 
German vigilance had found means to cut off their supplies. Captain 
Rogendorffius, a brave and generous soldier, had in a sally slain about 
5000 Turks whom he had perceived from the walls estranged from the 
camp. Foiled in every attempt, dispirited in his prospects, Solyman at 
length, after having lost above 80,000 men, resolved to abandon his 
enterprise. He accordingly put this resolve in execution, and, sending 
his baggage before him, proceeded homewards with the utmost expedi- 
tion, thus freeing Europe from the impending terror of universal 
Mahometanism. 



PERSECUTIONS AND OPPRESSIONS IN GEORGIA, MINGRELIA, AND 
THE STATES OF BARBARY. 

The Georgians are Christians, and being remarkable for their beauty, 
the Turks and Persians strove to enslave them by the most ingenious 
and cruel methods. Instead of taking money for their taxations, they 
compelled them to deliver up their children for the following motives: — 
the females for concubines in the seraglios, as maids of honour to sul- 
tanas, to be ladies of bashaws, or sold to merchants of different nations, 
who proportioned their price according to the beauty of the devoted fair; 
the boys were taken for mutes and eunuchs in the seraglio, as clerks in 
the offices of state, and for soldiers in the army. Westward of Georgia 
is Mingrelia, a country likewise inhabited by Christians, who underwent 
the same persecutions and rigours as the Georgians by the Turks and 
Persians; their children were torn from them, or they were murdered for 
refusing to consent to the sale. 

In a history like the present it is some relief to find that persecut- 
ing cruelty was in no age confined to Christians and pagans: the 
Mahometans, whenever they had occasion thus to advance the credit of 
their prophet, and extend the influence of their opinions, did not scruple 
to adopt every device and inflict every barbarity that depraved minds 
could stand the chance of turning to a successful account. That com- 
munity which promised the greatest measure of earthly enjoyment, as 
the consummation of its system and the recompense of its devotees, with 
a malignant consistency strove to inflict the greatest sum of earthly 
misery on such as would not yield to their power, or dared to controvert 
their licentious creed. 

In no part of the globe are Christians so hated, or treated with such 
severity, as at Algiers. The conduct of the Algerines towards them is 
marked with extreme perfidy and cruelty. By paying a most exorbitant 
fine, some are allowed the title of free Christians : these are permitted 
to dress in the fashion of their respective countries ; but the christian 
slaves are obliged to wear a coarse grey suit, a seaman's cap, and often 
a more marked and degrading badge of slavery. 



PERSECUTIONS IN CALABRIA. 243 

The following are the various punishments exercised towards them : 
If they join any of the natives in open rebellion, they are strangled 
with a bow-string, or hanged on an iron hook. If they speak against 
Mahomet, they must become Mahometans, or be impaled alive. If they 
profess Christianity, after having changed to the Mahometan persuasion, 
they are roasted alive, or thrown from the city walls, and caught upon 
large sharp hooks, on which they hang till they expire. If they kill a 
Turk they are burnt. If ever they attempt to escape and are retaken, 
they suffer death in the following manner, which is equally singular and 
brutal: the criminal is hung naked on a high gallows by two hooks, 
the one fastened through the palm of one hand, and the other through 
the sole of the opposite foot, where he is left till death relieves him. 
Other punishments for crimes committed by the Christians are left to 
the discretion of the judges, who usually decree tortures the most bar- 
barous, y 

At Tunis, if a Christian is caught in attempting to escape, his limbs 
are all broken ; and if he slay his master, he is fastened to the tail of a 
horse, and dragged about the streets till he expires. Fez and Morocco 
conjointly form an empire, and are the most considerable of the 
Barbary States. There Christian slaves are treated with the greatest 
rigour; the rich have exorbitant ransoms imposed upon them; the 
poor are hard worked and half starved, and sometimes they are murdered 
by royal command or by their task-masters' barbarity. These cruelties, 
however, have long diminished, and after the example of Algiers, will 
no doubt soon cease, even without European interference. 



SECTION II. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN CALABRIA. 

About the 14th century, a great many Waldenses of Pragela and 
Dauphiny emigrated to Calabria, where, having received permission to 
settle in some waste lands, they soon, by industrious cultivation, con- 
verted several wild and barren spots into beauty and fertility. The 
nobles of Calabria were highly pleased with their new vassals and 
tenants, finding them honest, quiet, and industrious; but the priests, 
filled with jealousy, soon exhibited several negative complaints against 
them, charging them with not being Roman catholics, not making any 
of their boys priests, not creating any of their girls nuns, not going to 
mass, not giving wax tapers to the altars as offerings, not going on 
pilgrimages, and not bowing to images. To these accusations the 
Calabrian lords replied, that the people were extremely harmless, giving 
no offence to the Roman catholics, but cheerfully paying tithes to the 
priests, whose revenues were considerably increased by their coming into 
the country, and who, consequently, ought to be the very last persons 
to make a complaint. 

y It is gratifying to remark that all cruelties towards Christians in Algiers are now at an 
end. Lord Exmouth's capture of the city in 1816, put a stop to the barbarous system; 
and now French colonization affords a pledge that it will never revive. 



244 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The Calabrian priesthood being thus silenced, things went on peace- 
ably for a few years, during which the Waldenses formed themselves 
into two corporate towns, annexing several villages to their jurisdiction. 
At length they sent to Geneva for two clergymen, one to minister in each 
town. This being known, intelligence was conveyed to pope Pius the 
fourth, who determined to exterminate them from Calabria without 
further delay. To this end cardinal Alexandrino, a man of violent 
temper and a furious bigot, was sent with two monks to Calabria, where 
they were to act as inquisitors. These authorized persons came to St. 
Xist, one of the towns built by the Waldenses, where having assembled 
the people, they told them that they should receive no injury if they 
would accept of preachers appointed by the pope ; but if they refused 
they should be deprived both of their property and lives ; and that to 
prove them, mass should be publicly said that afternoon, at which they 
must attend. 

The inhabitants of St. Xist, instead of obeying, fled with their fami- 
lies into the woods, and thus disappointed the cardinal and his coad- 
jutors. Then they proceeded to La Garde, the other town belonging 
to the Waldenses, where, to avoid a similar dilemma, they ordered the 
gates to be locked, and all avenues guarded. The same proposals were 
however made to them as had been made to the people of St. Xist ; 
but with this artifice : the cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of 
St. Xist had immediately acceded to his proposals, and agreed that the 
pope should appoint them preachers. This falsehood succeeded ; for 
the people of La Garde thinking what the cardinal had told them to be 
truth, said they would exactly follow the example of their brethren at 
St. Xist. 

Having thus gained his point by falsehood, he sent for two troops with 
a view to massacre the people of St. Xist. He commanded the soldiers 
into the woods, to hunt them down like wild beasts, and gave strict 
orders to spare neither age nor sex, but to kill all they came near. The 
troops in obedience entered the woods, and many poor Xistians fell a 
prey to their ferocity, before the Waldenses were apprized of their 
design. At length, however, they determined to sell their lives as dear 
as possible, when several conflicts happened, in which the half-armed 
Waldenses performed prodigies of valour, and many were slain on both 
sides. At length, the greater part of the troops being killed in the 
different rencounters, the remainder were compelled to retreat, which 
so enraged the cardinal that he wrote to the viceroy of Naples for rein- 
forcements. 

The viceroy, in obedience, proclaimed throughout the Neapolitan 
territories, that ail out-laws, deserters, and other proscribed persons, 
should be freely pardoned for their several offences, on condition of 
making a campaign against the inhabitants of St. Xist, and of con- 
tinuing under arms till they were destroyed. On this several persons 
of desperate fortune came in, and being formed into light companies, 
were sent to scour the woods, and put to death all they could meet with 
of the reformed religion. The viceroy himself joined the cardinal, at 
the head of a body of regular forces, and in conjunction strove com- 
pletely to accomplish their bloody purpose. Some they caught, and 



PERSECUTIONS IN CALABRIA. 245 

suspending them upon trees, cut down boughs and burnt them, or left 
their bodies to be devoured by beasts or birds of prey. Many they shot 
at a distance; but the greatest number they hunted down by way of 
sport. A few escaped into caves; where famine destroyed them in their 
retreat. The inhuman chase was continued till all these people perished. 

The inhabitants of St. Xist being exterminated, those of La Garde 
engaged the attention of the cardinal and viceroy. The fullest protec- 
tion was offered to them, their families, and their children, if they would 
embrace the Roman catholic religion. On the contrary, if they refused 
this mercy, as they insolently termed it, the utmost extremities would be 
used, and the most cruel death be the certain consequences of refusal. 
Notwithstanding promises on one side, and menaces on the other, the 
Waldenses unanimously refused to renounce their religion, or embrace 
the errors of popery. The cardinal and viceroy were so filled with rage 
at this, that they ordered thirty of them to be put immediately to the 
rack, as a terror to the rest. Several of these died under the torture : 
one Charlin, in particular, was so cruelly used that his body burst, his 
bowels came out, and he expired in the greatest agonies. These barba- 
rities did not answer the end for which they were intended ; for those 
who survived the torments of the rack, and those who had not felt it, 
remained equally constant to their faith, and boldly declared, that no- 
thing, either of pain or fear, should ever induce them to renounce their 
God, or bow down to idols. The effect of this upon the obdurate car- 
dinal was, that he ordered several of them to be stripped naked, and 
whipped to death with iron rods : some were hewn to pieces with swords ; 
others were thrown from the top of a high tower ; and many were covered 
with pitch and burnt alive. 

One of the monks who attended the cardinal discovered a most inhu- 
man and diabolical nature. He requested that he might shed some of 
the blood of these poor people with his own hands ; his request being 
granted, the barbarous man took a sharp knife, and cut the throats of 
fourscore men, women, and children. The four principal men of La 
Garde were hanged, and the clergyman was thrown from the top of his 
church steeple. He was dreadfully crushed, but not quite killed by the 
fall. The viceroy being present, said, " Is the dog yet living ? Take 
him up, and cast him to the swine ;" and the brutal sentence was actually 
put in execution. The monsters, in their hellish thirst of cruelty, racked 
sixty of the women with such severity that the cords pierced their limbs 
to the bone. They were then remanded to prison, where their wounds 
mortified, and they died in the most miserable manner. Many others 
were put to death by various means; and so jealous and arbitrary were 
those monsters, that if any Roman catholic more compassionate than 
the rest interceded for any of the reformed, he was immediately appre- 
hended, and sacrificed as a favourer of heretics. 

The viceroy being obliged to return to Naples, and the cardinal 
having been recalled to Rome, the marquis of Butiane was commissioned 
to complete what they had begun ; which he at length effected, by acting 
with such barbarous rigour, that there was not a single person of the 
reformed religion left in all Calabria. Thus were great numbers of 
inoffensive and harmless people deprived of their possessions, robbed of 



246 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

their property, driven from their homes, and at length murdered by 
various means, only because they would not sacrifice their consciences 
to the superstitions of others, embrace doctrines which they abhorred, 
and attend to teachers whom they could not believe. In the year 1783 
a tremendous earthquake happened in Calabria, which quite changed 
the face of the country, and destroyed between 40 and 50,000 inhabi- 
tants. We would not deal damnation on any land ; still less on each 
individual whom we should, in a moment of provocation, deem the foe 
of God: but not to observe in this awful desolation the retributive 
justice of the Most High would be a criminal oversight. 



SECTION III. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. 

The Waldenses, in consequence of the continued persecutions they 
met with in France, fled for refuge to various parts of the world; among 
other places, many of them sought an asylum in the valleysof Piedmont, 
where they increased and flourished exceedingly for a considerable time. 
Notwithstanding their harmless behaviour, inoffensive conversation, and 
punctuality in paying tithes to the Romish clergy, the latter could not 
be contented, but sought to give them disturbance; and accordingly 
complained to the archbishop of Turin, that the Waldenses of the 
valleys of Piedmont were heretics. The clerical reasons for this charge 
were — that they did not believe in the doctrines of the church of Rome; 
that they made no offerings or prayers for the dead ; that they did not 
go to mass; and that they neither confessed nor received absolution; 
neither did they believe in purgatory, or pay money to get the souls of 
their friends out of it. Upon these self-evident charges, the archbishop 
ordered a persecution to be commenced, in consequence of which many 
fell martyrs to the superstitious rage of the monks and priests. 

At Turin, one of the reformed had his bowels torn out and placed 
before his face, till he expired. At Revel, Catelin Girard being at the 
stake, desired the executioner to give him up a stone, which he refused, 
thinking that he meant to throw it at somebody; but Girard assuring 
him that he had no such design, the executioner complied ; when Girard 
looking earnestly at the stone, said, " When it is in the power of a man 
to eat and digest this solid stone, the religion for which I am about to 
suffer shall have an end, and not before." He then threw the stone on 
the ground, and submitted cheerfully to the flames. A great many more 
were oppressed or put to death, till, wearied with their sufferings, the 
Waldenses flew to arms in their defence, and formed themselves into 
regular bodies. Full of revenge at this, the archbishop of Turin pro- 
cured a number of troops, and sent against them ; but in most of the 
skirmishes the Waldenses were victorious ; for they knew, if they were 
taken, they should not be considered as prisoners of war, but be tortured 
to death as heretics. 

Philip the Seventh was at this time duke of Savoy and supreme lord 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES. 247 

of Piedmont. He determined at length to interpose his authority, and 
stop these bloody wars, which so disturbed his dominions. Unwilling 
to offend the pope or the archbishop, he nevertheless sent them both mes- 
sages, importing, that he could not any longer tamely see his dominions 
over-run with troops, who were commanded by prelates in the place of 
generals; nor would he suffer his country to be depopulated, while he 
himself had not been even consulted upon the occasion. The priests, 
perceiving the determination of the duke, had recourse to their usual 
artifice, and endeavoured to prejudice his mind against the Waldenses; 
but the duke told them, that though he was unacquainted with the reli- 
gious tenets of these people, yet he had always found them quiet, faithful, 
and obedient, and was therefore determined they should be persecuted 
no longer. The priests then vented the most palpable and absurd false- 
hoods: they assured the duke that he was mistaken in the Waldenses, 
for they were a wicked set of people, and highly addicted to intem- 
perance, uncleanness, blasphemy, adultery, incest, and many other 
abominable crimes; and that they were even monsters in nature, for their 
children were born in forms which shewed that they were scarcely human 
beings. But the duke was not so to be imposed upon, though the priests 
affirmed in the most solemn manner the truth of what they had said. 
In order to be convinced, Philip sent twelve learned gentlemen into the 
Piedmontese valleys to examine into the real characters of the people. 

These gentlemen, after travelling through all the towns and villages, 
and conversing with the Waldenses of every rank, returned to the duke, 
and gave him the most favourable account of them ; affirming, before 
the faces of the priests, that they were harmless, inoffensive, loyal, 
friendly, industrious, and pious ; that they abhorred the crimes of which 
they were accused; and that should an individual, through his depra- 
vity, fall into any of those crimes, he would, by their laws, be punished 
in the most exemplary manner. With respect to the children, of whom 
the priests had told the most gross and ridiculous falsities, they were as 
fine children as could be seen. "And to convince your highness of 
what we have said," continued one of the gentlemen, "we have brought 
twelve of the principal male inhabitants, who are come to ask pardon 
in the name of the rest, for having taken up arms without your leave, 
though even in their own defence, and to preserve their lives from their 
merciless enemies. We have likewise brought several women, with 
children of various ages, that your highness may have an opportunity 
of judging for yourself." His highness then accepted the apology of 
the twelve delegates, conversed with the women, and examined the 
children, and afterwards graciously dismissed them. He then com- 
manded the priests, who had attempted to mislead him, immediately to 
leave the court; and gave strict orders, that the persecution should 
cease throughout his dominions." 

During the reign of this virtuous prince, the Waldenses enjoyed repose 
in their retreats; but on his death this happy scene changed, for his 
successor happened to be a bigoted papist. About the same time, some 
of the principal Waldenses proposed that their clergy should preach in 
public, that everyone might know the purity of their doctrines; for 
hitherto they had preached only in private, and to such congregations 



248 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

as they well knew to consist of none but persons of the reformed reli- 
gion. As yet they possessed only the New Testament and a few books 
of the Old, in their own language. Anxious to have the whole of these 
important treasures of truth and wisdom, they employed a Swiss printer 
to furnish them with a complete edition in the Waldensian tongue, for 
which they paid him 1500 crowns of gold. 

When tidings of these things reached the ears of the new duke, he 
was greatly exasperated, and sent a considerable body of troops into the 
valleys, swearing, that if the people would not conform to the Roman 
faith, he would have them flayed alive. The commander of the troops 
soon found the impracticability of conquering them with the number 
of men then under him : he, therefore, sent word to the duke, that the 
idea of subjugating the Waldenses with so small a force was ridiculous ; 
that they were better acquainted with the country than any that were 
with him ; that they had secured all the passes, were well armed, and 
determined to defend themselves ; and, with respect to flaying them 
alive, he said that every skin he tore off would cost him the lives of a 
dozen of his subjects. Alarmed at this, the duke commanded the troops 
to return, determining to act by stratagem. He, therefore, ordered 
rewards for taking any of the Waldenses, who might be found straying 
from their places of security ; and these, when taken, were either flayed 
alive or burnt. 

Pope Paul the Third, a furious bigot, ascending the pontifical chair, 
immediately solicited the parliament of Turin to persecute the Wal- 
denses, as the most pernicious of all heretics. To this the parliament 
readily assented, when several were suddenly seized and burnt by their 
order. Among these was Bartholomew Hector, a bookseller and sta- 
tioner of Turin. He was brought up a Roman catholic, but some trea- 
tises written by the reformed clergy having fallen into his hands, he was 
fully convinced of their truth, and of the errors of the church of Rome ; 
yet his mind was for some time wavering between. fear and duty, when, 
after some serious consideration, he fully embraced the reformed religion, 
and was apprehended and burnt. 

A consultation was again held by the parliament of Turin, in which 
it was agreed, that deputies should be sent to the valleys of Piedmont 
with the following propositions : That if the Waldenses would return 
to the bosom of the church of Rome, they should enjoy their houses, 
properties, and lands, and live with their families, without the least 
molestation. That to prove their obedience, they should send twelve 
of their principal persons, with all their ministers and schoolmasters, to 
Turin, to be dealt with at discretion. That the pope, the king of 
France, and the duke of Savoy, approved of, and authorised the pro- 
ceedings of the parliament of Turin, upon this occasion. That if the 
Waldenses of Piedmont rejected these propositions, persecution and 
death should be their reward. 

In answer to these hostile articles, the Waldenses made the following 
noble replies : That no consideration whatever should make them 
renounce their religion. That they would never consent to entrust their 
best and most respectable friends to the custody and discretion of their 
worst enemies. That they valued the approbation of the King of kings 



FORTITUDE OF THE WALDENSES. 249 

who reigns in Heaven, more than any temporal authority. That their 
souls were more precious than their bodies, and would receive as they 
deserved, their supreme regard and care. 

As might be conjectured, this spirited and pointed answer greatly 
exasperated the parliament of Turin ; in consequence of which they 
continued, with more avidity than ever, to secure such Waldenses as fell 
into their hands, and who were sure to suffer the most cruel deaths. Among 
these they caught Jeffrey Varnagle, minister of Angrogne, whom they 
accused as a heretic, and committed to the flames. They soon after 
solicited from the king of France a considerable body of troops, in order 
to exterminate the reformed from the valleys of Piedmont ; but just as 
the troops w T ere about to march, the protestant princes of Germany 
interposed, and threatened to send troops to assist the "Waldenses. On 
this the king of France, not caring to enter into a war, remanded the 
troops, and sent word to the parliament of Turin, that he could not 
spare them at present to act in Piedmont. At this those sanguinary 
senators were greatly disappointed, and through want of power the 
persecution gradually ceased, and they could only put to death such as 
they caught by chance, which owing to the caution of the Waldenses were 
very few. 

After a few years tranquillity, they were again disturbed. The pope's 
Nuncio coming to Turin to the duke of Savoy upon business, told that 
prince he was astonished he had not yet either rooted out the Waldenses 
from the valleys of Piedmont entirely, or compelled them to return to 
the church of Rome; that such conduct in him awakened suspicion ; 
that he thought him a favourer of those heretics, and should accordingly 
report the affair to the pope. Roused by this reflection, and fearful of 
being misrepresented to the pope, the duke determined to banish all 
suspicion ; and to prove his zeal, resolved to let loose the reins of cruelty 
on the unoffending Waldenses. He issued express orders for all to 
attend mass regularly on pain of death. This they absolutely refused 
to do, on which he entered the Piedmontese valleys with a great body 
of troops, and began a most furious persecution, in which great numbers 
were hanged, drowned, tied to trees, and pierced with prongs, thrown 
from precipices, burnt, stabbed, racked to death, worried by dogs, and 
crucified with their heads downwards. Those who fled had their goods 
plundered and their houses burnt. When they caught a minister or a 
schoolmaster, they put them to such exquisite tortures, as are scarcely 
credible to conceive. If any whom they took seemed wavering in their 
faith, they did not put them to death, but sent them to the gallies, to 
be made converts by dint of hardships. 

In this expedition the duke was accompanied by three men who re- 
sembled devils. Thomas Incomel, an apostate, brought up in the 
reformed religion, but who had renounced his faith, embraced the errors 
of popery, and turned monk. He was a great libertine, given to un- 
natural crimes, and sordidly solicitous for the plunder of the Waldenses. 
Corbis, a man of a very ferocious and cruel nature, whose business was 
to examine the prisoners. The provost of justice, an avaricious wretch, 
anxious for the execution of the Waldenses, as every execution added to 
his hoards. These three monsters were unmerciful to the last degree : 



250 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

wherever they came, the blood of the innocent was sure to flow. In 
addition to the cruelties exercised by the duke with these three persons 
and the army in their different marches, many local barbarities took 
place. At Pignerol, a town in the valleys, was a monastery, the monks 
of which rinding they might injure the reformed with impunity, began 
to plunder their houses, and pull down their churches ; and not meeting 
with opposition, they next seized upon the persons of those unhappy 
people, murdering the men, confining the women, and putting the 
children to Roman catholic nurses. 

In the same manner the Roman catholic inhabitants of the valley of 
St. Martin did all they could to torment the neighbouring Waldenses; 
they destroyed their churches, burnt their houses, seized their property, 
stole their cattle, converted their lands to their own use, committed their 
ministers to the flames, and drove the people to the woods, where they 
had nothing to subsist on but wild fruits, or the bark and roots of trees. 
Some ruffians having seized a minister as he was going to preach, de- 
termined to take him to a convenient place, and burn him. His 
parishioners hearing of his distress, armed themselves, pursued the 
villains, and seemed determined to rescue their minister. The ruffians 
finding they could not execute their first intent, stabbed the poor gen- 
tleman, and leaving him weltering in his blood, made a precipitate 
retreat. The astonished parishioners did all they could to recover him, 
but in vain ; for he expired as they were carrying him home. 

The monks of Pignerol having a great desire to get into their possession 
a minister of a town in the valleys called St. Germain, hired a band of 
ruffians for the purpose of seizing him. These fellows were conducted 
by a treacherous person, formerly a servant to the clergyman, and who 
knew a secret way to his house, by which he could lead them without 
alarming the neighbourhood. The guide knocked at the door, and 
being asked who was there, answered in his own name. The clergy- 
man, expecting no injury from a person on whom he had heaped favour, 
immediately opened the door; but perceiving the ruffians, he fled to a 
back door; but they rushed in, followed, and seized him. They then 
murdered all his family; after which they proceeded with their captive 
towards Pignerol, goading him all the way. He was confined a con- 
siderable time in prison, and then burnt. The troops of ruffians be- 
longing to the monks, continuing their assaults about the town of 
St. Germain, murdering and plundering many of the inhabitants, the 
reformed of Lucerne and Angrogne sent some armed men to the assist- 
ance of their brethren. These bodies frequently attacked and routed 
the ruffians, which so alarmed the monks that they left their monastery 
of Pignerol for some time, till they could procure regular troops for 
their protection. 

The duke of Savoy, not thinking himself so successful as he imagined 
he should be, augmented his forces, joined to them the ruffians, and 
commanded that a general delivery should take place in the prisons, 
provided the persons released would bear arms, and assist in the exter- 
mination of the Waldenses. No sooner were the latter informed of 
these proceedings than they secured as much of their property as they 
could, and quitting the valleys, retired to the rocks and caves among 




PERSECUTIONS IN THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. — PAGE 250. 



I) 



PEACE RATIFIED WITH THE WALDENSES. 251 

the Alps. The army on reaching their destined places began to plunder 
and burn the towns and villages wherever they came ; but the troops 
could not force their passes to the Alps, gallantly defended by the 
Waldenses, who in those attempts always repulsed their enemies ; but 
if any fell into the hands of the troops, they were treated in the most 
barbarous manner. A soldier having caught one of them, bit his right 
ear off, saying, " I will carry this member of that wicked heretic with 
me into my own country, and preserve it as a rarity." He then stabbed 
the man, and threw him into a ditch. 

At one time a party of the troops found a venerable man upwards of 
an hundred years of age, accompanied by his grand-daughter, a maiden, 
of about eighteen, in a cave. They murdered the poor old man in a 
most inhuman manner, and would have violated and murdered the girl 
had she not quickly escaped. Finding, however, that she was pursued, 
she fell from a precipice and killed herself. Determined if possible to 
expel their invaders, the Waldenses entered into a league with the pro- 
testant powers in Germany, and with the reformed of Dauphiny and 
Pragela. These were respectively to furnish bodies of troops ; and the 
Waldenses resolved, when thus reinforced, to quit the mountains of the 
Alps, where they soon must have perished, as the winter was coming on, 
and to force the duke's army to evacuate their native valleys. 

The duke of Savoy himself, however, was tired of the war, it having 
cost him great fatigue and anxiety of mind, a vast number of men, and 
considerable sums of money. It had been much more tedious and 
bloody than he expected, as well as more expensive than he at first 
imagined, for he thought the plunder would have discharged the ex- 
pences of the expedition : but the pope's nuncio, the bishops, monks, 
and other ecclesiastics, who attended the army and encouraged the 
war, took the greatest part of the wealth he acquired, under various 
pretences. For these reasons, and the death of his duchess, of which 
he had just received intelligence, and fearing that the Waldenses, by 
the treaties they had entered into, would become too powerful for him, 
he determined to return to Turin with his army, and to make peace with 
them. This resolution he put in practice greatly against the will of the 
ecclesiastics, who by the war both satiated their avarice and their re- 
venge. Before the articles of peace could be ratified, the duke himself 
died soon after his return to Turin ; but on his death-bed he strictly 
enjoined his son to perform what he had intended, and to be as favour- 
able as possible to the Waldenses. Charles-Emanuel, the duke's son, 
succeeded to the dominions of Savoy, and fully ratified the peace with 
the Waldenses, according to the last injunctions of his father, though 
the priests used all their arts to dissuade him from his noble purpose. 



252 



SECTION IV. 

ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN VENICE. 

Before the terrors of the inquisitors were known at Venice, a great 
number of protestants fixed their residence there, and many converts 
were made by the purity of their doctrines, and the inoffensiveness of 
their conversation. The pope no sooner learned the great increase of 
protestantism, than, in the year 1542, he sent inquisitors to Venice to 
make enquiry into the matter, and apprehend such as they might deem 
obnoxious. Thus a severe persecution began, and many persons were 
martyred for serving God with sincerity, and scorning the trappings of 
superstition. Various were the modes by which the protestants were de- 
prived of life ; but one in particular, being both new and singular, we 
shall describe. As soon as sentence was passed, the prisoner had an 
iron chain, to which was suspended a great stone, fastened to his body; 
he was then laid upon a plank, with his face upwards, and rowed 
between two boats to a certain distance at sea, when the boats separated, 
and, by the weight of the stone, he was sunk to the bottom. 

If any dared deny the jurisdiction of the inquisitors at Venice, they 
were conveyed to Rome, where, being committed to damp and nauseous 
prisons, and never called to a hearing, their flesh mortified, and a 
most miserable death ensued. A citizen of Venice, named Anthony 
Ricetti, being apprehended as a protestant, was sentenced to be drowned 
in the manner above described. A few days previous to his execution, 
his son went to him, and entreated him to recant, that his life might be 
saved, and himself not left an orphan. To this the father replied, " A 
good Christian is bound to relinquish not only goods and children, but 
life itself for the glory of his Redeemer." The nobles of Venice like- 
wise sent him word, that if he would embrace the Roman catholic reli- 
gion, they would not only grant him life, but redeem a considerable 
estate which he had mortgaged, and freely present him with it. This, 
however, he absolutely refused to comply with, sending word that he 
valued his soul beyond all other considerations. Finding every endea- 
vour to persuade him ineffectual, they ordered the execution of his 
sentence, and he died commending his soul fervently to his Redeemer. 
Francis Sega, another Venetian, stedfastly persisting in his faith, was 
executed, a few days after Recetti, in the same manner. 

Francis Spinola, a protestant gentleman of great learning, was ap- 
prehended by order of the inquisitors/and carried before their tribunal. 
A treatise on the Lord's Supper was then put into his hands, and he was 
asked if he knew the author of it. To which he replied, " I confess 
myself its author; and solemnly affirm, that there is not a line in it but 
what is authorized by, and consonant to, the Holy Scriptures." On 
this confession he was committed close prisoner to a dungeon. After 
remaining there several days, he was brought to a second examination, 
when he charged the pope's legate and the inquisitors with being mer- 
ciless barbarians, and represented the superstition and idolatry of the 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN MOLLIUS AND OTHERS. 253 

church of Rome in so strong- a light, that, unable to refute his argu- 
ments, they recommitted him to his dungeon. Being brought up a third 
time, they asked him if he would recant his errors, to which he an- 
swered, that the doctrines he maintained were not erroneous, being" 
purely the same as those which Christ and his apostles had taught, and 
which were handed down to us in the sacred volume. The inquisitors 
then sentenced him to be drowned, which was executed in the manner 
already described. He went to death with joy, thinking it unspeakable 
happiness to be so soon ushered to the world of glory, to dwell with 
God and the spirits of just men made perfect. 



SECTION V. 

ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE 
MARTYRED IN ITALY FOR THEIR RELIGION. 

John Mollius was born at R,ome of a respectable family. At twelve 
years old his parents placed him in a monastery of grey friars, where he 
made so rapid a progress in his studies, that in less than six years he 
was admitted to priest's orders. He was then sent to Ferrara, where, 
after six years further study, he was appointed theological reader in the 
university. Here he began to exert his great talents to disguise the 
gospel truths, and to varnish over the errors of the church of Rome. 
Having passed some years here, he removed to the university of 
Bononia, where he became a professor. At length, happily reading 
some treatises written by ministers of the reformed religion, he was 
suddenly struck with the errors of popery, and became in his heart a 
zealous protestant. He now determined to expound in truth and sim- 
plicity St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, in a regular course of sermons; 
at each of which he was attended by a vast concourse of people. But 
when the priests learned the tenets of his doctrines, they dispatched an 
account of him and them to Rome ; when the pope sent Cornelius, a 
monk, to Bononia, to expound the same epistle, according to his own 
tenets, and to controvert the doctrine of Mollius. The people, however, 
found such a disparity between the two preachers, that the audience of 
Mollius increased, while Cornelius preached to empty benches. The 
latter on this wrote of his bad success to the pope, who immediately 
ordered Mollius to be apprehended. He was seized accordingly, and 
kept in close confinement. The bishop of Bononia sent him word, that 
he must recant or be burnt; but he appealed to Rome, and was in con- 
sequence removed thither. Here he begged to have a public trial; 
but this the pope absolutely denied him, and commanded him to explain 
his opinions in writing, which accordingly he did under the following 
heads: — Original sin; Free will; The infallibility of the church of 
Rome; The infallibility of the pope; Justification by faith; Purgatory; 
Transubstantiation ; Mass; Auricular confession ; Prayers for the dead ; 
The host; Prayers for saints; Going on pilgrimages ; Extreme unction; 
Performing service in an unknown tongue. All these topics he treated 
upon scripture authority. The pope through reasons of policy spared 



254 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

him for the present; but soon after, in 1553, had him apprehended, 
and afterwards hanged and his body burnt to ashes. 

Francis Gamba, a Lombard and protestant, was apprehended, and 
condemned to death by the senate of Milan, in the year 1554. At the 
place of execution, he was presented by a monk with a cross. " My 
mind," said Gambia, "is so full of the real merits and goodness of 
Christ that I want not a piece of senseless wood to put me in mind of 
him." For this expression his tongue was bored through, after which 
he was committed to the flames. About the same period Algerius, a 
learned and accomplished student in the university of Padua, embraced 
the reformed religion, and was zealous in the conversion of others. For 
these proceedings he was accused of heresy to the pope, and being ap- 
prehended, was committed to the prison at Venice, whence he wrote to 
his converts at Padua the following celebrated and beautiful epistle. 

" Dear Friends, 

" I cannot omit this opportunity of letting you know the sincere 
pleasure I feel in my confinement : to suffer for Christ is delectable 
indeed ; to undergo a little transitory pain in this world for his sake, is 
cheaply purchasing a reversion of eternal glory, in a life that is ever- 
lasting. Hence I have found honey in the entrails of a lion ; a paradise 
in a prison ; tranquillity in the house of sorrow ; where others weep, I 
rejoice; where others tremble and faint, I find strength and courage. 
The Almighty alone confers these favours on me; be his the glory and 
the praise. 

" How different do I find myself from what I was before I embraced 
the truth in its purity : I was then dark, doubtful, and in dread ; I am 
now enlightened, certain, and full of joy. He that was far from me is 
present with me ; he comforts my spirit, heals my griefs, strengthens 
my mind, refreshes my heart, and fortifies my soul. Learn, therefore, 
how merciful and amiable the Lord is, who supports his servants under 
temptations, expels their sorrows, lightens their afflictions, and even 
visits them with his glorious presence in the gloom of a dismal dungeon. 

"Your sincere friend, 

"Algerius." 

The pope being informed of Algerius's great learning and abilities, 
sent for him to Rome, and tried by every means to win him to his pur- 
pose. But finding his endeavours hopeless, he ordered him to be burnt. 
John Alloysius, a protestant teacher, having come from Geneva to 
preach in Calabria, was there apprehended, carried to Rome, and 
burnt by order of the pope : and at Massina, James Bovellus was burnt 
for the same offence. 

In the year 1560, pope Pius the Fourth commenced a general perse- 
cution of the protestants throughout the Italian states, when great num- 
bers of every age, sex, and condition, suffered martyrdom. Concerning 
the cruelties practised upon this occasion, a learned and humane Roman 
catholic thus speaks in a letter to a nobleman; 

" I cannot, my lord, forbear disclosing my sentiments with respect to 
the persecution now carrying on. I think it cruel and unnecessary. I 



SEVENTY PROTESTANTS MURDERED. 255 

tremble at the manner of putting to death, as it resembles more the 
slaughter of calves and sheep, than the execution of human beings. 1 
will relate to your lordship a dreadful scene, of which I was myself an 
eye-witness. Seventy protestants were cooped up in one filthy dungeon 
together ; the executioner went in among them, picked out one from 
among the rest, blindfolded him, led him out to an open place before 
the prison, and cut his throat with the greatest composure. He then 
calmly walked into the prison again, bloody as he was, and with the 
knife in his hands selected another, and dispatched him in the same 
manner ; and this, my lord, he repeated till the whole number were put 
to death. I leave it to your lordship's feelings to judge of my sensations 
upon the occasion ; my tears now wash the paper upon which I give you 
the recital. Another thing I must mention, the patience with which they 
met death : they seemed all resignation and piety, fervently praying to 
God, and cheerfully encountering their fate. I cannot reflect without 
shuddering, how the executioner held the bloody knife between his 
teeth : what a dreadful figure he appeared, all covered with blood, and 
with what unconcern he executed his barbarous office!" 

The following remarkable incident, and fatal in its conclusion, took 
place at Rome. A young Englishman happened to be one day passing 
by a church, when the procession of the host was coming out. A 
bishop carried the host, which the young man perceiving, he snatched 
it from him, threw it upon the ground, and trampling it under his feet 
exclaimed, " Ye wretched idolaters, who neglect the true God to adore 
a morsel of bread ! " The people would have instantly torn him to pieces 
upon the spot; but the priests having persuaded them to let him abide 
by the sentence of the pope, they restrained their fury. 

As soon as the affair was made known to the pope, he ordered the 
prisoner to be burnt immediately ; but a cardinal, more refined in cruelty 
dissuaded him from this, saying, it was better to torture him, in order 
that they might find out if he had been instigated by any particular 
person to commit so atrocious an act. This was accordingly approved, 
and he was tortured with unusual severity : but they could only get 
these words from him, " It was the will of God that I should do what 
I did." The pope therefore sentenced him to be led naked to the 
middle, through the streets of Rome, by the executioner — to wear the 
image of the devil upon his head — to have his breeches painted with the 
representation of flames — to have his right hand cut off — and after 
being carried about thus in procession, to be burnt. 

On hearing this sentence, he implored God to give him strength and 
fortitude to go through it. As he passed through the streets he was 
greatly derided by the people, to whom he said some severe things 
respecting the Romish superstition. But a cardinal who attended the 
procession, over-hearing him, ordered him to be gagged. When he 
came to the church-door where he trampled on the host, the hangman 
cut off his right hand, and fixed it on a pole. Then two tormentors, 
with flaming torches, scorched and burnt his flesh all the rest of the 
way. At the place of execution he kissed the chains that were to bind 
him to the stake. A monk presenting the figure of a saint to him, he 
struck it aside, and then being fastened to the stake, the fagots were 
lighted, and he was burnt to ashes. 



. 256 



SECTION VI. 



SUMMARY OF PERSECUTIONS IN THE MARQUISATE OF SALUZZO 

The marquisite of Saluzzo is situated on the south side of the valleys 
of Piedmont, and in the year 1561 was principally inhabited by pro- 
testants, when the marquess began a prosecution against them at the 
instigation of the pope. He commenced by banishing the ministers ; 
if any of whom refused to leave their flocks they were imprisoned and 
severely tortured : he did not, however, proceed to put any to death. 
A little time after, the marquisate fell into the possession of the duke of 
Savoy, who sent circular letters to all the towns and villages, that he 
expected the people should all go to mass. Upon this the inhabitants 
of Saluzzo returned the following submissive, yet manly address for 
answer — 

" May it please your Highness, 

"We humbly entreat your permission to continue in the practice of 
the religion we have always professed, and our fathers professed before 
us. In this we shall acquit our consciences, without offending any 
person, for we are sensible that our religion is founded on the Holy 
Scriptures, by whose precepts we are commanded not to injure our 
neighbours. 

"We likewise implore your protection; for as Jews, infidels, and 
other enemies to Christ, are suffered to live in your dominions unmo- 
lested, we hope the same indulgence may be granted to Christians, 
whose very faith obliges them to be harmless, honest, inoffensive, and 
loyal. 

" We remain your highness's respectful, obedient, and faithful 
subjects, 

" The Protestant Inhabitants of the Marquisate." 

This letter for a time seemed to pacify the duke, who did not inter- 
rupt them at present ; but at length he sent them word, that they must 
either conform to his commands, or leave his dominions in fifteen days. 
The protestants, upon this unexpected edict, sent a deputy to the duke 
to obtain its revocation, or at least to have it moderated. Their petitions 
however were vain, and they were given to understand that the edict 
was peremptory. Some, under the impulse of fear or worldly interest, 
were weak enough to go to mass, in order to avoid banishment, and 
preserve their property ; others removed with their effects to different 
countries ; and many neglected the time so long, that they were obliged 
to abandon all they were worth, and leave the marquisate in haste; 
while some, who unhappily stayed behind, were seized, plundered, and 
put to death. 



SECTION VII. 

FARTHER ACCOUNT OF PERSECUTIONS IN THE VALLEYS OF 
PIEDMONT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Pope Clement the Eighth sent missionaries into the valleys of Pied- 
mont, with a view to induce the protestants to renounce their religion. 
These missionaries erected monasteries in several parts of the valleys, 
and soon became very troublesome to the reformed, to whom the monas- 
teries appeared not only as fortresses to awe them, but as sanctuaries for 
all such to fly to as had injured them in any degree. The insolence and 
tyranny of these missionaries increasing, the protestants petitioned the 
duke of Savoy for protection. But instead of gaining redress, the duke 
published a decree, in which he declared, that one witness should be 
sufficient in a court of law against a protestant; and that any witness 
who convicted a protestant of any crime whatever should be entitled to 
a hundred crowns as a reward. In consequence of this, as may be 
imagined, many protestants fell martyrs to perjury and avarice; for 
several papists would swear anything against them for the sake of the 
reward, and then fly to their own priests for absolution from their false 
oaths. These missionaries, moreover, endeavoured to get the books of 
the protestants into their power, in order to burn them ; the former 
wrote to the duke of Savoy, who for the heinous crime of not sur- 
rendering their bibles, prayer-books, and religious treatises, sent a num- 
ber of troops to be quartered on them, which occasioned the ruin of 
many families. 

To encourage, as much as possible, the apostasy of the protestants, 
the duke published a proclamation, wherein he said, "To encourage the 
heretics to turn catholics, it is our will and pleasure; and we do hereby 
expressly command, that all such as shall embrace the holy Roman 
faith, shall enjoy an exemption from all and every tax for the space of 
five years, commencing from the day of their conversion." He likewise 
established a court, called the council for extirpating the heretics. This 
court was to enter into enquiries concerning the ancient privileges of the 
protestant churches, and the decrees which had been, from time to time, 
made in favour of them. But the investigation was carried on with the 
most decided partiality. After this, the duke published several succes- 
sive edicts, prohibiting the protestants from acting as schoolmasters or 
tutors; from teaching any art, science, or language; from holding any 
places of profit, trust, or honour: and finally, commanding them to 
attend mass. This last was the sure signal for a persecution, and which 
of consequence soon followed. 

One of the first who attracted the notice of the papists, was Mr. 
Sebastian B.asan, a zealous protestant, who was seized by the mis- 
sionaries, confined, tormented fifteen months, and then committed to the 
flames. Before the persecution commenced, the missionaries employed 
kidnappers to steal away the children of the protestants, that they might 
privately be brought up Roman catholics ; but now they took away the 
children by open force, and if the wretched parents resisted, they were 



258 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

immediately murdered. The duke of Savoy, in order to inspirit the 
persecution, called a general assembly of the Roman catholic nobility 
and gentry, whence issued a solemn edict against the reformed, contain- 
ing many heads, and including several reasons for extirpating them, 
among which the following were the principal: " for the preservation of 
the papal authority; that the church livings may be all under one mode 
of government; to make an union among all parties; in honour of all 
the saints, and of the ceremonies of the church of Rome." 

This was followed by a most cruel order, published on January 25, 
A. D. 1655, under the sanction of the duke, by Andrew Gastaldo, 
doctor of civil laws. This order set forth, "That every head of a 
family, with the individuals of that family, of the reformed religion, of 
what rank, degree, or condition soever, none excepted, inhabiting and 
possessing estates in Lucerne, St. Giovanni, Bibiana, Campiglione, 
St. Secondo, Lucernetta, La Torre, Fenile, and Bricherassio, shall, 
within three days after the publication thereof, depart, and be with- 
drawn out of the said places and translated into the places and limits 
tolerated by his highness during his pleasure; particularly Bobbio, 
Angrogno, Villaro, Rorata, and the county of Bonetti. And all this 
to be done on pain of death, and confiscation of house and goods, 
unless within the limited time they turn Roman catholics." The 
suddenness of the order affected all, and things which would have been 
scarcely noticed at another time, now appeared in the most conspicuous 
light. Neither women nor children, neither mothers nor infants, were 
objects of pity on this order for sudden removal, for all were included 
in the command; and to add to the distress, the winter was remarkably 
severe. 

Notwithstanding this, the papists drove them from their habitations at 
the time appointed, without even sufficient clothes to cover them ; and 
many perished in the mountains through the severity of the season, or 
want of food. Those who remained behind after the publication of the 
decree, were murdered by the popish inhabitants, or shot by the troops. 
A particular description of these cruelties is given in a letter, written by 
a protestant, who was upon the spot, and who happily escaped the car- 
nage. " The army," says he, " having got footing, became very nu- 
merous by the addition of a multitude of the neighbouring popish 
inhabitants, who finding we were the destined prey of the plunderers, 
fell upon us with impetuous fury. Exclusive of the duke of Savoy's 
troops, and the Roman catholic inhabitants, there were several regiments 
of French auxiliaries, some companies belonging to the Irish brigades, 
and several bands formed of outlaws, smugglers, and prisoners, who had 
been promised pardon and liberty in this world, and absolution in the 
next, for assisting to exterminate the protestants from Piedmont. This 
armed multitude being encouraged by the bishops and monks, fell upon 
the protestants in a most furious manner. All now was horror and 
despair ; blood stained the floors of the houses, dead bodies bestrewed 
the streets, and groans and cries shocked the ears of humanity from 
every quarter. Some armed themselves, and skirmished with the troops; 
and many with their families fled to the mountains. In one village the 
wretches vented their cruelty on one hundred and fifty women and 



PERSECUTION RENEWED IN PIEDMONT. 259 

children after the men had fled, beheading the women, and dashing 
out the brains of the children." 

Sarah Rostignole des Vignes, a woman sixty years of age, being 
seized by some soldiers, they ordered her to say a prayer to some saints; 
which she refusing, they first stabbed and then beheaded her. Martha 
Constantine, a beautiful young woman, was barbarously abused and 
killed. Parts of their bodies were even cooked for food, and served up 
for soldiers who were ignorant what was before them. When they had 
done eating, the others told them what they had made a meal of, in 
consequence of which a quarrel ensued, swords were drawn, and a 
battle took place. Several were killed in the fray, the greater part of 
whom were those concerned in the horrid massacre of the woman, and 
who had practised such a brutal deception on their deluded comrades. 

Peter Simonds, a protestant, about eighty years of age, was bound, 
and then thrown down a precipice. In the fall the branch of a tree 
caught hold of the ropes that fastened him, and suspended him in the 
mid-way, so that he languished for several days till he perished of 
hunger. Esay Garcino, refusing to renounce his religion, the soldiers 
cut him into small pieces, saying, in ridicule, they had minced him. A 
woman, named Armand, had her limbs separated from each other, and 
then the respective parts were hung upon a hedge. Several men, 
women, and children, were flung from the rocks, and dashed to pieces. 
Among others was Magdalen Bertino, a protestant woman of La Torre, 
who was bound and thrown down one of the precipices. Mary Ray- 
mondet, of the same town, had her flesh mangled till she expired. 
Magdalen Pilot, of Villaro, was cut to pieces in the cave of Castolus. 
Ann Charboniere had one end of a stake thrust into her body, and the 
other end being fixed in the ground, she was left in that manner to 
perish. Jacob Perin the elder, of the church of Villaro, with David, 
his brother, were flayed alive. 

Giovanni Andrea Michialin, an inhabitant of La Torre, with four of 
his children, was apprehended; three of them were killed before his 
eyes, the soldiers asking him, at the death of every child, if he would 
renounce, which he constantly refused. One of the soldiers then took 
up the last and youngest by the legs, and putting the same question to 
the father, he replied as before, when the inhuman brute dashed out the 
child's brains. The father, however, at the same moment started from 
them, and fled: the soldiers fired after him, but missed him; and he 
escaped to the Alps, and there remained concealed. Giovanni Pelan- 
chion, on refusing to abjure his oath, was fastened to the tail of a mule, 
and dragged through the streets of Lucerne, amidst the acclamations of 
an inhuman mob, who kept stoning him, and crying out, " He is pos- 
sessed of the devil." They then took him to the river side, struck off 
his head, and left that and his body unburied upon the bank. 

Peter Fontaine had a beautiful child ten years of age, named Mag- 
dalene, who was violated and murdered by the soldiers. Another girl, 
of about the same age, they roasted alive at Villa Nova; and a poor 
woman, hearing the soldiers were coming towards her house, snatched up 
the cradle in which her infant son was asleep, and fled towards the 
woods. The soldiers, however, saw and pursued her, when she light- 



260 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ened herself by putting down the cradle and child, which the soldiers no 
sooner came to, than they murdered the infant, and continuing the 
pursuit, found the mother in a cave, where they first abused and then 
slaughtered her. Jacobo Michelino, chief elder of the church of 
Bobbio, and several other protestants, were hung up by hooks fixed to 
their bodies, and left to expire. Giovanni Rostagnal, a venerable pro- 
testant, upwards of fourscore years of age, had his features mangled, 
and was otherwise injured by sharp weapons, till he bled to death. 
Daniel Saleagio and his wife, Giovanni Durant, Lodwich Durant, 
Bartholomew Durant, Daniel Revel, and Paul Reynaud, had their 
mouths stuffed with gunpowder, which being set fire to, their heads 
were blown to atoms. 

Jacob Birone, a schoolmaster of Rorata, for refusing to change his 
religion, was stripped naked; and after having been exposed, had the 
nails of his toes and fingers torn off with hot pincers, and holes bored 
through his hands with the point of a dagger. He next had a cord tied 
round his middle, and was led through the streets with a soldier on each 
side of him. At every turning the soldier on his right-hand side cut a 
gash in his flesh, and the soldier on his left-hand side struck him with a 
bludgeon, both saying, at the same instant, "Will you go to mass? 
Will you go to mass?" He still replied in the negative to these interro- 
gatories, and being at length taken to the bridge, they cut off his head 
on the balustrade, and threw both that and his body into the river. 
Paul Gamier, a protestant beloved for his piety, had his eyes put out, 
was then flayed alived, and being divided into four parts, his quarters 
were placed on four of the principal houses of Lucerne. He bore all 
his sufferings with the most exemplary patience, praised God as long 
as he could speak, and plainly evinced the courage arising from a con- 
fidence in God. Daniel Cardon, of Rocappiata, being apprehended by 
some soldiers, they cut off his head. Two poor old blind women, of 
St. Giovanni, were burnt alive. A widow of La Torre, with her daugh- 
ter, was driven into the river, and stoned to death there. Paul Giles, 
on attempting to run away from some soldiers, was shot in the neck : 
they then mutilated and stabbed him, and gave his carcass to the dogs. 

Some of the Irish troops having taken eleven men of Garcigliana, 
prisoners, they heated a furnace and forced them into it. Michael 
Gonet, a man about 90 years old, was also burnt to death. Baptista 
Oudri, another old man, was stabbed. Bartholomew Frasche had his 
heels pierced, through which ropes being put, he was dragged to the 
gaol, where, in consequence of his wound mortifying, he soon died. 
Magdalene de la Peire, being pursued by the soldiers and taken, was 
cast down a precipice and dashed to pieces. Margaret Revella and 
Mary Pravillerin, two very old women, were burnt alive. Michael 
Bellino, and Anne Bochardno, were beheaded. Joseph Chairet and 
Paul Carniero were flayed alive. 

Cypryania Bustia being asked "if he would renounce his religion, 
and turn Roman catholic," he replied, " I would rather renounce life, 
or turn dog :" to which a priest answered, "for that expression you 
shall both renounce life, and be given to the dogs." They, accordingly, 
dragged him to prison, where they confined him till he perished of 






UNPARALLELED CRUELTIES. 261 

hunger, after which they threw his corpse into the street before the 
prison, and it was devoured by dogs. Joseph Pont was severed in two. 
Margaret Soretta was stoned to death. Antonio Bertina had his head 
cleft asunder. Daniel Maria, and all his family, being ill of a fever, 
several ruffians broke into his house, telling him they were practical 
physicians, and would give them all present ease; which they did, by 
murdering him and his whole family. Three infant children of a pro- 
testant, named Peter Fine, were buried in the snow. An elderly widow, 
named Judith, was beheaded. 

Lucy, the wife of Peter Besson, who lived in one of the villages of 
the Piedmontese valleys, being in an advanced state of pregnancy, 
determined, if possible, to escape from such dreadful scenes as every 
where surrounded her: she accordingly took two young children, one 
in each hand, and set off towards the Alps. But on the third day of 
the journey she was taken in labour among the mountains, and delivered 
of an infant, who perished through the inclemency of the weather, as 
did the other two children ; for all three were found dead by her side, 
and herself just expiring, by the person to whom she related the above 
circumstances. 

Francis Gross, son of a worthy clergyman, was treated in a manner 
which, if possible, surpasses in cruelty the worst instance which has been 
mentioned. It is too heart-sickening to be detailed, and was aggravated 
to the most inhuman extent by his wife being compelled to witness his 
extreme sufferings. The torture was not at last suspended but through 
the weariness of those who inflicted it. The Sieur Thomas Margher 
fled to a cave, where being discovered, the soldiers shut up the mouth, 
and he perished with famine. Judith Revelin, with seven children, were 
barbarously murdered in their beds. Jacob Roseno was commanded 
to pray to the saints, which he refusing, the soldiers beat him violently 
with bludgeons to make him comply, but being steady to his faith, they 
fired at him, and lodged many balls in his body. While in the agonies 
of death, they cried to him, " Will you pray to the saints'?" To which 
he answered, " No!" when one of the soldiers, with a broad sword, 
clave his head asunder, and put an end to his sufferings. 

A young woman, named Susanna Ciacquin, being assaulted by a 
soldier, she made a stout resistance, and in the struggle pushed him over 
a precipice, when he was dashed to pieces by the fall. His comrades 
immediately fell upon her with their swords, and cut her to atoms, 
Giovanni Pullius, being apprehended as a protestant, was ordered by 
the marquis of Pianessa to be executed in a place near the convent. 
When brought to the gallows, several monks attended to persuade him 
to renounce his religion. But he told them he never would embrace 
idolatry, and that he was happy in being thought worthy to suffer for 
the name of Christ. They then represented to him what his wife and 
children, who depended upon his labour, would suffer after his decease: 
to which he replied, " I would have my wife and children, as well as 
myself, to consider their souls more than their bodies, and the next 
world before this; and with respect to the distress I may leave them in, 
God is merciful, and will provide for them while they are dependent on 
his protection." Finding the inflexibility of this poor man, the monks 



262 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

commanded the executioner to perform his orifice, when he launched the 
martyr into the world of glory. 

Paul Clement, an elder of the church of Rossana, being apprehended 
by the monks of a neighbouring monastery, was carried to the market- 
place of that town, where some protestants had just been executed. On 
beholding the dead bodies, he said calmly, " You may kill the body, 
but you cannot injure the soul of a true believer: with respect to the 
dreadful spectacles which you have here shewn me, you may rest assured 
that God's vengeance will overtake the murderers of those poor people, 
and punish them for the innocent blood they have spilt." The monks 
were so exasperated at this reply, that they ordered him to be hung up 
directly ; and while he was hanging, the soldiers amused themselves by 
shooting at the body. 

Daniel Rambaut, of Villaro, the father of a numerous family, was 
seized, and, with several others, committed to the gaol of Paysana. 
Here he was visited by several priests, who, with continual impor- 
tunities, strove to persuade him to turn papist: but this he peremptorily 
refused, and the priests finding his resolution, pretended to pity his 
numerous family, and told him, that he might yet have his life, if he 
would subscribe to the belief of the following articles : — The real pre- 
sence in the host. — Transubstantiation. — Purgatory. — The pope's infal- 
libility. — That masses said for the dead will release souls from purgatory — 
That praying to saints will procure the remission of sins. To these pro- 
posals Rambaut replied, that neither his religion, his understanding, 
nor his conscience, would suffer him to subscribe to any of these articles; 
"For," said he, "to believe the real presence in the host, is a shocking 
union of blasphemy and idolatry. To fancy the words of consecration 
perform what the papists call transubstantiation, by converting the wafer 
and wine into the/identical body and blood of Christ, which was cruci- 
fied, and which afterwards ascended into heaven, is too gross an absurdity 
for even a child to believe ; and nothing but the most blind superstition 
could make the Roman catholics put a confidence in anything so ridi- 
culous. The doctrine of purgatory is more inconsistent and absurd than 
a fairy tale. The infallibility of the pope is an impossibility, and he 
arrogantly lays claim to what can belong to God only, as a perfect 
being. Saying masses for the dead is ridiculous, and only meant to 
keep up a belief in the fable of purgatory, as the fate of all is finally 
decided in the departure of the soul from the body. Praying to saints 
for the remission of sins, is misplacing adoration, as the saints themselves 
have occasion for an intercessor in Christ ; therefore as God only can 
pardon our errors, we ought to sue to him alone for pardon." Filled 
with rage at these answers, the priests determined to shake his resolutions 
by the most cruel method imaginable : they inflicted daily tortures on 
his most susceptible limbs, and then deprived him of one limb after 
another so gradually as to reduce him to the utmost agony ; when find- 
ing that he bore his sufferings with unconquerable fortitude, and main- 
tained his faith with steadfast resolution, they stabbed him to the heart 
and gave his body to be devoured by dogs. 

Peter Gabriola, a protestant gentleman, of considerable eminence, 
being seized by a troop of soldiers, and refusing to renounce his religion, 



VARIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 263 

they hung several bags of gunpowder about his body, and then caused 
them to explode. Anthony, the son of Samuel Catieris, a poor dumb 
lad, and extremely inoffensive, was cut to pieces by a party of the 
troops ; and soon after the same ruffians entered the house of Peter 
Moniriat, and cut off the legs of the whole family, leaving them to bleed 
to death. Daniel Benech being apprehended, had his nose slit, and his 
ears cut off; after which, he was divided into quarters, and each quarter 
hung upon a tree ; Mary Monino had her jaw-bones broken, and was 
left to languish till she was starved to death. Mary Pelanchion, a hand- 
some widow, of the town of Villaro, was seized by a party of the Irish 
brigades, who having beat her cruelly, and otherwise abused her, 
dragged her to a high bridge which crossed the river, hung her by the 
legs from an arch with her head downwards towards the water, and then 
going into boats they shot at her till she died. Mary Nigrino, and her 
daughter, a poor idiot, were cut to pieces in the woods, and their bodies 
left to be devoured by beasts. Susanna Bales, a widow of Villaro, was 
immured and starved to death. 

Susanna Calvio, running away from some soldiers, and hiding herself 
in a barn, they set fire to the place, by which she was burnt to death. 
Daniel Bertino, a child, was burnt. Paul Armand was cut to pieces. 
Daniel Michialino had his tongue plucked out. Andreo Bertino, a 
lame and very old man, was mangled in a most shocking manner. But 
to enumerate any but the most remarkable cases is impossible, without 
rendering the volume almost an entire catalogue of names distinguished 
only by the undeserved sufferings of those who bore them. 

A protestant lady, named Constantia Bellione, was apprehended on 
account of her faith, and asked by a priest if she would renounce the 
devil and go to mass; to which she replied, "I was brought up in a 
religion by which I was always taught to renounce the devil ; but should 
I comply with your desire, and go to mass, I should be sure to meet 
him there in a variety of shapes." The priest was highly incensed at 
this, and told her to recant, or she should suffer cruelly. She, however, 
boldly answered, that she valued not any sufferings he could inflict, and 
in spite of them all she would keep her faith inviolate. The priest then 
ordered flesh to be cut from several parts of her body. This she bore 
with the most singular patience, only saying to the priest, " What horrid 
and lasting torments will you suffer in hell, for the trifling and temporary 
pains which I now endure !" Exasperated at this expression, and willing 
to stop her tongue, the priest ordered a file of musqueteers to draw up 
and fire upon her, by which she was soon dispatched. Judith Mandon, 
a young woman, for the same offence, was fastened to a stake, and sticks 
thrown at her from a distance, in imitation of the custom practised on 
Shrove-Tuesday of throwing at cocks. By this inhuman proceeding, her 
limbs were beat and mangled in a most terrible manner. At last one 
of the bludgeons striking her head, she was at once freed from her pains 
and her life. 

Paul Genre and David Paglia, each with his son, attempting to escape 
to the Alps, were pursued and overtaken by the soldiers in a large plain. 
Here their foes hunted them for their diversion, goading them with their 
swords, and making them run about till they dropped with fatigue. 



264 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

When they found that their spirits were exhausted, and that they could 
not afford them any more barbarous sport by running, the soldiers hacked 
them to pieces, and left their mangled fragments on the spot. Michael 
Greve, a young man of Bobbio, was apprehended in the town of La 
Torre, and being led to the bridge, was thrown into the river. Being, 
however, an expert swimmer, he swam down the stream, thinking to 
escape, but the soldiers and mob followed on both sides the river, and 
kept stoning him, till receiving a blow on one of his temples, he sunk 
and was drowned. David Baridona was apprehended at Villaro, and 
carried to La Torre, where refusing to renounce his religion, he was 
tormented by brimstone matches being fastened to his hands and feet, 
and set fire to, and afterwards, by having his flesh plucked off with red 
hot pincers, till he expired. Giovanni Barolina, with his wife, were 
thrown into a pool of stagnant water, and compelled, by means of pitch- 
forks and stones, to immerse their heads till they were suffocated with 
the stench. 

A number of soldiers assaulted the house of Joseph Garniero, and 
before they entered, fired in at the window, to give notice of their 
approach. Mrs. Garniero was at that instant suckling her child, and 
one of the balls entered her breast. On finding their intentions, she 
begged them to spare the life of the infant, which they promised to do, 
and sent it immediately to a Roman catholic nurse. They then seized 
the husband and hanged him at his own door, and having shot the wife 
through the head, left her body weltering in its blood. 

Isaiah Mandon, a pious protestant, in the wane of life, fled from his 
merciless persecutors to a cleft in a rock, where he suffered the most 
dreadful hardships. In the midst of winter he was forced to lay on the 
bare stone, without any covering ; his food was the roots he could pluck 
up near his miserable habitation ; and the only way by which he could 
quench his thirst was to put snow in his mouth till it melted. Here, 
however, some of the soldiers found him, and after beating him unmer- 
cifully, they drove him towards Lucerne, goading him all the way with 
the points of their swords. Being exceedingly weakened by his manner 
of living, and exhausted by the blows he had received, he fell down 
in the road. They again beat him to make him proceed; till on his 
knees, he implored them to put him out of his misery. This they at 
last agreed to do ; and one of them shot him through the head, saying 
"There, heretic, take thy request." 

Mary Revel, a protestant, received a shot in her back while walking 
along the street, which brought her to the ground ; but recovering suf- 
ficient strength, she raised herself upon her knees, and lifting her hands 
towards heaven, prayed in a most fervent manner to the Almighty ; 
when a number of soldiers, near at hand, fired a volley of shot at her, 
and in an instant put an end to her miseries. To screen themselves 
from danger, a number of men, women, and children, fled to a large 
cave, where they continued for some weeks in safety, two of the men 
going when it was necessary, by stealth, to procure provisions. They 
were, however, one day watched, by which the cave was discovered, 
and, soon after, a troop of catholic soldiers appeared before it. Many 
of these were neighbours, and intimate acquaintances, and some even 



ATTACK ON THE COMMONALTY OF RORAS. 265 

relations to those in the cave. The protestants, therefore, came out, 
and implored them, by the ties of hospitality, and especially by those ot 
blood and neighbourhood, not to murder them. But, fulfilling the words 
of the Lord, "the father shall be divided against the son, and the son 
against the father," the papists, blinded by bigotry, told them they 
could not shew any mercy to heretics, and therefore bade them all pre- 
pare to die. Hearing this, and knowing the obduracy of their enemies, 
the protestants fell prostrate, lifted their hearts to heaven, and patiently 
awaited their fate, which the papists soon decided, by cutting them to 
pieces. 

The blood of the faithful being almost exhausted in the towns and 
villages of Piedmont, there remained but one place that had stood aloof 
from the general slaughter. This was the little commonalty of Roras, 
which stood upon an eminence. Of this the earl of Christophe, one of 
the duke of Savoy's officers, determined if possible to make himself 
master; with that view he detached three hundred men to surprise it. 
The inhabitants, however, had intelligence of the approach of these 
troops, and captain Joshua Gianavel, a brave protestant officer, put 
himself at the head of a small body of the citizens, and waited in am- 
buscade to attack the enemy in a narrow passage, the only place by 
which the town could be approached. As soon as the troops appeared 
and had entered the passage, the protestants commenced a smart and 
well-directed fire against them, and still kept themselves concealed 
behind bushes from the sight of the enemy. A great number of the 
soldiers were killed, and the rest, receiving a continual fire, and not 
seeing any to whom they might attribute and return it, made a precipi- 
tate retreat. 

The members of this little community immediately sent a memorial 
to the marquis of Pianes'sa, a general officer of the duke, stating, 
that they were sorry to be under the necessity of taking up arms ; but 
that the secret approach of a body of troops, without any previous 
notice sent of the purpose of their coming, had greatly alarmed them ; 
that as it was their custom never to suffer any of the military to enter 
their territory, they had repelled force by force, and should do so again; 
but in all other respects, they professed themselves dutiful, obedient, 
and loyal subjects to their sovereign, the duke of Savoy. The marquis, 
to delude and surprise the protestants of Roras, sent them word that 
he was perfectly satisfied with their behaviour, for they had done right, 
and even rendered a service to their country, as the men who had at- 
tempted to pass the defile were not his troops, but a band of desperate 
robbers, who had, for some time, infested those parts, and been a terror 
to the neighbouring country. To give a greater colour to his treachery, 
he published a proclamation to the same purpose, expressive of thanks 
to the citizens of Roras. 

The very day after, however, this treacherous nobleman sent 500 men 
to possess themselves of the town, while the people, as he thought, were 
lulled into security by his artifice. 

Captain Gianavel was not thus to be deceived ; he, therefore, laid a 
second ambuscade for the troops, and compelled them to retire with 
greater loss and disgrace than before. Foiled in two attempts, the san- 



266 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

guinary marquess determined on a third, which should be still more for- 
midable ; but still to delude the brave citizens, he published another 
proclamation, disowning any knowledge of the second attempt. He 
soon after sent 700 chosen men upon the expedition, who, in spite of the 
fire from the protestants, forced the defile, entered Roras, and began to 
murder every person they met with, without distinction of sex or age. 
Captain Gianavel, at the head of his friends, though he had lost the 
defile, determined to dispute the passage through a fortified pass, that led 
to the richest and best part of the town. Here he succeeded, by keeping 
up a continual fire, which did great execution, his men being all complete 
marksmen. The catholic commander was astonished and dismayed at 
this opposition, as he imagined that he had surmounted all difficulties. 
He, however, strove to force the pass, but being able to bring up only 
twelve men in front at a time, and the protestants being secured by a 
breast-work, he saw all his hopes frustrated. 

Enraged at the loss of so many troops, and fearful of disgrace if he 
persisted in attempting what appeared impracticable, he thought it wiser 
to retreat. Unwilling, however, to withdraw his men by the defile at 
which he had entered, on account of the danger, he endeavoured to 
retreat towards Villaro, by another pass called Piampra, which, though 
hard of access, was easy of descent. Here, however, he again felt the 
determined bravery of captain Gianavel, who having posted his little 
band here, greatly annoyed the troops as they passed, and even pursued 
their rear till they entered the open the country. The marquis Pianessa, 
finding all these attempts baffled, and that every artifice he used was 
only a signal to the inhabitants of Roras, resolved to act openly; and 
therefore proclaimed, that ample rewards should be given to any 
who would bear arms against the obdurate heretics of Roras, and 
that any officer who would exterminate them should be honoured ac- 
cordingly. 

Captain Mario, a bigoted Roman catholic, and a desperate ruffian, 
stimulated by this, resolved to undertake the enterprise. He therefore 
obtained leave to raise a regiment in the towns of Lucerne, Borges, 
Famolas, Bobbio, Cavos, and Bagnal. In these places he levied a regi- 
ment of 1000 men. With this he resolved to attempt gaining the 
summit of a rock, whence he could pour his men into the town without 
opposition or difficulty. But the protestants, aware of his design, suf- 
fered his troops to gain almost the summit of the rock, without appearing 
in sight: when they made a most furious attack upon them; one party 
keeping up a well-directed and constant fire, and another party rolling 
down stones of a great weight. Thus were they suddenly stopped in 
their career. Many were killed by the musquetry, and more by the 
stones, which beat them down the precipices. Several fell sacrifices to 
their own fears, for by attempting a precipitate retreat, they fell and 
were dashed to pieces; and captain Mario himself, having fallen from 
a craggy place into a river at the foot of a rock, was taken up senseless, 
and remained ill of the bruises a long time ; and at length fell into a 
decline at Lucerne, where he died. After this another body of troops 
from the camp at Villaro made an attempt upon Roras, but were like- 
wise defeated, and compelled to retreat again to their camp. Captain 



HEROIC CONDUCT OF GIANAVEL. 267 

Gianavel, for each of these signal victories, made a suitable discourse to 
his men, kneeling down with them to return thanks to the Almighty for 
his providential protection; and concluded with the 11th Psalm. 

The marquis of Pianessa, now enraged to the highest degree at being 
thus foiled by such a handful of men, determined on their expulsion, or 
destruction. To this end, he ordered all the catholic militia of Piedmont 
to be called out and disciplined. To these he joined eight thousand 
regular troops, and dividing the whole into three distinct bodies, he 
planned that number of formidable attacks to be made at once, unless 
the people of Roras, to whom he sent an account of his great prepara- 
tions, would comply with the following conditions : — To ask pardon for 
taking up arms. To pay the expences of all the expeditions sent 
against them. To acknowledge the infallibility of the pope. To attend 
mass. To pray to the saints. To deliver up their ministers and school- 
masters. To observe confession. To pay loans for the delivery of souls 
from purgatory. Above all, to give up captain Gianavel and the elders 
of their church at discretion. The brave and magnanimous inhabitants, 
indignant at these proposals, answered, that sooner than comply with 
them they would suffer their estates to be seized ; their houses to be 
burnt; and themselves to be murdered. 

Swelling with rage at this, the marquis sent them the following laconic 
letter: — " You shall have your request, for the troops sent against you 
have strict injunctions to plunder, burn, and kill. 

" Pianessa." 

The three armies were accordingly put in motion, and the attacks 
ordered as follows : the first by the rocks of Villaro ; the second by the 
pass of Bagnol; and the third by the defile of Lucerne. As might be 
expected, from the superiority of numbers, the troops gained the rocks, 
pass, and defile, entered the town, and commenced the most horrid de- 
predations. Men they hanged, burnt, and racked to death, or cut to 
pieces; women they crucified, drowned, or threw from the precipice; 
and children they tossed upon spears, or dashed out their brains. On 
the first day of their gaining the town, one hundred and twenty-six 
suffered by these and other barbarous methods. Agreeably to the orders 
of the marquis, their estates were plundered and their houses burnt. 
Several protestants, however, made their escape, under the conduct of 
the brave Gianavel, whose wife and children were unfortunately made 
prisoners, and sent to Turin under a strong guard. 

The marquis thinking to conquer at least the mind of Gianavel, 
wrote him a letter, and released a protestant prisoner, that he might 
carry it to him. The contents were, that if the captain would embrace 
the Roman catholic religion, he should be indemnified for all his losses 
since the commencement of the war, his wife and children should be 
immediately released, and himself honourably promoted in the duke of 
Savoy's army ; but if he refused to accede to the proposals made to 
him, his wife and children should be put to death; and so large a 
reward should be given to take him, dead or alive, that even some of 
his own confidential friends should, from the greatness of the sum, be 
tempted to betray him. 



268 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

To this, Gianavel returned the following answer : 
" My Lord Marquis, 

" There is no torment so great, or death so cruel, that I would not 
prefer to the abjuration of my religion ; so that promises lose their 
effects, and menaces only strengthen me in my faith. With respect to 
my wife and children, my lord, nothing can be more afflicting to me 
than the thought of their confinement, or be more dreadful to my 
imagination than their suffering a violent death. I keenly feel all the 
tender sensations of a husband and a parent ; I would suffer any tor- 
ment to rescue them ; I would die to preserve them. But having said 
thus much, my lord, I assure you that the purchase of their lives must 
not be the price of my salvation. You have them in your power it is 
true ; but my consolation is, that your power is only a temporary 
authority over their bodies: you may destroy the mortal part, but their 
immortal souls are out of your reach, and will live hereafter, to bear 
testimony against you for your cruelties. I therefore recommend them 
and myself to God, and pray for a reformation in your heart. 

" Joshua Gianavel." 

Gianavel now, with his followers, retired to the Alps, where, being 
afterwards joined by several protestant officers, with a considerable 
number of fugitive protestants, they resolved to defend themselves, 
and made several successful attacks upon the Roman catholic towns and 
forces ; carrying terror by the valour of their exploits, and the boldness 
of their enterprises. 



SECTION VIII. 

ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS OF MICHAEL DE MOL1NOS, A 
NATIVE OT SPAIN. 

Michael de Molinos, by birth a Spaniard, and of a rich and honour- 
able family, entered at an early age into priest's orders, but would accept 
of no preferment in the church. His talents were of a very superior 
class, and he dedicated them to the service of his fellow-creatures 
without any view of self-interest. His life was uniformly pious; nor 
did he assume those austerities so common among the religious orders of 
the Romish church. Being of a contemplative turn, he pursued the 
track of the mystical divines, and having acquired great reputation in 
Spain, he became desirous of propagating his mode of devotion, and, ac- 
cordingly, left his own country, and settled at Rome. Here he soon 
connected himself with some of the most distinguished among the 
literati, who, approving of his religious maxims, assisted him in pro- 
moting them. His followers soon augmented to a considerable number, 
and, from the peculiarity of their doctrines, were distinguished by the 
name of Quietists. 

In 1675, he published a book, entitled, II Guida Spirituale, which 
soon became known, and was read with great avidity, both in Italy 
and Spain. His fame was now blazed abroad, and friends flowed in 
upon him. Letters were written to him from numbers of people, and 



PERSECUTION OF MOLINOS. 269 

a correspondence was settled between him and those who approved of 
his system, in different parts of Europe. Some secular priests, both 
at Rome and Naples, declared themselves openly for it, and consulted 
him as a sort of oracle; but those who attached themselves to him with 
the greatest sincerity, were some of the fathers of the Oratory, the most 
eminent of whom where Coloredi, Ciceri, and Petrucci. Many of the 
cardinals also courted his friendship. Among others was the cardinal 
d'Estrees, a man of great learning, who conversed with him daily. 
Molinos opened his mind to this favourite without reserve; which led to 
a correspondence between Molinos and some of the most distinguished 
characters in France, of which the cardinal was a native. 

The reputation of Molinos now began to alarm the Jesuits and Domi- 
nicans, who determined to put a stop to the progress of this new sys- 
tem of opinions. They, therefore, began to decry the author of it; and 
as heresy is an imputation that makes the strongest impression at Rome, 
Molinos and his followers were stigmatized as heretics. Books were 
also written by the Jesuits against him and his opinions. These Molinos 
answered with becoming spirit, which increased his popularity ; while 
his disputes occasioned such a disturbance in Rome, that the affair was 
noticed by the inquisition. Molinos and his book, and father Petrucci, 
who had written some treatises and letters on the same subject, were 
brought under severe examination ; and the Jesuits were considered as 
the accusers. In the course of the examination both Molinos and 
Petrucci acquitted themselves so ably, that their books were again ap- 
proved, and the answers which the Jesuits had written were censured as 
scandalous and unbecoming. 

Petrucci, on this occasion, was so highly approved, that he was soon 
after made bishop of Jesis. Their books were now esteemed more than 
ever, their system was more followed, and its importance as well as 
novelty contributed to raise the credit, and increase the number of their 
disciples. Thus the great reputation acquired by Molinos and Petrucci, 
occasioned a daily increase of the Quietists. All who were thought 
sincerely devout, or at least affected so to be, were reckoned among the 
number. These persons, in proportion as their zeal increased in their 
frequent and serious devotions, appeared less careful about the exterior 
parts of the church ceremonies. They were not so assiduous at mass, 
nor so earnest to procure it to be said for their friends; nor were they 
so frequent either in processions, or at confession, or any other outward 
observances. 

Notwithstanding the approbation expressed for Molinos's book by the 
inquisition had checked the open hostility of his enemies, they were still 
inveterate against him in their hearts, and determined if possible to ruin 
him. They therefore secretly insinuated that he had ill designs, and 
was an enemy to Christianity : that under pretence of raising men to a 
sublime strain of devotion, he intended to erase from their minds a sense 
of the mysteries of religion. Because he was a Spaniard, they gave out 
that he was descended from a Jewish or Mahometan race, and that he 
might carry in his blood, or in his first education, some seeds of those 
doctrines he had since cultivated with no less art than zeal. Thus 
finding himself attacked with such unrelenting malice, Molinos took 



270 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

every necessary precaution to prevent its effect upon the public mind. 
He wrote a treatise, entitled, "Frequent and Daily Communion, " which 
was warmly approved by some of the most learned of the Romish clergy. 
This, with his Spiritual Guide, was printed in the year 1675, and in the 
preface to it he declared, that he had not written it with any design to 
engage in matters of controversy, but by the earnest solicitations of 
many pious people. 

The Jesuits having again failed in their attempt to crush his in- 
fluence at Rome, applied to the court of France, where they so far 
succeeded, that an order was sent to cardinal d'Estrees, commanding 
him to prosecute Molinos with all possible rigour. The cardinal, not- 
withstanding his attachment to Molinos, resolved to sacrifice friendship 
to interest. Finding, however, there was not sufficient matter for an 
immediate accusation against him, he determined to supply that defect 
himself. He went to the inquisitors, and informed them of several par- 
ticulars relative both to Molinos and Petrucci, who, with several of their 
friends, were put into the inquisitorial court. 

On being brought before the judges, about the beginning of the year 
1684, Petrucci answered the respective questions put to him with so 
much judgment and temper, that he was soon dismissed: but with 
regard to Molinos, though the inquisitors had not any just accusation 
against him, yet they strained every nerve to find him guilty of heresy. 
They first objected to his holding a correspondence in different parts of 
Europe; but of this he was acquitted, as the matter of that correspond- 
ence could not be made criminal. They then directed their attention 
to some suspicious papers found in his chamber; but he so clearly 
explained their meaning, that nothing could be made of them to his 
prejudice. At length cardinal d'Estrees, after producing the order sent 
him by the king of France for prosecuting Molinos, said he could 
convince the court of his heresy. He then proceeded to pervert the 
meaning of some passages in Molinos's books and papers, and related 
many false and aggravating circumstances relative to the prisoner. He 
acknowledged he had lived with him under the appearance of friendship, 
but that it was only to discover his principles and intentions; that he 
had found them to be of a bad nature, and that dangerous consequences 
were likely to ensue; but in order to make a full discovery, he had as- 
sented to several things, which in his heart he detested; and that by 
these means he became master of all his secrets. In consequence of 
this evidence, Molinos was closely confined for some time, during which 
period all was quiet, and his followers prosecuted their course without 
interruption. But, at the instigation of the Jesuits, a storm suddenly 
broke out upon them with most inveterate fury. The count Vespiniani 
and his lady, Don Paulo Rocchi, confessor to the prince Borghese, and 
some of his family, with several others, to the amount of seventy 
persons, among whom were many highly esteemed both for their learning 
and piety, were put into the inquisition. The accusation laid against 
the clergy was, their neglecting to say the breviary ; the rest were ac- 
cused of going to communion without first attending confession, and 
neglecting all the exterior parts of religion. The countess said, on 
her examination before the inquisitors, that she had never revealed her 



QUIETISTS PERSECUTED. 27] 

method of devotion to any mortal but her confessor, without whose 
treachery it was impossible they should know it. That, therefore, it 
was time to give over going to confession if priests thus abused it, 
betraying the most secret thoughts entrusted to them ; and that, for the 
future, she would only make her confession to God. From this spirited 
speech, and the noise made in consequence of the countess's situation, 
the inquisitors thought it most prudent to dismiss both her and her 
husband, lest the people might be incensed, and what she had said 
might lessen the credit of confession. They were therefore both dis- 
charged ; but bound to appear whenever they should be called upon. 

Such was the inveteracy of the Jesuits against the Quietists, that 
within the space of a month upwards of 200 persons, besides those 
already mentioned, were put into the inquisition; and that method 
of devotion which had passed in Italy as the most elevated to which 
mortals could aspire, was deemed heretical, and the chief promoters of 
it confined in wretched dungeons. To extirpate Quietism, the inquisitors 
sent a circular letter to cardinal Cibo, as the chief minister, to suppress 
it through Italy. It was addressed to all prelates, informing them that 
whereas many schools and fraternities were established in several parts 
of Italy, in which some persons, under a pretence of leading people 
into the ways of the Spirit, and to prayers of quietness, instilled into 
them many abominable heresies; therefore a strict charge was given to 
dissolve all those societies, and to oblige the spiritual guide to tread in 
the known paths; and, in particular, to take care that none of the new 
sect should be suffered to have direction of the nunneries. Orders were 
likewise given to proceed criminally against those who should be found 
guilty of such abominable errors. 

A strict enquiry was made after this into all the nunneries in Rome; 
when most of their directors and confessors were discovered to be en- 
gaged in the new pursuits. It was found that the Carmelites, the nuns 
of the Conception, and those of several other convents, wholly devoted 
themselves to prayer and contemplation ; and that, instead of their 
beads, and other ceremonies before saints and images, they were much 
alone, and often in the exercise of mental prayer : that when they were 
asked, why they had laid aside the use of their beads, and their ancient 
forms, their answer was their directors had advised them to do so. In- 
formation of this being given to the inquisition, orders were sent that 
all books written in the same strain with those of Molinos and Petrucci 
should be sequestrated, and that the people universally should be com- 
pelled to return to their original form of worship. 

Little effect was produced by the circular letter sent to cardinal Cibo, 
for most of the Italian bishops were inclined to Molinos's method. It 
was intended that this, as well as all other orders from the inquisitors, 
should be kept secret; but notwithstanding all their care, copies of it 
were printed, and dispersed through most of the principal towns in Italy. 
This gave great uneasiness to the inquisitors, who adopted every method 
they could to conceal their proceedings from the knowledge of the 
world. They blamed the cardinal, and accused him of being the cause 
of it: but he retorted on them, and his secretary laid the fault on both. 

In the mean time, Molinos suffered great indignities from the officers 



272 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the inquisition ; and the only comfort he received was being some- 
times visited by father Petrucci. Yet though he had lived in the highest 
reputation at Rome for some years, he was now as much despised as he 
had been admired, being generally considered as one of the worst of 
heretics. Most of his followers, who had been placed in the inquisition, 
having abjured his system, were dismissed; but a harder fate awaited 
their leader. When he had lain a considerable time in prison, he was 
brought again before the inquisitors, to answer to a number of articles 
exhibited against him from his writings. As soon as he appeared in 
court, a chain was put round his body, and a wax-light in his hand, 
when two friars read aloud the articles of accusation. Molinos answered 
each with great steadiness and resolution; but notwithstanding his ar- 
guments defeated the force of all that was alleged against him, he was 
found guilty of heresy, and condemned to imprisonment for life. 

Having left the court he was attended by a priest, who had borne him 
the greatest respect. On his arrival at the prison, he entered the cell 
with great tranquillity; and on taking leave of the priest thus addressed 
him: "Adieu, father; we shall meet again at the day of judgment, and 
then it will appear on which side the truth is, whether on mine or on 
yours." While in confinement he was several times tortured in the 
most cruel manner, till at length the severity of the punishments over- 
powered his strength and his existence. His followers were so affected 
by his melancholy dissolution, that the greater part of them soon ab- 
jured his principles; and by the assiduity of the Jesuits, Quietism was 
totally extirpated. 



SECTION IX. 

ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN CALAS, OF TOULOUSE IN 

THE YEAR 1761. 

By this interesting story, the truth of which is not only certified in 
historical records, but the event is still fresh in the memory of several 
persons, natives of Toulouse, we have ample proofs, if any were requi- 
site, that the abominable spirit of popish persecution will always prevail 
wherever that religion has an ascendency. The shocking act took place 
in a polished age ; and hence it proves, that neither experience nor im- 
provement can root out the inveterate prejudices of the Roman catholics, 
or render them less cruel, or exorable, to the protestants. 

John Calas was a merchant, of the city of Toulouse, where he 
had settled and lived in good repute : he had married an English 
woman of French extraction. He and his wife were both protestants, 
and had five sons whom they educated in the same religion ; but Lewis, 
one of the sons, became a Roman catholic, having been converted by a 
popish servant, who had lived in the family above thirty years. The 
father, however, did not express any resentment on the occasion, but 
kept the servant in the family, and settled an annuity upon the son. In 
October 1761, the family consisted of John Calas and his wife, one 
woman servant, Mark Anthony Calas the eldest son, and Peter Calas 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN CALAS. 273 

the second son. Mark Anthony was bred to the law, but could not be 
admitted to practice, on account of being a protestant : hence he grew 
melancholy, read all the books which he could procure relative to suicide, 
and seemed determined to destroy himself. To this may be added, that 
he led a dissipated life, was greatly addicted to gaming, and did all 
which could constitute the character of a libertine. On this account 
his father frequently reprehended him, and sometimes in terms of severity, 
which considerably added to the gloom that seemed to. oppress him. 

M. Gober La Vaisse, a young gentleman about nineteen years of age, 
the son of La Vaisse, a celebrated advocate of Toulouse, having been 
some time at Bourdeaux, came back to Toulouse to see his father on 
the 13th of October 1761 ; but finding that he was gone to his country- 
house, at some distance from the city, he went to several places endea- 
vouring to hire a horse to carry him thither. No horse, however, was 
to be obtained ; and about five o'clock in the evening he was met by 
John Calas the father, and the eldest son Mark Anthony, who was his 
friend. Calas, the father, invited him to supper, as he could not set 
out for his father's that night, and La Vaisse consented. All three, 
therefore, proceeded to the house together, and when they came thither, 
finding that Mrs. Calas was still in her own room, which she had not 
quitted that day, La Vaisse went up to see her. After the first compli- 
ments, he told her he was to sup with her by her husband's invitation, 
at which she expressed her satisfaction, and a few minutes after left him, 
to give orders to her maid. When that was done, she went to look for 
her son Anthony, whom she found sitting alone in the shop, very pensive : 
she gave him some money, and desired him to go and buy some Roche- 
fort cheese, as he was a better judge of its quality than any other person 
in the family. She then returned to her guest La Vaisse, who very soon 
after went again to the livery stable, to see if any horse was come in, 
that he might secure it for the next morning. 

In a short time Anthony returned, having bought the cheese, and La 
Vaisse also coming back about the same time, the family and their guest 
sat down to supper, in a room up one pair of stairs; the whole company 
consisting of Calas the father and his wife, Anthony and Peter Calas 
the sons, and La Vaisse the guest; no other person being in the house, 
except the maid-servant, who has been mentioned already. This was 
about seven o'clock : the supper was not long ; but before it was over, 
or, according to the French expression, " when they came to the des- 
sert," Anthony left the table, and went into the kitchen, which was on 
the same floor, as he was accustomed. The maid asked him if he was 
cold? He answered, " Quite the contrary, I burn;" and then left her. 
In the mean time his friend and family left the room they had supped 
in, and went into a bed-chamber : the father and La Vaisse sat down 
together on a sofa ; the younger son Peter in an elbow chair ; and the 
mother in another chair ; and without making any enquiry after Anthony, 
continued in conversation together till between nine and ten o'clock, 
when La Vaisse took his leave, and Peter, who had fallen asleep, was 
awakened to attend him to the door. 

There was on the ground floor of the house a shop and a warehouse ; 
which were divided from each other by a pair of folding-doors. When 

T 



274 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Peter Calas and La Vaisse came down stairs into the shop, they were 
extremely shocked to see Anthony hanging in his shirt, from a bar 
which he had laid across the top of the two folding-doors, having half 
opened them for that purpose. On discovering this horrid spectacle, 
they shrieked out, which brought down Calas the father, the mother 
being seized with a terror which kept her trembling in the passage above. 
The unhappy old man rushed forward, and taking the body in his arms, 
the bar, to which the rope that suspended him was fastened, slipped off 
from the folding door of the warehouse, and fell down. Having placed 
the body on the ground, he loosed and took off the cord in an agony of 
grief and anguish not to be expressed, weeping, trembling, and deplor- 
ing himself and his child. The two young men, his second son and La 
Vaisse, who had not had presence of mind to attempt taking down the 
body, were standing by, confounded with amazement and horror. 
Meanwhile the mother, hearing the confused cries and complaints of her 
husband, and finding no one come to her, summoned resolution to go 
down stairs. At the bottom she saw La Vaisse, and hastily demanded 
what was the matter. This question roused Calas in a moment, and 
instead of answering her, he urged her to return to her room, to which, 
with much reluctance, she consented ; but the conflict of her mind being 
such as could not be long borne, she sent down the maid to know what 
was the matter. When the maid discovered what had happened, she 
continued below, either because she feared to carry an account of it to 
her mistress, or because she busied herself in doing some good office to 
her master, who was still embracing the body of his son, and bathing it 
with his tears. The mother again went down and mixed in the scene, 
with such emotions as it must naturally produce. In the mean time 
Peter had sent for La Moire, a surgeon in the neighbourhood. La Moire 
was not at home, but his apprentice, named Grosse, came instantly. 
Upon examination, he found the body quite dead; and on taking off 
the neckcloth, which was of black taffata, he saw the mark of the cord, 
and immediately pronounced that the deceased had been strangled. 
This particular had not been told, for the poor old man, when Peter was 
going for La Moire, cried out, " Save at least the honour of my family; 
do not go and spread a report that your brother has made away with 
himself." 

A crowd of people was by this time gathered about the house, and 
one Casing, with another friend or two of the family, had come in. 
Some of those who were in the street had heard the cries and exclama- 
tions of the father, the mother, the brother, and his friend, before they 
knew what was the matter ; and having by some means heard that 
Anthony Calas was suddenly dead, and that the surgeon, who had ex- 
amined the body, declared he had been strangled, they took it into their 
heads he had been murdered ; and as the family were protestants, they 
presently supposed that the young man was about to change his religion, 
and had been put to death for that reason. The cries they had heard 
they fancied were those of the deceased, while he was resisting the vio- 
lence that was offered him. The tumult in the street increased every 
moment: some said that Anthony Calas was to have abjured the next 
day; others, that protestants are bound by their religion to strangle 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN CALAS AND HIS SON. 275 

their children when they are inclined to become catholics ; others, who 
had found out that La Vaisse was in the house when the accident hap- 
pened, confidently affirmed that the protestants, at their last assembly, 
appointed a person to be their common executioner upon these occasions 
and that La Vaisse was the man, who, in consequence of the office to 
which he had been appointed, had come to the house of Calas to hang 
his son. 

The poor father, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his child, 
was advised by his friends to send for the officers of justice to prevent 
his being torn to pieces by the multitude, who supposed that he had 
murdered him. This was accordingly done : a messenger was dispatched 
to the first magistrate of the place, and another to an inferior officer 
called an assessor. The first had already set out, having been alarmed 
by the rumour of a murder before the messenger got to the house. He 
entered with forty soldiers, took the father, Peter the son, the mother, 
La Vaisse, and the maid, all into custody, and set a guard over them. 
He sent for M. de la Tour, a physician, andM. la Marque andPerronet, 
surgeons, who examined the body for marks of violence, but found none 
except the mark of the ligature on the neck : they found also the hair 
of the deceased done up in the usual manner, perfectly smooth, and 
without the least disorder ; his clothes were also regularly folded up, 
and laid upon the counter, nor was his shirt either unbuttoned or torn. 

The chief magistrate, notwithstanding these appearances, thought 
proper to agree with the opinion of the mob, and took it into his head 
that old Calas had sent for La Vaisse, telling him he had a son to be 
strangled ; that La Vaisse had come to perform the office of executioner ; 
and that he had received assistance from the father and brother. On 
account of these notions the magistrate ordered the body of the deceased 
to be carried to the town-house, with the clothes. The father and son 
were thrown into a dark dungeon ; and the mother, La Vaisse, the maid 
and Casing, were imprisoned in one that admitted the light. The next 
day, what is called the process verbal was taken at the town-house, 
instead of the spot where the body was found, as the law directs ; but 
was dated at Calas's house to conceal the irregularity. This process 
is somewhat like the coroner's inquest in England : witnesses are exa- 
mined, and the magistrate makes his report, which is the same there as the 
verdict of the coroner's jury here. The witnesses examined were the 
physician and surgeon, who proved Anthony Calas to have been strang- 
led. The surgeon having been ordered to examine the stomach of the 
deceased, deposed that the food which was found there had been taken 
four hours before his death. Finding that no proof of the murder could 
be procured, the magistrate had recourse to a monitory, or general in- 
formation, in which the crime was taken for granted, and all persons 
were required to give such testimony against it as they were able, par- 
ticularizing the points to which they were to speak. The recital was 
that La Vaisse was commissioned by the protestants to be their executioner 
in ordinary, when any of their children were to be put to death for 
changing their religion : it said also, that when the protestants thus kill 
their children, they compel them to kneel, and one of the interroga- 
tories was, whether any person had seen Anthony Calas kneel before his 



276 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

father when lie strangled him : it added that Anthony Calas died a 
Roman catholic, and required evidence of his Catholicism. 

These ridiculous opinions being adopted and published by the princi- 
pal magistrate of a considerable city, the church of Geneva thought 
itself obliged to send an attestation of its abhorrence of opinions so 
abominable and absurd, and of its astonishment that the family, or any 
protestants, should be suspected of such opinions by persons whose rank 
and office required them to have more knowledge and better judgment. 

However, before this monitory was published, the mob had got a 
notion, that Anthony Calas was the next day to have entered into the 
fraternity of the White Penitents. The magistrate immediately adopted 
this opinion without the least examination, and ordered Anthony's body 
to be buried in the middle of St. Stephen's church, which was accord- 
ingly done ; forty priests, and all the white penitents, assisting in the 
funeral procession. 

A short time after the interment of the deceased, the white penitents 
performed a solemn service for him in their chapel : the church was hung 
with white, and a tomb was raised in the centre, on the top of which 
was placed a human skeleton, holding in one hand a paper, on which 
was written, " Abjuration of heresy," and in the other a palm, the 
emblem of martyrdom. The Franciscans performed a service of the 
same kind for him the next day; and it is easy to imagine how much 
the minds of the people were inflamed by this strange folly of their 
magistrates and priests. 

The magistrates continued the prosecution with unrelenting severity; 
and though the grief and distraction of the family, when he first came 
to the house, were alone sufficient to have convinced any reasonable 
being that they were not the authors of the event which they deplored, 
yet having publicly attested that they were guilty in his monitory, with- 
out proof, and no proof coming in, he thought fit to condemn the un- 
happy father, mother, brother, friend, and servant, to the torture, and 
put them all into irons on the 18th of November. Casing was enlarged 
upon evidence that he was not in Calas's house till after Anthony was 
dead. From these dreadful proceedings the sufferers appealed to the 
parliament, which immediately took cognizance of the affair, and annulled 
the sentence of the magistrate as irregular ; but the prosecution still 
continued. 

So soon as the trial came on, the public executioner, who had been 
taken to Calas's house, and shewn the folding-doors and the bar, deposed 
that it was impossible Anthony should have hanged himself as was de- 
clared. Another witness swore, that he looked through the key-hole of 
the door into a room, where he saw men running hastily to and fro. 
A third swore, that his wife had told him a woman named Maundril 
had told her, that a certain woman unknown had asserted she heard 
the cries of Anthony Calas at the further end of the city. From this 
ridiculous evidence the majority of the parliament were of opinion that 
the prisoners were guilty, and therefore ordered them to be tried by the 
criminal court of Toulouse. 

There was among those who presided at the trial one La Borde, who 
had zealously opposed the popular prejudices; and though it was mani- 



MARTYRDOM OF JOHN CALAS. 277 

fest to demonstration that the prisoners were either all innocent or all 
guilty, he voted that the father should first suffer the torture, ordinary 
and extraordinary, to discover his accomplices, and be then broken alive 
upon the wheel ; to receive the last stroke when he had endured two 
hours, and then to be burnt to ashes. In this opinion he had the con- 
currence of six others ; three were for the torture alone ; two were of 
opinion that they should endeavour to ascertain upon the spot whether 
Anthony could hang himself or not; and one voted to acquit the pri- 
soner. After long debate the majority were for the torture and wheel, 
and probably condemned the father by way of experiment, to know 
whether he was guilty or not, hoping he would in the agony confess the 
crime, and accuse the other prisoners, whose fate remained suspended. 
It is, however, certain that if they had evidence against the father to 
justify the sentence pronounced against him, that very evidence would 
have justified the same sentence against the rest; and that they could 
not righteously condemn him, as the rest were in the house toge- 
ther when Anthony died. All concurred in declaring he hanged 
himself, that the persons accused could have had no motive to do such 
an act, nor could one have put him to death by violence without the 
knowledge of the rest. 

However, poor Calas, who was sixty-eight years of age, was con- 
demned to this dreadful punishment alone. He suffered the torture with 
great constancy, and was led to execution in a frame of mind which 
excited the admiration of all who saw him. Father Bourges and father 
Coldagues, the two Dominicans, who attended him in his last moments, 
wished their latter end might be like his, and declared that they thought 
him, not only wholly innocent of the crime laid to his charge, but an 
exemplary instance of true christian patience, charity, and fortitude. 

He gave but a single shriek, and that not very violent, when he re- 
ceived the first stroke ; after that he uttered no complaint. Being at 
length placed on the wheel, to wait for the moment which was to end 
his life and his misery together, he expressed himself with an humble 
hope of a happy immortality, and a compassionate regard for the judges 
who had condemned him. When he saw the executioner prepared to 
give him the last stroke, he made a fresh declaration of his innocence 
to father Bourges; but while the words were yet in his mouth, the 
magistrate, the author of this catastrophe, and who came upon the 
scaffold to gratify his desire of being a witness to the punishment and 
death, ran up to him and bawled out, " Wretch, there are the fagots 
which are to reduce your body to ashes; speak the truth." M. Calas 
made no reply, but turned his head a little aside, and that moment the 
executioner did his office. Donat Calas, a boy of fifteen years of age, 
and the youngest son of the unfortunate victim, was apprenticed to a 
merchant at Nismes, when he heard of the dreadful punishment by 
which seven prejudiced judges of Toulouse had put his worthy father 
to death. He was an amiable and serious youth, and nothing could 
exceed his grief at the event, except the resignation he evinced on 
finding with what innocence as well as fortitude his holy parent suffered 
death. 

So violent was the popular outcry against this family in Languedoc, 



278 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that every one expected to see the children broke upon the wheel, and 
the mother burnt alive. Even the attorney-general expected it. So 
weak, it is said, had been the defence made by this innocent family, 
oppressed by misfortunes, and terrified at the sight of lighted piles, racks, 
and wheels. Donat Calas was made to dread sharing the fate of the 
rest of his family, and advised to fly into Switzerland : he found a gen- 
tleman who at first could only pity and relieve him, without daring to 
judge of the rigour exercised against his parents and brothers. Shortly 
after, one of the brothers, who was only banished, likewise threw himself 
into the arms of the same person, who, for more than a month, took 
every possible precaution to be assured of the innocence of this family. 
When he was once convinced, he thought himself obliged in conscience 
to employ his friends, his purse, his pen, and his credit, to repair the 
fatal mistake of the seven judges of Toulouse, and to have the pro- 
ceedings revised by the king's counsel. The revision lasted three years, 
and it is well known what honour Messrs. de Gaosne and Baquancourt 
acquired by defending and reporting this memorable cause. Fifty masters 
of the Court of Requests unanimously declared the whole family of 
Calas innocent, and recommended them to the benevolent justice of his 
majesty. The duke de Choiseul, who never let slip an opportunity of 
signalizing the greatness of his character, not only assisted them with 
money, but obtained for them a gratuity of 36,000 livres from the king. 
The arret which justified the family of Calas, and changed their fate, 
was signed on the 9th of March 1765. The 9th of March 1762, was 
the day on which the innocent and virtuous father of that family had 
been executed. All Paris ran in crowds to see the family come out of 
prison, and clapped their hands for joy, while the tears streamed down 
their cheeks. Such a scene had never before been witnessed. There 
are some few aged persons now living in the south of France who were 
spectators, when children, of the sight, and it is a subject on which they 
love to discourse, and on which they are more eloquent than on any 
other. 



* # * It may be proper here to add that the chief contents of the following book — Book 
IX. — are to be attributed, not to Fox, or to any who assisted him in his original compila- 
tion, or who edited the early republications of his work. They are the compilation of the 
editor of the edition of 1806 — the Rev. J. Milner, who acknowledges to have " prepared 
them from the works of Dr. Burnet and numerous other learned writers on Ecclesiastical 
History." To the editor of the present edition, however, they are indebted for the cor- 
rectness with which they now appear, and for several interesting additions the reader will 
observe them to have received. 






279 



BOOK IX. 

Containing a History of the Reformation, and the circumstances which preceded it, froui 
the time of Wickliffe to the reign of Mary, including a summary of events connected 
with Christian Martyrdom, previous and subsequent to the reign of William the 
Conqueror. 

SECTION I. 

PARTICULARS OF THE ASCENDANCY OF THE POPES THROUGHOUT CHRIS- 
TENDOM, FROM THE TIME OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, TO THAT OF 
WICKLIFFE. 

In a preceding part of our volume we traced the influence of popery 
over the continent and in our own kingdom, down to the reign of the 
vicious and monkish king Edgar, who was so great a patron of the re- 
ligion of the popes, that he is said to have built as many monasteries 
for them as there are Sundays in the year. Ediner reports that they 
were forty-eight in number ; but perhaps he does not include the nun- 
neries. It is certain that from this period till the reformation was at- 
tempted by Wickliffe, the abominations of these arch and unchristian 
rulers increased with rapid strides, till at length all the sovereigns of 
Europe were compelled to do them the most servile homage. It was 
in the reign of Edgar that monks were first made spiritual ministers, 
though contrary to the old decrees and customs of the church, and in 
the time of this sovereign they were allowed to marry, there being no 
law forbidding them to do so till the reign of pope Hildebrand, other- 
wise called Gregory VII. 

There are many curious facts relating to king Edgar, mentioned by the 
early writers, some of which we shall quote, because they are not to be 
found in our principal, if in any of our histories of England. He was the 
successor of Alfred, and though he imitated that great sovereign in some 
praise-worthy actions, yet he committed many horrid crimes, which have 
stained his name with infamy. His decree by which he compelled 
Ludwallus, prince of Wales, to furnish 300 wolves as a yearly tribute, 
is well known, by which, in the course of four years, the wolves were 
exterminated from England, and he also set many other notable ex- 
amples, which it would be well for all nations if modern princes were to 
imitate. But in his religion he was superstitious to the greatest degree, 
and consequently cruel to those towards whom he had any dislike or 
antipathy. William of Malmsbury, and various other writers, report of 
him that about the thirteenth year of his reign, being at Chester, eight 
petty or under kings came and did homage to him. The first was the 
king of Scots, called Kinadius, Macolinus of Cumberland, Muckus or 
Mascusinus king of Monia and other Islands, and the kings of Wales, 
the names of whom were Dunewaldus, Sifresh, Huwall, Jacob, Ulkell, 
and Juchel. All these, after they had given their fidelity to Edgar, the 



280 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

next day entered with him on the river Dee ; where sitting in a boat, he 
took the helm, and caused the eight kings to row him up and down the 
river, to and from the church of St. John, to his palace,in token that 
he was master and lord of so many provinces; and on this occasion he 
is reported to have said, " Tunc demum posse successores suos gloriari, se 
Reges Anglice esse, cum tanta prcerogativa honorum fruerentur ." Un- 
doubtedly he would have spoken much better, had he said with St. 
Paul, " Absit mihi gloriari, nisi in Cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi." 

To trace the numerous disgusting innovations upon the religion of 
Christ, during the space of three hundred years and upwards, or rather 
from the time of king Edgar to the appearance of WicklifFe, would be 
the province of a writer on church history, besides which, it would be 
incompatible with our limits. Suffice it to say, that there was scarcely 
a war or civil broil in which this country was engaged, which did not 
originate in the artifices of popes, monks, and friars. It is true that 
they sometimes fell victims to their own machinations; for, from the 
year 1004, many popes were successively poisoned. Several died un- 
natural deaths: for example, pope Sylvester was cut to pieces by his 
own people, through the superstitious fears he had impressed upon their 
minds. Several of his successors used all manner of infamous means to 
gain the ascendancy, and their reigns were but short. Pope Benedict, 
who succeeded John XXI. thought proper to resist the emperor Henry III. 
the son of Conrad, and place in his room Peter, king of Hungary; but 
afterwards being alarmed lest Henry should prevail in battle, he sold 
his seat to Gratianus, called Gregory VI., for 1500/. At this time there 
were three popes in Rome, all striving against each other for the supreme 
power, viz, Benedict IX. Sylvester III. and Gregory VI. On which 
Henry, the emperor, coming to that city, displaced, the three at once, 
and appointed Clement the second, enacting that there should no bishop 
of Rome henceforth be chosen but by the consent and confirmation 
of his imperial law. Though this law was both agreeable and neces- 
sary for public tranquillity, yet the cardinals would not suffer it long to 
stand, but strove to subvert it by subtlety and open violence. In the 
time of Clement, the Romans made an oath to the emperor concerning 
the election of the bishops, to intermeddle no farther, but as the assent 
of the emperor should go; but the emperor departing thence into 
Germany again, they forgot their oath, and within nine months after 
poisoned the bishop. This fact, some impute to Stephen his successor, 
called Damasus II. Some impute it to Brazutus, who is reported by 
some historians to have poisoned six popes, viz. Clement II. Damasus II. 
Leo IX. Victor II. Stephen IX. and Nicholas II. 

Clement was succeeded by Damasus II. neither by consent of the 
people, nor of the emperor, but by force and invasion ; and he also 
within twenty-three days being poisoned, much contention and striving 
began in Rome about the papal seat. Whereupon the Romans, through 
the counsel of the cardinals, sent to the emperor desiring him to give 
them a bishop. He gave them one whose name was Bruno, an Alman, 
and bishop of Cullen, afterwards called Leo IX. This pope was 
poisoned by Brazutus, in the first year of his popedom. After his 
death Theophylactus made an effort to be pope, but Hildebrand, to 



PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATIONS. 281 

defeat him, went to the emperor, and pursuaded him to assign another 
bishop, a German, who ascended the papal chair under the title of 
Victor II. The second year of his papacy, or little more, he also fol- 
lowed his predecessors, being poisoned by Brazutus, through the insti- 
gation of Hildebrand and his master. 

At this time the church and the clergy of Rome began to wrest from 
the emperor's hands the election of the pope; electing Stephen IX. 
contrary to their oath, and the emperor's assignment. From this period, 
indeed, their ascendancy was so great, that the most powerful sovereigns 
of Europe were obliged to do them homage, and it was in the time of 
pope Nicholas, who succeeded Stephen, A. D. 1059, that the synod of 
Sutrium was broken up by this pope, who came to Rome and established 
the dreaded Concilium Lateranum, or Council of the Lateran. In this 
council was first promulgated the terrible sentence of excommunication 
mentioned in the decrees, and beginning In nomine Domini nostri. The 
effect was that he undermined the emperor's jurisdiction, and transferred 
to a few cardinals, and certain catholic persons, the full authority of 
filling the pontiff chair. Then, against all such as crept into the seat 
of Peter by money, or favour, without the full consent of the cardinals, 
he thundered terrible blasts of excommunication, accursing them and 
their children with the anger of Almighty God; giving authority and 
power to cardinals, with the clergy and laity, to depose all such persons, 
and call a council-general, wheresoever they would, against them. 

In the council of Lateran, under pope Nicholas II., Berengarius 
Andegavensis, an archdeacon, was driven to the recantation of his doc- 
trine, denying the real substance of Christ's holy body and blood to be 
in the sacrament, otherwise than sacramentally and in mystery. In 
the same council also was invented the doctrine and term of transub- 
stantiation. 

Nicholas however only reigned three years and a half, and then drank 
of Brazutus's cup, like his predecessors. At the beginning of his reign 
or somewhat before, about the year of our Lord 1057, Henry the fourth 
was made emperor, being but a child, and reigned fifty years ; but not 
without great molestation and much disquietness ; for in the course of 
time, when Hildebrand came to the popedom, he had the audacity to 
excommunicate him, and absolve all his subjects from their oath of alle- 
giance to him. On this all his nobles, through fear of the pope's curse, 
deserted him ; and the emperor dreading the consequences that would 
ensue, though a brave man, found it necessary to make his submission. 
He accordingly repaired to the city of Canosus, where the pope then 
was, and went barefooted with his wife and child to the gate, where he 
from morning to night, fasting all the day, most humbly desired absolu- 
tion, craving to be let in to the bishop. But no ingress being given him 
he continued three days together in his condition : at length answer came 
that the pope's majesty had yet no leisure to talk with him. The emperor, 
moved that he was not let into the city, patient and with an humble 
mind stopped without the walls, with no little distress; for it was a sharp 
winter, and the ground was frozen. At length his request was granted 
through the entreating of Matilda, the pope's paramour, and of Arelaus, 
earl of Sebaudia, and the abbot of Cluniak. On the fourth day being 



282 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

let in, as a token of his repentance he yielded to the pope's hands his 
crown, with all other imperial ornaments, and confessed himself unwor- 
thy of the empire, if ever he did against the pope hereafter, as he had 
done before, desiring for that time to be absolved and forgiven. The 
pope answered that he would neither forgive him, nor release the bond 
of his excommunication, but upon condition that he should be content 
to stand to his arbitrement in the council, and to take such penance as he 
should enjoin him ; also that he should be ready to appear in what place or 
time the pope should appoint him. Moreover, that he, being content to 
take the pope judge of his cause, should answer in the council to all 
objections and accusations laid against him, and that he should never 
seek any revenge; that he should stand to the pope's mind and pleasure 
whether to have his kingdom restored, or to lose it. Finally, that before 
the trial of his cause, he should neither use his kingly ornaments, sceptre 
nor crown ; nor usurp authority to govern, nor exact any oath of alle- 
giance from his subjects. These things being promised to the bishop by 
an oath, and put in writing, the emperor was released from excommuni- 
cation. 

After the death of Hildebrand came pope Victor, who was set up by 
Matilda and the duke of Normandy, with the faction and retinue of 
Hildebrand. But his papal authority was brief, for being poisoned, it 
is said in his chalice, he reigned only one year and a half. Notwith- 
standing, the imitation and example of Hildebrand continued in them 
that followed. And as the kings of Israel followed the steps of Jeroboam 
till the time of their desolation ; so for the greatest part all popes fol- 
lowed the steps and proceedings of Hildebrand, their spiritual Jeroboam, 
in maintaining false worship, and chiefly in upholding the dignity of the 
see against all rightful authority, and the lawful kingdom of Christ. In 
the time of Victor began the order of the monks of the Charter-house, 
through the means of one Hugo, bishop of Gracianople, and of Bruno, 
bishop of Cologne. 

In the time of pope Honorius the second, a christian preacher named 
Arnulphus was martyred at Rome. Some say he was archbishop of 
Lugdune, as Hugo, Platina, Sabellicus. Tritemius says he was a priest, 
whose history, as he describes it, we will briefly give in English: — 
About this time, in the days of Honorius the second, one Arnulphus, 
a priest, a man zealous and of great devotion, and a worthy preacher, came 
to Rome, and in his preaching rebuked the dissolute and lascivious loose- 
ness and incontinency, avarice and immoderate pride of the clergy, 
provoking all to follow Christ and his apostles rather in their poverty 
and pureness of life. Thus this man was well accepted, and highly liked 
of the nobility of Rome, for a true disciple of Christ; but by the car- 
dinals and clergy he was no less hated than favoured by the other, inso- 
much that privily in the night they took him and destroyed him. His 
martyrdom is said to have been revealed to him before from God by an 
angel, he being in the desert, when he was sent forth to preach ; where- 
upon he said unto them publicly, " I know ye seek my life, and know 
you will take me away privily : but why ? Because I preach to you the 
truth, and blame your pride, stoutness, avarice, incontinency, with your 
unmeasurablc greediness in getting and heaping up riches ; therefore 



IgmS f3 







KING JOHN RESIGNING HIS CROWN TO THE POPE'S LEGATE. 



SEE PAGE 283. 



KING JOHN RESIGNING HIS CROWN. 283 

you are displeased with me. I take heaven and earth to witness, that I 
have preached unto you that which I was commanded of the Lord. But 
you contemn me and your Creator, who by his only Son hath redeemed 
you. And no marvel if you seek my death, being a sinful person, 
preaching unto you the truth, when if St. Peter were here this day and 
rebuked your vices which so multiply above all measure, you would not 
spare him." And as he was expressing this, with a loud voice he said 
moreover : " For my part I am not afraid to suffer death for the truth's 
sake : but this I say unto you, that God will look upon your iniquities, 
and will be revenged. You, being full of all impurity, play the blind 
guides to the people committed unto you, leading them the way to hell." 
Thus the hatred of the clergy being incensed against him for preaching 
truth, they conspired against him, and laying wait for him, took him 
and drowned him. Sabellicus and Platana say they hanged him. 

We shall close our accounts of the ascendancy of the popes with one 
more remarkable fact of history. In the time of pope Innocent, king- 
John of England, alarmed at the offence he had given to the see of 
Rome, and fearful of the invasion which the infamy of that see had 
excited against him, entreated for peace with the pope, and promised to 
do whatever he should command him. On this the pope sent his legate 
Pandulph to the king at Canterbury, where he waited their coming, and 
on the 13th day of May the king received them, making them an oath, 
" That of and for all things wherein he stood accursed, he would make 
ample restitution and satisfaction; and the lords and barons of England 
who were with the king attending the legate sware in like manner, that 
if the king would not accomplish in every thing the oath which he had 
taken, then they would cause him to hold and confirm the same whether 
he would or not." 

Then the king himself submitted to the court of Rome and the pope, 
and gave up his dominions and realms of England and Ireland from 
him and from his heirs for evermore. With this condition, that the king 
and his heirs should take again these dominions of the pope to farm, 
paying for them yearly to the court of Rome 1000 marks of silver. 
Then the king took the crown from his head, kneeling down in the pre- 
sence of all his lords and barons of England to Pandulph, the pope's 
chief legate, saying, " Here I resign the crown of the realm of England 
to the pope's hands, Innocent the third, and put me wholly in his mercy 
and ordinance." Then Pandulph took the crown of king John, and 
kept it five days as a possession of the realms of England and Ireland. 
This humiliating ceremony took place, some say at the Ewell monastery 
between Canterbury and Dover; others, at the monastery of St. John, 
then standing in ail its glory at the extreme point of Dover, opposite 
the coast of France. The latter is the more probable, as it was the 
greater establishment ; and more likely from its situation and celebrity 
to be chosen as the scene of this papal parade and disgraceful royal 
resignation. 

It was not to be expected that after this submission the king was 
freed from popish influence ; on the contrary, he was surrounded by 
monks in the interest of foreign countries, who did every thing they 
could to degrade and dishonour him. He died in the year 1216, after 



284 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

an imbecile reign of eighteen years, and historians differ as to the man- 
ner of his death, some asserting that he died of an inflammation, others 
of a flux, while the fact generally believed is, that he was poisoned, as 
we shall presently shew. 

It is recorded in the chronicle of William Caxton, called Fructus 
Temporum, that a monk named Simon, being much offended with a talk 
that the king had at his table, concerning Ludovic the French king's 
son, began to speculate how he most speedily might destroy him. First 
he counselled with his abbot, shewing him the whole matter, and what 
he was minded to do. He alleged for himself the prophecy of Caiaphas, 
saying — " It is better that one man die, than all the people should 
perish." "I am well contented," he added, "to lose my life, and so 
become a martyr, that I may utterly destroy this tyrant." With that the 
abbot wept for gladness, and much commended his fervent zeal. The 
monk then being absolved by the abbot for doing this act, went secretly 
into a garden near at hand, and finding there a venomous toad, he so 
pricked him and pressed him with his pen -knife, that he made him vomit 
all the poison that was within him. This done, he conveyed it into a 
cup of wine, and with a smiling and flattering countenance said thus 
to the king — " If it should like your princely majesty, here is such a cup 
of wine as ye never drank better before in all your life-time : I trust 
this draught shall make all England glad." With that the king drank 
a great draught thereof, pledging him. The monk soon after went to 
the farmery, and there is reported to have perished by a dreadful death. 
However, he had continually from thenceforth three monks to sing mass 
for his soul, confirmed by their general chapter. 

The king within a short space after feeling great pain in his body, 
asked for Simon the monk ; and answer was made that he had departed 
this life. "Then God have mercy upon me," answered the king; " I 
suspected as much, after he had said that all England should be glad." 
In Gisburne, we find, that dissenting from others he says that the king 
was poisoned with a dish of pears, which the monk had prepared for 
him on purpose ; and asking the king whether he would taste of his 
fruit, and being bid to bring them in, did so. At the bringing in where- 
of the king doubting some poison, demanded of the monk what he had 
brought. He said, some fruit, and that very good, the best that ever he 
did taste. " Eat," said the king ; and he took one of the pears which 
he knew, and did eat. Being bid to take another, he ate that also, and 
so likewise a third. Then the king, refraining no longer, took one of 
the other pears, and was poisoned. 

Equally vindictive were the different popes towards the other christian 
sovereigns of Europe, but particularly those of Germany, one of whom, 
the valiant emperor Frederic, was compelled to submit to be stepped on 
by the feet of pope Alexander, and dared not make any resistance. In 
England, however, a spirit of resentment broke out in various reigns, 
in consequence of the papal oppressions, which continued with more or 
less violence till the exertions of the great Wickliffe, about whom we 
shall speak in the following section. Previous, however, to this time, 
there were several martyrdoms of religious men in England, though the 
cruelties inflicted on them did not arise so much from their sacred cha- 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN W1CKL1FFE. 285 

racter, as from the political motives which caused the invasions and 
insurrections. The massacre of the monks of Bangor, A. D. 856, was 
a dreadful instance of barbarity under the Saxon government. These 
monks were in most respects different from those who bear the name at 
present. Though catholics, they were generally pious and holy men. 

The Danes landing in different parts of Britain, both in England and 
Scotland, in the eighth century, were at first repulsed ; but in A. D. 
857, a party of them landed near Southampton, and not only robbed the 
people, but murdered the clergy and burnt the churches. These bar- 
barians penetrated into the centre of England, and took up their quarters 
at Nottingham in 868 ; but the English, under their king Ethelfred, 
drove them from those posts, and obliged them to retire into Northumber- 
land. In the year 870, another body of these barbarians landed in 
Norfolk, and engaged in battle with the English at Hertford. Victory 
declared in favour of the pagans, who took Edmund king of the east 
Angles prisoner, and after treating him with a thousand indignities, 
transfixed his body with arrows, and then beheaded him. They burnt 
many of the churches, and among the rest that belonging to the 
Caldees at St. Andrew's, in Fifeshire, Scotland. The piety of this 
order of men made them objects of abhorrence to the Danes, who, 
wherever they went, singled out their priests for destruction, of whom 
no less than 200 were massacred in Scotland. Similar scenes took 
place in that part of Ireland now called Leinster; there the Danes mur- 
dered and burnt the priests alive in their own churches ; they carried 
destruction wherever they went, sparing neither age nor sex ; but the 
clergy were the most obnoxious to them, because they exposed their 
idolatry, and persuaded the people to have nothing to do with them. 
These Danish incursions and cruelties continued with greater or less 
force till the conquest, when new scenes arrested the public attention, 
and the pious ministers and members of the christian church had to 
contend with new enemies. 



SECTION II. 

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH MARTYROLOGY AND REFORMATION, WITH AN 
ACCOUNT OF WICKLIFFE AND HIS DOCTRINES. 

The first serious attempts made in England towards the reformation 
of the church, took place in the reign of Edward III. about A. D. 1350, 
when the morning star of that glorious day arose in our hemisphere — 
John Wickliffe. He was public reader of divinity in the university 
of Oxford, and, by the learned of his day, was accounted most deeply 
versed in theology and all kinds of philosophy. This even his adver- 
saries allowed. Walden, his bitterest enemy, writing to pope Martin, 
says, that he was astonished at his most strong arguments, with the 
places of authority which he had gathered, with the vehemency and 
force of his reasons. At his appearing, the greatest darkness pervaded 
the church. Little but the name of Christ remained among the Chris- 
tians, while his true and lively doctrine was as far unknown unto the 



286 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

most part, as his name was common unto all men. As touching faith, 
consolation, the end and use of the law, the office of Christ, of our 
impotency and weakness, of the Holy Ghost, of the greatness and 
strength of sin, of true works, grace, and free justification by faith, 
wherein consisteth and resteth the sum and matter of our profession, 
there was scarcely the mention of a word. Scripture, learning, and 
divinity, were known but to a few, and in the schools only, and there it 
was turned and converted almost entirely into sophistry. Instead of 
Peter and Paul, men occupied their time in studying Aquinas and 
Scotus, and the master of sentences. The world leaving and forsaking 
the lively power of God's spiritual word and doctrine, was altogether 
led and blinded with outward ceremonies and human traditions, wherein 
the whole scope, in a manner, of all christian perfection did consist and 
depend. In these was all the hope of obtaining salvation fully fixed : 
hereunto all things were attributed. Scarcely any other thing was seen 
in the temples or churches, taught or spoken of in sermons, or finally 
intended or gone about in their whole life, but only heaping up of certain 
shadowed ceremonies upon ceremonies; and the people were taught to 
worship no other thing but that which they saw, and almost all they 
saw they worshipped. 

The christian faith was at that time counted none other thing but that 
every man should know that Christ once suffered, that is to say, that all 
men should know and understand that thing which the devils themselves 
also knew. Hypocrisy was substituted for holiness. All men were so 
addicted to outward shews, that even they which professed the most ab- 
solute and singular knowledge of the scriptures, scarcely understood 
any other thing. And this did evidently appear, not only in the common 
sort of doctors and teachers, but also in the very heads of the church; 
whose whole religion and piety consisted in observing days, meats, and 
raiment, and such like rhetorical circumstances, as of place, time, 
person, &c. Hence sprang so many sorts and fashions of vestures and 
garments; so many differences of colours and meats, with so many 
pilgrimages to several places, as though St. James at Compostella could 
do that which Christ could not do at Canterbury; or else that God were 
not of like power and strength in every place, or could not be found 
but as being sought for by running hither and thither. Then the holiness 
of the whole year was put off unto the Lent season. No country or 
land was counted holy, but only Palestine, where Christ had walked 
himself with his human feet. Such was the blindness of that time, that 
men strove and fought for the material cross at Jerusalem, as it had 
been for the chief strength of our faith. The Romish champions never 
ceased, by writings, admonishing and counselling, yea, and by quarrel- 
ling, to move and stir up princes to war and battle, even as though 
the faith and belief of the gospel were of small force or little effect 
without that wooden appendage. This was the cause of the expedition 
of king Richard unto Jerusalem; who being taken in the journey, and 
delivered unto the emperor, could scarcely be ransomed home again for 
thirty thousand marks. 

Wickliffe boldly published his belief with regard to the several arti- 
cles of religion, in which he differed from the common doctrine. Pope 



QUARRELS AMONGST THE POPES. '287 

Gregory XI. hearing this, condemned some of his tenets, and com- 
manded the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London, to 
oblige him to subscribe the condemnation of them; and in case of 
refusal to summon him to Rome. This commission could not easily be 
executed, Wickliffe having great friends, the chief of whom was John 
of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who enjoyed very great power, and was 
resolved to protect him. The archbishop holding a synod at St. Paul's, 
Wickliffe appeared, accompanied by the duke of Lancaster and lord 
Percy, marshal of England, when a dispute arising whether Wickliffe 
should answer sitting or standing, the duke of Lancaster proceeded to 
threats, and gave the bishop very hard words. The people present 
thinking the bishop in danger, sided with him, so that the duke and the 
earl- marshal thought it prudent to retire, and to take Wickliffe with 
them. 

Soon after this an insurrection ensued, some incendiaries spreading 
a report that the duke of Lancaster had persuaded the king to take 
away the privileges of the city of London ; which fired the people to 
such a degree that they broke open the Marshalsea, and freed all the 
prisoners; and not contented with this, a number of them went to the 
duke's palace in the Savoy, when missing his person, they plundered 
his house, and dragged his armour and weapons through the streets. 
For this outrage the duke of Lancaster caused the lord mayor and 
aldermen to be turned out, imagining that they had not used their au- 
thority to quell the mutineers. After this, the bishops meeting a second 
time, Wickliffe explained to them his sentiments with regard to the 
sacrament of the eucharist, in opposition to the belief of the Romanists; 
for which the bishops only enjoined him silence, not daring at that time 
to go to greater lengths. 

A circumstance remarkably providential occurred at this period, which 
greatly tended to facilitate the cause of truth. This was a wide schism 
in the church of Rome. After the death of pope Gregory XL, who, in 
the midst of his anxiety to crush Wickliffe and his doctrines, was re- 
moved from his mortal career, the rise of the schism took place. Urban 
VI., who succeeded to the papal chair, was so proud and insolent 
to his cardinals, to dukes, princes, and queens, and so determined to 
advance his nephews and kindred, to the injury of princes, that the 
greatest number of his cardinals and courtiers gradually shrunk from 
him, and set up another French pope against him, named Clement, 
who reigned eleven years. After him Benedictus XIII. was elected, 
who reigned twenty-six years. On the contrary side, Urban VI. 
succeeded Boniface IX. Innocentius VIII. Gregory XII. Alexander V. 
and John XIII. Concerning this miserable schism, it would require 
another Iliad to comprehend in order all its circumstances and tragical 
parts; what trouble in the whole church, what parts taking in every 
country, what apprehending and imprisoning of priests and prelates 
taken by land and sea, and what shedding of blood followed in con- 
quence. Otho, duke of Brunswick and prince of Tarentum, were taken 
and murdered. Joan his wife, queen of Jerusalem and Sicilia, who 
before had sent to pope Urban, in addition to other gifts at his corona- 
tion, 40,000 ducats in pure gold, was by the said Urban committed to 



288 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

prison, and there strangled. Cardinals were racked without mercy, 
and tormented on gibbets, rather than instantly put to death. Battles 
were fought between the two popes, whereof 5000 on the one side were 
slain, besides the number of them which were taken prisoners. The 
cardinals were beheaded on one day, after long torments. The bishop 
of Aquilonensis, being suspected by pope Urban for not riding faster 
with the pope, his horse not being good, was slain by the pope sending 
his soldiers to cut him in pieces. Thus did these demons in human 
form continue to torment one another for the space of thirty-nine years, 
until the council of Constance somewhat appeased their wrath. 

Wickliffe paid less regard to the injunctions of the bishops than to 
his duty to God, continued to promulgate his doctrines, and gradually 
to unveil the truth to the eyes of men. He wrote several works, which, 
as maybe supposed, gave great alarm and offence to the existing clergy. 
But by the protection of the duke of Lancaster, he was secure from 
their malice. He translated the Bible into English, which, amidst the 
ignorance of the time, had the effect of the sun breaking forth in a 
dark night. To this Bible he prefixed a bold preface, wherein he re- 
flected on the bad lives of the clergy, and condemned the worship of 
saints, images, and the corporeal presence of Christ in the sacrament : 
but what offended his enemies most was, his exhorting all people to read 
the Scriptures, in which testimonies against those corruptions appeared so 
strongly, that the only way to prevent their being blazoned to the world 
was not to permit the sacred writings to be translated or known. 

About the same time fell a dissension in England between the people 
and the nobility, which did not a little disturb the common-wealth. In 
this tumult Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, was taken by 
the people and beheaded. In his place succeeded William Courtenay, 
who was no less diligent than his predecessor had been, in doing his 
utmost to root out heretics. Notwithstanding this formidable opposition 
Wickliffe's sect increased privily, and daily grew to greater force, until 
the time that William Barton, vice-chancellor of Oxford, had the whole 
rule of that university, who, calling together eight monastical doctors, 
and four others, with the consent of the rest of his affinity, put the com- 
mon seal of the university to an edict, declaring unto every man, and 
threatening them under a grievous penalty, that none should hereafter 
associate themselves with any of Wickliffe's favourers. Unto Wickliffe 
himself he threatened the greater excommunication, and farther impri- 
sonment, unless after three days canonical admonition or warning he 
did repent and amend; which when Wickliffe understood, forsaking 
the pope and all the clergy, he thought to appeal unto the king : but 
the duke of Lancaster interposing forbad him ; whereby, being beset 
with troubles and vexations, as it were in the midst of the waves, he was 
forced again to make confession of his doctrine ; in which confession, 
to avoid the rigour of things, he by qualifying his assertions, mitigated 
the severity he would otherwise have met with. 

In consequence of Wickliffe's translation of the Bible and of his 
preface, his followers greatly multiplied. Many of them, indeed, were 
not men of learning ; but being wrought upon by the conviction of 
plain reason, this determined them in their persuasion. In a short time 



PERSECUTIONS OF WICKLIFFE. 289 

his doctrines made great progress, being not only espoused by vast 
numbers of the students of Oxford, but also by the great men at court, 
particularly by the duke of Lancaster and lord Percy, together with 
several young and well educated gentlemen. Hence Wickliffe may be 
considered as the great founder of the reformation in this kingdom. 
He was of Merton college in Oxford, where he took his doctor's 
degree, and became so eminent for his fine genius and great learning, 
that Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, having founded Canterbury 
college, now Christ Church, in Oxford, appointed him rector: which em- 
ployment he filled with universal approbation, till the death of the arch- 
bishop. Langhalm, successor to Islip, being desirous of favouring the 
monks, and introducing them into the college, attempted to remove 
Wickliffe, and to put one Woodhall, a monk, in his room. But the 
fellows of the college would never consent to this, they loving their 
old rector ; but this affair being afterwards carried to Rome, Wickliffe 
was deprived in favour of Woodhall. However, this no ways lessened 
the reputation of the reformer > every one perceiving it was a general 
affair, and that the monks did not so much strike at Wickliffe's 
person, as at all the secular priests who were members of the college. 
And indeed, they were all turned out to make room for the monks. 
Shortly after he was presented to the living of Lutterworth, in the 
county of Leicester, and he there published, in his sermons and 
writings, certain opinions, which were judged new, because con- 
trary to the received doctrine of those days. It must be observed, 
that his most bitter enemies never charged him with any immo- 
rality. This great man was left in quiet at Lutterworth till his death, 
which happened December 31, 1385. But after his body had lain in 
the grave forty-one years, his bones were taken up by decree of the 
synod of Constance, publicly burnt, and his ashes thrown into the river 
near the town. This condemnation of his doctrine did not prevent its 
spreading all over the kingdom, and with such success, that, according 
to Spelman, two men could not be found together, and one not a Lollard 
or Wickliffite. 

The following are among the articles of Wickliffe which were condemned 
as heretical : The substance of material bread and wine doth remain in 
the sacrament of the altar after the consecration — The accidents do not 
remain without the subjects in the same sacrament, after the consecra- 
tion—Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar truly and really, in his 
proper and corporeal person — If a bishop or a priest be in deadly sin, 
he doth not ordain, consecrate, nor baptize — If a man be duly and truly 
contrite and penitent, all exterior and outer confession is but superfluous 
and unprofitable unto him — It is not found or established by the gospel 
that Christ did make or ordain mass — If the pope be a reprobate and 
evil man, and consequently a member of the devil, he hath no power by 
any manner of means given unto him over faithful Christians — Since 
the time of Urban VI. there is none to be received for pope, but 
every man is to live after the manner of the Greeks, under his own law — 
It is against the Scripture, that ecclesiastical ministers should have any 
temporal possessions — No prelate ought to excommunicate any man ex- 
cept he knew him first to be excommunicate of God — He who doth so 
7 



290 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

excommunicate any man, is thereby himself either a heretic or excom- 
municated — All such who leave off preaching or hearing the word 
of God, or preaching of the gospel for fear of excommunication, they 
are already excommunicated, and in the day of judgment shall be counted 
as traitors unto God — It is lawful for any man, either deacon or priest, 
to preach the word of God without authority or licence of the apostolic 
see or any other of his catholics — So long as a man is in deadly sin, he 
is neither bishop nor prelate in the church of God. 

Wickliffe had written divers works, which in the year 1410 were 
burnt at Oxford, the abbot of Shrewsbury being then commissary. And 
not only in England, but in Bohemia likewise, his books were set on fire 
by one Subinicus, archbishop of Prague, who made diligent inquisition 
for all the reformer had written. The number of the volumes composed 
and transcribed, said to have been destroyed, were most excellently and 
richly adorned with bosses of gold, and embellished coverings, being 
about the number of two hundred. But among all that he wrote no 
piece is more interesting for its size than the following letter, which he 
addressed to pope Urban VI. in the year 1382. 

" Verily I do rejoice to open and declare unto every man the faith 
which I do hold, and specially unto the bishop of Rome; the which 
forasmuch as I do suppose to be sound and true, he will most willingly 
confirm my said faith, or, if it be erroneous, amend the same. 

" First, I suppose that the gospel of Christ is the whole body of God's 
law ; and that Christ which did give that same law himself, I believe to 
be a very man, and in that point, to exceed the law of the gospel, and 
all other parts of the scripture. Again, I do give and hold the bishop 
of Rome, forsomuch as he is the vicar of Christ here in earth, to be 
bound most of all other men unto that law of the gospel. For the 
greatness among Christ's disciples did not consist in worldly dignity or 
honours, but in the near and exact following of Christ in his life and 
manners : whereupon I do gather out of the heart of the law of the 
Lord, that Christ for the time of his pilgrimage here was a most poor 
man, abjecting and casting off all worldly rule and honour, as appeareth 
by the gospel of St. Matthew, the eighth chapter, and the second of 
the Corinthians, the eighth chapter. 

" Hereby I do fully gather, that no faithful man ought to follow 
either the pope himself, or any of the holy men, but in such points as 
they have followed the Lord Jesus Christ. For Peter and the sons of 
Zebedee, by desiring worldly honour, contrary to the following of Christ's 
steps, did offend, and therefore in those errors they ought not to be 
followed. 

" Hereof I do gather, as a counsel, that the pope ought to leave unto 
the secular power all temporal dominion and rule, and thereunto effec- 
tually to move and exhort his whole clergy; for so did Christ, and 
especially by his apostles. Wherefore if I have erred in any of these 
points, I will most humbly submit myself unto correction, even by death 
if necessity so require ; and if I could labour according to my will or 
desire in mine own person, I would surely present myself before the 
bishop of Rome ; but the Lord hath otherwise visited me to the contrary, 
and hath taught me rather to obey God than man. Forsomuch then as 



BUJEtNING INTRODUCED. 291 

God hath given unto the pope just and true evangelical instinctions, we 
ought to pray that they be not extinguished by any subtle or crafty 
device. 

" And that the pope and cardinals be not moved to do any thing con- 
trary unto the law of the Lord. Wherefore let us pray unto our 
God, that he will so stir up our pope Urban VI. as he began, that he 
with his clergy may follow the Lord Jesus Christ in life and manners ; 
and that they may teach the people effectually; and that they likewise 
may faithfully follow them in the same. And let us specially pray, that 
our pope may be preserved from all malign and evil counsel, which we 
do know that evil and envious men of his household would give him. 
And seeing the Lord will not suffer us to be tempted above our power, 
much less then will he require of any creature to do that thing which 
they are not able ; forsomuch as that is the plain condition and manner 
of antichrist." 

In the council of the Lateran, a decree was made with regard to 
heretics, which required all magistrates to extirpate them upon pain of 
forfeiture and deposition. The canons of this council being received in 
England, the prosecution of heretics became a part of the common law; 
and a writ, styled de heretico comburendo, was issued under king Henry 
IV. for burning them upon their conviction ; after which special statutes 
were made, which commenced under Richard II., about the year 1390. 
The first made was assented to only by the lords ; but the king sanc- 
tioned it without the concurrence of the commons. Yet the utmost 
extent of the severity in this was, that writs should be issued to the 
laws of the church. It appears that those heretics werej at this time, 
very numerous, that they wore a peculiar habit, preached in churches 
and many other places against the existing faith, a^d refused to pay 
obedience to ecclesiastical censures. 

On the accession of Henry IV. to the crown in 1399, as he owed it in 
a great measure to the clergy, he passed an act against all who should 
presume to preach without the bishop's licence, or against the established 
church. It was enacted that all transgressors of this kind should be 
imprisoned, and be brought to trial within three months. If upon con- 
viction they offered to abjure, and were not relapsed, they were to be 
imprisoned and fined at pleasure ; but if they refused to abjure, or were 
relapsed, they were to be delivered over to the secular arm; and the 
magistrates were to barn them in some public place. About this time 
William Sautre, parish priest of St. Osith in London, being condemned 
as a relapse, and degraded by Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, a 
writ was issued, wherein burning is called the common punishment, and 
referred to the customs of other nations. This was the first example of 
that cruel punishment in this kingdom , 

The clergy, alarmed lest the doctrines of Wickliffe should ultimately 
become established, used every exertion in their power to check them. 
In the reign of Richard II. the bishops obtained a general licence to 
imprison heretics without being obliged to procure a special order from 
court, which however the house of commons caused to be revoked. But 
as the fear of imprisonment could not check the evil dreaded by the 
bishops, Henry IV., whose particular object was to win the affection of the 
clergy, earnestly recommended to parliament the concerns of the church. 



292 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

How reluctant soever the house of commons might be to prosecute the 
Lollards, the credit of the court, and the cabals of the clergy > at last 
obtained a most detestable act, for burning obstinate heretics ; which 
bloody statute was not repealed till the year 1677. It was immediately 
after the passing of this statute that the ecclesiastical court condemned 
William Sautre to the flames. 

Notwithstanding the opposition of the popish clergy, WicklifTe's 
doctrine continued to spread in Henry the IVth's reign, even to such a 
degree, that the majority of the house of commons were inclined to it ; 
whence they presented two petitions to the king, one against the clergy, 
the other in favour of the Lollards. The first set forth, that the clergy 
made ill use of their wealth, and consumed their income in a manner 
quite different from the intent of the donors ; that their revenues were 
excessive, and consequently it would be necessary to lessen them; that so 
many estates might easily be seized as would provide for one hundred and 
fifty earls at the rate of three thousand marks a year each, one thousand 
five hundred barons at one hundred marks each, six thousand two hundred 
knights at forty marks, and one hundred hospitals ; that by this means 
the safety of the kingdom might be better provided for, the poor better 
maintained, and the clergy more devoted to their duty. In the second 
petition the commons prayed, that the statute passed against the Lollards 
in the second year of this reign might be repealed, or qualified with 
some restrictions. As it was the king's interest to please the clergy, he 
answered the commons very sharply, that he neither could nor would 
consent to their petitions. And with regard to the Lollards, he declared 
that he wished the heretics were extirpated out of the land. To prove 
the truth of this, he signed a warrant for burning a man in humble life, 
but of strong mind and sound piety, named Thomas Badly. 

This individual was a layman, and by trade a tailor. He was arraigned 
in the year 1409 before the bishop of Worcester, and convicted of 
heresy. On his examination he said, that it was impossible any priest 
could make the body of Christ sacramentally, nor would he believe it 
unless he saw manifestly the corporeal body of the Lord to be handled 
by the priest at the altar; that it was ridiculous to imagine that at the 
supper, Christ held in his own hand his own body and divided it among 
his disciples, and yet remaining whole. "I believe," said he, "the 
Omnipotent God in trinity; but if every consecrated host at the altar 
be Christ's body, there must then be in England no less than 20,000 
gods." After this he was brought before the archbishop of Canterbury 
at St. Paul's church, and again examined in presence of a great number 
of bishops, the duke of York, and several of the first nobility. Great 
pains were used to make him recant ; but he courageously answered 
that he would still abide by his former opinions, which no power should 
force him to forego. On this the archbishop of Canterbury ratified the 
sentence given by the bishop of Worcester. When the king had signed 
the warrant for his death, he was brought to Smithfield, z and there 

1 It will not be uninteresting to our city readers, to be informed, that that part of Smith- 
field where a large board is erected, containing the laws and regulations of the cattle- 
market, is the very spot on which our protestant forefathers suffered for the cause of Christ. 
There many an English martyr's body mingled with dust, and from thence ascended many 
a soul to inherit everlasting glory. 



LAW AGAINST THE LOLLARDS. 293 

being put into an empty tub, was bound with iron chains fastened to a 
stake, and had dry wood piled around him. As he was thus standing 
before the wood was lighted, it happened that the prince, the king's 
eldest son, came near the spot ; who acting the part of the good Sama- 
ritan, began to endeavour to save the life of him whom the hypocritical 
Levites and Pharisees sought to put to death. He admonished and 
counselled him, that having respect to himself he should speedily with- 
draw out of these dangerous labyrinths of opinions, adding oftentimes 
threatenings, the which might have daunted any man. Also Courtenay, 
at that time chancellor of Oxford, preached unto him, and urged upon 
him the faith of the holy church. 

In the mean time the prior of St. Bartholomew's, in Smithfield, 
brought with all the solemnity the sacrament of Christ's body, with 
twelve torches borne before, and shewed the host to the poor man at the 
stake. He then demanded of him how he believed in it; he answered, 
that he knew well it was hallowed bread, but not God's body. Then 
was the tun put over him, and fire applied to it. On feeling the fire, 
he cried, " Mercy!" — calling likewise upon the Lord — when the prince 
immediately commanded to take away the tun, and quench the fire. He 
then asked him if he would forsake heresy, and take the faith of holy 
church, which, if he would do, he should have goods enough, promising 
him also a yearly pension out of the king's treasury. But this valiant 
champion of Christ, neglecting the prince's fair words, as also con- 
temning all men's devices, refused the offer of worldly promises, being 
more inflamed with the spirit of God, than with any earthly desire. 
Wherefore, as he continued immoveable in his former mind, the prince 
commanded him to be put again into the tun, and that he should not 
afterward look for any grace or favour. As he could be allured by no 
reward, so he was nothing at all abashed at their torments, but, as a 
valiant soldier of Christ, he persevered invincibly till his body was re- 
duced to ashes, and his soul rose triumphant unto God who gave it. 

At the commencement of the reign of Henry V. about 1413, a pre- 
tended conspiracy, evidently of priestly contrivance, was said to be 
discovered of Sir John Oldcastle, and some others of the followers of 
Wickliffe. Many of these were condemned, both for high treason and 
heresy; they were first hanged, and afterwards burnt. A law followed, 
enacting that all Lollards should forfeit their whole possessions in fee 
simple, with their goods and chattels ; and all sheriffs and magistrates, 
from the lord chancellor to the meanest officer, were required to take 
an oath to destroy them and their heresies, and to assist the ordinaries 
in the suppression of them. The clergy made an ill use of this law, 
and vexed every one who any ways offended them, with imprisonment; 
upon which the judges interposing, they examined the grounds of such 
commitments, and, as they saw cause, either bailed or discharged the 
prisoners; and took upon them to declare what opinions were heresies 
by law, and what were not. Thus the people flew for protection to the 
judges, and found more mercy from the common lawyers, than from 
those who ought to have been the pastors of their souls. 

The persecutions of the Lollards in the reign of Henry V. were 
owing to the cruel instigations of the clergy, as that monarch was na- 
turally averse to cruelty. It is supposed, that the chief cause of the 



294 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 

violent hatred which the clergy bore to the Lollards, was, that they had 
endeavoured to strip them of part of their revenues. However this 
might be, they thought that the most effectual way to check the progress 
of WicklifFe's doctrine, would be to attack the then chief protector of 
it, Sir John Oldcastle, baron of Cobham; and to persuade the king that 
the Lollards were engaged in conspiracies to overturn the throne and 
state. It was even reported that they intended to murder the king, 
together with the princes his brothers, with most of the lords spiritual 
and temporal, in hopes that the confusion which must necessarily arise 
in the kingdom, after such a massacre, would prove favourable to their 
religion. Upon this a false rumour was spread, that Sir John Oldcastle 
had got together 20,000 men in St. Giles's in the Fields, a place then 
overgrown with bushes. The king himself went thither at midnight, 
and finding no more than fourscore or a hundred persons, who were 
privately met upon a religious account, he fell upon them and killed 
many, it is supposed before he knew of the purpose of their meeting. 
Some of them being afterwards examined, were prevailed upon merely 
by promises or threats, to confess whatever their enemies desired ; and 
these accused Sir John Oldcastle. 

The king hereupon thought him guilty; and in that belief set a thou- 
sand marks upon his head, with a promise of perpetual exemption from 
taxes to any town which should secure him. Sir John was apprehended 
and imprisoned in the Tower; but escaping from thence he fled into 
Wales, where he long concealed himself. But being afterwards seized 
in Powisland, in North Wales, by John Grey, Lord Powis, he was 
brought to London, to the great joy of the clergy, who were highly in- 
censed against him, and resolved to sacrifice him to strike a terror into 
the rest of the Lollards; Sir John was of a very good family, had been 
sheriff of Hertfordshire under Henry IV. and summoned to parliament 
among the barons of the realm in that reign. He had been sent beyond 
sea with the earl of Arundel, to assist the duke of Burgundy against 
the French. In a word, he was a man of extraordinary merit, notwith- 
standing which he was condemned to be hanged up by the waist with a 
chain, and burnt alive. This most barbarous sentence was executed 
amidst the curses and imprecations of the priests and monks, who used 
their utmost endeavours to prevent the people from praying for him. 
Such was the tragical end of Sir John Oldcastle, baron of Cobham, 
who left the world with a resolution and constancy, which answered 
perfectly to the brave spirit he had ever maintained in the cause of 
truth and of his God. This was the first noble blood shed by popish 
cruelty in England. 

Not satisfied with his single death, the clergy got the parliament to, 
make fresh statutes against the Lollards : they never ceasing, with 
amazing eagerness, to require their blood. It was enacted, among 
other things, that whoever read the scriptures in English, should forfeit 
land, chattels, goods, and life, and be condemned as heretics to God, 
enemies to the crown, and traitors to the kingdom ; that they should 
not have the benefit of any sanctuary ; and that, if they continued ob- 
stinate, or relapsed after being pardoned, they should first be hanged 
for treason against the king, and then burned for heresy against God. 



SIR J. OLDCASTLE'S CREED. 295 

The act was no sooner passed, than a violent persecution was raised 
against the Lollards : several of them were burnt alive, some fled the 
kingdom, and others abjured their religion, to escape the torments pre- 
pared for them. From this picture of the horrid barbarities exercised 
in those times, we may justly bless those we live in, when nothing of 
that sort is practised, but when all are permitted to obey the dictates of 
their own conscience, and openly profess their respective religions, pro- 
vided they do not disturb the tranquillity of the kingdom. The most 
likely means of preserving the nation in this security is for everv cruel 
statute to be expunged, and for the power and virtue of Christian 
truth to be trusted with the sole defence of our orthodoxy and our 
lives. 

The following is the confession of the virtuous and Christian martyr 
whose death we have just described; which, from its clearness and sim- 
plicity, is well worthy of remembrance. He commences with the 
apostle's creed. 

" I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth : 
and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, dead, and buried, went down to hell, the third day arose 
again from death, ascended up to Heaven, sitteth on the right hand of 
God the Father Almighty; and from thence shall come again to judge 
the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the universal 
holy church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the up- 
rising of the flesh, and everlasting life. Amen. 

" For a more large declaration of this my faith in the catholic church, 
I stedfastly believe, that there is but one God Almighty, in and of 
whose godhead are these three persons, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, and that those three persons are the self-same God Al- 
mighty. I believe also, that the second person in this most blessed 
trinity, in most convenient time appointed thereunto before, took flesh 
and blood of the most blessed virgin Mary, for the safeguard and re- 
demption of the universal kind of man, which was before lost in Adam's 
offence. Moreover, I believe, that the same Jesus Christ our Lord, thus 
being both God and man, is the only head of the whole christian church, 
and that all those that have been or shall be saved, be members of this 
most holy church. Whereof the first sort be now in Heaven, and they 
are the saints from hence departed. These, as they were here conversant, 
conformed always their lives to the most holy laws and pure examples 
of Christ, renouncing Satan, the world, and the flesh, with all their 
concupiscence and evils. The other sort are here upon earth, and called 
the church militant. For day and night they contend against crafty 
assaults of the devil, the flattering prosperities of the world, and the 
rebellious filthiness of the flesh." 

As touching the power and authority of the keys, the archbishops, 
bishops, and other prelates, he said, that the pope is very antichrist, 
that is, the head; that the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, be 
his members, and that the friars be his tail. The which pope, arch- 
bishops, and bishops, a man ought not to obey, but so far forth as they 
were followers of Christ and of Peter, in their life, manners, and con- 



296 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

versation, and that he is the successor of Peter which is best and purest 
in life and manners. " These men," said he, on his examination, to the 
people who stood about him, " which judge and would condemn me, 
will seduce you all and themselves, and will lead you unto hell ; there- 
fore take heed of them." 



SECTION III. 

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION 
IN THE REIGN OF KING HENRY VIII. 

The reader will, doubtless, attend to the transactions recorded in this 
reign with peculiar interest. It was at this period that God, through 
the instrumentality of the king, liberated our happy country from the 
papal yoke, when England became an independent as well as pro- 
testant kingdom, and the ascendancy of the papal power over this 
island was preparing to be scattered to the four winds, never more to 
be able to recover its settlement in a region so adverse to its character 
and claims. 

The wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had produced 
such fatal revolutions, and cast England into such frequent convul- 
sions, that the nation with great joy hailed the accession of Henry VII. 
to the throne, who being himself descended from the house of Lancaster, 
by his marriage with the heiress of the house of York, freed them from 
the fear of any more wars by new pretenders. But the covetousness of 
his temper, the severity of his ministers, his ill conduct in the matter of 
Britagne, and his jealousy of the house of York, made him so generally 
odious to his people, that his life was little respected, and his death as 
little lamented. Henry VIII. succeeded, with all the advantages he 
could have desired. His disgracing Empson and Dudley, the cruel 
ministers of his father's designs for filling his coffers, his appointing re- 
stitution to be made of the sums that had been unjustly exacted of the 
people under covert of the king's prerogative, made the nation conclude 
they should hereafter live secure, under the protection of such a prince, 
and that the violent remedies of parliamentary judgments should be no 
more necessary, except as in this case, to confirm what had been done 
before in the ordinary courts of justice. 

Either from the magnificence of his own temper, or the observation 
he had made of the ill effects of his father's parsimony, the new king 
distributed his rewards and largesses with an unmeasured bounty ; so 
that he quickly exhausted the two millions which his father had trea- 
sured up, and emptied a coffer which he had left the fullest in Christen- 
dom: but till the ill effects of this appeared, it raised in his court and 
subjects the greatest hopes possible of a prince, whose first actions 
shewed an equal mixture of justice and generosity. 

The king had been educated with more than ordinary care : learning 
being then in its dawning, after a night of long and gross ignorance, 
his father had given orders that both his elder brother and he should be 
well instructed ; not with any design to make him archbishop of Can- 



EDUCATION OF HENRY VIII. 297 

terbury, for he had made small progress in theological and ecclesiastical 
lore, when his brother prince Arthur died, being then but eleven years 
old. The learning then most in credit among the clergy was the 
scholastic divinity, which, by a shew of subtlety, recommended itself 
to curious persons; and being very suitable to a vain and contentious 
temper, agreed best with Henry's disposition. Further, being likely 
to draw the most flattery, it became the chief subject of his studies, in 
which he grew not only to be eminent for a prince, but he might really 
have passed for a learned man had his quality been never so mean. 
He delighted in the purity of the Latin tongue, understood philosophy, 
and was so great a master in music that he composed better than many 
professors of the art. He was a bountiful patron to all learned men, 
more particularly to Erasmus and Polydore Virgil, and delighted much 
in those returns which hungry scholars make to liberal princes ; for he 
loved flattery out of measure, and he had enough of it to have surfeited 
a man of any modesty; for all the world, both at home and abroad, 
contended who should exceed most indecently in setting out his praises. 
The clergy carried it; for as he had merited most at their hands, both 
by espousing the interests of the papacy, and by his entering the lists 
with Luther, a so those that hoped to be advanced by these arts, were as 
little ashamed in magnifying him out of measure, as he was in receiving 
their gross commendations. 

One of the most conspicuous men of this, or perhaps of any other 
age, was Cardinal Wolsey. He was of mean extraction, but possessed 
great parts, and had a wonderful dexterity in insinuating himself into 
men's favours. He had but a little time been introduced to the king 
before he obtained an entire ascendancy over him, and the direction of 
all his affairs, and for fifteen years continued to be the most absolute 
favourite ever known in England. He saw the king was much set on 
his pleasures, and had a great aversion to business, and the other coun- 
sellors being unwilling to bear the load of affairs, were unwelcome to 
him, by pressing the king to govern by his own counsels; but he knew 
the methods of favourites better, and so was not only easy, but assistant 
to the king in his pleasures, and undertook to free him from the trouble 
of government, and to give him leisure to follow his appetites. This 
was the chief cause of that unbounded influence which Wolsey so soon 
acquired over a sovereign quite as ambitious as himself. The accidental 
circumstance of another and baser passion predominating in the king's 
heart over pure ambition, gave the crafty Wolsey an opening, which he 
did not for a moment neglect, of entering on a career which in different 
directions gratified equally both minister and monarch. 

Wolsey soon became master of all the offices at home and treaties 
abroad, so that all affairs went as he directed them. He it seems became 
soon obnoxious to parliaments, and therefore tried but one during his 
ministry, where the supply was granted so scantily, that afterwards he 

a It was for his writing against Luther, in defence of papacy, that the pope bestowed 
upon him the title of Defender of the Faith, which the British monarchs have, ab- 
surdly enough, retained to this day. Nothing can be said against the kingly office being 
" set for the defence of the gospel;" but to call a man, whatever be his infidelity and im- 
morality, by this name, is indeed a monstrous anomaly. 



298 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






chose rather to raise money by loans and benevolences, than by the free 
gift of the people in parliament. He in time became so scandalous for 
his ill life, that he grew to be a disgrace to his profession; for he not 
only served the king, but also shared with him in his pleasures, and 
became a prey to distempers of a sensual life. He was first made bishop 
of Tournay in Flanders, then of Lincoln, after that he was promoted to 
the see of York, and had both the abbey of St. Albans and the 
bishopric of Bath and Wells in commendam ; the last he afterwards 
exchanged for Durham, and upon Fox's death, he quitted Durham that 
he might take Winchester; and besides all this, the king by a special 
grant, gave him power to dispose of all the ecclesiastical preferments in 
England ; so that in effect he was the pope of this reforming country, 
as was said anciently of an archbishop of Canterbury, and no doubt 
but he copied skilfully enough those patterns that were set him at Rome. 
Being made a cardinal, and setting up a legatine court, he found it 
fit for his ambition to have the great seal likewise, that there might be 
no clashing between those two jurisdictions. He had, in one word, all 
the qualities necessary for a great minister, and all the vices common 
to a great favourite. 

The manner of promotion to bishoprics and abbeys was then the same 
that had taken place ever since the investitures by the ring and staff 
were taken out of the hands of princes. Upon a vacancy the king seized 
on all the temporalities, and granted a licence for an election, with a 
special recommendation of the person; which being returned, the royal 
assent was given, and it was sent to Rome, that bulls might be issued, 
and then the bishop elect was consecrated : after that he came to the 
king and renounced every clause in the bulls that was contrary to the 
king's prerogative, or to the law, and swore fealty; and then were the 
temporalities restored. Nor could bulls be sued out at Rome without a 
licence under the great seal; so that the kings of England had reserved 
the power to themselves of promoting to ecclesiastical benefices, not- 
withstanding all the invasions the popes had made on their temporal 
authority. 

The immunity of churchmen for crimes committed by them, till they 
were first degraded by the spirituality, occasioned the only contest that 
occurred in the beginning of this reign between the secular and eccle- 
siastical courts. Henry VII. had passed a law, that convicted clerks 
should be burnt in the hand. A temporary law was also made in the 
beginning of his reign, that murderers and robbers, not being bishops, 
priests, nor deacons, should be denied the benefit of the clergy : but 
this was to last only to the next parliament, and so being not continued 
by it, the act determined. The abbot of Winchelsea preached severely 
against it, as being contrary to the laws of God, and the liberties of the 
holy church, and said that all who assented to it had fallen under eccle- 
siastical censure. Afterwards he published a book to prove that all 
clerks, even of the lower orders, were sacred, and could not be judged 
by the temporal courts. This being done in parliament, the temporal 
lords and the commons addressed the king, desiring him to repress the 
insolence of the clergy. Accordingly a public hearing was appointed 
before his majesty and all the judges. Dr. Standish, a Franciscan, 



HUNiNE IMPRISONED AND BURNT. 299 

argued against the immunity, and proved that the judging clerks had 
in all times been practised in England; and that it was necessary for the 
peace and safety of mankind that all criminals should be punished. 
The abbot argued on the other side and said, it was contrary to a decree 
of the church, and was a sin in itself. Standish answered, that all 
decrees were not observed : for notwithstanding the decree for residence, 
bishops did not reside at their cathedrals. And since no decree was 
binding till it was received, this concerning immunity, which was never re- 
ceived in England, did not bind. After they had fully argued the matter, 
the laity were of opinion that the friar had the best of the argument ; 
and therefore moved the king that the bishops might be ordered to make 
him preach a recantation sermon. But they refused to do it, and said 
they were bound by their oaths to maintain his opinion. Standish was 
upon this much hated by the clergy, but the matter was allowed to fall ; 
yet the clergy carried the point, for the law was not continued. 

Not long after this, an accident occurred that drew great consequences 
after it. Richard Hunne, a merchant in London, was sued by his parish 
priest for a mortuary in the legate's court; on this, his friends advised 
him to sue the priest in the temporal court for a praemunire for bringing 
the king's subjects before a foreign and illegal bar. This incensed the 
clergy so much that they contrived his destruction. Accordingly, hear- 
ing that he had Wickliffe's Bible in his house, he was upon that put 
into the bishop's prison for heresy; but being examined upon sundry 
articles, he confessed some things, and submitted himself to mercy. On 
this they ought, according to the law, to have enjoined him penance 
and discharged him, it being his first crime: but he could not be pre- 
vailed on to let his suit fall in the temporal court ; so one night his neck 
was broken with an iron chain, and he was wounded in other parts of 
his body, and then knit up in his own girdle, and it was given out that 
he had hanged himself; but the coroner's inquest by examining the 
body, and by several other evidences, particularly by the confession of 
the sumner, gave their verdict, that he was murdered by the bishop's 
chancellor, Dr. Horsey, the sumner, and the bell-ringer. The spiritual 
court proceeded against the dead body, and charged Hunne with all the 
heresy in Wickcliffe's preface to the Bible, because that was found in 
his possession : thus he was condemned as a heretic, and his body was 
burnt. 

The indignation of the people was raised to the highest pitch against 
this action, in which they implicated the whole body of the clergy, 
whom they esteemed no longer their pastors, but barbarous murderers. 
The rage went so high that the bishop of London complained he was not 
safe in his own house. The bishops, the chancellor, and the sumner 
were indicted as principals in the murder. In parliament an act passed 
restoring Hunne's children ; but the commons sent up a bill concerning 
his murder, which, however, was laid aside by the lords, where the clergy 
were the majority. The clergy looked on the opposition that Standish 
had made in the point of their immunities, as that which gave the rise to 
Hunne's first suit; and the convocation cited him to answer for his con- 
duct ; but he claimed the king's protection, since he had done nothing, 
but only pleaded in the king's name. The clergy pretended they did 



300 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

not prosecute him for his pleading, but for some of his divinity lectures, 
contrary to the liberty of the church, which the king was bound to 
maintain by his coronation oath : but the temporal lords, the judges, 
and commons, prayed the king also to maintain the laws according to 
his coronation oath, and to give Standish his protection. The king 
upon this being in great perplexity, required Veysy, afterwards of 
bishop of Exeter, to declare upon his conscience and allegiance the 
truth in that matter. His opinion was against the immunity ; so another 
public hearing being appointed, Standish was accused for teaching — that 
the inferior orders were not sacred ; that their exemption was not founded 
on a divine right, but that the laity might punish them ; that the canons 
of the church did not bind till they were received ; and that the study of 
the canon law was useless. Of these opinions he denied some, and jusr 
titled others. Veysy being required to give his opinion, alleged — that the 
laws of the church did only oblige where they were received ; as the law 
of the celibate of the clergy, received in the West, did not bind the 
Greek churches that never received it, so the exemption of the clerks 
not being received did not bind in England. The judges gave their 
opinion next, which was — that those who prosecuted Standish were all 
in a praemunire. So the court broke up. But in another hearing, in 
the presence of the greatest part of both houses of parliament, the car- 
dinal said in the name of the clergy — that though they intended to do 
nothing against the king's prerogative, yet the trying of clerks seemed 
to be contrary to the liberty of the church, which they were bound by 
their oaths to maintain. So they prayed that the matter might be 
referred to the pope. 

The king said, that he thought Standish had answered them fully : 
the bishop of Winchester replied he would not stand to his opinion 
at his peril. Standish upon that asked, "What can one poor friar do 
against all the clergy of England?" The archbishop of Canterbury 
answered, "Some of the fathers of the church have suffered martyrdom 
upon that account ;" but the chief-justice replied, " Many holy kings 
have maintained that law, and many holy bishops have obeyed it." In 
conclusion, the king declared, that he would maintain his rights, and 
would not submit them to the decrees of the church, otherwise than as 
his ancestors had done. Horsey was appointed to be brought to his 
trial for Hunne's murder, and upon his pleading not guilty, no evidence 
was to be brought, and so he was to be discharged. The discontent of 
the people greatly increased at this, and very much disposed them to 
all that was done afterwards, for pulling down the ecclesiastical tyranny 
in this country, and dissolving the establishment by which it was chiefly 
sustained. 

This was the first disturbance in this king's reign, till the suit for his 
divorce commenced. In all other points he was constantly in the pope's 
interests, who sent him the common compliments of roses, and such 
other trifles, by which that see had treated princes so long as children. 
But no compliment wrought so much on the king's vanity, as the title of 
" Defender of the Faith," sent him by pope Leo upon the book which 
he wrote against Luther concerning the sacraments. 

It will now be proper to consider the rapid progress of the doctrines 



PERSECUTION OF THE LOLLARDS. 301 

of the reformation among the people. From the days of Wickliffe 
there were many that differed from the national faith. He wrote many 
books that gave great offence to the clergy, yet being powerfully sup- 
ported by the duke of Lancaster, they could not have their revenge 
during his life ; but, as we have seen, he was after his death condemned, 
and his body was raised and burnt. The Bible which he translated 
into English, with the preface which he set before it, produced the 
greatest effects. In these he reflected on the ill lives of the clergy, 
and condemned the worship of saints and images, and the corporeal 
presence of Christ in the sacrament; but the most criminal part in 
the eyes of the papists was, exhorting all people to read the Scriptures. 

Perhaps there cannot be a stronger proof of the depravity of the 
Roman catholic religion, or its perversion of truth, than denying to 
the laity the use of the sacred volume. — "To the law and to the tes- 
timony/' saith the prophet; "if they speak not according to this, it 
is because there is no light in them." " Search the Scriptures," saith 
the Lord. " These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that 
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the 
Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so," remarks the writer 
of the Acts of the Apostles. 

The following article respecting Wickliffe and his followers, appeared 
in the 16th volume of the Monthly Magazine, and maybe appropriately 
introduced in this place. 

Wickliffe, the celebrated priest and reformer in the end of Edward Ill.'s 
reign, was not educated at Cambridge, but at Oxford ; in which uni- 
versity, being a man of distinguished learning, he possessed considerable 
authority and influence : but his doctrines soon made their way among 
all ranks of people ; and Cambridge, as may be supposed, was not 
behindhand in giving them a hearing ; many of its members were 
foremost among Wickliffe's advocates, but as the Lollards, his followers, 
did not form themselves into societies or churches, they were obliged to 
maintain their opinions privately, and in the hearing only of their par- 
ticular confidants ; for besides the decree passed in the fourth council of 
Lateran, that all heretics should be delivered over to the civil magistrate 
to be burned, there were particular laws made in Richard II. and Henry 
IV. 's reign, which put them from under the king's protection, and left 
them at the mercy of the spiritual courts. We are not therefore to 
expect, under these circumstances, that Wickliffe's doctrines should be 
much agitated publicly at Cambridge. This, however, we collect, that 
about the year 1401, archbishop Arundel, with his commissioners, visited 
Cambridge ; the archbishop personally, the collective body of the uni- 
versity in congregation, his commissioners every private college. One 
article of their inquiries was, whether there were any members suspected 
of Lollardism, or any other heretical pravity ? and ten years after, 
Peter Hartford was, according to Dr. Fuller in his history of Cambridge, 
ordered to abjure Wickliffe's opinions in full congregation ; and about 
twenty years after this, several Lollards of Chesterton were obliged to 
abjure. One of the opinions of the latter heretics will appear very 
singular, which was that priests were incarnate devils. They had, no 
doubt, poor creatures, been too painfully scorched with church disci- 



302 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

pline, and were too likely to become fuel for some future flame of their 
kindling. 

The testimonies of this great man against those corruptions were such, 
that there was no way to deal with them but if possible to silence him. 
His followers were not men of letters, but being wrought on by the easy 
conviction of plain common sense, were quite determined in their per- 
suasions. They did not form themselves into a bodyj but were contented 
to hold their opinions secretly, and did not spread them, but to their 
particular confidants. The clergy sought them out every where, and 
delivered them after conviction to the secular arm, that is, to the flames 
of martyrdom, the odium of which, by this fiction, they sought to 
avoid. 

The canons of the council of the Lateran being received in England, 
the proceedings against heretics grew to be a part of the common law, 
and a writ for burning them was issued upon their conviction without 
reserve. 

In the beginning of this reign, there were several persons brought into 
the bishops' courts for heresy, before Warham. Forty-eight were ac- 
cused : but of these, forty-three abjured, twenty-seven men, and six- 
teen women, most of them inhabitants of Tenterden. Five of them, 
four men and one woman, were condemned; some as obstinate heretics, 
and others as relapses : and against the common ties of nature, the 
woman's husband, and her two sons, were suborned witnesses against 
her. Upon their conviction, a certificate was made by the archbishop 
to the chancery: upon which, since there is no pardon upon record, the 
writs for burning them must have gone out in course, and the execution 
of them is little to be doubted. The articles objected to them were, 
that they believed that in the eucharist there was nothing but material 
bread ; that the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, confession, ma- 
trimony, and extreme unction, were neither necessary nor profitable; 
that priests had no more power than laymen ; that pilgrimages were 
not meritorious; that the money and labour they required were spent 
in vain; that images ought not to be worshipped; that they were only 
stocks and stones; that prayers ought not to be made to saints, but only 
to God ; that there was no virtue in holy water or holy bread. By this 
it will appear, that many in this nation were prepared to receive those 
doctrines, which were afterwards preached by the reformers, even before 
Luther commenced his more determined and successful career. 

The rise and progress of the reformation under him are well known : 
the scandalous extolling of indulgences gave the first occasion to all 
that followed between him and the church of Rome; in which, had not 
the corruptions and cruelties of the clergy been so visible and scandalous, 
so small a matter could never have produced such a revolution. Even 
he himself did not expect so great a matter to be immediately kindled 
by this little fire. 

The bishops were grossly ignorant; they seldom resided in their 
dioceses, except it was to riot at high festivals; and all the effect their 
residence could have was to corrupt others by their ill example. They 
followed the courts of princes, and aspired to the greatest offices. The 
abbots and monks were almost wholly given up to luxury and idleness ; 



PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 303 

and their unmarried state gave infinite scandal to the world ; for it ap- 
peared that restraining them from having wives of their own, made them 
conclude that they had a right to all other men's. The inferior clergy 
were no better; and not having places of retreat to conceal their vices, 
as the monks had, they became more public and shameless. In short, 
all ranks of churchmen were so generally despised and hated, that 
the world was very apt to be possessed with prejudice against their 
doctrines, for the sake of the men ; and the worship of God was so 
defiled with gross superstition, that the people were easily convinced 
the church stood in great need of reformation. This was much increased 
when the books of the fathers began to be read, in which the difference 
between the former and latter ages of the church very evidently ap- 
peared. They found that a blind superstition came first in the room of 
true piety ; and when by its means the wealth and interest of the clergy 
were highly advanced, the popes had upon that established their tyranny; 
under which, not only meaner people, but even crowned heads had long 
groaned. All these things concurred to make way for the advancement 
of the reformation : while the books of the Germans being brought into 
England and translated, many were prevailed on by them. Upon this, 
a hot persecution was vigorously set on foot, to such a degree that six 
men and women were burnt at Coventry in passion-week, only for 
teaching their children the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten com- 
mandments in English. Great numbers were every where brought into 
the bishops' courts; of whom some were burnt, while the greater part 
fearfully abjured. 

The king laid hold of this occasion to become the champion of the 
the church, and wrote against Luther in the manner already described. 
His book, besides the title of " Defender of the Faith," drew upon him 
all that flattery could invent to extol it; whilst Luther, not daunted 
with such an antagonist, answered it, and treated Henry as much below 
the respect due to a king, as his flatterers had raised him above it. 
Tindal's translation of the New Testament, with some notes added to it, 
drew a severe condemnation from the clergy; there being nothing in 
which they were more concerned than to keep the people unacquainted 
with that book. Thus much may serve to shew the condition of affairs 
in England both in church and state, when the process of the king's 
divorce was first set on foot. This incident, so replete with consequences 
the most important to the reformation, shall now be laid before the 
reader with somewhat of particular detail. 

Henry VII. had entered into a firm alliance with Ferdinand of 
Spain, and agreed to a match between his eldest son prince Arthur, and 
Katharine the Infanta of Spain. She came into England and was 
married in November; but on the second of the following April the 
prince died, leaving the throne as well as the lady open to his brother. 
Arthur and Katharine had lodged and even slept together, to carry on 
the farce of marriage ; but such was their youth, and the feebleness of 
the young prince, that beyond this farce no effect detrimental to 
Henry's hopes, or of service to the nation, could be expected. The 
king, being unwilling to restore so great a portion as two hundred 
thousand ducats, which the princess brought as her dowery, proposed a 



304 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

second match for her with his younger son Henry. Warham objected 
to it as unlawful; but Fox, bishop of Winchester, was for it, and the 
opinion of the pope's authority was then so well established, that it was 
thought a dispensation from Rome was sufficient to remove all objec- 
tions. Accordingly one was obtained, grounded upon a desire of the 
two young persons to marry together for preserving peace between the 
crowns of England and Spain. 

The pope was then at war with Lewis XII. of France, and would 
refuse nothing to the king of England, being perhaps not unwilling 
that princes should contract such marriages, since the lawfulness of their 
issue depending on the pope's dispensation, they would be thereby 
obliged in interest to support that authority. Upon this a marriage 
followed, the prince being yet under age; but the same day in which 
he came to be of age, he did, by his father's orders, make a protestation 
that he retracted and annulled the contract. His father, at his death, 
charged his son to break it off entirely, being perhaps apprehensive of 
such a return of confusion upon a controverted succession to the crown, 
as had occurred during the wars between the houses of York and 
Lancaster; but the son being then eighteen years of age, married her 
and she bore him two children who died soon after they were born ; and 
another, Mary, afterwards queen of England. After this Katharine 
contracted some diseases that made her unacceptable to the king; who, 
at the same time beginning or pretending to have some scruples of con- 
science with regard to the lawfulness of his marriage, determined to 
have the affair investigated. 

He seemed to lay the greatest weight on the prohibition in theLevitical 
law of marrying the brother's wife, and being conversant in the writings 
of Thomas Aquinas, he found that he and the other schoolmen looked 
on those laws as moral, and for ever binding; and consequently the 
pope's dispensation was of no force, since his authority went not so far 
as to dispense with the laws of God. b All the bishops of England, 
Fisher of Rochester only excepted, declared under their hands and 
seals that they judged the marriage unlawful. The ill consequences 
of wars that might follow upon a doubtful title to the crown, were also 
much considered. It is not certain that the king's affections for any 
other gave rise to all this. It is possible that, conceiving himself on 
the point of being freed of his former marriage, he gave a free scope 
to his affections, which settled on Anne Boleyn. 

This lady was born in the year 1507, and at seven years of age was 
sent to France, where she remained twelve years, and then returned to 
England. She was much admired in both courts, was more beautiful 
than graceful, and more cheerful than discreet. She wanted none of 

b This was one of the firmest, as it was one of the first steps laid for advancing to a 
glorious reformation on scriptural principles; and was infinitely preferable as an argument 
to all the reasonings afterwards introduced, and exalted to the rank of infallible axioms, 
when this, alas ! became slighted and forgotten. Hitherto and afterwards, it was assumed 
that no papal decree could err; but in a happy moment of sudden light it is here seen and 
confessed that edicts of the pope may run contrary to the law of God, and thus be un- 
doubtedly wrong. Would to heaven that this principle were considered by protestant 
as well as popish bishops, and carried by all people into their confidence in episcopal 
measures. 



SOME ACCOUNT OF ANNE BOLEYN. 305 

the charms of wit or person, and must have had extraordinary attrac- 
tions, since she could so long manage such a king's affection ; for it is 
evident that in the long course of seven years' courtship she kept him at 
a due distance. 

Knight, then secretary of state, was sent to Rome to prepare the pope 
to grant a dispensation from the former marriage. He made application 
to the pope in the most secret manner he could, and had a very favour- 
able answer : for the pope promised frankly to dissolve the marriage ; 
but another promise being exacted of him in the emperor's name, not 
to proceed in that affair, he was reduced to great straits, being then at 
the emperor's mercy, while he had no mind to lose the king of England; 
he therefore studied to gain time, and promised that if the latter would 
have a little patience, he should not only have that which he asked, but 
every thing that was in his power to grant. The chief cardinal, indeed, 
made some scruples concerning the bull that was demanded, till he had 
raised his price, and got a great present; then the pope signed both a 
commission for Wolsey to try the cause, and judge in it, and also a dis- 
pensation, and put them into Knight's hands ; but with tears prayed 
him that there might be no proceedings upon them, till the emperor was 
incapable of executing his revenge upon him ; and whenever that was 
done he would own this act of justice which he did in the king's favour. 

The pope was at this time displeased with Cardinal Wolsey ; for he 
understood that during his captivity, he had been in an intrigue to get 
himself chosen vicar of the papacy, and was to have sat at Avignon, 
which might have produced a new schism. Staphileus, clean of the Rota, 
being then in England, was wrought on by the promise of a bishopric, 
and a recommendation to a cardinal's hat, to promote the king's 
affair. By him the cardinal wrote to the pope, in a most earnest strain, 
for a dispatch of this business ; and he desired, that an indifferent and 
tractable cardinal might be sent over, with a full commission to join 
with him, and to judge the matter ; proposing to the king's ambassadors 
Campegio as the fittest man. Wolsey, in several letters to Cassali, who 
was in great favour with the pontiff, offered to take the blame on his 
own soul, if the pope would grant this bull ; and with an earnestness, 
as hearty and warm as can be expressed in words, he pressed the thing-, 
and added, that if the pope continued inexorable, he perceived the king 
would proceed another way. 

These entreaties had such effect that Campegio was declared legate, 
and ordered to go to England, and join in commission with Wolsey for 
judging this matter. He accordingly set out from Rome, and carried 
with him a decretal bull for annulling the marriage, which he was autho- 
rized to shew to the king and Wolsey ; but was required not to give it 
out of his hands to either of them. In fact the divorce was trusted to 
his authority. In October he arrived in England, and after the usual 
compliments were over, he first advised the king to give up the prosecu- 
tion of his suit ; and then counselled the queen, in the pope's name, to 
enter into a religious life, and make vows : but both were in Vain ; and 
he, by affecting an impartiality, almost lost his ground on either side. 
But he in great measure pacified the king when he shewed him the bull 
he had brought over for annulling the marriage ; yet he would not part 

x 



306 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

with it either to the king or the cardinal ; upon which, great instances 
were made at Rome, that Campegio might be ordered to shew it to some 
of the king's counsellors, and to go on and end the business, otherwise 
Wolsey would be ruined, and England lost. All this however did not 
prevail on the pope, who knew it was intended to get the bull out of 
Campegio's hands, and then the king would leave him to the emperor's 
indignation : but though he positively refused to grant that, yet he said 
he left the legates in England free to judge as they saw cause, and pro- 
mised that he would confirm their sentence. 

The affair proceeding very slowly, ambassadors were dispatched to 
Rome with new propositions for a speedy termination. On this, the 
pope gave new assurances, that though he would not grant a bull, by 
which the divorce should be immediately his own act, yet he would con- 
firm the legate's sentence. Just after he granted this boon, the pope 
was taken suddenly ill, upon which the Imperialists began to prepare 
for a conclave; but Farnese, and the cardinal of Mantua, opposed 
them, and seemed to favour Wolsey ; whom, as his correspondents wrote 
to him, they reverenced as a Deity. Upon this he dispatched a courier 
to Gardiner, then on his way to Rome, with large directions how to 
manage the election. It was reckoned, that the king of France, joining 
heartily with the king of England, the matter might be set at rest. 
There were only six cardinals wanting to make the election sure; and 
besides sums of money, and other rewards, which were to be distributed 
among them, he was to give them assurance that the cardinals' prefer- 
ments should be equally divided. These were the secret methods of 
attaining the chair : and indeed it would puzzle a man of an ordinary 
degree of credulity, to think that one chosen by such means could pre- 
sume to be Christ's vicar, and the infallible judge of controversies. The 
recovery, however, of the pope put an end to these intrigues. 

At length the legates began the process, when the queen protested 
against them as incompetent judges. They, however, proceeded accord- 
ing to the forms of law, although the queen had appealed from them 
to the pope, and objected both to the place, to the judges, and her 
lawyers ; when they pronounced her contumacious, and went on to 
examine witnesses, chiefly to the particulars of the consummation of her 
marriage with prince Arthur. But now since the process was thus going 
on, the emperor's agents pressed the pope vehemently for an avocation ; 
and all possible endeavours were used by the king's agents to hinder it. 
They spared nothing that would work on the pope, either in the way of 
persuasion or threatening : it was told him there was a treaty set on foot 
between the king and the Lutheran princes of Germany ; and that upon 
declaring himself so partial as to grant the avocation, he would cer- 
tainly embark in the same interests with them. The pope however 
thought the king so far engaged in honour on points of religion, that he 
would not be prevailed upon to unite with Luther's followers ; he 
did not imagine that the effects of his granting the avocation would 
be so fatal as the cardinal's agents represented them. In conclu- 
sion, therefore, after the emperor had engaged to restore his family to 
the government of Florence, he resolved to publish his treaty with him, 
and told the English ambassadors that he was forced to it; both because 



FALL OF CARDINAL WOLSEY. 307 

all the lawyers said it could not be denied, and that he could not resist 
the emperor's forces, which surrounded him on all hands. Their endea- 
vours to gain a little time by delay were as fruitless as other artifices, 
for on the 15th of July, the pope signed the avocation, and on the 19th 
sent it by an express messenger to England. 

The legates, Campegio in particular, drew out the matter with all the 
delay they could contrive, and gained much time. At last, it being 
brought to the point that sentence was to be pronounced, Campegio, in- 
stead of doing it, adjourned the court till October, and said, that as 
they were members of the consistory they must observe their times of 
vacation. This gave the king and his court great offence, when they saw 
what was like to be the issue of a process on which his majesty was 
so much bent, and in which he was so far engaged both in honour and 
interest. The king governed himself upon the occasion with more 
temper than was expected: he dismissed Campegio civilly, only his 
officers searched his coffers when he went beyond sea, with evident design 
to see if the decretal bull could be found. Wolsey was now upon the 
point of being disgraced, though the king seemed to treat him with all 
his former confidence. 

At this period, Dr. Cranmer, a fellow of Jesus College in Cambridge, 
meeting accidentally with Gardiner and Fox at Waltham, and entering 
into discourse upon the royal marriage, suggested that the king should 
engage the chief universities and divines of Europe, to examine the 
lawfulness of his marriage ; and if they gave their resolutions against it, 
then it being certain that the pope's dispensation could not derogate from 
the law of God, the marriage must be declared null. This novel and 
reasonable scheme they proposed to the king, who was much pleased 
with it, and said, " He had the sow by the right ear." He saw this Way 
was both better in itself and would mortify the pope. Cranmer was 
accordingly sent for> and on conversing with him, the king conceived a 
high opinion both of his learning and prudence, as well as of his pro-^ 
bity and sincerity, which took such root in the king's mind, that no 
artifices nor calumnies were ever able to remove it. 

From this moment and these circumstances began the rise of Cranmer 
and the decline of Wolsey. The great seal was taken from the latter 
and given to Sir Thomas More ; and he was sued in a praemunire, for 
having held the legatine courts by a foreign authority, to the laws of 
England. Wolsey confessed the indictment, pleaded ignorance, and 
submitted himself to the king's mercy: so judgment passed on him; 
when his rich palace and furniture were seized for the royal use. 
Yet the king received him again into his protection, and restored to him 
the temporalities of the sees of York and Winchester, and above 6000?. 
in plate and other goods; at w r hich he was so transported, that it is 
said he fell down on his knees in a kennel before the messenger who 
brought him the news. Articles were put in against him in the house 
of lords for a bill of attainder, where he had but few friends : in the 
house of commons, Cromwell, who had been his secretary, so managed 
the matter, that it came to nothing. This failing, his enemies procured 
an order to be sent to him to go into Yorkshire : thither he went in great 
state, with one hundred and sixty horses in his train, and seventy-two 



308 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

farts following him, and there he lived some time. But the king being 
informed, that he was practising with the pope and the emperor, he sent 
(he earl of Northumberland to arrest him of high treason, and bring 
him up to London. On the way he sickened and died at Leicester, 
making great protestations of his constant fidelity to the king, particu- 
larly in the matter of his divorce : and wishing he had served God as 
faithfully as he had done the king ; for then he would not have cast him 
off in his grey hairs, as the king had done: words that declining 
favourites are apt to reflect on in adversity ; but they seldom remember 
them in the height of their fortune. 

The king intending to proceed in the method proposed by Cranmer, 
sent to Oxford and Cambridge to procure their conclusions. At Oxford 
it was referred by the major part of the convocation to thirty-three 
doctors and bachelors of divinity, whom that faculty was to name : they 
were empowered to determine the question, and put the seal of the uni- 
versity to their conclusion. They gave their opinions, that the marriage 
of the brother's wife was contrary both to the laws of God and nature. 
At Cambridge the convocation referred the question to twenty-nine ; 
of which number, two-thirds agreeing, they were empowered to put the 
seal of the university to their determination. These agreed in opinion 
with those of Oxford. The jealousy of Cranmer's favouring Lutheranism 
caused the fierce popish party to oppose every thing in which he was 
engaged. They were also afraid of Anne Boleyn's advancement, who 
was believed to be tinctured with the reformed opinions. Crook, a 
learned man in the Greek tongue, was employed in Italy, to procure the 
resolution of divines there ; in which he was so successful, that besides 
the great discoveries he made in searching the manuscripts of the Greek 
fathers concerning their opinions in this point, he engaged several per- 
sons to write for the king's cause. He also got the Jews to give their 
opinions of the laws in Leviticus, that they were moral and obligatory — 
that when a brother died without issue, his brother might marry his 
widow within Judea, for preserving their families and succession ; 
although that might not be done out of Judea. The state of Venice, 
would not declare themselves, but said they would be neutral; and 
it was not easy to persuade the divines of the republic to give their 
opinions, till a brief was obtained of the pope, permitting all divines 
and canonists to deliver judgment according to their consciences. The 
pope abhorred this way of proceeding, though he could not decently 
oppose it ; but he said in great scorn, that no friar should set limits to 
his power. Crook was ordered to give no money, nor make promises 
to any, till they had freely delivered their opinion ; which he faithfully 
observed. This man sent over to England a hundred various books, 
and papers, with many subscriptions ; all condemning the king's mar- 
riage as unlawful in itself. At Paris, the Sorbonne made their deter- 
mination with great solemnity; after mass of the Holy Ghost, all the 
doctors took an oath to study the question, and to give their judgment 
according to their consciences ; and after three weeks study, the greater 
part agreed on this strange and contradictory decree — " that the king's 
marriage was unlawful, and the pope could not dispense with it." At 
Orleans, Angiers, and Toulouse, they determined to the same purpose. 



OPINIONS ON THE KING'S MARRIAGE. 309 

Calvin thought the marriage null, and they all agreed that the pope's 
dispensation was of no force. Osiander was employed to engage the 
Lutheran divines, but they were afraid of giving the emperor new 
grounds of displeasure. Melancthon thought the law in Leviticus was 
dispensable, and that the marriage might be lawful; and that in such 
matters, states and princes might make what laws they pleased. Though 
the divines of Leipsic, after much disputing about it, did agree that 
those laws were moral, yet they could never be brought to justify the 
divorce, with the subsequent marriage that followed upon it. And the 
king appeared very inclinable to receive their doctrine, so steadily did 
they follow their consciences even against their interests: but the pope 
was more compliant, for he offered to Cassali to grant his amorous pe- 
titioner dispensation for having another wife, with which the Imperialists 
seemed on the whole to be willing to comply. 

The kind's cause being thus fortified by so many resolutions in his 
favour, he made certain members of parliament sign a letter to the pope, 
complaining, that notwithstanding the great merits of their sovereign, 
the justice of his cause, and the importance of it to the safety of the 
kingdom, yet the pope made still new delays ; they therefore pressed 
him to dispatch it speedily, otherwise they would be forced to seek other 
remedies, though they were not willing to drive things to extremities, till 
it was unavoidable. The letter was signed by the cardinal, the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, four bishops, twenty-two abbots, forty-two peers, 
and eleven commoners. To this the pope wrote an answer, taking 
notice of the vehemence of their style, and freeing himself from the 
imputations of ingratitude and injustice. He acknowledged the king's 
great merits; and said, he had done all he could in his favour: he had 
granted a commission, but could not refuse to receive the queen's 
appeal; all the cardinals with one consent judging that an avocation 
was necessary. Since that time, the delays were not with him, but with 
the king; that he was ready to proceed, and would bring it to as speedy 
an issue as the importance of it would admit of; and as for their 
threatenings, they were neither proofs of their wisdom, nor of their 
religion. 

The king, now disgusted at his dependence on the pope, issued a pro- 
clamation against any that should purchase, bring over, or publish any 
bull from Rome, contrary to his authority: and after that he made an 
abstract of all the reasons and authorities of fathers, or modern writers, 
against his marriage, to be published both in Latin and English. Both 
sides having produced the strength of their cause, it evidently appeared 
that, according to the authority given to tradition in the church of Rome, 
the king had clearly the right on his side. At the same time he was not 
exempt from opposition, even in England. The friends of Katharine 
were more numerous than he had all along imagined, and the queen 
herself, amidst these disputes, continued firm to her resolution of leavino- 
the matter in the pope's hands, and would hearken to no propositions 
that were made to her, for referring it to the arbitration of a number 
chosen on both sides. 

The sovereigns of England claimed the same latitude of power in 
ecclesiastical matters, as the Roman emperors had exercised before the 



310 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

decline of their authority. Anciently they had divided bishoprics, 
granted investitures, and made laws relating both to ecclesiastical 
causes and persons. When the popes began to extend their power 
beyond the limits assigned them by the canons, great opposition arose 
to them in England; but they managed the advantages they found, 
either from the weakness or ill circumstances of princes, so steadily, 
that at length they subdued the world : and if they had not by their 
cruel exactions so oppressed the clergy, that they were driven to seek 
shelter under covert of the temporal authority, men generally were so 
absorbed by superstition and credulity, that not only the whole spiritual 
power, but even the temporal authority of the princes, was likely to 
have fallen under papal tyranny. But the discontented clergy now 
supported the secular power as much as they had before advanced that 
of the papal. Boniface VIII. had raised his pretensions to that impudent 
pitch, that he declared all power, both ecclesiastical and civil, was derived 
from him; and this he established as an article of faith, necessary to 
salvation ; on which he, and his successors, took upon them, to dispose 
of all ecclesiastical benefices by their absolute bulls and provisions. To 
restrain these invasions of the rights of princes, laws were made in 
England against their authority; but no punishment being declared for 
transgressors, the courtiers at Rome were not frightened at their publi- 
cation; so that the abuses still continued : but in the time of Edward III. 
a more severe act was made, by which all that transgressed were to be 
imprisoned, to be fined at pleasure, and to forfeit all their benefices. 

These long forgotten statutes were now revived, to bring the clergy 
into a snare: it was designed by the terror of this proceeding to force 
them to an entire submission, and to oblige them to redeem themselves 
by the grant of a considerable subsidy. They pleaded ignorance; it 
was a public error, and they ought not therefore to be punished for it. 
To this it was answered, that the laws which they had transgressed were 
still in force, and so no ignorance could excuse the violation of them. 
The convocation of Canterbury made their submission, and in their 
address to the king he was called the protector and supreme head of 
the church of England; but some objecting, it was added — " in so far as 
it is agreeable to the law of Christ." This was signed by nine bishops, 
fifty abbots and priors, and the greater part of the lower house; and 
with it they offered the king a subsidy of 100,000/. to procure his favour, 
and promised for the future not to make nor execute any constitutions 
without his licence. The convocation of York did not pass this so 
easily; they objected to the word head, as agreeing to none but Christ: 
whereupon the king wrote them a long expostulatory letter, and told 
them with what limitations those of Canterbury had passed that title; 
upon which they all submitted, and offered 18,840/. which was accepted : 
thus the clergy were again received into the king's protection, and re- 
ceived his precarious pardon for their heavy offences. 

After the prorogation of this session of parliament, new applications 
were made to the queen to persuade her to depart from her appeal ; but 
she remained fixed in her resolution, and said she was the king's lawful 
wife, and would abide by it till the court at Rome should declare the 
contrary. Upon that the king desired her to choose any of his houses 



PAPAL AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENCE. 311 

in the country to live in^ and resolved never to see her more. She 
chose the palace of Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, for her residence, and 
the monastery of Kimbolton, at no great distance, for her religious 
resorts. In these she passed the remainder of her life, beloved by all 
around her, and respected by none more than by the king himself, 
whose passions rather than judgment and conscience constrained him 
to prefer the youth and beauty of another. 

In January 1532, the pope, on the motion of the Imperialists, wrote 
to the king, complaining that notwithstanding a suit was depending 
concerning his marriage, yet he had put away his queen and kept one 
Anne as his wife, contrary to a prohibition served on him ; he therefore 
exhorted him to live with his queen again, and to put away Anne. 
Upon this the king sent Dr. Bennet to Rome with a dispatch in which he 
complained that the pope proceeded in that matter upon the suggestion 
of others, who were ignorant and rash men : that he had carried himself 
inconstantly and deceitfully in it, and not as became Christ's vicar: 
that he had granted a commission, had promised never to recall it, and 
had sent over a decretal bull defining the cause. Either these were 
unjustly granted, or unjustly recalled. It was plain that he acted more 
with regard to his interests, than according to conscience; and that, as 
the pope had often confessed his own ignorance in these matters, so he 
was not furnished with learned men to advise him, otherwise he would 
not defend a marriage which almost all the learned men and universities 
in England, France, and Italy, had condemned as unlawful. He would 
not question his authority without he was compelled to it, and would do 
nothing but reduce it to its first and ancient limits, which was much 
better than to let it run on headlong, and still do amiss. This high 
letter made the pope resolve to proceed and end the matter, either by 
a sentence or a treaty. The king was cited to answer to the queen's 
appeal at Rome in person, or by proxy: accordingly, Sir Edward Karne 
was sent thither in the new character of the king's apologist, to excuse 
the king's appearance, upon such grounds as could be founded on the 
canon law, and upon the privileges of the crown of England. The 
Imperialists pressed the pope much to give sentence, but all the wise 
cardinals, who observed by the proceedings of the parliament that the 
nation would adhere to the king, if he should be provoked to shake off 
the pope's yoke, suggested milder counsels. 

In conclusion, the pope seemed to favour the king's plea, upon which 
the Imperialists made great complaints. But this amounted to no more 
than that the king was not bound to appear in person : therefore the 
cardinals, who were in his interest, advised the king to send over a 
proxy for answering the merits of the cause; and both the pope and 
the college wrote to him to finish the matter next winter. Bonner, at 
that time in Rome, was also sent to England to assure the king, that 
the pope was now so much in the French interest, that he might con- 
fidently refer this matter to him. On this the king sent for the speaker 
of the house of commons, and told him he found the prelates were but 
half subjects; for they swore at their consecration an oath to the pope, 
inconsistent with their allegiance and oath to him. By their oath to the 
pope, they swore to be in no council against him, nor to disclose his 



312 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

secrets; but to maintain the papacy, and the regalities of St. Peter 
against all men, together with the rights and authorities of the church 
of Rome; and that they should honourably entreat the legates of the 
apostolic see, and observe all the decrees, sentences, provisions, and 
commandments of that see; and yearly, either in person, or by proxy, 
visit the thresholds of the apostles. In their oath to the king, they re- 
nounced all clauses in their bulls contrary to his royal dignity, and 
swore to be faithful to him, and to live and die with him against all 
others, and to keep his counsel; acknowledging that they held their 
bishoprics only of him. By these it appeared they could not keep both 
their oaths, in case a breach should fall out between the king and the 
pope; a discovery which would have been of serious consequence, had 
not the plague broke off the consultations of parliament at this time. 
Soon after, Sir Thomas More, seeing a rupture with Rome coming on 
so fast, desired leave to lay down his office, which was upon that con- 
ferred on Sir Thomas Audley. More had been satisfied with the king's 
keeping up the laws formerly made in opposition to the papal encroach- 
ments, and had concurred in the suit of the praemunire ; but now the 
matter went farther, and not being able to keep pace with the new order 
of things, he returned to a private life. 

An interview soon followed between the kings of France and Eng- 
land; to which Anne Boleyn, now marchioness of Pembroke, was car- 
ried. After the first ceremonies and magnificence were over, Francis 
promised Henry to second him in his suit: he encouraged him to pro- 
ceed to a second marriage without delay; and assured him he would 
stand by him in it: meantime, the pope offered to the king, to send a 
legate to any indifferent place, out of England, to form the process, 
reserving only the sentence himself to pronounce ; and proposed to 
him and all princes a general truce, that so he might call a general 
council. The king answered, that such was the present state of the 
affairs of Europe, it was not seasonable to call a general council ; 
and that it was contrary to his prerogative to send a proxy to appear at 
Rome : that by the decrees of general councils, all causes ought to be 
judged on the spot and by a provincial council ; and that it was fitter 
to judge it in England than any where else : that by his coronation 
oath, he was bound to maintain the dignities of his crown, and the 
rights of his subjects, and not to appear before any foreign court. Sir 
Thomas Elliot was therefore sent over with instructions, to move that 
the cause might be judged in England. Soon after this, the king mar- 
ried Anne Boleyn ; Rowland Lee, afterwards bishop of Coventry and 
Litchfield, officiated, none being present but the duke of Norfolk, and 
her father, her mother, her brother, and Cranmer. It was thought that 
the former marriage being null, the king might proceed to another : 
and perhaps they hoped, that as the pope had formely proposed this 
method, so he would now approve of it. But though the pope had 
joined himself to France, yet he was still so much in fear of the emperor 
that he resolved to continue resisting Henry's marriage, rather than 
provoke the imperial wrath. A new citation was therefore issued out, 
for the king to answer to the queen's complaints ; but Henry's agents 
protested that their master was a sovereign prince, and England a free 



CRANMER CREATED ARCHBISHOP. 313 

church, over which the pope had no just authority ; and that the king 
could expect no justice at Rome, where the emperor's power and the 
pope's authority were paramount to all others. 

At this time parliament met again, and passed an act condemning all 
appeals to Rome. In it they set forth — That the crown was imperial, 
and that the nation was a complete body, having full power to do 
justice in all cases, both spiritual and temporal ; and that as former 
kings had maintained the liberties of the kingdom against the usurpa- 
tions of the see of Rome, so they found the great inconvenience of 
allowing appeals in matrimonial causes; that they put them to great 
charges, and occasioned many delays: therefore they enacted, that 
thereafter those should be judged within the kingdom, and no regard 
be had to any appeals to Rome, or censures from it; but sentences 
given in England were to have their full effect; and all who executed 
any censures from Rome were to incur the pain of praemunire. 

The archbishopric of Canterbury was now vacant by the decease of 
Warham, who died the previous year : he was a great patron of learning, 
a good canonist, and a wise statesman; but he was a cruel persecutor of 
heretics, and inclined to believe fanatical legends. Cranmer was in 
Germany, disputing in the king's cause with some of the emperor's 
divines, when the king resolved to advance him to that dignity ; and 
sent him word of it, that he might make haste to return. But a pro- 
motion so far above his thoughts, had not its common effects on him : 
he had a true and primitive sense of so great a charge ; and instead of 
aspiring to it, he was afraid of it, and he both returned very slowly to 
England, and used all his endeavours to be excused from the advance- 
ment. Bulls were sent for to Rome in order to his consecration, which 
the pope granted. On the 13th of March, Cranmer was consecrated by 
the bishops of Lincoln, Exeter, and St. Asaph. The oath to the pope 
was of hard digestion to one "almost persuaded" to be a protestant: 
he therefore made a protestation before he took it, that he conceived 
himself not bound by it in any thing that was contrary to his duty to 
God, to his king, or country; and this he repeated when he took it. 

The convocation had then two questions before them ; the first was 
concerning the lawfulness of the king's marriage, and the validity of the 
pope's dispensation ; the other was a curious question of fact, whether 
prince Arthur had consummated the marriage. For the first, the judg- 
ments of nineteen universities were read ; and after a long debate, there 
being twenty-three only in the lower house, fourteen were against the 
marriage, seven for it, and two voted dubiously. In the upper house, 
Stokesly bishop of London, and Fisher bishop of Rochester, maintained 
the debate at great length, the one for the affirmative, and the other the 
negative. At last it was carried nemine contradicente , the few that were 
of the other side it seems withdrawing, against the marriage, two hun- 
dred and sixteen being present. For the other, which concerned matter 
of fact, it was referred to the canonists ; and they all, except five or 
six, reported that the presumptions were very strong ; and these in a 
matter not capable of plain proof were always received as legally con- 
clusive. 

The convocation having thus judged in the matter, the ceremony of 



314 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

pronouncing the divorce judicially was now the only thing wanting. 
The new queen was reported to be in a promising condition for the 
future monarchy. On Easter-eve she was declared queen of England : 
and soon after, Cranmer, with Gardiner, who had succeeded Wolsey 
as bishop of Winchester, and the bishops of London, Lincoln, Bath and 
Wells, with many divines and canonists, went to Dunstable ; queen 
Katharine living then near it, at Ampthill. The king and queen were 
cited ; he appeared by proxy, but the queen refused to take any notice 
of the court : so after three citations, she was declared contumacious, 
and all the merits of the cause formerly mentioned were examined . At 
last, on the 23rd of May, sentence was given, declaring the marriage to 
have been null from the beginning. Among the archbishop's titles in 
the commencement of the judgment, he is called " Legate of the apos- 
tolic see," which perhaps was added to give it the more force in law. 
Some days after this, he gave another judgment, confirming the king's 
marriage with queen Anne, and on the first of June she was crowned 
queen. All people admired queen Anne's conduct, who in a course of 
so many years managed the spirit of so violent a king in such a manner, 
as neither to surfeit him with too many favours, nor to provoke him with 
too much rigour. They that loved the reformation looked for better 
days under her protection: but many priests and friars, both in sermons 
and discourses, condemned the king's proceedings. The king sent 
ambassadors to all courts to justify what he had done: he sent also two 
to queen Katharine, to charge her to assume no other title but that of 
princess dowager; but she would not yield; she said she would not 
take that infamy on herself; and so resolved that none should serve 
about her who did not treat her as queen. 

At Rome the cardinals of the Imperial faction complained much of 
the attempt made on the pope's power, and urged him to proceed to 
censures. But there was only sentence given, annulling all that the 
archbishop of Canterbury had done ; and the king was required, under 
pain of excommunication, to place things again in the state in which 
they formerly were : this decree was framed at Rome, and brought for 
publication to Dunkirk. The king sent a great embassy to the French 
monarch, who was then setting out to Marseilles to meet the pope : their 
errand was to dissuade him from the journey, unless the pope would 
promise to give the king satisfaction. Francis said, he was engaged in 
honour to go on; but assured them, he would mind the king's concerns 
with as much zeal as if they were his own. In September the queen 
brought forth a daughter, the renowned Elizabeth ; and the king having 
before declared lady Mary princess of Wales, did now the same for the 
infant: though since a son might exclude her from it, she could not be 
heir apparent, but only heir presumptive to the crown. The eventful 
moment was nigh at hand, when the incident should take place that 
would cause the separation of England from the church of Rome. 

There was a secret agreement between the pope and Francis, that if 
Henry would refer his cause to the consistory, excepting only to the 
cardinals of the Imperial faction, as partial, and would in all other 
things return to his obedience to the see of Rome, the sentence should 
be given in his favour. When Francis returned to Paris, he sent over 



SENTENCE AGAINST THE KING. 315 

the bishop of that city to the king, to tell what he had obtained of the 
pope in his favour, and the terms on which it was promised. This wrought 
so much on the king, that he presently consented to them; upon which 
the bishop of Paris, though it was now in the middle of winter, went 
to Rome with the welcome tidings. On his arrival there, the matter 
seemed agreed: for it was promised that upon the king's sending a 
consent under his hand to place things in their former state, and his 
ordering a proxy to appear for him, judges should be sent to Cambray 
for making the process, and then sentence should be given. Upon the 
notice given of this, and of a day that was prefixed for the return of the 
courier, the king dispatched him with all possible haste ; and now the 
business seemed at an end. But the courier had a sea and the Alps to 
pass, and in winter it was not easy to observe a limited day so exactly. 
The appointed day came, and no courier arrived ; upon which, the 
Imperialists gave out, that the king was abusing the pope's easiness ; 
and pressed him vehemently to proceed to a sentence : the bishop of 
Paris requesting only a delay of six days. The design of the Imperial- 
ists was to hinder a reconciliation : for if the king had been set right 
with the pope, there would have been so powerful a league formed 
against the emperor as would have frustrated all his measures; and 
therefore it was necessary for his politics to embroil them. Seduced by 
the artifice of this intriguing prince, the pope, without consulting his 
ordinary prudence, brought in the matter to the consistory; and there 
the Imperialists being the greater number, it was driven on with so 
much precipitation, that they did in one day that which, according to 
form, should have extended at least to three. 

They gave the final sentence, declared the king's marriage with queen 
Katharine good, and required him to live with her as his wife, other- 
wise they would proceed to censures. Two days after this, the courier 
came with the king's submission in due form ; he also brought earnest 
letters from Francis in the king's favour. This wrought on all the in- 
different cardinals, as well as those of the French faction, so that they 
prayed the pope to recall what was done. A new consistory was called, 
but the Imperialists urged with greater vehemence than ever, that they 
would not give such scandal to the world as to recall a definitive sen- 
tence of the validity of a marriage, and give heretics such advantage 
by their unsteadiness in matters of that nature; it was therefore carried 
that the former sentence should remain, and the execution of it be com- 
mitted to the emperor. When this was known in England, it deter- 
mined the king in his resolutions of shaking off the pope's yoke, in 
which he had made so great a progress, that the parliament had passed 
all the acts concerning it before he received the news from Rome; for 
he judged that the best way to secure his cause was to let Rome see his 
power, and with what vigour he could make war. All the rest of the 
world looked on astonished to see the court of Rome throw off England, 
as if it had been weary of the obedience and profits of so great a 
kingdom. 

In England people of nearly all ranks had been examining the foun- 
dations on which the papal authority was built with extraordinary care 
for some years ; and several books were written on that subject. It was 



316 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

demonstrated, that all the apostles were made equal in the powers that 
Christ gave them ; that he often condemned their contests about supe- 
riority, but never declared in St. Peter's favour. St. Paul withstood him 
to his face, and reckoned himself not inferior to him. If the dignity of a 
person left any authority with the city in which he sat, then Antioch 
must carry it rather than Rome; and Jerusalem, where Christ suffered, 
was to be preferred to all the world, for it was truly the mother-church. 
Christ said to Peter, "Upon this rock will I build my church." The 
agents understood by the rock either the confession Peter had made, or, 
which is the same, Christ himself; and though it were to be meant of 
St. Peter, all the rest of the apostles are also called foundations; and 
the injunction, "Tell the church," was by many doctors of Rome 
turned against the pope for a general council. The other privileges 
ascribed to St. Peter, were either only a precedence of order, or were 
occasioned by his fall ; as that, "Feed my sheep," being a restoration of 
him to the apostolic functions. St. Peter had also a limited province, 
the circumcision, as St. Paul had the uncircumcision, which was of far 
greater extent, and which shewed that Peter was not considered as the 
universal pastor. 

Several sees, as Ravenna, Milan, and Aquilea, pretended exemption 
from the papal authority. Many English bishops had asserted that the 
popes had no authority against the canons, and to that day no canon 
made by the pope was binding till it was received, which shewed the 
pope's authority was not believed to be founded on divine authority; and 
the contests that the kings of England had with the popes concerning 
investitures, bishops doing the king homage, appeals to Rome, and the 
authority of papal bulls and provisions, shewed that the pope's power 
was subject to law and custom, and so not derived from Christ and 
St. Peter ; and as laws had given them some power, and princes had 
been forced in ignorant ages to submit to their usurpations, so they 
might as they saw cause change those laws, and resume their rights. 

The next point enquired into was, the authority that kings had in 
matters of religion and the church. In the New Testament, Christ was 
himself subject to the civil powers, and charged his disciples not to 
affect temporal dominion. The apostles also wrote to the churches to be 
subject to the higher powers, and to call them supreme; they charged 
every soul to be subject to them: in scripture the king is called head 
and supreme, and every soul is said to be under him, which joined with 
the other parts of their sage argument, brought the wise men of that 
day to the conclusion, that he is supreme head over all persons. In the 
primitive church the bishops only made rules or canons, but pretended 
to no compulsive authority, but what came from the civil magistrate. 
Upon the whole matter, they concluded that the pope had no power in 
England, and that the king had an entire dominion over all his subjects 
which extended even to the regulating of ecclesiastical matters. These 
questions being fully discussed in many disputes, and published in 
several books, all the bishops, abbots, and friars of England, Fisher 
only excepted, were so far satisfied with them, that they resolved to 
comply with the changes the king was determined to make. 

At the next meeting of parliament there were but seven bishops and 



ACTS RESPECTING HERETICS. 317 

twelve abbots present, the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in 
making this change, though they complied with it when it was made* 
Every Sunday during the session a bishop preached at St. Paul's, and 
declared that the pope had no authority in England : before this, they 
had only said that a general council was above him, and that the ex- 
actions of that court, and appeals to it, were unlawful ; but now they 
went a strain higher, to prepare the people for receiving the acts then 
in agitation. On the 9th of March the commons began the bill for 
taking away the pope's power, and sent it to the lords on the 14th, who 
passed it on the 20th without any dissent. In it they set forth the ex- 
action of the court of Rome, grounded on the pope's power of dispen- 
sation; and that as none could dispense with the laws of God, so the 
king and parliament only had the authority of dispensing with the laws 
of the land : therefore such licences as were formerly in use, should be 
for the future granted by the two archbishops, to be confirmed under the 
great seal. It was moreover appointed that, thereafter, all commerce 
with Rome should cease. They also declared that they did not intend 
to alter any article of the catholic faith of Christendom, or that which 
was declared in the scripture necessary to salvation. They confirmed 
all the exemptions granted to monasteries by the popes, but subjected 
them to the king's visitation, and gave the king and his council power to 
examine and reform all indulgencies and privileges granted by the pope : 
the offenders against this law were to be punished according to the 
statutes of praemunire. This act subjected the monasteries entirely to 
the king's authority, and put them in no small confusion. Those who 
loved the reformation rejoiced to see the pope's power rooted out, and 
to find the scripture made the standard of religion. 

After this act another passed in both houses in six days' time without 
any opposition, settling the succession of the crown, confirming the 
sentence of divorce, and the king's marriage with queen Anne, and 
declaring all marriages within the degrees prohibited by Moses to be 
unlawful : all that had married within them were appointed to be 
divorced, and their issue illegitimatized ; and the succession to the crown 
was settled upon the king's issue by the present queen, or in default of 
that to the king's right heirs for ever. All were required to swear to 
maintain the contents of this act; and if any refused the oath, or should 
say any thing to the slander of the king's marriage, he was to be judged 
guilty of misprision of treason, and to be punished accordingly. 

About this time one Phillips complained to the house of commons of 
the bishop of London for using him cruelly in prison upon suspicion of 
heresy : the commons sent up this to the lords, but received no answer; 
they therefore sent some of their members to the bishop, desiring him 
to reply to the complaints put in against him : but he acquainted the 
house of lords with it; and they with one consent voted, that none of 
their house ought to appear or answer to any complaint at the bar of 
the house of commons. On this the commons let this case fall, and 
sent up a bill to which the lords agreed, regulating the proceedings 
against heretics: that whereas, by the statute made by Henry the 
Fourth, bishops might commit men upon suspicion of heresy ; and 
heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the scrip- 



318 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 

tures or canonical sanctions, which was liable to great ambiguity; 
therefore that statute was repealed, and none were to be committed for 
heresy but upon a presentment made by two witnesses ; none were to 
be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the 
pope's canons. Bail was to be taken for heretics, and they were to be 
brought to their trial in open court; and if upon conviction they did not 
abjure, or relapsed after abjuration, they were to be burnt; a royal writ 
being first obtained. This was a great check to the bishops' tyranny, 
and gave no small encouragement to all that favoured the reformation. 

The convocation sent in a submission at the same time, by which they 
acknowledged that all the convocations ought to be assembled by the 
king's writ ; and promised upon the words of priests, never to make nor 
execute any canons without the king's assent. They also desired, that 
since many of the received canons were found to be contrary to the king's 
prerogative and the laws of the land, there might be a committee named 
by the king of thirty-two, the one half out of the houses of parliament 
and the other from the clergy, empowered to abrogate or regulate them 
as they should see cause. This was confirmed in parliament, and the 
act against appeal to Rome was renewed ; and an appeal was allowed 
from the archbishop to the king, upon which the lord chancellor was to 
grant a commission for a court of delegates. 

Another act passed for regulating the elections and consecrations of 
bishops, condemning all bulls from Rome, and appointing that upon a 
vacancy the king should grant licence for an election, and should by a 
missive letter signify the person's name whom he would have chosen ; 
and within twelve days after these were delivered, the dean and chapter, 
or prior and convent, were required to return an election of the person 
named by the king under their seals. The bishop elect was upon that 
to swear fealty, and a writ was to be issued for his consecration in the 
usual manner ; after that he was to do homage to the king, upon which 
both the temporalities and spiritualities were to be restored, and bishops 
were to exercise their jurisdictions as they had done before. All who 
transgressed this act were made guilty of a praemunire. A private act 
passed depriving cardinal Campegio and Jerome de Gainuccii of the 
bishoprics of Salisbury and Worcester : the reasons given for it were, 
because they did not reside in their dioceses, for preaching the laws of 
God, and keeping hospitality, but lived at the court of Rome, and drew 
3,000/. a year out of the kingdom. 

The last act of a particular nature, though relating only to private 
persons, was concerning the nun of Kent and her accomplices. It was 
the first occasion of shedding blood in these disputes, and it was much 
cherished by all the superstitious clergy who adhered to the queen's 
and the pope's interests. The nun, and many of her accomplices, came 
to the bar of the house of lords and confessed the whole matter. Among 
the concealers of this treason, Sir Thomas More and Fisher Were named ; 
the former of whom wrote a long letter upon the subject to Cromwell, 
giving him a particular account of all the conversations he had with 
the nun : he acknowledged he had esteemed her highly, not so much 
out of any regard to her prophecies, but for the opinion he conceived of 
her holiness and humility. But he added, that he was then convinced 



ACCOUNT OF ELIZABETH BARTON, 319 

that she was the most dissembling hypocrite he had ever known, and 
guilty of the most detestable hypocrisy and devilish falsehood : he also 
believed that she had communication with an evil spirit. This justifica- 
tion of More's prevailed so far, that his name was struck out of the 
bill. 

The tale of the nun thus incidently referred to is worth telling'. 
Her name was Elizabeth Barton; she lived in Kent, and in occasional 
trances into which she fell, she spake such things as made those about 
her think she was inspired of God. The parson of her parish, named 
Master, hoping to draw advantage from this, informed archbishop 
"Warham of it, who ordered him to watch her carefully, and bring him 
an account of whatever he should observe. But it seems she forgot all 
that she said in her fits when they were over. The artful priest however 
would not suffer his hopes thus to pass away, but persuaded her she was 
inspired, and taught her so to counterfeit those trances, that she became 
very expert in the trick, and could assume them at her pleasure. The 
matter was soon noised about, and the priest intended to raise the credit 
of an image of the blessed virgin, which stood in his church, that so 
pilgrimages and offerings might be made to it by her means. He 
accordingly associated to himself one Booking, a monk of Canterbury, 
and they taught her to say in her fits, that the blessed virgin appeared 
to her, and told her she could not be well till she visited that image. 
She spake many good words against ill life, and also against heresy, 
and the king's suit of divorce then depending ; and by many strange 
motions of her body she seemed to be inwardly possessed. 

Soon after this, a day was appointed for her cure ; and before an 
assemblage of two thousand people, she was carried to that image: and 
after she had acted over her fits, she seemed suddenly to recover, which 
was ascribed to the intercession of the virgin, and the virtue of her 
image. She then took the veil, and Booking was her confessor: but 
between this wolf in sheep's clothing and Elizabeth many persons strongly 
suspected a criminal intercourse to subsist ; while the esteem she was 
held in bore them down. Many thought her a prophetess, d and Warham 

c In the reign of queen Mary, the works of Sir T. More were published. But the 
letter from which the above extract is taken, although printed among the rest, was sup- 
pressed. The reason of which seems to be, that there was a design to canonize the nun 
at that time, for she was considered as a martyr to the cause of queen Katharine. To 
justify this extravagance, there were numbers of feigned miracles concerning the nun ; 
therefore a letter so full and clear against her was judged best to be concealed. 

d Amidst the comparative darkness of that age, much allowance may be made for the 
delusion of the multitude. But in the present day it is unaccountable to see the pervading 
influence of supersitition enveloping the minds of such numbers. We allude to the spreading 
of Johanna Southcotte's doctrines. But it is as the apostle hath said, " God shall send 
them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie." And why is it? Because their 
fear towards the Lord is taught by the precepts of men ; they are ever learning, and never 
come to the knowledge of the truth ; beguiling unstable souls, led away with every wind 
of doctrine. Not knowing " that many false prophets shall arise, which shall deceive 
many." 

The above note was printed in the edition of 1806 : had the editor of that edition lived 
to become the reviser of this, he might have placed Edward Irving by the side of Johanna 
Southcotte and Elizabeth Barton. Widely different from these women in intellect and 
station, his patronage of the unknown tongues has reduced him to a humiliating level with 
those two vulgar female impostors. Alas for human nature ! To what vile uses may 
mind as well as body come ! 



320 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

among the rest. A book was written of her revelations, and an epistle 
was shewed in letters of gold, pretended to be written to her from 
Heaven by Mary Magdalen. She said, that when the king was last at 
Calais, she was carried invisibly beyond sea, and brought back again ; 
that an angel gave her the sacrament, and that God revealed to her 
that if the king went on in his divorce, and married another wife, he 
should fall from his crown and not live a month longer, but should die 
a villain's death. 

Several monks of the Charter-house, and the observant friars, with 
many nuns, and bishop Fisher, came to give credit to all this, set a 
great value on the woman, and grew very insolent upon her visions. 
Friar Peyto, preaching in the king's chapel at Greenwich, denounced the 
judgments of God upon him ; and said, though others as lying prophets 
deceived him, yet he, in the name of God told him, that dogs should 
lick his blood as they had done Ahab's. The king bore this patiently, 
contenting himself with ordering Dr. Corren to preach the next Sunday, 
and to answer all that he had said ; who railed against Peyto as a dog 
and a traitor. Peyto had gone to Canterbury; but Elston, a Franciscan 
of the same house, interrupted him, and called him one of the lying pro- 
phets who went about to establish the succession of the crown by adul- 
tery, and spoke with such vehemence, that the king himself was forced 
to command silence. So unwilling was Henry to go to extremities, 
that all which was done upon so high a provocation was, that the parties 
were summoned before the council, and rebuked for their insolence. 
The nun's confederates proceeding to publish her revelations in all parts 
of the kingdom, she and nine of her accomplices were at length appre- 
hended, when they all, without any rack or torture, discovered the 
whole conspiracy. Upon this confession they were appointed to go to 
St. Paul's, where, after a sermon preached upon the occasion by the 
bishop of Bangor, they repeated their confession in the hearing of the 
people, and were sent as prisoners to the Tower. It was given out of 
course by the papal party that all was extorted from them by violence, 
and messages were sent to the nun, inducing her to deny all that she had 
confessed. The king, on this, judged it necessary to proceed to further 
extremities : accordingly she and six of her chief accomplices were 
attainted of treason, and the bishop of Rochester and five more were 
attainted of misprision of treason. But at the intercession of queen 
Anne, as is expressed in the act, all others that had been concerned with 
her were pardoned. 

After this, the nun with her coadjutors were executed at Tyburn. 
There she voluntary confessed herself to be an impostor, and acknow- 
ledged the justice of her sentence, laying the blame on those who suf- 
fered with her, by whom she had been seduced into the crime ; adding, 
that they had exalted her for no other cause than for her having been of 
great profit to them, and they had presumed to say, that all she had 
done was through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, when they were 
sensible the whole was human artifice. She then begged pardon of 
God and the king, and resigned herself to her fate. Thus ended one 
of the vilest impostures ever known in this country. Had this fallen 
out in a darker age, in which the world went mad after visions, the king 



MORE AND FISHER BEFORE THE COUNCIL. 321 

might have lost his crown by it. The discovery of it disposed all to look 
on older stories of the trances of monastical people, as contrivances to 
serve base ends, and made way for the ruin of that order of men in 
England ; but all that followed at present upon it was, that the Obser- 
vants were put out of their houses, and mixed with the other Franciscans, 
and the Austin friars were put in their room. 

On the first discovery of the imposture, Cromwell sent Fisher's brother 
to him to reprove him for his conduct in that business, and to advise 
him to ask the king's pardon for the encouragement he had given to the 
nun, which he was confident the king would grant him. But Fisher 
excused himself, and said he had only tried whether her revelations were 
true or not. He confessed , that upon the reports he had heard, he was 
induced to have a high opinion of her, and that he had never discovered 
any falsehood in her. It is true, she had said some things to him con- 
cerning the king's death which he had not revealed; but he thought it 
was not necessary to do it, because he knew she had told them to the 
king herself : she had named no person that should kill the king, but 
had only denounced it as a judgment of God upon him : and he had 
reason to think that the king would have been offended with him if he 
had spoken of it to him ; he therefore desired to be no more troubled 
with that matter. On this statement Cromwell wrote him a sharp letter 
shewing him that he had proceeded rashly in that affair ; being so partial 
in the matter of the king's divorce, that he easily believed every thing 
that seemed to make against it. Moreover, he told him how necessary 
it was to use great caution before extraordinary things should be received 
or spread about as revelations, since otherwise the peace of the world 
would be in the hands of every bold and crafty impostor ; and in con- 
clusion, he advised him again to ask the king's pardon for his rashness, 
and he assured him that the king was ready to forgive him, But Fisher 
would make no submission, and was in consequence included within the 
act; though it was not executed till a new provocation drew him into 
farther trouble. The secular and regular clergy every where took the 
oath of succession, which none more zealously promoted than Gardiner, 
who before the 6th of May got all his clergy to swear it : and the reli- 
gious orders being apprehensive of the king's jealousies of them, took 
care to remove them by sending in declarations under the seals of their 
houses, that in their opinion the king's present marriage was lawful, 
and that they would always acknowledge him head of the churcli of 
England. 

A meeting of the council was held at Lambeth, to which many were 
cited that they might take the oath, among whom were Sir Thomas More 
and Fisher. More was first summoned to take it: he answered, that he 
neither blamed those that made the acts, nor those that took the oath ; 
and that he was willing to swear to maintain the succession to the crown, 
but could not take the oath as it was expressed. Fisher made the same 
answer, but all the rest that were cited before them took it. More was 
pressed to give his reasons against it : but he refused, for it might be 
called a disputing against law: yet he would put them into writing if 
the king commanded him to do it. Cranmer said, if he did not blame 
those that took it, it seems he was not persuaded it was a sin, and so 

Y 



322 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

was only doubtful of it ; but he was sure he ought to obey the law, if it 
was not sinful: so there was a certainty on one hand, and only a doubt 
on the other, and therefore the former ought to determine him. This 
More confessed did shake him a little, but he said he thought in his 
conscience that it would be a sin in him. In conclusion, both he and 
Fisher declared that they thought it was in the power of the parliament 
to settle the succession to the crown, and so were ready to swear to that ; 
but they could not take the oath that was tended to them, for by it they 
must swear to maintain the king's former marriage as unlawful, to which 
they could not assent; so they were both committed to the Tower, and 
denied the use of pen, ink, and paper. The old bishop was also hardly 
used both in his raiment and diet; he had only rags to cover him, and 
fire was often denied him ; a cruelty not capable of excuse, and as bar- 
barous as it was imprudent. 

In winter parliament met again, and the first act that passed declared 
the king to be supreme head on earth of the church of England, which 
was ordered to be prefixed to other titles ; and it was enacted, that he 
and his successors should have full authority to reform all heresies and 
abuses in the spiritual jurisdiction. By another act, parliament con- 
firmed the oath of succession, which had not been specified in the 
former, though agreed to by the lords. They also gave the king the first- 
fruits and tenths of ecclesiastical benefices, as being the supreme head 
of the church ; for the king being put in the pope's room, it was thought 
reasonable to give him the annats which the popes had formerly exacted. 
Another act passed, declaring some things treason ; one of these was the 
denying the king any of his titles, or calling him heretic, schismatic, or 
usurper of the crown. By another act, provision was made for setting 
up twenty-six suffragan bishops over England, for the more speedy 
administration of the sacraments, and the better service of God. The 
supreme diocesan was to present two names to the king, and upon the 
king's declaring his choice, the archbishop was to consecrate the person, 
and then the bishop was to delegate such parts of his charge to his care 
as he thought fitting, which was to continue during his pleasured The 
great extent of the dioceses in England made it difficult for one bishop 
to govern them with that exactness that was necessary; these were 
therefore appointed to assist them in the discharge of the pastoral care. 

Fisher and More, by two special acts, were attainted of misprision of 
treason ; five other clerks were in like manner condemned, all for refus- 
ing to take the oath of succession. The see of Rochester was declared 
void ; yet it would seem that few were willing to succeed such a man, 
for it continued vacant two years, and was at last with difficulty filled. 

But now a new scene commenced ; and before we enter upon it we 
shall find it necessary to state the progress that the new opinions had 
made in England during the time of the king's suit of divorce. While 

e These were the same as those whom the ancient church called Cherepiscopi, who were 
at first the bishops of some villages, but were afterwards put under the jurisdiction of the 
bishop of the next city. They were set up before the council of Nice, and continued in 
the church for many ages; but the bishops devolving their whole spiritual power upon 
them they were put down, and a decretal epistle was forged in the name of P. Damascus, 
condemning them. 



TINDAL'S NEW TESTAMENT BURNED IN CHEAPSIDE. 323 

Wolsey was a minister, the reformed preachers were gently used ; and 
it is probable the king- ordered the bishops to give over their enquiring 
after them, when the pope began to use him ill ; for the progress of 
heresy was always reckoned at Rome among the mischiefs that would 
follow upon the pope's rejecting the king's suit. But More coming into 
favour, he offered new counsels, and thought the king's proceeding 
severely against heretics would be so meritorious at Rome, that it would 
work more effectually than all his threatenings had done. Upon this, a 
severe proclamation was issued both against their books and persons, 
ordering all the laws against them to be put in execution. Tindal and 
others at Antwerp were every year either translating or writing books 
against some of the received errors, and sending them over to England: 
but his translation of the New Testament gave the greatest wound, and 
was much complained of by the clergy as full of errors. Tonstal, then 
bishop of London, being a man of great learning, returning from the 
treaty of Cambray, to which More and he were sent in the king's name, 
as he came through Antwerp, dealt with an English merchant who was 
secretly a friend of Tindal's, to procure him as many of his Testaments 
as could be had for money. 

Tindal gladly received this ; for being engaged in a more correct 
edition, he found he should be better able to proceed if the copies of the 
old were sold off; he therefore gave the merchant all he had, and 
Tonstall paying the price of them, got them over to England, and burnt 
them publicly in Cheapside. This was called a burning of the w r ord of 
God : and it was said the clergy had reason to revenge themselves on 
it ; for it had done them more mischief than all other books whatsoever. 
But a year after this, the second edition being finished, great numbers 
were sent over to England, when Constantine, one of Tindal's partners, 
happened to be taken : believing that some of the London merchants 
furnished them with money, he was promised his liberty if he would 
discover who they were, when he told him the bishop of London did 
more than all the world beside ; for he had bought up the greatest part 
of a faulty impression. The clergy, on their condemning Tindal's trans- 
lation, promised a new one ; but a year after they said it was unnecessary 
to publish the Scriptures in English, and that the king did well not to 
set about it. 

About this time a singular book written by one Fish, of Gray's Inn, 
was published. It was entitled, " The Supplication of the Beggars," 
and had a vast sale. The beggars complained that the alms of the people 
were intercepted by the mendicant friars, who were a useless burthen 
to the government ; they also taxed the pope with cruelty for taking no 
pity on the poor, since none but those who could pay for it were deli- 
vered out of purgatory. The king was so pleased with this publication, 
that he would not suffer any thing to be done against the author. More 
answered it by another supplication in behalf of the souls in purgatory; 
setting forth the miseries they were in, and the relief which they received 
by the masses that were said for them ; and therefore called upon their 
friends to support the religious orders which had now so many enemies. 

Fish published a serious answer, in which he shewed that there was 
no mention made of purgatory in scripture; that it was inconsistent 



324 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

with the merits of Christ, by which upon sincere repentance all sins 
were pardoned; for if they were pardoned, they could not be punished; 
and though temporary judgments, either as medicinal corrections or a 
warning to others, do sometimes fall even on true penitents, yet fiery 
punishments in another state cannot consist with a free pardon and the 
remembering of our sins no more/ In expounding many passages of the 
New Testament, he appealed to More's great friend Erasmus, and 
shewed that the fire spoken of by St. Paul, as that which would con- 
sume the woodj hay, and stubble, could only be meant of the fiery trial 
of persecution. He shewed that the primitive church did not receive 
the doctrine of purgatory. Ambrose, Jerome, and Austin did not 
believe it; the 1-ast having plainly said that no mention was made of it 
in scripture. The monks alone brought it in ; and by many wonderful 
stories possessed the world of the belief of it, and had made a very 
profitable trade in it. This book so provoked the clergy, that they re- 
solved to make the author feel a real fire, for endeavouring to extinguish 
their imaginary one. More objected poverty and want of learning to 
the new preachers ; but it was answered, the same thing was made use 
of to disgrace Christ and his apostles; while a plain simplicity of mind, 
without artificial improvements, was rather thought a good disposition 
for men that were to bear a cross, and the glory of God appeared more 
eminent than the instruments seemed contemptible. 

But the pen being thought too feeble and gentle a tool, the clergy 
betook themselves to persecution. Many were vexed with imprison- 
ments for teaching their children the Lord's prayer in English, for har- 
bouring the preachers, and for speaking against the corruptions in the 
worship, or the vices of the clergy; but these generally abjured and 
saved themselves from death. Others more faithful were honoured with 
martyrdom. One Hinton, formerly a curate, who had gone over to 
Tindal, was seized on his way back with some books he was conveying 
to England, and was condemned by archbishop Warham. He was kept 
long in prison ; but remaining firm to his cause, he was at length burned 
at Maidstone. 

But the most remarkable martyr of this day was Thomas Bilney, who 
was brought up at Cambridge from a child, and became a bold and 
uncompromising reformer. On leaving the university, he went into 
several places and preached; and in his sermons spoke with great 
boldness against the pride and insolence of the clergy. This was 
during the ministry of Wolsey, who hearing of his attacks, caused him 
to be seized and imprisoned. Overcome with fear, Bilney abjured, was 
pardoned, and returned to Cambridge in the year 1530. Here he fell 
into great horror of mind in consequence of his instability and the denial 
of the truth. He became ashamed of himself, bitterly repented of his sin, 
and, growing strong in faith, resolved to make some atonement by a 

f It is evident that the papists, who hold the doctrine of purgatory, have no correct 
notions of a future state, and on this primary doctrine of the New Testament are almost 
in as great darkness and doubt as were the pagans of antiquity, and as are many heathens 
to this day. Their future world is in fact much worse than this, and many pious sufferers 
would infinitely prefer remaining here, with all the infirmities that beset them, than go 
hence to fall into purgatorial fires, even though but of a few years duration. 



MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS B1LNEY. 325 

public avowal of his apostacy and confession of his sentiments. To 
prepare himself for his task, he studied the scriptures with deep atten- 
tion for two years ; at the expiration of which he again quitted the 
university, and went into Norfolk, where he was born, and preached up 
and down that country against idolatry and superstition ; exhorting the 
people to live well, to give much alms, to believe in Christ, and to offer 
up their souls and wills to him in the sacrament. He openly confessed 
his own sin of denying the faith; and using no precaution as he went 
about, was soon taken by the bishop's officers, condemned as a relapse, 
and degraded. Sir Thomas More not only sent down the writ to burn 
him, but in order to make him suffer another way, he affirmed that he 
had said in print that he had abjured; but no paper signed by him was 
ever shewn, and little credit was due to the priests that gave it out that 
he did it by word of mouth. Parker, afterwards archbishop, was an 
eye-witness of his sufferings. He bore all his hardships with great forti- 
tude and resignation, and continued very cheerful after his sentence. 
He ate the poor provisions that were brought him heartily, saying, He 
must keep up a ruinous cottage till it fell. He had these words of 
Isaiah often in his mouth, " When thou walkest through the fire, thou 
shalt not be burned:" and by burning his finger in the candle, he pre- 
pared himself for the fire, and said it would only consume the stubble 
of his body, while it would purify his soul, and give it a swifter con- 
veyance to the region where Elijah was conveyed by another fiery 
chariot. 

On the 10th of November he was brought to the stake, where he re- 
peated the creed, as a proof that he was a true Christian. He then 
prayed earnestly, and with the deepest feeling offered this prayer — 
"Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight 
no flesh living can be justified." Dr. Warner attended and embraced 
him, shedding many tears, and wishing he might die in as good a frame 
of mind as Bilney then was. The friars requested him to inform the 
people, that they were not instrumental to his death, which he did, so 
that the last act of his life was full of charity, even to those who put 
him to death. 

The officers then put the reeds and fagots about his body, and set 
fire to the first, which made a great flame, and disfigured his face : 
he held up his hands, and often struck his breast, crying sometimes 
" Jesus!" sometimes " Credo!" but the flame was blown away from him 
several times, the wind being very high, till at length the wood taking 
fire, the flame was stronger, and he yielded up his spirit to God who 
gave it. 

As his body shrunk up it leaned down on the chain, till one of the 
officers with his halberd struck out the staple of the chain behind him, 
on which it fell down into the bottom of the fire, when they heaped up 
wood upon it and consumed it. The sufferings, the confession, and the 
heroic death of this martyr, inspired and animated others with the same 
fortitude. 

Byfield, who had formerly abjured, was taken dispersing Tindal's 
books ; and he, with one Tewkesbury, were condemned by the bishop of 
London, and burnt. Two men and a woman suffered the same fate at 



326 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

York. Of these proceedings the parliament complained to the king; 
but this did not check the sanguinary proceedings of the clergy. One 
Bainham, a counsellor of the Temple, was taken on suspicion of heresy, 
was whipped in the presence of Sir T. More, and afterwards racked in 
the Tower; yet he could not be wrought on to accuse any: through 
fear, however, he abjured himself. After this being discharged, he was 
in great trouble of mind, and could find no quiet till he went publicly 
to church, where he openly confessed his sins, and declared the torments 
he felt in his conscience for what he had done. Upon this he was again 
seized on, and condemned for having said that Thomas a Becket was a 
murderer, and was damned if he had not repented; and that in the 
sacrament, Christ's body was received by faith, and not eaten with the 
mouth. Sentence was passed on him by Stokesly, and he was burnt. 
Soon after this More delivered up the great seal, in consequence of 
which the preachers had some ease. 

The rage of persecution stopped not at the living, but vented itself 
even on the dead. Lord Tracy made a will by which he left his soul to 
God, in hope of mercy through Christ, without the help of any saint; 
and therefore he declared that he would leave nothing for soul-masses. 
This will being brought into the bishop of London's court to be proved, 
after his death, gave so much offence, that he was condemned as a 
heretic, and an order was sent to the Chancellor of Worcester to raise 
his body ; but he proceeded farther and burnt it, which could not be 
justified, since he was not a relapse. Tracy's heir sued him for it, and 
he was turned out of his place, and fined 400Z. The clergy proclaimed 
an indulgence of forty days' pardon to any that carried a fagot to the 
burning of a heretic, that so cruelty might seem the more meritorious. 
An aged man, Harding, being condemned by Longland, bishop of 
Lincoln, as he was tied to the stake, a barbarian flung a fagot with such 
force against him, that it dashed out his brains. 

The reformed enjoyed a respite of two years, when the crafty 
Gardiner represented to the king, that it would give him great advan- 
tages against the pope if he would take some occasion to shew his 
hatred of heresy. Accordingly a young man named Frith was chosen 
as a sacrifice for this affected zeal for religion. He was distinguished 
for learning, and was the first who wrote against the corporeal presence 
in the sacrament in England. He followed Zuinglius's doctrine on these 
grounds: Christ received in the sacrament gave eternal life, but this 
was given only to those who believed, from which he inferred that he 
was received only by faith. St. Paul said, that the fathers before Christ 
eat the same spiritual food with christians ; from which it appears that 
Christ is now no more corporeally present to us than he was to them; 
and he argued from the nature of sacraments in general, and the end 
of the Lord's supper, that it was only a commemoration. Yet, upon 
these premises, he built no other conclusion but that Christ's presence 
was no article of faith. His reasons he put in writing, which falling 
into the hands of Sir Thomas More, were answered by him: but Frith 
never saw his publication till he was put in prison; and then, though 
he was loaded with irons, and had no books allowed, he replied. He 
insisted much on the argument, that the Israelites did eat the same food, 



FRITH'S ARGUMENTS AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 327 

and drank of the same rock, and that rock was Christ; and since 
Christ was only mystically and by faith received by them, he concluded 
that he was at the present time also received only in the same manner. 
He shewed that Christ's words, " This is my body," were accommodated 
to the Jewish phrase of calling the lamb the Lord's passover; and con- 
firmed his opinion with many passages out of the fathers, in which the 
elements were called signs and figures of Christ's body; and they said, 
that upon consecration they did not cease to be bread and wine, but 
remained still in their own proper natures. He also shewed that the 
fathers were strangers to all the consequences of that opinion, as that 
a body could be in more places than one at the same time, or could be 
every where in the manner of a spirit: yet he concluded, that if that 
opinion were held only as a speculation, so that adoration were not offered 
to the elements, it might be well tolerated, but that he condemned it as 
gross idolatry. This was intended by him to prevent such heats in 
England, as were raised in Germany between the Lutherans and 
Helvetians, by reason of their different opinions concerning the sacra- 
ment. 

For these offences he was seized in May, 1533, and brought before 
Stokesly, Gardiner, and Longland. They charged him with not believ- 
ing in purgatory and transubstantiation. He gave the reasons that de- 
termined him to look on neither of these as articles of faith; but thought 
that the affirming' or denying them ought to be determined positively. 
The bishops seemed unwilling to proceed to sentence; but he continuing 
resolute, Stokesly pronounced it, and so delivered him to the secular 
arm, insisting that his punishment might be moderated, so that the 
rigour might not be too extreme, nor yet the gentleness of it too much 
mitigated. This obtestation by the bowels of Christ was thought a 
mockery, when all the world knew that it was intended that he should 
be burnt. One Hewitt, an apprentice of London, was also condemned 
with him on the same account. They were brought to the stake at 
Smithfield on the 4th of July, 1533. On arriving there, Frith expressed 
great joy, and hugged the fagots with seeming transport. A priest 
named Cook, who stood by, called to the people not to pray for them 
more than they would do for a dog: at this Frith smiled, and prayed 
God to forgive him ; after which the fire was kindled, which consumed 
them both to ashes. 

This was the last instance of the cruelty of the clergy at present; for 
the act already mentioned, regulating their proceedings, followed soon 
after. Phillips, at whose complaint that bill was begun, was committed 
upon suspicion of heresy; a copy of Tracy's will was found about him, 
and butter and cheese were also found in his chamber in Lent ; but he 
being required to abjure, appealed to the king as supreme judge in such 
matters. Upon that he was set at liberty; but whether he was tried by 
the king or not, is not upon record. 

The act being passed, gave the new preachers and their followers 
some respite. The king was also empowered to reform all heresies and 
idolatries: and his affairs now obliged him to unite himself to the 
princes of Germany, that by their means he might so embroil the em- 
peror's affairs, as not to give him leisure to turn his arms against Eng- 



328 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

land; and this produced a slackening of all severities against the 
reformers at home ; for those princes, in the first fervour of the refor- 
mation, made it an article in all their treaties, that none should be pro- 
secuted for favouring their doctrine. The queen also openly protected 
them ; she took Latimer and Shaxton to be her chaplains, and promoted 
them to the bishoprics of Worcester and Salisbury. Cranmer was fully 
convinced of the necessity of a reformation, and that he might carry it 
on with true judgment, and justify it by good authorities, he made a 
careful collection of the opinions of the ancient fathers, and later 
doctors, in all the points of religion, comprising six folio volumes. He 
was a man of great candour and much patience and industry; and thus 
was on all accounts well prepared for that work, to which the providence 
of God now called him : and though he was in some things too much 
subject to the king's imperious temper, yet in the matter of the six ar- 
ticles, he shewed that he wanted not the courage that became a bishop 
in the most critical affairs. Cromwell was his great and constant friend ; 
a man of mean birth but of excellent qualities, as appeared in his 
adhering to his master Wolsey after his fall. 

The following incident strongly characterizes the generous temper of 
this minister: — At the height of his prosperity he happened to see a 
merchant of Lucca, who had pitied and relieved him when he was in 
Italy, but did not so much as know him, or pretended to any returns 
for the small favours he had formerly shewed him, and was then reduced 
to a low condition. Cromwell, however, made himself known to him, 
gave him the strongest acknowledgments and the most substantial proofs 
of his gratitude and liberality. 

While these men set themselves to carry on a reformation, another 
party was formed who as vigorously opposed it. This was headed by 
the duke of Norfolk and Gardiner ; and almost all the clergy joined with 
them. They persuaded the king that nothing would give the pope or 
the emperor such advantages, as his making any changes in religion ; 
and it would reflect much on him, if he who had written so learnedly for 
the faith, should in spite to the pope make any changes in it. Nothing 
would encourage other princes so much to follow his example, or keep 
his subjects so faithfully to him, as his continuing steadfast in the ancient 
religion. These things made a great impression on him. On the other- 
hand, Cranmer represented to him that if he rejected the pope's authority 
it was very absurd to let such opinions or practices continue in the church 
which had no other foundation but papal decrees; and therefore he 
desired that this might be put to the trial ; he ought to depend on God, 
and hope for good success if he proceeded in this matter according to 
the duty of a christian prince. England was a complete body within 
itself; and though in the Roman empire, when united under one prince 
general councils were easily assembled, yet now they were not easily 
to be converted, and therefore should not be relied on ; but every prince 
ought to reform the church in his dominions by a national synod ; and 
if in the ancient church such synods condemned heresies, and reformed 
abuses, this might be much more done, when Europe was divided into so 
many kingdoms. It was visible that though both the emperor and the 
princes of Germany had for twenty years desired a general council, it 



CRANMER'S SPEECH. 329 

could not be obtained of the pope; he had indeed offered one at Mantua, 
but that was only an illusion. 

Upon this the king desired others of his bishops to give their opinions 
concerning the emperor's power of calling councils ; so Cranmer of 
Canterbury, Tonstal of London, Clark of Bath and Wells, and Goodrick 
of Ely, made answer, that though ancient councils were called by the 
Roman emperors, yet that was done by reason of the extent of their 
monarchy, which had now ceased, and other princes had an entire 
monarchy within their dominions. At this assembly of prelates Cranmer 
made a long speech, setting forth the necessity of reformation. He 
began with the impostures and deceit used by the canonists and other 
courtiers at Rome. Then he spoke to the authority of a general council ; 
he shewed that it flowed not from the number of the bishops, but from 
the matter of their decisions, which were received with an universal 
consent ; for there were many more bishops at the council of Arimini, 
which was condemned, than either at Nice or Constantinople, which 
was received. Christ had named no head of the whole church, as God 
had named no head of the world ; but that grew up for order's sake, as 
there were archbishops set over provinces; yet some popes were con- 
demned for heresy, as Liberius and others. If faith must be showed by 
works, the ill lives of most popes of late shewed that their faith was to 
be suspected ; and all the privileges which princes or synods granted to 
that see might be recalled. Popes ought to submit themselves to general 
councils, and were to be tried by them ; he showed what were the pre- 
sent corruptions of the pope and his court, which needed reformation. 
The pope, according to the decree of the council of Basil, was the 
church's vicar, and not Christ's; and so was accountable to it. The 
churches of France declared the council to be above the pope, which 
had been acknowledged by many popes themselves. The power of 
councils had also bounds, nor could they judge of the rights of princes, 
or proceed to a sentence against a king ; nor were their canons of any 
force till princes added their sanctions to them. Councils ought also to 
proceed moderately, even against those that held errors, and ought not 
to impose things indifferent too severely. The scriptures, and not men's 
traditions, ought to be the standard of their definitions. The divines of 
Paris held, that a council could not make a new article of faith that 
was not in the scriptures ; and all Christ's promises to the church were 
to be understood with this condition, " if they kept the faith :" there- 
fore there was great reason to doubt concerning the authority of a 
council -, some of them had contradicted others, and many others were 
never received. The fathers had always appealed to the scriptures, as 
superior in authority to councils, by which only all controversies ought 
to be decided: yet, on the other hand, it was dangerous to be wise in 
one's own conceit, and he thought when the fathers all agreed in the 
exposition of any place of scripture, that ought to be looked on as flow- 
ing from the spirit of God. He showed how little regard was to be had 
to a council, in which the pope presided, and that if any common error 
had passed upon the world, when that came to be discovered, every one 
was at liberty to shake it off, even though they had sworn to maintain 
that error: this he applied to the pope's authority. This was the. state 



330 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the court after king Henry had shaken off the pope's power, and 
assumed a supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. 

The nobility and gentry were generally well satisfied with the change; 
but the body of the people were more under the power of the priests, who 
studied to infuse into them great fears of a change in religion. It was 
said the king now joined himself to heretics; that both the queen, 
Cranmer, and Cromwell favoured them. It was left free to dispute what 
were articles of faith, and what were only the decrees of popes ; and 
changes would be made under this pretence, that they only rejected those 
opinions which were supported by the papal authority. The monks and 
friars saw themselves left at the king's mercy. Their bulls could be no 
longer useful to them. The trade of new saints, and indulgences, was 
now at an end; they had also some intimations that Cromwell was form- 
ing a project for suppressing them : so they thought it necessary for their 
own preservation to embroil the king's affairs as much as was possible ; 
therefore both in confessions and discourses, they were inspiring the 
people with a dislike of his proceedings. But the practices of the clergy 
at home, and of cardinal Pole abroad, the libels there were published, 
and the rebellions that were afterwards raised in England, wrought so 
much on the king's temper, naturally imperious and boisterous, that he 
became too apt to commit acts of severity, and to bring his subjects into 
trouble upon slight grounds ; and his new title of head of the church 
seemed to have increased his former vanity, and made him fancy that 
all his subjects were bound to regulate their belief by the measures he 
set them. 

The bishops and abbots did what they could to free the king of any 
jealousies he might have of them; and of their own accord, before 
any law was made about it, they swore to maintain the king's supre- 
macy. The nrst act of it was making Cromwell vicar-general, and 
visitor of all the monasteries and churches of England, with a delega- 
tion of the king's supremacy to him ; he was also empowered to give 
commissions subaltern to himself; and all wills, where the estate was 
in value above 200/. were to be proved in his court. This was after- 
wards enlarged, and he was made the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical 
matters, and had the precedence of all next the royal family ; and his 
authority was in all points the same as the pope's legates. Pains were 
taken to engage all the clergy to declare for the supremacy. At Oxford 
a public determination was made, to which every member assented, 
that the pope had no more authority in England than any other foreign 
bishop. The Franciscans at Richmond made some opposition ; they 
said that by the rule of St. Francis, they were bound to obey the holy 
see. The bishop of Litchfield told them that all the bishops in England, 
all the heads of houses, and the most learned divines, had signed that 
proposition. St. Francis made his rule in Italy, where the bishop of 
Rome was metropolitan, but that ought not to extend to England : 
and it was shewed that the chapter cited by them was not written by 
him, but added since; yet they continued positive in their refusal to 
sign it. 

It is well known that all the monks and friars, though they appeared 
to comply, yet hated this new power of the king's; the people were 



VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES. 331 

also startled at it : so one Dr. Leighton, who had been in the cardinal's 
service with Cromwell, proposed a general visitation of all the religious 
houses in England ; and thought that nothing would reconcile the nation 
so much to the king's supremacy, as to see some good effect flow from 
it. Others deemed this too bold a step, and feared it would provoke 
the religious orders too much. Yet it was known that they were guilty 
of such disorders, as nothing could so effectually check as enquiry. 
Cranmer led the way to this by a metropolitan visitation, for which he 
obtained the king's licence : he took care to see that the pope's name 
was struck out of all the offices of the church, and that the king's 
supremacy was generally acknowledged. 

In October the general visitation of the monasteries commenced; 
which was divided into several precincts : instructions were given them 
what things to enquire after, as whether the houses had the full number 
according to their foundation ? if they performed divine worship in 
the appointed hours ? what exemptions they had? what were their sta- 
tutes ? how their heads were chosen? and how their vows were observed? 
Whether they lived according to the severities of their orders ? how the 
master and other officers did their duties ? how their lands and revenues 
were managed ? what hospitality was kept ? what care was taken of the 
novices ? what benefices were in their gift, and how they disposed of 
them? how the inclosures of the nunneries were preserved? whether the 
nuns went abroad, or if men were admitted to come to them ? how they 
employed their time, and what priests they had for their confessors? 
They were also ordered to give them some injunctions in the king's 
name, that they should acknowledge his supremacy, and maintain the 
act of succession, and declare all to be absolved from rules or oath 
that bound them to obey the pope; and that all their statutes tending to 
that bond should be erased out of their books. That the abbots should 
not have choice dishes, but plain tables, for hospitality; and that the 
scriptures should be read at meals ; that they should have daily lectures 
of divinity ; and maintain some of every house at the university. The 
abbot was required to instruct the monks in true religion, and to shew 
them that it did not consist in outward ceremonies, but in clearness of 
heart, and purity of life, and the worship of God in spirit and truth. 
Rules were given about their revenues, and against admitting any under 
twenty years of age. Visitors were empowered to punish offenders, or 
to bring them to answer before the visitor-general. 

What the ancient British monks were is not well known ; whether 
they were governed according to the rules of the monks of Egypt or 
France, is matter of conjecture. They were in all things obedient to 
their bishops, as all the monks of the primitive times were. But upon 
the confusions which the Gothic war brought upcn Italy, Benedict set 
up a new order with more artificial rules for its government. Not long 
after, Gregory the Great raised the credit of that order much, by his 
dialogues: and Austin the monk being sent by him to convert England, 
founded a monastery at Canterbury, which bore his name, and which 
both the king and Austin exempted from the archbishop's jurisdiction. § 

s This requires some explanation, as Austin, or Augustine, was himself archbishop of 
Canterbury, and could only concur in such a measure by his will. 



332 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

After that many other abbeys were founded and exempted by the kings 
of England, if credit is due to the records and charters of the monas- 
teries. 

In the end of the eighth century, the Danes made several descents 
upon England; and finding the most wealth and the least resistance in 
the monasteries, they generally plundered them, insomuch that the 
monks were forced to quit their seats, and leave them to the secular 
clergy : so that in King Edgar's time there was scarce a monk left in 
all England. He was a lewd and cruel prince: and Dunstan and other 
monks taking advantage from some horrors of conscience into which he 
fell, persuaded him that restoring the monastic state would be matter of 
great merit ; on which he converted many of the chapters into monas- 
teries. He only exempted them from all payments to the bishops ; but 
others were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction. In some only the 
precinct was exempted; in others, the exemption was extended to all the 
lands or churches belonging to them. The latest exemption from epis- 
copal jurisdiction granted by any king, is that of Battel, founded by 
William the Conqueror. After this the exemptions were granted by the 
popes, who pretending to an universal jurisdiction, assumed this among 
other usurpations. 

Some abbeys had also the privilege of being sanctuaries to all who fled 
to them. The foundation of all their wealth, was the belief of purgatory, 
and of the virtue that was in masses to redeem the souls of men; and 
that these eased the torments of departed spirits, and at last delivered 
them. Hence it passed among all for piety to parents, and of care for 
their own souls and families, to endow those houses with some lands, on 
condition that they should have masses said for them, as it was agreed 
on more or less frequently, according to the measure of the gift. This 
would have drawn the whole wealth of the nation into those houses, if 
the statute of Mortmain had not put some restraint to the practice. 
They also persuaded the world that the saints interceded for them, and 
would take it kindly at their hands, if they made great offerings to their 
shrines, and would thereupon intercede the more earnestly for them. 
The credulous vulgar, measuring the court of heaven by those on earth, 
believed presents might be of great efficacy there, and thought the new 
favourites would have the most weight in their intercessions : so that upon 
every new canonization there was a fresh fit of devotion towards the last 
saint, whilst the elder was almost forgotten. Some images were believed 
to have an extraordinary virtue in them, and pilgrimages to these were 
much extolled. There was also great rivalry among the several orders, 
as well as the different houses of the same orders, every one magnifying 
their own saints, images, and relics most. The wealth of these houses 
brought them under great corruptions. They were generally very disso- 
lute, and grossly ignorant. Their privileges were become a public griev- 
ance, and their lives gave great scandal to the world. So that, as they 
had found it easy to bear down the secular clergy, when their own vices 
were more secret, the begging friars found it easy to carry the esteem 
of the world from them. These, under the appearance of poverty, and 
coarse diet and clothing, gained much esteem, and became almost the 
only preachers and confessors then in the world. They had a general 



QUEEN KATHARINE'S DEATH. 333 

at Rome, from whom they received such directions as the popes sent 
them ; so that they were more useful to the papacy than the monks had 
been. They had also the school-learning in their hands, on which ac- 
count they were generally much cherished. But living much in the 
world they could not conceal their vices so artfully as the monks had 
done ; and though several reformations had been made of their orders, 
they had all fallen under great scandal and disesteem. The king in- 
tended to erect new bishoprics; but to do this it was necessary to make 
use of some of their revenues, and he thought the best way to bring 
their wealth into his hands, would be to expose their vices. Cranmer 
promoted this because the houses were founded on gross abuses, and 
subsisted by them; which were necessary to be removed if a refor- 
mation went on. The extent of many dioceses was also such, that 
one man could not oversee them; to remedy which, he intended to 
have more bishoprics founded, and to have houses at every cathedral 
for the education of those who should be employed in the pastoral 
charge. 

The visitors went over England, and found in many places monstrous 
disorders. The most unnatural crimes were found in many houses : 
great factions and barbarous cruelties were in others; and in some there 
were found tools for coining. The report contained many abominable 
things, not fit to be mentioned : some of these were printed, but the 
greater part were suppressed and concealed. The first house that was 
surrendered to the king was Langdon, in Kent; the abbot was found to 
live with a woman who went in the habit of a lay brother. To prevent 
greater evil to himself, he and ten of his monks signed a resignation of 
their house to the king. Two other monasteries in the same county, 
Folkstone and Dover, followed their example. And in the following 
year, four others made the like surrenders. 

In the year 1536, queen Katharine died. She had been resolute in 
maintaining her title and state, saying that when the pope had judged 
her marriage was good, she would die rather than do any thing to pre- 
judice it. She desired to be buried among the Observant friars, who 
had most strongly supported and suffered for her cause. She ordered 
500 masses to be said for her soul ; and that one of her women should 
go a pilgrimage to our lady of Walsingham, and give two hundred 
nobles on her way to the poor. 

When she found death approaching, she wrote to the emperor, recom- 
mending her daughter Mary, who afterwards became queen, to his care. 
She also wrote to the king, with this inscription, " My dear lord, king, 
and husband." She forgave him all the injuries he had done her, and 
wished him to have regard to his soul. She recommended her daughter 
to his protection, and desired him to be kind to her three maids, and to 
pay her servants a year's wages. Strange to say, she concluded hei 
letter to the king with this sentence, " Mine eyes desire you above all 
things." She expired on the eighth of January, at Kimbolton, in the 
fiftieth year of her age, having been thirty-three years in England. She 
was devout and exemplary; used to work with her own hands, and kept 
her women at work with her. Her alms-deeds, joined to her troubles; be- 
gat an esteem for her among all ranks of people. The king ordered her to 



334 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

be buried in the abbey of Peterborough, and was, or seemed to be, 
considerably affected at her death. 

The same year the parliament confirmed the act which empowered 
two to revise the ecclesiastical laws ; but no time being limited for its 
completion it had no effect. The chief business of this session was the 
suppressing of monasteries under 2001. a year. The act set forth the 
great disorders of those houses, and the many unsuccessful attempts 
made to reform them. The few truly serious people that were in them 
were ordered to be placed in the greater houses, where religion was better 
observed, and the revenues given to the king. The king was also em- 
powered to make new foundations of such of the suppressed houses as 
he pleased, which were in all three hundred and seventy. This parlia- 
ment, after six years' continuance, was dissolved rather suddenly, and 
somewhat against the will of the king. It was more than suspected, 
by persons interested in the preservation of the remaining monasteries, 
that they would soon share the fate of their predecessors, and the most 
strenuous efforts were therefore made to get rid of the parliament in order 
to keep a few of these obnoxious establishments in the land. 

In a convocation which sat at this time, a motion was made for trans- 
lating the Bible into English, which had been promised when Tindal's 
translation was condemned, but was afterwards laid aside by the clergy, 
as neither necessary nor expedient. It was said, that those whose office 
was to teach people the word of God, did all they could to suppress it. 
Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, wrote in the vulgar tongue : 
Christ directed the people to search the scriptures ; and as soon as any 
nation was converted to the christian religion, the Bible was translated 
into their language; nor was it ever taken out of the hands of the 
people, till the christian religion was so corrupted, that it was deemed 
impolitic to trust them with a book which would so manifestly discover 
those errors : hence the legends, as agreeing better with those abuses, 
were read instead of the word of God. Cranmer thought, that putting 
the Bible into the people's hands would be the most effectual means of 
promoting the reformation ; and therefore moved that the king might 
be prayed to order it. But Gardiner and all the other party opposed 
this vehemently. They pleaded that all the extravagant opinions then 
in Germany rose from the indiscreet use of the scriptures. Some of 
those opinions were at this time disseminated in England, both against 
the divinity and incarnation of Christ, and the usefulness of the sacra- 
ments. It was therefore urged that during these distractions the use of 
the scriptures would prove a great snare, and proposed that instead of 
them, there might be some short exposition of the christian religion put 
in the people's hands, which might keep them in subjection to the king 
and the church : but it was carried in the convocation for the affirmative. 
At court men were much divided in this point; some said, if the king 
gave way to it, he would never be able after that to govern his people, 
and that they would break into many divisions : on the other hand, it was 
maintained, that nothing would make the difference between the pope's 
power and the king's supremacy appear more eminently, than for the 
one to give the people the free use of the word of God, while the other 
kept them in darkness, and ruled them by a blind obedience. It would 



QUEEN ANNE SENT TO THE TOWER. 335 

also go far to extinguish the interest that either the pope or the monks 
had in England. The Bible would teach them, that the world had been 
long deceived by their impostures, which had no foundation in the scrip- 
tures. These reasons, joined with the interest that the queen had in 
the king, prevailed so far with him, that he gave order for setting about 
this important affair with all possible haste; and within three years the 
impression of it was finished. 

The popish party saw with disappointment and concern, that the new 
queen was the great obstacle to their designs. Henry had married 
Anne chiefly through passionate fondness, and she grew not only in the 
king's esteem, but in the love of the nation. It was reported that she 
bestowed above 14,000/. in almsHo the poor, and she seemed to delight 
in doing good. Soon after Katharine's death, she bore a dead son, 
which was believed to have made some impression on the king's mind 
unfavourable to her. It was also considered that Katharine being dead, 
the king might marry another papist, and thus regain the friendship of 
the pope and the emperor, and that the issue by any other marriage 
would never be questioned. With these reasons of state the king's 
affections coincided, for he was now in love with Jane Seymour, whose 
disposition was tempered between the gravity of Katharine and the 
gaiety of Anne. The latter used all possible arts to re-inflame a dying 
affection; but the king was changed, and even determined on her de- 
struction: and her brother's wife being jealous of her husband and 
her, prejudiced the king with her own extravagant apprehensions, and 
filled his head with many false reports. Norris, Weston, and Brereton, 
the king's servants, and Smeton a musician, were said to have been 
particularly officious about her. Something was pretended to have 
been sworn by the lady Wingfield at her death that determined the king, 
but there is little light left to judge of that matter. The king left her, 
upon which she was confined to her chamber, and the five persons 
before mentioned were seized and sent to the Tower, and the next day 
she was sent thither. On the river some privy counsellors came to 
examine her, but she made deep protestations of her innocence; and 
on landing at the Tower she fell on her knees and prayed God to assist 
her, as she was free of the crimes laid to her charge. The others who 
were imprisoned on her account, denied every thing, except Smeton, 
who, it is supposed through hopes of favour and acquittal, confessed that 
he had been criminally connected with her. This, however, he denied 
when he was brought afterwards to execution, a denial of undoubted proof 
that she was indeed innocent. She was of a remarkable lively temper, 
and having resided long in the French court, had imbibed in her beha- 
viour somewhat of the levities of that people. She was also free from 
pride, and hence, in her exterior, she might have condescended too 
much to her familiar servants. She even confessed she had once rallied 
Norris, and told him that he was in love with her, and only waited the 
king's death to marry her: this was the head and front of her offending. 
^ The whole court however was turned against her, and she had no 
friend about the king but Cranmer: her enemies therefore procured an 
order for him not to come to court; yet he put all to hazard, and wrote 
the king a long letter upon this critical juncture. He acknowledged, 






336 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



that if the things reported of the queen were true, it was the greatest 
affliction that ever befel the king, and therefore exhorted him to bear it 
with patience and submission to the will of God : he confessed he never 
had a better opinion of any woman than of her; and that next to the 
king he was more bound to her than to all persons living, and therefore 
he begged his leave to pray that she might be found innocent : he loved 
her not a little, because of the love which she seemed to bear to God 
and his gospel ; but if she was guilty, all who love the gospel must hate 
her, as having been the greatest slander possible to the gospel : but he 
prayed the king not to entertain any prejudice to the gospel on her 
account, nor give the world to say, that his love to that was founded on 
the influence she had with him. But the king was inexorable* The 
indictments were laid in the counties of Kent and Middlesex, the former 
relating to what was done in Greenwich. Smeton pleaded guilty, as 
before; the rest pleaded not guilty; but they were all condemned. 

On the 15th of May the queen and her brother, who was then a peer, 
were tried before the duke of Norfolk, as high steward, and a court of 
twenty-seven peers. The crime charged on her was, that she had pro- 
cured illicit favours from her brother and four other persons, and had 
often said to them, that the king never had her heart; and this was to 
the slander of the issue begotten between the king and her, which was 
treason by the act which confirmed her marriage, so that this act was 
now turned to her ruin. They would not now acknowledge her the 
king's lawful wife, and therefore did not found the treason on the known 
statute 25th Edw. III. It does not appear what evidence was brought 
against her; for Smeton being already condemned could not be 
subpoenaed to attest her guilt; and his never being brought face to 
face against her, gave just suspicion that he was persuaded to his con- 
fession by base practices. The evidence rested only on the declaration 
of a dead woman; but whether that was forged or real, can never be 
known till the great day discovers it. The forgery, however, rests on 
the strongest suspicion. 

The earl of Northumberland was one of the judges. He had for- 
merly been in love with the queen, and either from reviving affection, 
or from some other circumstance, he became suddenly so ill that he 
could not stay out the trial. Yet all this did not satisfy the king ; he 
resolved to illegitimatize his daughter, the lady Elizabeth, and in order to 
that to annul his marriage with the queen. It was remembered that the 
earl of Northumberland had said to cardinal Wolsey, that he had en- 
gaged himself so far with her that he could not go back, which was 
perhaps done by some promise conceived in words of the future tense; 
but no promise, unless in the words of the present tense, could annul 
the subsequent marriage. Perhaps the queen did not understand that 
difference, or probably the fear of a terrible death wrought so much on 
her, that she confessed the contract; but the earl denied it positively, 
and took the sacrament upon it, wishing it might turn to his damnation 
if there was ever either contract or promise of marriage between them. 
Upon her own confession, however, her marriage with the king was 
judged null from the beginning, and she was condemned, although 
nothing could be more contradictory; for if she was never the king's 



ACTS AGAINST THE POPE. 337 

wife, she could not be guilty of adultery, there being no breach of the 
faith of wedlock. But the king was resolved both to be rid of her, and 
to declare the daughter she had borne him illegitimate. 

The day before her death, she sent her last message to the king, as- 
serting her innocence, recommending her daughter to his care, and 
thanking him for his advancing her first to be a marchioness, then to be 
a queen, and now, when he could raise her no higher upon earth, for 
sending her to be a saint in heaven. The day she died the lieutenant of 
the Tower wrote to Cromwell, that it was not fit to publish the time of 
her execution, for the fewer that were present it would be the better, 
since he believed she would declare her innocence at the hour of her 
death; for that morning she had made great protestations of it when 
she received the sacrament, and seemed to long for death with great joy 
and pleasure. On being told that the executioner, who had been sent 
for expressly from France, was very skilful, she expressed great happi- 
ness; for she said, with laughter, she had a very short neck, 

A little before noon, she was brought to the place of execution; there 
were present some of the chief officers and great men of the court. 
She was it seems prevailed on, out of regard to her daughter, to make 
no reflections on the cruel treatment she met with, nor to say any thing 
touching the grounds on which sentence was passed against her. She 
only desired that all would judge the best; she highly commended the 
king, and then took her leave of the world. She remained for some 
time in her private devotions, and concluded, " To Christ I commend 
my soul;" upon which the executioner struck off her head: and so little 
respect was paid to her body, that it was with brutal insolence put in a 
chest of elm-tree, made to send arrows into Ireland, and then buried in 
the chapel in the Tower. Norris then had his life promised him if he 
would accuse her; but this faithful and virtuous servant said he knew 
she was innocent, and would die a thousand times rather than defame 
her : he and the three others were therefore beheaded, all of them con^- 
tinuing to the last to vindicate her. The day after Anne's death the 
king married Jane Seymour, who gained more upon him than all his 
wives before; but she was fortunate that she did not out-live his love 
to her. 

Pope Clement VII. was now dead, and Farnese succeeded him by the 
name of Paul III., who, after an unsuccessful attempt which he made 
to reconcile himself with the king, when that was rejected, thundered 
out a most terrible sentence of deposition against him. Yet now, since 
the two queens upon whose account the breach was made were out of 
the way, he thought it a fit time to attempt the recovery of the papal 
interest, and ordered Cassalli to let the king know that he had been 
driven, much against his mind, to pass sentence against him, and that 
now it would be easy for him to recover the favour of the apostolic see. 
But the king, instead of hearkening to the proposition, caused two acts 
to be passed, one for utterly extinguishing the pope's authority; in 
which it was made a praemunire for any one to acknowledge it, or to 
persuade others to it; and in the other, all bulls and all privileges 
flowing from them were declared null and void ; only marriages or con- 
serrations made by virtue of them were excepted. All who enjoved 
8 z 



338 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

privileges by these bulls were required to bring them into the chancery, 
upon which the archbishop was to make them a new grant of them, 
which being confirmed under the great seal was to be of full force 
in law. 

The convocation sat at the same time, and was much employed : for 
the house of lords was often adjourned, because the spiritual lords were 
busy in the convocation. Latimer preached the Latin sermon; he was 
the most celebrated preacher of that time ; the simplicity of his matter, 
and his zeal in expressing it, being preferred to more elaborate compo- 
sitions. They first confirmed the sentence of the divorce of the king's 
marriage with queen Anne. Then the lower house made an address to 
the upper house complaining of sixty-seven opinions, which they found 
were much in the kingdom. These were either the tenets of the old 
Lollards, or the new Reformers, or of the Anabaptists; but many of 
them were only indiscreet expressions, which might have flowed from 
the heat and folly of some rash zealots, who had endeavoured to disgrace 
both the received doctrines and rites. They also complained of some 
bishops who were wanting in their duty to suppress such abuses. This 
was understood as a reflection on Cranmer, Shaxton, and Latimer, the 
first of whom it was thought was now declining by queen Anne's fall. 

But all these projects failed, for Cranmer was now fully established 
in the king's favour; and Cromwell was sent to them with a message 
from his majesty, that they should reform the rites and ceremonies 
of the church according to the rules set down in scripture, which he said 
ought to be preferred to all glosses or decrees of popes. There was one 
Alesse, a Scotchman, whom Cromwell entertained in his house, who 
being appointed to deliver his opinion, largely shewed that there was 
no sacrament instituted by Christ but baptism and the Lord's supper. 
Stokesly answered him in a long discourse upon the principles of the 
school-divinity ; upon which Cranmer took occasion to shew the vanity 
of scholastic learning, and the uncertainty of tradition; and that reli- 
gion had been so corrupted in the latter ages, that there was no finding 
out the truth but by resting on the authority of the scriptures. Fox, 
bishop of Hereford, seconded him, and told them that the world was 
now awake, and would be no longer imposed on by the niceties and 
dark terms of the schools ; for the laity now not only read the scriptures 
in the vulgar tongues, but searched the original languages; therefore 
they must not think to govern them as they had been in the times of 
ignorance. Among the bishops, Cranmer, Goodrick, Shaxton, Latimer, 
Fox, Hilsey, and Barlow, pressed the reformation ; but Lee, archbishop 
of York, bishops Stokesly, Tonstall, Gardiner, Longland, and several 
others opposed it as much. The contest would have been much sharper, 
had not the king sent certain articles to be considered by them, when 
the following mixture of truth and error was agreed upon. 

1. That the bishops and preachers ought to instruct the people ac- 
cording to the scripture, the three creeds, and the four first general 
councils. 

2. That baptism was necessary to salvation, and that children ought 
to be baptised for the pardon of original sin, and obtaining the Holy 
Ghost. 



ARTICLES PROPOSED BY THE KING. 339 

3. That penance was necessary to salvation, and that it consisted in 
confession, contrition, and amendment of life, with the external works 
of charity, to which a lively faith ought to be joined; and that confes- 
sion to a priest was necessary where it might be had. 

4. That in the eucharist, under the forms of bread and wine, the 
very flesh and blood of Christ was received. 

5. That justification was the remission of sins, and a perfect renova- 
tion in Christ; and that not only outward good works, but inward 
holiness was absolutely necessary. As for outward ceremonies, the 
people were to be taught, that it was meet to have images in churches, 
but they ought to avoid the superstition as has been usual in time past* 
and not to worship the image, but only God. That they were to honour 
the saints, but not to expect those things from them which God only 
gives. That they might pray to them for their intercession, but all 
superstitious abuses were to cease; and if the king should lessen the 
number of saints' days, they ought to obey him. That the use of the 
ceremonies was good, and that they contained many mystical significa^- 
tions that tended to raise the mind towards God; such were vestments 
in divine worship, holy water and bread, carrying of candles, and 
palms, creeping to the cross, and hallowing the font, with other exor^ 
cisms. That it was good to pray for departed souls, and to have masses 
said for them; but the scriptures having neither declared in what place 
they were, nor what torments they suffered, that was uncertain, and to 
be left to God ; therefore all abuses of the pope's pardons, or saying 
masses in special places, or before certain images, were to be put away. 

These articles were signed by Cromwell, the two archbishops, sixteen 
bishops, forty abbots and priors, and fifty members of the lower house. 
The king afterwards added a preface, declaring the pains that he and 
the clergy had taken for removing the differences in religion which 
existed in the nation, and that he approved of these articles, and re- 
quired all his subjects to accept them, and he would be thereby en- 
couraged to take further pains in similar matters for the future. On 
the publication of these points, the favourers of the reformation, though 
they did not approve of every particular, yet were well pleased to see 
things brought under examination; and since some were at this time 
changed, they did not doubt but more changes would follow. They 
were glad that the scriptures and ancient creeds were made the standards 
of the faith, without adding tradition; and that the nature of justifica- 
tion and the gospel-covenant was rightly stated; that the immediate 
worship of images and saints was condemned, and purgatory left un- 
certain. The necessity of auricular confession, and the corporeal pre- 
sence, doing reverence to images, and praying to saints, were of hard 
digestion to them; yet they rejoiced to see grosser abuses removed, and 
a reformation once set on foot. The popish party, on the other hand, 
were sorry to see five sacraments passed over in silence, and the trade 
created by purgatory put down. 

At the same time other things were in consultation, though not finished. 
Cranmer offered some queries to shew the imposition that had been put 
on the world : as that priestly absolution without contrition was of more 
efficacy than contrition without it ; and that the people trusted wholly 



340 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to outward ceremonies, in which the priests encouraged them, because 
of the gain they made by them. He offered a paper to the king, exhort- 
ing him to proceed to further reformation, and that nothing should be 
determined without clear proofs from scripture, a departure from which 
occasioned all the errors that had been in the church. Many things 
were now acknowledged to be erroneous, for denying which some not 
long before had suffered death. He therefore proposed several points 
to be discussed, as whether there were a purgatory ? whether departed 
saints ought to be invoked, or tradition believed? whether images ought 
to be considered mere representations of history ? and whether it was 
lawful for the clergy to marry? He prayed the king not to give judgment 
in these points till he heard them well examined ; but no definitive mea- 
sures respecting them were at present adopted. 

Visitors were now appointed to survey all the lesser monasteries; they 
were to examine the state of their revenues and goods, form inventories 
of them, and take their seals into their keeping; they were to try how 
many of the religious would return to a secular course of life; and these 
were to be sent to the archbishop of Canterbury, or the lord chancellor 
for licences, an allowance being granted them for their journey; but 
those who intended to continue in a religious state were to be removed 
to some of the great monasteries. A pension was also to be assigned to 
the abbot, or prior, of each house during life ; and they were particu- 
larly to examine what leases had been made during the last year. Ten 
thousand of the religious were by this means driven to seek for their 
livings, with forty shillings and a gown for each. Their goods and plate 
were estimated at 100,000/. and the rents of their houses 32,000/. but 
they were above ten times this value. The churches and cloisters were 
in most places pulled down, and the materials sold, yielding an incre- 
dible amount. These proceedings gave great discontent ; and the monks 
were now as much pitied, as they were formerly hated. The nobility and 
gentry, who provided for their younger children or friends by putting 
them in those sanctuaries, were sensible of their loss. The people, who 
as they travelled over the country found abbeys to be places of recep- 
tion to strangers, had cause to lament their suppression. But the super- 
stitious, who thought their friends must now lie still in purgatory, with* 
out relief from the masses, were out of measure offended and afflicted. 
But to remove this discontent, Cromwell advised the king to sell those 
lands at very easy rates to the nobility and gentry, and to oblige them 
to keep up the wonted hospitality. 

This would both be grateful to them, and would engage them to 
assist the crown in promoting the changes that had been made, since 
their own interests would be interwoven with that of their sovereign. 
And upon a clause in the act empowering the king to found anew such 
houses as he should think fit, there were fifteen monasteries and sixteen 
nunneries newly founded. These were bound to obey such rules as the 
king should send them, and to pay him tenths and first fruits. But all 
this did not pacify the people, for there was still a great outcry. The 
clergy studied much to inflame the nation, and urged that an heretical 
prince, deposed by the pope, was no more to be acknowledged; that it 
was a part of the papal power to depose kings, and give away their 



ATTEMPTS OF THE INSURGENTS. 341 

dominions; and it had often been put in practice in almost all the parts 
of Europe, and some who had been abettors of great sedition had been 
canonized for it. 

There were certain injunctions given by Cromwell which increased 
this discontent. All churchmen were required every Sunday for a 
quarter of a year, and twice every quarter after that, to preach against 
the pope's power, and to explain the six articles of the convocation. They 
were forbidden to extol images, relics, or pilgrimages ; but to exhort to 
works of charity. They were also required to teach the Lord's prayer, 
the creed, and the ten commandments in English, and to explain these 
carefully, and instruct the children well in them. They were to perform 
the divine offices reverently, and to have good curates to supply their 
places when they were absent. They were charged not to go to ale- 
houses, or sit too long at games; but to study the scriptures, and be 
exemplary in their lives. Those who did not reside in their parishes 
were to give the fortieth part of their income to the poor ; and for every 
hundred pounds a year, they were to maintain a pupil at some grammar 
school, or the university. If the parsonage-house was in decay, they 
were ordered to apply a fifth part of their benefice for the purpose of 
repairing it. 

The people continued quiet till they had got in their harvest ; but in 
the beginning of October, 20,000 rose in Lincolnshire, led by a priest in 
the disguise of a cobler. They took an oath to be true to God, the king 
and the commonwealth, and sent a paper of their grievances to the 
king. They complained of some acts of parliament, of suppressing of 
many religious houses, of mean and ill counsellors, and bad bishops; 
and prayed the king to redress their grievances by the advice of the 
nobility. The king sent the duke of Suffolk to raise forces against 
them, and gave an answer to their petition. He said it belonged not to 
the rabble to direct princes what counsellors they should choose. The 
religious houses were suppressed by law, and the heads of them had 
under their hands confessed such horrid scandals, that they were a re- 
proach to the nation ; and that as they wasted their rents in riotous 
living, it was much better to apply them to the common good of the 
nation. He required them to submit to his mercy, and to deliver up 
two hundred of their leaders into the hands of his lieutenants. 

At the same time there was a more formidable rising in Yorkshire, 
which being in the neighbourhood of Scotland, was likely to draw assist- 
ance from that kingdom, though their king was then gone into France 
to marry Francis' daughter; which inclined Henry to make more haste 
to settle matters in Lincolnshire. He sent them secret assurances of 
mercy, which wrought on the greatest part, so that they dispersed them- 
selves, while the most obstinate went over to those in Yorkshire. The 
leader and some others were taken and executed. The distance of those 
in the North gave them time to assemble, and form themselves into some 
regimental order. One Ask was commander in chief, and performed his 
part with great dexterity: their march was called "the Pilgrimage of 
Grace;" they had on their banners and sleeves the five wounds of 
Christ; they took an oath that they would restore the church, suppress 
heretics, preserve the king and his 'issue, and drive base born men and 



342 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ill counsellors from him. They became 40,000 strong in a few days, 
and forced the archbishop of York and the lord Darcy to swear to their 
covenant, and to proceed with them. They besieged Skipton, but the 
earl of Cumberland made it good against them. Sir Ralph Evers held 
out Scarborough castle, though for twenty days he and his men had no 
provisions but bread and water. 

There was also a rising in the other northern countries, against whom 
the earl of Shrewsbury made head ; and the king sent several of the 
nobility to his assistance, and within a few days the duke of Norfolk 
marched with some troops and joined him. They possessed themselves 
of Doncaster, and resolved to keep that pass till the rest of the forces 
which the king had ordered should arrive ; for they were not in a con- 
dition to engage with such numbers of desperate men ; and it was very 
likely that if they met with an accident, the people might have risen 
about them every where; the duke of Norfolk resolved, therefore, to 
keep close at Doncaster, and let the provision and rage of the rebels 
waste away, and then they might probably fall into factions and disperse.. 
They were now reduced to 10,000, but the king's army was not above 
5000. The duke of Norfolk proposed a treaty; they were persuaded 
to send their petitions to the king, who to make them more secure, 
discharged a rendezvous which he had appointed at Northampton, and 
sent them a general pardon, excepting six by name, and reserving four 
to be afterwards named; but this put them all in such apprehension, 
that it made them more desperate : yet the king, to give his people some 
content, issued injunctions requiring the clergy to continue the use of 
all the ceremonies of the church : meanwhile 300 were employed to 
carry the demands of the rebels to the king. These were, a general 
pardon, a parliament to be held at York, and that courts of justice 
should be set up there; some acts of parliament to be repealed, that 
the princess Mary might be restored to her right of succession, and the 
pope to his wonted jurisdiction ; that the monasteries might be revived; 
that Audley and Cromwell might be removed from the king; and that 
some of the visitors might be imprisoned for their bribery and extortion. 
These proposals being rejected, the rebels took heart again, and finding 
that with the loss of time they lost heart, resolved to fall upon the royal 
troops, and drive them into Doncaster; but at two several times in which 
they had thought to ford the river, such rains fell as made it impassable. 
The king, at length, sent an answer to their demands : he assured them 
he would live and die in the defence of the christian faith; but the 
rabble ought not to prescribe to him and to the convocation in that 
matter. He answered that which concerned the monasteries as he had 
done to the men of Lincolnshire. If they had just complaints to make 
of any about him, he was ready to hear them ; but he would not suffer 
them to direct him what counsellors he ought to employ: nor could 
they judge of the bishops who had been promoted, whom they knew 
not. He charged them not to believe lies, nor be governed by incen- 
diaries, but to submit to his mercy. On the 9th of December he signed a 
proclamation of pardon without any restriction. As soon as the affair was 
over, the king went on more resolutely in his design of suppressing the 
monasteries; being now less apprehensive of any new commotion. 



VISITATION AND SUPPRESSION OF MONASTERIES. 343 

A new visitation was appointed to enquire into the conversation of the 
monks, to examine how they stood affected to the pope, and how they 
promoted the king's supremacy. It was likewise ordered to examine 
what impostures might be among them, either in images or relics, by 
which the superstition of the credulous people was excited. Some few 
houses of greater value were prevailed with the former year to sur- 
render to the king. Many of the houses which had not been dissolved, 
though they were within the former act, were now suppressed, and 
many of the greater abbots were induced to surrender by several 
motives. Some had been faulty during the rebellion, and to prevent 
a storm offered a resignation. Others liked the reformation, and did it 
on that account; some were found guilty of great disorders in their 
lives, and to prevent a shameful discovery, offered their houses to the 
king; while others had made such wastes and dilapidations, that having 
taken care of themselves, they were less concerned for others. At St. 
Alban's the rents were let so low, that the abbot could not maintain the 
charge of the abbey. At Battel the whole furniture of the house and 
chapel was not above 1000/. in value, and the plate was not 300/. In 
some houses there was scarcely any plate or furniture left. Many abbots 
and monks were glad to accept of a pension for life, which was propor- 
tioned to the value of their house, and to their innocence. The abbots 
of St. Alban's and Tewksbury had 400 marks a year : the abbot of St. 
Edmondsbury was more innocent and more resolute; the visitors wrote 
that they found no scandals in that house; he was, however, prevailed 
with by a pension of 500 marks to resign. The inferior governors had 
some 30, 20, or 10/. pensions, and the monks had generally 61. or eight 
marks a piece. By these means one hundred and twenty-one of these 
houses were this year resigned to the king. In most cases the visitor 
made the monks sign a confession of their vices and disorders, of which 
there is only one original extant. They acknowledged in a long nar- 
rative, their former idleness, gluttony, and sensuality, for which they said 
the pit of hell was ready to swallow them up. Others were sensible 
that the manner of their former religion consisted in dumb ceremonies, 
by which they were blindly led, having no true knowledge of God's 
laws ; but that they had procured exemption from their diocesans, and 
had subjected themselves wholly to a foreign power, which took no care 
to reform their abuses; and therefore since the most perfect way of life 
was revealed by Christ and his apostles, and that it was fit they should 
be governed by the king as their supreme head, they freely resigned to 
him. Some resigned in hopes that the king would found them anew ; 
these favoured the reformation, and intended to convert their houses to 
better uses, for preaching, study, and prayer; and Latimer pressed 
Cromwell earnestly, that two or three houses might be reserved for such 
purposes in every county. But it was resolved to suppress all. The 
common preamble to most surrenders was, "That upon full deliberation, 
and of their own proper motion, for just and reasonable causes moving 
their consciences, they did freely give up their houses to the king." In 
short, they went on at such a rate, that one hundred and fifty-nine re- 
signations were obtained before the parliament met. Some thought that 
these resignations could not be valid, since the incumbents had not the 



344 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

property, but only the trust for life. But the parliament afterwards 
declared them good by an ex post facto law. 

Others were more roughly handled. The prior of Wooburn was sus- 
pected of a correspondence with the rebels, and of favouring the pope ; 
he was requested to submit to the king, and prevailed on to do it, but 
he was not easy in it, nor fixed to it; he complained that the new 
preachers detracted from the honour due to the virgin and saints; he 
thought the religion was changed, and wondered that the judgments of 
God on queen Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert 
the faith. When the rebellion broke out he joined in it, as did also the 
abbots of Whaley, Garvaux, and Sawley, and the prior of Burlington; 
all these were taken, attainted of treason, and executed. The abbots of 
Glastonbury and Reading had also sent a great quantity of their plate to 
the rebels; the former, to disguise it the better, had hired a man to break 
into the house where the plate was kept: thus he was convicted both of 
burglary and treason, and at his execution he confessed his crime, and 
begged both God and the king's pardon for it. The abbot of Reading 
had complied so far, that he was grown into favour with Cromwell. 
Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the king's 
supremacy; others were suspected of favouring them, and of receiving 
books sent from beyond sea against the king's proceedings, and were 
shut up in their cells, in which most of them died. The prior was a 
man of extraordinary charity and good works, as the visitor reported; 
but he was made to resign, with this preamble, " That many of the 
houses had offended the king, and deserved that their lives should be 
taken, and their goods confiscated; and therefore to avoid that, they 
surrendered their houses." Great complaints were made of the visitors, 
as if they had used undue practices to make the abbots and monks 
surrender ; and it was said, that they had in many places embezzled 
much of the plate for their own uses ; and in particular, it was com- 
plained that Dr. Loudon had corrupted many nuns. The visitors, on 
the other hand, published many of the vile practices that they found in 
the houses, so that several books were printed upon this occasion. No 
story became so public as that of the prior of Crutched-friars in London, 
who was detected with a strumpet at noon-day: he fell down on his 
knees, and begged that they who surprised him would not discover his 
shame. They made him give them 30Z. which he protested was all he 
had; and he promised them as much more: but not keeping his word, 
a suit followed upon it. Yet these personal blemishes did not much 
concern the people. They deemed it unreasonable to extinguish noble 
foundations for the fault of some individuals: therefore another way 
was taken which had a better effect. 

They disclosed to the world many impostures about relics and images, 
to which pilgrimages had been made. At Reading they had an angel's 
wing, which, they said, brought over the spear's point that pierced our 
Saviour's side; and as many pieces of the cross were found, as when 
joined together would have made a large cross. The rood of Grace at 
Bexley, in Kent, had been much esteemed, and had attracted many 
pilgrims to it: it was observed to bow, and roll its eyes, and look at 
times well pleased or angry; which the credulous multitude imputed to 



VILE IMPOSTURES DISCLOSED. 345 

a divine power: bat all was now discovered to be a cheat, and it was 
brought up to St. Paul's cross, where the springs were openly shewed 
that governed its several motions. At Hales, in Gloucestershire, blood 
was shewed in a vial which was pretended to be the blood of Christ; 
and it was believed that none could see it who were in mortal sin 
Those who could bestow liberal presents were of course gratified, by 
being led to believe that they were in a state of grace. This miracle 
consisted in the blood of a bird or beast, renewed every week, put in a 
vial very thick on one side, and thin on the other; and either side 
turned towards the pilgrim, as the priests were satisfied with their 
oblations. Several other similar impostures were discovered, which 
contributed much to the undeceiving of the people. 

The richest shrine in England was Thomas a Becket's at Canterbury, 11 
whose story is well known. After he had long embroiled England, and 
shewed that he had a spirit so turned to faction that he could not be at 
quiet, some servants of Henry II. killed him in the church at Canter- 
bury. He was presently canonized, and held in greater esteem than any 
other saint whatever ; so much more was a martyr for the papacy valued, 
than any who suffered for the christian religion : and his altar drew far 
greater oblations than those dedicated to Christ or the blessed Virgin, 
as appears by the accounts of two years. In the first year 31. 2s. 6d., 
and in the second not a penny, was offered at Christ's altar. In the 
Virgin's, there was in the first year 631. 5s. 6d., and in the second 
41. Is. Sd.; while at the shrine of Becket, there was in the first year 
832Z. 125. 3c?., and in the second 9641. 6s. 3d. offered. The shrine 
continued to grow in veneration and riches. Lewis VII. of France 
came over in pilgrimage to visit it, and offered a stone esteemed the 
richest in Europe. This saint had not only one holy day, the 29th of 
December, called his martyrdom; but another for his translation, 
namely, the 7th of July. Besides these, every fiftieth year there was a 
jubilee, and an indulgence granted to all who came and visited his 
tomb, which was so great a number, that on these occasions there have 
been supposed to be assembled not less than 100,000 pilgrims. 

The lane leading from the main street of the city to the cathedral 
gate has one side of it almost occupied with very ancient houses. These 
were once one entire house of accommodation called the Pilgrim's Inn. 
The cellars are still in their ancient state, and give us a notion of 
incredible quantities of wine being then kept in store for those pilgrims 
who could pay for it. Intemperance among them was then as common 
almost as superstition. Those of smaller wealth were accommodated in a 

h Thomas a Becket was archbishop of Canterbury; and, seconded by the clergy, he 
insisted that they should be exempted from the jurisdiction of the temporal courts in 
criminal cases. His conduct was so galling to the king, and so marked with insolence, 
that his majesty said hastily, " Have I no friend to rid me of this insolent enemy '! " Upon this 
four of his knights, esteeming it a signal for his death, instantly quitted the royal presence, and 
hastened to Canterbury, where finding the archbishop before the altar of the church at 
prayers, they slew him with their daggers. Henry found great difficulty to excuse himself 
to the pope, and was obliged to do penance. It was this king who, with the French 
monarch, performed the office of yeoman of the stirrup to pope Alexander. It is worthy 
of remark that one of the assassins was ancestor of a most respectable and excellent family 
of quakers now flourishing in this country. 



346 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

suburb of the city, called to this day Wincheap — denoting the greater 
cheapness of the wine there than at the Pilgrim's Inn. It is hard to 
tell whether hatred to his seditious practices, or the love of his shrine, 
led king Henry to unsaint Thomas a Becket, His shrine was broken, 
and the gold of it was so heavy that it rilled two chests, each of which 
took eight men to carry it out of the church. The skull, which had 
been so idolized, was proved to be an imposture; for the true one was 
safe in his coffin : his bones had either been burnt, as it was given out 
at Rome; or so mixed with others, as our writers say, that it would 
have been a miracle indeed to have distinguished them. 

When these things were known at Rome, all the eloquent pens there 
were employed to represent king Henry as the most sacrilegious tyrant 
that ever made war with Christ's vicar on earth, and his saints in heaven. 
He was compared to the worst of princes; to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, 
Belshazzar, Nero, and Dioclesian; but the parallel with Julian the 
apostate was most insisted on. It was said, he copied after him in all 
things, while his manners were worse. The pope proceeded farther; he 
published all those thunders with which he had threatened him three 
years before. He pretended that, as God's vicar, he had power to root 
out, and to destroy; and had authority over all the kings in the world: 
and therefore, after he had enumerated all the crimes of Henry, he 
required him to appear within ninety days at Rome, either in person or 
by proxy, and all his accomplices within sixty days; and that if he and 
they did not appear, he declared the king to have fallen from his crown, 
and them from their estates. He put the kingdom under an interdict, 
and absolved his subjects from their oaths of allegiance: he declared 
him and his accomplices infamous; and put their children under in- 
capacities. He required all the clergy to go out of England, within 
five days after the stated time should expire, leaving only so many as 
might serve for baptizing children or giving the sacrament to such as 
died in penitence. He charged all subjects to rise in arms against the 
king, and that none should assist him. He absolved all other princes 
from their confederacies with him, and conjured them to have no more 
commerce with him. He required all Christians to make war on him; 
and to seize on the persons and goods of all his subjects, and make 
slaves of them; and, in conclusion, he charged all bishops to publish 
the sentence with due solemnities, and ordained it to be affixed on the 
churches of Rome, Tournay, and Dunkirk. This was given out on the 
30th of August, 1535; but it had been suspended till the suppression 
of monasteries, and the burning of Becket's bones; at which the pope 
was so exasperated, that he resolved to forbear extremities no longer. 
On the 17th of December this year, he therefore published the bull. 
By this sentence it is certain, that either the pope's infallibility must be 
confessed to be a vain assumption upon the world, or if any believe it, 
they must presume that the power of deposing princes is really lodged 
in that chair ; for this was not a sudden fit of passion, but done ex 
Cathedra, with all the deliberation it could admit of. The sentence 
was in some particulars without a precedent ; but as to the main points 
of deposing the king, and absolving his subjects from their obedience, 
there were numerous instances to be brought in the last five hundred 



FREE CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 347 

years, to shew that this had been always asserted as the right of papacy. 
The pope wrote to the kings of France and Scotland, to inflame them 
against Henry ; and had this been an age of crusades, no doubt there 
had been one undertaken against him; but the thunders of the Vatican 
had already begun to lose their force. 

To counteract this violence, the king caused all the bishops, and emi- 
nent divines of England, to sign a declaration against all churchmen 
who pretended to the power of the sword, or to authority over kings; 
and that all who assumed such powers were subverters of the kingdom 
of Christ. Many of the bishops also signed another paper, declaring 
the limits of the regal and ecclesiastical power; that both had their au- 
thority from God, for several ends and different natures; and that princes 
were subject to the word of God, as well as bishops ought to be obedient 
to their laws. There was also another declaration signed by Cromwell, 
the two archbishops, eleven bishops, and twenty divines; asserting the 
distinction between the power of the keys, and that of the power of the 
sword : the former of which was not absolute, but limited by the scrip- 
ture. Orders were declared to be a sacrament instituted by Christ, 
which were conferred by prayer and imposition of hands. It was also 
decreed that in the New Testament no mention was made of any other 
ranks but of deacons or ministers and of priests or bishops. 

This year the English Bible was finished. The translation was first 
sent over to Paris to be printed, the workmen in England not being 
thought able to get through it. Bonner was at that time ambassador 
at Paris; and he obtained a licence of Francis for printing it; but 
upon a complaint made by the. French clergy, the press was stopped, 
and many of the copies were seized and burnt. It was therefore brought 
over to England, where it was undertaken and now finished by Grafton. 
Cromwell procured a general warrant from the king, allowing all his 
subjects to read it; for which Cranmer wrote his thanks to Cromwell, 
saying he rejoiced to see the day of reformation risen in England, since 
the word of God now shone over all without a cloud. Not long after 
this, Cromwell gave injunctions requiring the clergy to set up Bibles 
in their churches, and to encourage all the people to read them. In- 
cumbents were required to instruct and teach them the creed, the Lord's 
prayer, and the ten commandments, in English; and once every quarter 
to preach a sermon, to declare the true gospel of Christ; and to exhort 
the people to works of charity; and not to trust to pilgrimages, or relics, 
or counting their beads, which tended to superstition. Images, abused 
by pilgrimages made to them, were ordered to be taken away. And 
such as had formerly magnified images, or pilgrimages, were required 
openly to recant, and confess that they had been in error, which covet- 
ousness had brought into the church. All incumbents were required to 
keep registers for christenings and marriages; and to teach the people 
that it was good to omit the suffrages to the saints in the litany. Thus 
was a vital stab given to some of the main points of superstition ; but 
the free use of the scriptures gave the deadliest blow of all. Yet, not- 
withstanding, the clergy submitted to nearly the whole change without 
murmuring. 

This year was celebrated by the birth of prince Edward, an event 



348 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

which blasted the hopes of the popish party, chiefly built on the proba- 
bility of the lady Mary's succeeding to the crown. Lee, Gardiner, and 
Stokesly, now seemed to vie with the bishops of the other party, which 
of them should most zealously execute the injunctions, and thereby in- 
sinuate themselves into the king's favour. Gardiner had been some 
years ambassador in France, but Cromwell had caused Bonner, who 
seemed to be the most zealous promoter of the reformation then in 
England, to be sent in his stead. Gardiner afterwards was sent to the 
emperor's court with sir Henry Knevet, and there he gave occasion to 
suspect that he was treating on a reconciliation with the pope's legate. 
But the Italian who managed it, being sent with a message to the 
ambassador's secretary, mistook Knevet's for Gardiner's, and told his 
business to him. Knevet endeavoured to fathom the mystery, but could 
not carry it farther; for the Italian was disowned, and put in prison 
upon it, and Gardiner complained of it as a scheme laid to ruin him. 
Such were his artifices and flatteries, that he was still preserved in some 
degree of favour as long as the king lived. Gardiner used one topic 
which prevailed much with the king, that his zeal against heresy was 
giving the greatest advantage to his cause over all Europe; and there- 
fore he pressed him to begin with the sacramentarists, such as denied 
the corporeal presence at the sacrament. Those being condemned by 
the German princes, he had the less reason to be afraid of embroiling 
his affairs by his severities against them. This meeting so well with the 
king's own persuasions concerning the corporeal presence, had a great 
effect on him; and an occasion quickly offered itself to display his 
zeal in that matter, and this was in the memorable instance of John 
Lambert. 

John Lambert was born in the county of Norfolk, and educated at 
the university of Cambridge. Having made himself master of Greek 
and Latin, he translated several books from those languages into the 
English. On his conversion, however, by Bilney, he became disgusted 
at the corruptions of the church; and apprehensive of persecution, he 
crossed the sea and joined himself to Tindal and Frith, with whom he 
remained more than a year; and, from his piety and ability, was ap- 
pointed chaplain and preacher to the English factory at Antwerp. But 
there the jealousy and persecuting spirit of Sir T. More reached him, 
and on the accusation of a person named Barlow, he was taken and 
conveyed to London. There he was brought to examination first at 
Lambeth, then removed to the bishop's house at Oxford, before Warham, 
the archbishop of Canterbury, and other adversaries, having five and forty 
articles brought against him, to which he drew out at considerable length 
written answers, with a perspicuity and strength excelled by none of his 
age. These answers were directed and delivered to Warham, archbishop 
of Canterbury, about the year of our Lord 1532, at which time Lambert 
was in custody in the bishop's house at Oxford, where he was deprived 
of the assistance of books. But, so the providence of God wrought 
for him, that in the following year archbishop Warham died, whereby 
Lambert for that time was delivered. 

Cranmer succeeded to the see of Canterbury. Lambert in the mean 
time being delivered, partly by the death of the archbishop, partly by 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN LAMBERT. 349 

the coming in of queen Anne, returned unto London, and there exercised 
himself in teaching youth the Greek and Latin tongues. As priests in 
those days could not be permitted to have wives, he resigned his priest- 
hood, and applied himself to teaching, intending shortly after to be 
married. But God, who disposeth all men's purposes after the good 
pleasure of his own will, did both intercept his marriage and also take 
away his freedom. Having continued his profession as teacher with 
great success, it happened, that in the present year, 1538, he was 
present at a sermon in St. Peter's church, London, preached by Dr. 
Taylor, a man in those days not far disagreeing from the gospel, and 
afterwards, in the time of king Edward, made bishop of Lincoln, of 
which he was again deprived in the time of queen Mary, and so ended 
his life among the confessors of Jesus Christ. Dr. Taylor having spoken 
something upon the corporeal presence which Lambert conceiving to be 
erroneous, he felt himself urged by duty to argue the subject with him. 
He, therefore, at the conclusion of the sermon, went to the doctor and began 
the contest. Taylor, excusing himself at the present for other business, wish- 
ed him to write his mind and to come again at a more convenient season. 

Lambert was contented and departed. When he had written his 
mind, he came again unto him. The sum of his arguments were ten, 
approving the truth of the cause, partly by the scriptures, by good 
reason, and by the doctors. These were written with great force and 
authority. The first reason was the following, gathered upon Christ's 
words, where it is said in the gospel, " This cup is the New Testa- 
ment." " If," he added, " these words do not change the cup nor the 
wine corporeally into the New Testament, by the same reason it is not 
agreeable that the words spoken of the bread should turn that corpo- 
really into the body of Christ." He then proceeded thus — ■ 

" It is not agreeable to a natural body to be in two places or more at 
one time : wherefore it must follow of necessity that either Christ had 
not a natural body, or else truly, according to the common nature of a 
body, it cannot be present in two places at once, and much Jess in many, 
that is to say, in heaven and in earth, on the right hand of his Father, 
and in the sacrament." He added likewise many other positions from 
the writings of the doctors. Dr. Taylor, willing and desiring, as is 
supposed from goodness of heart, to satisfy Lambert in these matters, 
whom he took to council, he conferred with Dr. Barnes, who, although 
he otherwise favoured the gospel, and was an earnest preacher, seemed 
not to favour this cause; fearing, possibly, that it would breed some 
mischief among the people, in prejudice of the gospel which was now 
in a good state of forwardness. He, therefore, persuaded Taylor to 
submit the entire question to the superior judgment of Cranmer. 

Upon these things Lambert's quarrel began, and was brought to this 
point, so that from a private talk it came to be a public and common 
matter. He was sent for by the archbishop, brought into the open 
court, and forced publicly to defend his cause. The archbishop had 
not yet favoured the doctrine of the sacrament, although afterwards he 
was an earnest professor of it. In that point of disputation it is said 
Lambert appealed from the bishops to the king's majesty. 

Gardiner, ever awake to his worldly interest, and to every occasion of 



350 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

checking that cause which in his heart he hated, learning the particulars 
of the affair, went privately to the king, and with all artifice and subtlety 
emptied the malice of his own heart into that of the king's^ empoisoning 
the royal ear with his pernicious counsels. He said that the world 
viewed him with suspicion, and began to charge him with being a 
favourer of heretics; and that the present affair relating to Lambert 
would enable him, by proceeding against him, to banish from the hearts 
of all those unfavourable suspicions and complaints. To this advice, 
the king, giving ear more willingly than prudently, sent out a general 
commission, commanding all the nobles and bishops of his realm to 
come with speed to London, to assist the king against heretics and 
heresies, upon which the king himself would sit in judgment. These 
preparations made, a day was appointed for Lambert, where a great 
assembly of the nobles was gathered from all parts of the country, not 
without much wonder and expectation in this singular case. All the 
seats and places round the scaffold were crowded. At length John 
Lambert was brought from the prison under a guard of armed men, as 
a lamb to fight with many lions, and placed directly opposite to the 
king's seat. 

Then came the king himself as judge of the controversy, with his 
body-guard clothed all in white. On his right hand sat the bishops, 
and behind them the celebrated lawyers, clothed in purple, according 
to the manner. On the left hand sat the peers of the realm, justices, 
and other nobles in their order ; behind whom were the gentlemen of 
the king's privy chamber. This manner and form of the judgment was 
enough of itself to abash innocence; yet the king's look, his cruel 
countenance, and his brows bent to severity, augmented the terror, 
plainly declaring a mind full of indignation unworthy such a prince, 
especially in such a matter, and against a subject so humble and obe- 
dient. Being seated on his throne, he beheld Lambert with a stern 
countenance, and then turning himself to his counsellors, called forth 
Day, bishop of Chichester, and commanded him to declare to the people 
the cause of the present assembly and judgment. 

The bishop's oration tended to this purpose : that the king in session 
would have all states and degrees to be admonished of his will and 
pleasure, that no man should conceive any sinister opinion of him, that 
now the authority and name of the bishop of Rome being utterly 
abolished, he would not extinguish all religion by giving liberty unto 
heretics to perturb and trouble the churches of England, whereof he was 
the head, without punishment. Moreover, that they should not think 
they were assembled at that time to make any disputation upon the 
heretical doctrine; but only for this purpose, that by the industry of 
him and other bishops, the heresies of this man here present, and of all 
like him, should be refuted or openly condemned in the presence of 
them all. 

The oration being concluded, the king rose, and leaning upon a 
cushion of white cloth of tissue, turned himself toward Lambert with 
his brow bent and said, " Ho. good fellow, what is thy name?" Then 
the prisoner kneeling down, said, " My name is John Nicholson, 
although by many I am called Lambert." "What!" said the king, 



iiiiiiiiir ^ililiii 




TRIAL OF LAMBERT BEFORE HENRY THE EIGHTH. 
PAGK 350. 



LAMBERT'S ADDRESS TO THE KING. 351 

"have you two names? I would not trust you, having two names, 
although your were my brother." 

Lambert replied — " most noble prince, your bishops forced me of 
necessity to change my name." The king then commanded him to go 
into the matter, and to declare his mind and opinion, what he thought 
as touching the sacrament of the altar. Then Lambert proceeded, gave 
God thanks, who had so inclined the heart of the king, that he himself 
would not disdain to hear and understand the controversies of religion ; 
since it had often happened, through the cruelty of the bishops, that 
many good and innocent men in many places were privily murdered 
without the knowledge of their sovereign. But now, as that high and 
eternal King of kings, in whose hands are the hearts of all princes, had 
inspired the king's mind, that he himself would be present to understand 
the causes of his subjects; especially whom God of his divine goodness 
had so endued with such gifts of judgment and knowledge, he did not 
doubt but that God would bring some great thing to pass through him 
to the glory of his name. 

Here Henry interrupted him, and with an angry voice, said, — " I came 
not hither to hear mine own praises thus painted out in my presence; 
but briefly to go into the matter without any more circumstance." Then 
Lambert, abashed at the king's angry words, contrary to all men's 
expectations, stayed awhile, considering whither he might turn himself 
in these great straits and extremities. Upon which the king, with 
anger and vehemency, said, — "Why standest thou still? Answer as 
touching the sacrament of the altar, — whether dost thou say, that it is 
the body of Christ, or wilt deny it?" With that w 7 ord the king reverently 
lifted his turban from his head. 

Lambert said — " I answer with St. Augustine — That it is the body of 
Christ, after a certain manner." Then the king said — "Answer me 
neither out of St. Augustine, neither by the authority of any other 
man ; but tell me plainly, whether thou sayest it is the body of Christ 
or no?" Then Lambert meekly replied — " I deny it to be the body of 
Christ." The king on this said — " Mark well, for now thou shalt be 
condemned even by Christ's own words : Hoc est corpus meutn." He 
then commanded Cranmer to refute his assertion; who, first making a 
short preface to the hearers, began his disputation with Lambert, very 
modestly saying, — " Brother Lambert, let this matter be handled between 
us indifferently, that if I do convince this your argument to be false by 
the scriptures, you will willingly refuse the same; but if you shall prove 
it true by manifest testimonies of the scripture, I do promise willingly 
to embrace the same." 

The argument was this, taken out of that place of the Acts of the 
Apostles, where Christ appeared to St. Paul by the way; disputing 
out of that place, that it is not disagreeable to the word of God, that 
the body of Christ may be in two places at once, which being in heaven, 
was seen of St. Paul at the same time upon earth; and if it may be in 
two places, why by the like reason may it not be in many places? 

Thus the archbishop began to refute the second argument of Lambert, 
which had been written and delivered by him to Dr. Taylor the preacher: 
the king having already disputed against his first reason. Lambert 



352 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

answered to this argument, — " That the minor was not thereby proved, 
that Christ's body was dispersed in two places, or more, but remained 
rather still in one place, as touching the manner of his body. For the 
scripture doth not say, that Christ being upon the earth did speak unto 
Paul; but that suddenly a light from heaven did shine round about him, 
and he fell to the ground and heard a voice, saying unto hinij Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." 
This place saith nothing but that Christ, sitting in heaven, might speak 
to Paul, and be heard upon earth: for they which were with Paul verily 
heard the voice, but did see no one." 

The archbishop, on the contrary part, said, Paul himself doth witness, 
that Christ did appear unto him in the same vision. Lambert again 
answered, that Christ did witness in the same place, that he would again 
appear unto him, and deliver him out of the hands of the Gentiles : 
notwithstanding we read in no place that Christ did corporeally appear 
unto him. Thus, when they had contended about the conversion of St. 
Paul, and Lambert so answering for himself, that the king seemed greatly 
to be moved therewith, and the bishop himself to be entangled, and all the 
audience amazed ; the bishop of Winchester, fearing lest the argument 
should be taken out of his mouth, or rather being filled with malice 
against the poor man, without the king's commandment, observing no 
order, before the archbishop had made an end, alleged a place out of 
the twelfth chapter of the Corinthians, where St. Paul saith, — " Have I 
not seen the Lord Jesus?" And again in the fifteenth chapter : " He ap- 
peared unto Cephas ; and afterwards unto James, then to all the apostles ; 
but last of all he appeared unto me also as one born out of due time." 

To all this Lambert answered, he did not doubt but that Christ was 
seen, and did appear, but he denied that he was in two places, according 
to the manner of his body. Then Gardiner again perverting the authority 
of Paul, repeated the place out of the second epistle to the Corinthians, the 
fifth chapter, — " And if so be we have known Christ after the flesh, now 
henceforth know we him no more." Lambert added, that this knowledge 
is not to be understood according to the sense of the body, and that it so 
appeared sufficiently by St* Paul, which speaking of his own revelation, 
saith thus :— " I know one, whether in the body or out of the body> God 
knoweth, which was caught up into the third heaven ; and I know not 
whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth." Even by the 
testimony of St. Paul, a man shall easily gather, that in this revelation 
he was taken up in spirit into the heavens, and did see those things, 
rather than that Christ came down corporeally from heaven, to shew 
them unto him : especially as it was said of the angel, " As he ascended 
into heaven, so he shall come again." And St. Peter saith, " Whom it 
behoved to dwell in the heavens." Moreover appointing the measure of 
time, he added, " Even until that all things be restored." Here 
again Lambert, being taunted and insulted, could not be suffered to 
proceed. 

When Gardiner had finished, Tonstal took his course, and after a 
long preface, wherein he spake much of God's omnipotency, at last he 
came to this point, saying, that if Christ could perform that which he 
spake, touching the converting his body into bread, without doubt he 



ARGUMENTS OF LAMBERT. 353 

Would speak nothing-, but that he would perform. Lambert answered, 
That there was no place of scripture wherein Christ doth at any time say, 
that he would change the bread into his body : and moreover, that there 
is no necessity why he should so do. But this is a figurative speech, 
every where used in the scripture, when as the name and appellation of 
the thing signified is attributed unto the sign. By which figure of speech, 
circumcision is called the Covenant — the lamb the Passover, besides six 
hundred such instances. With great firmness he then said — " Now it 
remaineth to be marked, whether we shall judge all these after the 
words pronounced be straightway changed into another nature." Then 
began they to rage afresh against Lambert, resolving, if they could not 
destroy his arguments, at least to drown them with rebukes and taunts. 

Next stepped forth the valiant champion Stokesley, bishop of London, 
who afterwards, lying at the point of death, rejoiced, that in his lifetime 
he had burned fifty heretics. This man, with a long protestation, pro- 
mised to prove " that it was not only a miracle of divine work, but also 
that it did not at all contradict nature. For it is nothing dissonant 
from nature, the substance of like things to be often changed one into 
another. So that nevertheless the accidents do remain, albeit the sub- 
stance itself and the matter be changed." Then he attempted to prove 
it by the example of water boiling so long upon the fire until all the 
substance evaporated. " Now," saith he, " it is the doctrine of the 
philosophers, that a substance cannot be changed but into substance : 
wherefore we affirm the substance of the water to pass into the sub- 
stance of the air, notwithstanding the quality of the water, which is 
moistness, remaineth after the substance is changed; for the air is moist 
even as the water is." 

At this argument the bishops greatly rejoiced, and their countenance 
changed, as it were assuring themselves of a certain triumph and victory 
by this philosophical transmutation of elements. The audience now 
waited in expectation of Lambert's answer, who as soon as he had ob- 
tained silence and liberty to speak, first denied the bishop's assumption, 
that the moisture of the water did remain after. the substance was altered. 
" For although," saith he, " we grant, with the philosophers, the air to 
be naturally moist, notwithstanding it hath one proper degree of 
moisture, and the water another; still there is another doctrine amongst 
the philosophers, as a perpetual rule, that it can by no means be that 
the qualities and accidents in natural things should remain in their own 
proper nature, without their proper subject." Upon this the king and 
bishops raged against Lambert, so much that he was again forced to 
silence. Then the other bishops, every one in his order, as they were 
appointed, supplied their place in the disputation. There were ten in 
number appointed for the performing of this tragedy, for ten arguments, 
as before we have declared, were delivered unto Taylor the preacher. 
It were too tedious in this place to repeat the reasons and arguments 
of every bishop, having little in them worthy either the hearer or the 
reader. 

Lambert in the mean time being encompassed with so many per- 
plexities, vexed on the one side with checks and taunts, and pressed on 
the other side with the authority and threats of the personages; partly 

2 A 



354 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 

being amazed with the majesty of the place in the presence of the 
king, and especially being wearied with long standing, which continued 
no less than five hours, from twelve at noon until five at night, being 
reduced to despair, that he should not profit in this contest; and seeing 
no hope from farther argument, chose rather to hold his peace. Con- 
sequently the bishops spake what they listed without interruption, save 
only that Lambert would now and then allege a word or two for the 
defence of his cause; but for the most part, being overcome with weari- 
ness and grief, he held his peace, defending himself rather with silence 
than with arguments. 

At last when the day was passed, and torches began to be lighted, 
the king desiring to break up this pretended disputation, said to Lambert, 
" What sayest thou now after all these great labours which thou hast 
taken upon thee, and all the reasons and instructions of these learned 
men? Art thou not yet satisfied? Wilt thou live or die? What sayest 
thou? Thou hast yet free choice." Lambert answered, " I yield and 
submit myself wholly unto the will of your majesty." " Then," said 
the king, " commit thyself unto the hand of God, and not unto mine." 
To which he piously replied — "I commend my soul unto the hands of 
God, but my body I wholly yield and submit unto your clemency." 
Then said the king, " If you do commit yourself unto my judgment, 
you must die, for I will not be a patron unto heretics." Then sternly 
addressing Cromwell, he commanded to read the sentence of condem- 
nation against him. And we cannot but wonder to see how unfortu- 
nately it came to pass, that through the pestiferous and crafty counsel of 
this bishop of Winchester, Satan, who often raises up one brother to the 
destruction of another, here performed the condemnation of Lambert 
by no other ministers than reformers themselves, namely, Taylor, Barnes, 
Cranmer, and Cromwell, who afterwards in apparent judgment, all 
suffered the like for the gospel's sake. 

Cromwell, at the king's command, taking the schedule of condemna- 
tion in hand, read it aloud; wherein was contained the burning of 
heretics, which either spake or wrote any thing, or had any books by 
them, repugnant or disagreeing from the papistical church and tradi- 
tion touching the sacrament of the altar : also a decree that the same 
should be set upon the church porches, and be read four times every 
year in every church throughout the realm, whereby the worship- 
ping of the bread should be the more firmly fixed in the hearts of 
the people. Thus was John Lambert, in this bloody session, by the 
king, condemned to death; whose judgment now remaineth with the 
Lord against that day, when both princes and subjects shall stand and 
appear, not to judge, but to be judged, according as they have done 
and deserved. 

Upon the day appointed for this holy martyr of God to suffer, he was 
brought out of the prison at eight o'clock in the morning unto the house 
of the lord Cromwell, and carried into his inner chamber, where, it is 
reported of many, that Cromwell desired of him forgiveness for what 
he had done. There at the last, Lambert being admonished that the 
hour of his death was at hand, he was greatly comforted and cheered ; 
and being brought out of the chamber into the hall, he saluted the gen- 
tlemen, and sat clown to breakfast with them, shewing no manner of 



BURNING OF LAMBERT. 355 

sadness or fear. When breakfast was ended, he was carried straight 
to the place of execution at Smithfield. The manner of his death was 
dreadful; for after his legs were nearly consumed and burned, and that 
the wretched tormentors and enemies of God had withdrawn the fire 
from him, then two who stood on each side with their halberds, pitched 
him, from side to side as far as the chain would reach; while he, lifting 
up such hands as he had, cried unto the people in these words : — " None 
but Christ, none but Christ!" He was soon after let down again from 
their halberds, fell into the fire, and there ended his life. 

During the time he was in the archbishop's ward at Lambeth, which 
was a little before his disputation before the king, he wrote an excellent 
confession, or defence of his cause, to Henry. It commenced with a 
humble and modest preface, that the pride of majesty might not take 
offence at the advice of a subject. He declared, that he had a two- 
fold consolation laid up for him. The one in the most high and mighty 
Prince of princes, God; the other, next unto God, his majesty, who 
should represent the office and ministry of that most high Prince in 
governing here upon earth. After thus proceeding in gentle words, he 
declared the cause which moved him to what he had done. That al- 
though he was not ignorant how odious this doctrine would be unto the 
people, yet notwithstanding, he knew how desirous the king was to 
search out the truth ; he thought no time unfit to perform his duty, 
especially as he would not utter those things unto the multitude, lest he 
should occasion offence, but only unto the prince himself, unto whom 
he might safely declare his mind. After this preface, he confirmed his 
doctrine touching the sacrament by numerous testimonies of the scrip- 
ture; by which he proved the body of Christ, whether it riseth, or 
ascendeth, or sitteth, or be conversant here, to be always in one place. 
Finally, in a masterly manner he gathered together all the opinions of 
the ancient fathers, declaring, from them, that Christ was only present 
inspirit, and that Hoc est corpus meum, meant only — "This signifies 
my body;" just as — " I am the bread — the vine — the door" — denote that 
these emblems were significant of himself. 

The popish party greatly triumphed in his death, and endeavoured to 
improve it. They persuaded the king of the good effects it would have 
on his people, who would in this see his zeal for the faith ; and they 
forgot not to magnify all that he had said, as if it had been uttered by 
an oracle, which proved him to be both " Defender of the Faith, and 
Supreme Head of the Church." All this wrought so much on the king, 
that he resolved to call a parliament, both for suppressing the monas- 
teries and the new opinions. Thus did this haughty and infatuated 
monarch pull down with one hand what the other was attempting to 
build up; and thus did his protestant as well as papal advisers " trea- 
sure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath," and by their 
pusillanimous proceedings and treacherous principles only expose their 
lives to the fury of one party, and their own names to the derision or 
execration of the other. 

Fox, bishop of Hereford, died at this time; he had been much em- 
ployed in Germany, and had settled a league between the king and 
the German princes. Henry was acknowledged the patron of this 



356 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

league; and in support of it, he sent over 100,000 crowns a yean 
There was also a religious league proposed ; but upon the change that 
followed in the court on queen Anne's death, it fell to the ground; and 
what their league embraced relating to religion, was, that they should 
unite against the pope as their common enemy, and set up the true 
religion according to the gospel. But a treaty upon other points was 
afterwards set on foot. The king desired Melancthon to come over ; 
and several letters passed between them ; but he could not be spared 
from Germany. The Germans sent over some to treat with the king; 
the points they insisted most on were, granting the chalice to the people, 
and putting down private masses, which the institutions seemed to ex- 
press; having the worship in a known tongue, which both common 
sense and the authority of St. Paul seemed to justify. The third was, 
the marriage of the clergy; for they being extremely sensible of the 
honour of their families, reckoned that it could not be secured unless 
the priests might marry. Concerning these things, their ambassadors 
gave a long and learned memorial to the king; to which an answer was 
made, penned by Tonstal ; stating that the things they complained of 
were justified by the ordinary arguments. Upon Fox's death, Bonner 
was promoted to Hereford; and Stokesly dying soon after, he was 
translated to London. Cromwell imagined that he had raised a man 
who would be a faithful second to Cranmer in his designs of reforma- 
tion, who needed help, not only to balance the opposition made him 
by other bishops, but to lessen the prejudices he suffered by the weak- 
ness and indiscretion of his own party, who were generally rather clogs 
than helps to him. 

On the 28th of April a parliament was summoned, in which twenty of 
the abbots sat in person. On the 5th of May a motion was made, that 
some might be appointed to draw a bill against diversity of opinions in 
matters of religion; these were Cromwell, Cranmer, the bishops of 
Durham, Ely, Bath and Wells, Bangor, Carlisle, and Worcester. They 
were divided in opinion ; and though the popish party were five to four, 
yet the authority that Cromwell and Cranmer were in, turned the 
balance a little; they continued, however, to meet eleven days without 
coming to any point. Upon that the duke of Norfolk proposed the 
six articles: the first was for the corporeal presence; the second for 
communion in one kind ; the third for observing the vows of chastity ; 
the fourth for private masses ; the fifth for the celibacy of the clergy ; 
and the sixth for auricular confession : against most of these Cranmer 
argued several days. It is not likely he opposed the first, because he 
had given his opinion in Lambert's case: but he had the words of the 
institution, and the constant practice of the church for twelve ages, to 
object to the second; and for the third, since the monks were set at 
liberty to live in the world, it seemed hard to restrain them from mar- 
riage; and nothing so effectually cut off their pretensions to their former 
houses as their being married. For the fourth, if private masses were 
useful, then the king had done, ill to suppress so many places chiefly 
founded for that end; the sacrament was also by its first institution, 
and the practice of the primitive church, to be a communion; while all 
private masses were invented to cheat the world. For the fifth, it 



ACT OF THE SIX ARTICLES. 357 

touched Cranmer to the quick, for it was believed he was married. 
Lee, Gardiner, and Tonstal pressed much to have it declared necessary 
by the law of God. Cranmer argued against this, and said it was only 
a good and profitable thing. The king came frequently to the house in 
person, and disputed about these points with all the haughtiness of a 
monarch, and all the conceit of a pedant: generally he was against 
Cranmer, but in this particular he joined with him. Tonstal drew up 
all the quotations brought from ancient authors for it, in a paper which 
he delivered to the king; this the king answered in a long letter, 
written with his own hand, in which he shewed that the fathers only 
advised confession, but did not impose it as necessary; it was therefore 
concluded in general that it was merely desirable and expedient. At 
their next meeting, two committees were appointed to draw the bill of 
religion; Cranmer was the chief of the one, and Lee of the other: both 
their draughts were carried to the king, and were in many places cor- 
rected with his own hand ; in some parts he wrote whole periods anew. 
That which Lee drew was more agreeable to the king's opinion ; it was 
consequently brought into the house. Cranmer argued three days 
against it; and when it came to the vote, the king, who greatly desired 
to have it passed, desired him to go out; but he excused himself, 
thinking he was bound in conscience to vote against it : but the others 
who opposed it were more compliant, and it passed without any con- 
siderable opposition in the house of commons, and was assented to by 
the king. 

The substance of it was, that the king being sensible of the good of 
union, and of the mischief of discord, in point of religion, had come to 
the parliament in person, and opened many things of high learning 
there, and that with the assent of both houses he set forth these articles : 
That in the sacrament there was no substance of bread and wine; but 
only the natural body and blood of Christ. That Christ was entirely 
in each kind, and therefore communion in both was not necessary. 
That priests by the law of God ought not to marry. That vows of 
chastity taken after the age of twenty-one ought to be kept. That private 
masses were lawful and useful. That auricular confession was neces- 
sary, and ought to be retained. The several sentences denounced 
against opposers were also determined. Such as did speak or write 
against the first were to be burned without the benefit of abjuration : 
and it was made felony to dispute against the other five; and such as 
should speak against them were to be in a praemunire for the first 
offence, the second was made felony. Married priests who did not put 
away their wives were to be condemned of felony, as those who lived 
incontinently; the first offence was a praemunire, and the second felony. 
Women who offended were to be punished as the priests were. Those 
who contemned confession and the sacrament, and abstained from it at 
the accustomed times, were for the first offence in a praemunire, the 
second was felony. Proceedings were to be made in the forms of 
common law, by presentments and a jury, and all churchmen were 
charged to read the act in their churches once a quarter. 

This act was received with great joy by all the popish party, who 
reckoned that now heresy would be extirpated, and the king was as 



358 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

much engaged against it as he was when he wrote against Luther: this 
made the suppression of the monasteries pass much the easier. The 
poor reformers were now exposed to the rage of their enemies, and had 
only one consolation left, namely, that they were not delivered up to 
the cruelty of the ecclesiastical courts, or the trials ex officio, but were 
to be tried by juries ; yet the denying the benefit of abjuration 
was a severity without a precedent, and was a forcing martyrdom on 
them. 

Upon the passing the act, the German ambassadors desired an audience 
of the king, and told him of the grief with which their masters would 
receive the news, and earnestly pressed him to stop the execution of it. 
The king answered that he found it necessary to have the act made for 
repressing the insolence of some people, but assured them it should not 
be put in execution except upon great provocation. When the intelli-^ 
gence reached the princes, they wrote to the king to the same purpose; 
warned him of many bishops who were about him, who in their hearts 
loved popery, and all the old abuses, and took this method to force the 
king to return back to the former yoke, hoping that if they once made 
him the enemy of all those they called heretics, it would be easy to 
bring him back to submit to that tyranny which he had shaken off. 
They therefore proposed a conference between some divines on both 
sides in order to an agreement of doctrine. But the king being only 
concerned upon state maxims to keep up their league in opposition to 
the emperor, paid no regard to their proposal. 

After the act of the six articles had passed, that for suppressing the 
monasteries was brought in ; and though there were so many abbots sit- 
ting in the house, none of them protested against it. By it no monastery 
was suppressed, but only the resignations made or to be made were con- 
firmed; and the king's right founded either on their surrenders, for- 
feitures, or attainders of treason, was declared good in law. All per- 
sons, except the founders and donors, were to have the same right to 
the lands belonging to these houses which they had before this act took 
place; and all the churches belonging to them, and formerly exempted, 
were put under the jurisdiction of the bishop, or of such as should be 
appointed by the king. A question was raised whether the lands, 
should have reverted to the donors, or been escheated to the crown. 
The grants being of the nature of covenants, given in consideration of 
the masses that were to be said for them and their families, it was urged 
that when the cheat of redeeming souls out of purgatory was discovered, 
and these houses suppressed, then the lands ought to revert to the heirs 
of the donors. Upon this account it was thought necessary to exclude 
them by a special proviso. 

Another bill was brought in, empowering the king to erect new 
bishoprics by his letters patent; it was read three times in one day in 
the house of lords. The preamble set forth, that the ill lives of those 
who were called religious, made it necessary to change their houses to 
better uses, for teaching the word of God, instructing children, edu- 
cating clerks, relieving old and infirm people, endowing readers for 
Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, mending highways, and bettering the condi- 
tion of parish priests; and for this end the king was empowered to erect 



CRANMER'S OPINION OF THE SIX ARTICLES. 359 

new sees, and to assign what limits and divisions, and appoint them what 
statutes he pleased. 

When parliament was prorogued, the king ordered Cranmer to put 
in writing all the arguments he had used against the six articles, and 
bring them to him. He also sent Cromwell and the duke of Norfolk 
to dine with him, and to assure him of the constancy of his kindness. 
At table they expressed great esteem for him, and acknowledged that 
he had opposed the six articles with so much learning and gravity, that 
those who differed most from him, could not but highly value him for 
it, and that he needed not fear any thing from his royal master. 
Cromwell said the king made that difference between him and the rest 
of his council, that he would not so much as hearken to any complaints 
made against him, and drew a parallel between him and cardinal Wol- 
sey; the one lost his friends by his pride, and the other gained on his 
enemies by his humility and mildness : the duke of Norfolk remarked 
that Cromwell could speak best of the cardinal, having been his man so 
long. This heated Cromwell, who answered that he never liked his 
manners; and though Wolsey had intended, if he had been chosen pope, 
to have carried him to Italy, yet he was resolved not to have gone ; but 
he knew the duke intended to have gone with him. Upon this the duke 
of Norfolk was greatly enraged, swore he lied, and gave him foul lan- 
guage. This put all the company in great disorder: they were partly 
reconciled, but were never hearty friends after. Cranmer, agreeably to 
the king's desire, put his reasons against the six articles together, and 
gave them to his secretary to be written out in a fair hand for him ; but 
crossing the Thames with the book in his bosom, the secretary met with 
such an adventure on the water as might at another time have sent the 
author to the fire. 

There was a bear baited near the river, which breaking loose, ran into 
it, and happened to overturn the boat in which Cranmer's secretary was. 
Being in danger of his life, he took no care of the book, which falling 
from him floated on the river, and was taken up by the bear-ward, and 
put in the hand of a priest who stood by, to see what it might contain ; 
he presently found it was a confutation of the six articles, and told the 
bear-ward that the author of it would certainly be hanged. When the 
secretary came to ask for it, and said it was the archbishop's book, the 
priest, who was an obstinate papist, refused to deliver it, and reckoned 
that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined; but the secretary ac- 
quainting Cromwell w T ith it, he called for him next day, and chid him 
severely for presuming to keep a privy counsellor's book, and took it 
out of his hands: thus Cranmer was delivered out of this danger. 
Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their bishoprics, but being 
presented for some words spoken against the six articles, they were 
imprisoned, and remained so till a recantation discharged the one, and 
the king's death set the other at liberty. There were about 500 others 
presented on the same account; but on the intercessions of Cranmer, 
Cromwell, and others, they were set at liberty, and a stop was put to 
the further execution of the act till Cromwell fell. 

The bishops of the popish party still hoping to gain the ascendancy, 
used strange methods to insinuate themselves into the king's confidence; 



360 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

they took out commissions, by which they acknowledged that all juris- 
diction, civil and ecclesiastical, flowed from the king, and that they 
exercised it only at his courtesy; and as they received it from his 
bounty, so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be 
pleased to call for it; and therefore the king did empower them in his 
stead to ordain, and do all the other parts of the episcopal function, 
which was to last during his pleasure; and a mighty charge was given 
them to ordain none but persons of great integrity, good life, and well 
learned ; for since the corruption of religion flowed from ill pastors, so 
the reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good pastors. 
Thus they became indeed the king's bishops. In this Bonner set an 
example to the rest. It does not appear that Cranmer took out any 
such commission all this reign. 

Now came on the total dissolution of the abbeys: fifty-seven surren- 
ders were made this year ; of these thirty-seven were monasteries, twenty 
nunneries, and twelve parliamentary abbeys. The valued rents of the 
lands, as they were then let, was 132,607/. 6s. Ad, but they were worth 
above ten times the sum in true value. Henry had now the greatest 
advantage that ever king of England possessed, both for enriching the 
crown, and establishing royal foundations. But such was his easiness 
to his courtiers, and his lavishness, that these vast treasures melted away 
in a few years, without his accomplishing any pious and useful designs. 
Out of eighteen bishoprics which he intended to found, he made only 
six ; other great projects also became abortive. In particular one that 
was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon, which was a seminary for states- 
men : he proposed erecting a house for persons of quality, or of extra- 
ordinary endowments, for the study of the civil law, and of the Latin 
and French tongues ; of whom some were to be sent with every ambas- 
sador beyond sea, to be improved in the knowledge of foreign affairs, 
in which they should be employed according to their capacities. Others 
were to write the history of transactions abroad, and affairs at home. 
This was to supply one loss that was likely to follow the fall of abbeys, 
in most of which there had been kept a chronicle of the times. These 
were written by men more credulous than judicious, and hence they 
were often more particular in the recital of trifles than of important 
affairs ; and an invincible humour of lying, when it might raise the credit 
of their house, ran through all their manuscripts. The only ground 
that Cranmer gained this year, in which so much was lost, was a liberty 
for all private persons to have bibles in their houses ; and truly this was 
a great and important point in the cause of God. Gardiner opposed it 
vehemently, and urged that without tradition it was impossible to under- 
stand the meaning of the scriptures. One day, before the king, he chal- 
lenge A Cranmer to shew any difference between the scriptures and the 
apostles' canons. It is not known how Cranmer managed the debate, 
hut the issue of it was that the king judged in his favour, and said he 
was an old experienced captain, and ought not to be troubled by fresh 
men and novices. 

The king was at this time resolved to marry again. The emperors en- 
deavoured by all possible means to separate him from the princes of the 
Smalcadic league, and in this he was greatly facilitated by the act of the 



THE KING'S MARRIAGE WITH ANNE OF CLEVES. 361 

six articles ; for they complained much of the King's severity in those 
points, which were the principal parts of their doctrine, such as com- 
munion in both kinds, private masses, and the marriage of the clergy. 
Gardiner resolutely strove to animate the king against them ; he often 
told him, it was below his dignity to suffer dull Germans to dictate to 
him; and suggested, that they who would not acknowledge the emperor's 
supremacy in the matters of religion, could not be hearty friends to the 
authority which the king wished them to acknowledge. But what other 
considerations could not prevail with the king, were likely to be more 
powerfully carried on by the match with Anne of Cleves, which was now 
set on foot. 

There had been a treaty between her father and the duke of Lorraine, 
for marrying her to the duke's son ; but it had gone no farther than a 
contract between the fathers. Hans Holbein, the celebrated painter of 
that age, painted a beautiful and flattering picture of her, which was sent 
over to Henry. It was said she possessed great charms in her person, 
bat could speak no language but Dutch, which the king knew not : nor 
had she learned music. The match was at last agreed on, and in the 
end of December she was brought over. The king being impatient, 
went incognito to Rochester ; but he no sooner saw her than he was 
struck with disappointment and chagrin. There was an appearance of 
roughness which did not all please him ; he swore they had brought over 
a Flanders mare to him, and took up an incurable aversion to her. He 
resolved, if it were possible, to break the match ; but his affairs made 
the friendship of the German princes very necessary to him, so that he 
did not think it advisable to put any affront on the dukes of Saxe and 
Cleve, her brother and brother-in-law. The emperor at this time made 
a hasty journey through France, and Francis and he had an interview. 
Henry tried if the contract with the duke of Lorraine's son could furnish 
him with a fair excuse to break the match. The king expressed the 
great trouble he was in, both to Cromwell and many of his other ser- 
vants ; but nothing could be built on that contract, which was only an 
agreement between the fathers, their children being under age, and it 
being afterwards annulled and broken by the parents. When also 
Cranmer and Tonstal were required to give their opinions as divines, they 
said, much to his disappointment — there was nothing in it to hinder the 
king's marrying the lady. 

On the 6th of January therefore the king married her ; but expressed 
his dislike for her so visibly that all about him took notice of it. Though 
he lived five months with her, his aversion to her rather increased than 
abated. She seemed little concerned at it, and expressed a great readi- 
ness to concur in every thing that might disengage him from a marriage 
so unacceptable to him. Instruments were brought over to shew that 
the contract between her and the prince of Lorraine was void ; but some 
difficulty arose, because it was not declared whether the contract was in 
the present or the future tense. 

At the next meeting of parliament the lord chancellor disclosed the 
matters relating to the state for which the king had called them, where- 
upon the vicegerent spake to them concerning religion. He told them 
there was nothing which the king desired so much as an entire union 



362 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

among all his subjects; but some incendiaries opposed it as much as lie 
promoted it; and between rashness on the one hand, and inveterate 
superstition on the other, great dissensions had arisen. These were in- 
flamed by the reproachful names of papist and heretic; and though 
they had now the word of God in all their hands, yet they studied 
rather to justify their passions out of it, than to govern their lives by it. 
In order to this, the king resolved to set forth an exposition of the 
doctrine of Christ without any corrupt mixtures, and to retain such 
ceremonies as might be of use: that being done, he was resolved to 
punish all transgressors of what party soever they might be. For this 
end he had appointed the two archbishops, and the bishops of London, 
Durham, Winchester, Rochester, Hereford, and St. David's, and eleven 
divines, for settling the creed of the nation; and the bishops of Bath 
and Wells, Ely, Sarum, Chichester, Worcester, and Landaff, for the 
appointment of ceremonies. These committees sat as often as the affairs 
of parliament did not interfere with their proceedings. 

A bill was at this time brought in for suppressing the knights of 
St. John of Jerusalem. There was at first only a hospital for entertain- 
ing pilgrims that went to visit the holy grave; after which there was 
instituted an order of knights, and they and the Knight Templars con- 
ducted and guarded the pilgrims. It was considered for some ages one 
of the highest expressions of devotion to Christ, to go and visit the 
places where he was crucified, buried, and ascended to heaven; and it 
was looked on as highly meritorious to fight for recovering the Holy 
Land out of the hands of infidels; so that almost every one who thought 
he was dying, either vowed to go to the holy war, or left something to 
such as should go. If they recovered, they bought off their vow by 
giving some lands for the entertainment of those knights. Great com- 
plaints arose against the Templars; but whether it was their wealth that 
made them a desirable prey, or their guilt that drew ruin down upon 
them, is not certain. They were, however, condemned in a council, and 
all of them that could be found were cruelly put to death. But the 
other order was still continued; and being beaten out of Judea, they 
settled at Rhodes, from which they were some time after expelled, and 
are now settled at Malta. They were under a great master, who de- 
pended on the pope and the emperor. But since they could not be 
brought to surrender of their own accord, as others had done, it was 
necessary to suppress them by act of parliament. Another house which 
they had in Ireland was also suppressed, and pensions were reserved for 
the priors and knights. 

On the 12th of June a sudden turn took place at court; the duke of 
Norfolk arrested Cromwell for high treason, and sent him prisoner to 
the Tower. He had many enemies. The meanness of his birth provoked 
the nobility to madness in being obliged to admit him one of their order, 
and salute the son of a blacksmith as earl of Essex. The provocation 
was increased when a garter was bestowed on him, and he was succes- 
sively raised to be lord privy seal, lord chamberlain of England, lord 
vicegerent, and master of the rolls. 

All the popish clergy hated him violently. They imputed the sup- 
pression of monasteries, and the injunctions that were laid on them, 



CROMWELL ATTAINTED OF TREASON AND HERESY. 363 

chiefly to his counsels : and it was thought that by his means the king 
and the emperor continued to be on such ill terms. Henry now under- 
stood that there was no agreement likely to be made between the em- 
peror and Francis, and he was sure they would both court his friendship 
in case of war, which made him less concerned for the favour of the 
German prince, so that Cromwell's counsels now became unacceptable. 
With this a secret reason concurred. The king not only hated the 
queen, but had fallen in love with Catherine Howard, niece to the duke 
of Norfolk, which both raised his interest, and depressed Cromwell, who 
had made the former match. The king was also too willing to cast 
upon him all the errors committed of late, and by making him a sacri- 
fice he hoped to regain the affections of his people. The king had also 
information brought him, that Cromwell secretly encouraged those who 
opposed the six articles, and discouraged those who went about the 
execution of them. 

Cromwell had not the least apprehension of his fall before the storm 
broke upon him. He shared the common fate of all disgraced ministers; 
his friends forsook him, and his enemies insulted over him: Cranmer 
alone adhered to him, and wrote earnestly to the king in his favour. 
He said he found that he had always loved the king above all things; 
and had served him with such fidelity and success that he believed no 
monarch ever had a more faithful servant: and he wished the king 
might find such a counsellor, who both could and would serve him as 
he had done. So great and generous a soul had Cranmer, that he was 
not moved by changes in his friend's fortune, and would thus venture on 
the displeasure of so imperious a prince rather than fail in the duties of 
friendship. But the king was resolved to ruin Cromwell. He had such 
enemies in the house of lords, that a bill of attainder was dispatched in 
two days, being read twice in one day. Cranmer being absent, no other 
would venture to speak for him. But he met with more justice in the 
commons, for it remained ten days there. In conclusion a new bill was 
drawn against him, and sent up to the lords, to which they consented, 
and it had the royal assent. 

In it they set forth, that though the king had raised him from a base 
state to great dignities, yet it appeared by many witnesses that he had 
been the most corrupt traitor ever known ; that he had set many at 
liberty who were condemned or suspected of treason; that he had dis- 
persed many erroneous books, contrary to a true belief of the sacrament, 
and had said that every man might administer it as well as a priest; that 
he had licensed many preachers suspected of heresy, and had ordered 
many to be discharged who were committed on that account, and had 
released all informers; that he had many heretics about him, and above 
a year before, he had said the preaching of Barnes and others was good; 
that he would not turn though the king did, but if the king turned he 
would fight in person against him, and, drawing out his dagger, he 
wished that might pierce him to the heart if he should not do it. For 
these things he was attainted both of high treason and heresy. A 
proviso was added for securing the church of Wells, of which he had 
been dean. 

The king now proceeded on his divorce. An address was moved and 



364 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

passed by the lords, that he would suffer his marriage to be examined. 
Cranmer and others were accordingly sent down to desire the concurrence 
of the commons ; and they ordered twenty of their number to accompany 
the lords, who went in a body to the king. He granted their desire, the 
matter being concerted before. A commission was then sent to the 
convocation to discuss it: Gardiner opened it to them; and they ap- 
pointed a committee for the examination of witnesses. The substance 
of the whole evidence amounted to these particulars : that the matter of 
the pre-contract with the prince of Lorraine was not fully cleared — and it 
did not appear that it was made by the queen, or whether it was in the 
words of the present time or not ; that the king had married her against 
his will, and had not given an inward and complete consent; and that 
he had never consummated the marriage, so that they saw he could have 
no issue by the queen. Upon these grounds the whole convocation, with 
one consent, annulled the marriage, and declared both parties free. 
This was the grossest piece of hypocrisy that the king ever received from 
his clergy in his whole reign. 

In the process for the king's first divorce, they had laid it down as a 
principle that a marriage was complete, though it were never consum- 
mated. But the king was resolved to be rid of the queen, and the 
clergy were resolved not to offend him. The judgment of the convoca- 
tion was reported to the house of lords and commons, and both houses 
were satisfied with it. Next day some lords were sent to the queen, who 
had retired to Richmond. They told her the king was resolved to 
declare her his adopted sister, and to settle 4000/. a year on her, if she 
would consent to it, which she cheerfully embraced ; and it being left to 
her choice either to live in England or to return to her brother, she 
preferred the former. They persuaded her also to write to her brother, 
that all this matter was done with her good will, that the king used her 
as a father, and that therefore her brother and his German allies should 
not take it ill at his hands. When things were thus prepared, the act 
confirming the judgment of the convocation passed without opposition. 
An act passed mitigating one clause in the six articles, by which the 
pain of death for the marriage or incontinence of the clergy was 
changed into a forfeiture of their goods and benefices. Another act 
passed, that no pretence of a pre-contract should be made use of to 
annul a marriage duly solemnized and consummated ; and that no degree 
of kindred, but those enumerated in the law of Moses, might hinder a 
marriage. This last was added, to enable the king to marry Catherine 
Howard, who was cousin-german to Anne Boleyn, which was one of the 
degrees prohibited by the canon law. Several bills of attainder were 
passed; and in conclusion, the king sent a general pardon, out of 
which Cromwell and others were excepted. After this the parliament 
was dissolved. 

Cromwell was executed on the 28th of July. He thanked God for 
bringing him to die in that manner, which was just on the account of 
his sins against God, and his offences against his prince. He declared 
that he doubted of no article of the catholic faith, nor of any sacrament 
of the church. He said he had been seduced, but now he died in the 
catholic faith, and denied he had supported preachers of ill opinions. 



EXPLANATION OF FAITH. 365 

He desired all their prayers, prayed very fervently for himself, and 
ended his days with exemplary resignation. 

He rose by the strength of his natural parts, for his education was 
but humble. He had the New Testament in Latin by heart. He 
bore his greatness with extraordinary moderation, and fell rather under 
the weight of popular odium than guilt. At his death he mixed none 
of the superstitions of the church of Rome with his devotions; it was 
therefore said, that he used the words "catholic faith" in its true sense, 
and in opposition to the novelties of that church. Yet his ambiguous 
mode of expressing himself made the papists declare that he died 
repenting his heresy. But the protestants said that he left the world in 
the same reformed faith in which he lived. It was believed that the 
king lamented his death when it was too late ; and the miseries that fell 
on the new queen, and on the duke of Norfolk and his family, were 
looked upon as strokes from Heaven for their persecution of this unfor- 
tunate minister. With his fall, the progress of the reformation was 
checked, for Cranmer could never gain much ground after, and indeed 
many hoped to see him quickly sent after Cromwell ; some complained 
of him in the house of commons, and informations were brought to the 
king, stating that the chief encouragement which the heretics received 
came from him. 

The ecclesiastical committees employed by the king were now at work, 
and gave the finishing to a book formerly prepared, but at this time 
corrected and explained in many particulars. They began with the ex- 
planation of faith, which, according to the doctrine of the church of 
Rome, was thought an implicit believing whatever the church proposed ; 
but the reformers made it their chief object to persuade the people to 
believe in Christ, and not in the church ; and made great use of those 
places in which it was said that Christians are justified by faith only ; 
though some explained this in such a manner, that it gave their adver- 
saries occasion to charge them with denying the necessity of good works : 
but they all taught, that though they were not necessary to justification, 
yet they were necessary to salvation. They differed also in their notion 
of good works : the church of Rome taught that the honour done to God 
in his images, or to the saints in their shrines and relics, or to the priests, 
were the best sort of good works ; whereas the reformers urged justice 
and mercy most, and charged the other with superstition. The merit of 
good works was also too highly raised, so that many thought they pur- 
chased heaven by them. This the reformers also corrected, and taught 
the people to depend upon the death and intercession of Christ, as the 
only meritorious ground of divine acceptance. 

Having therefore settled the notion of faith, they divided it into two 
sorts : one was a persuasion of the truth of the gospel ; but the other 
carried with it a submission to the will of God, and both hope, love, and 
obedience belonged to it, which was the faith professed in baptism, and 
so much extolled by St. Paul. It was not to be understood, as if it were 
an assurance of our salvation, which may be only a presumption, since 
all God's promises are made to us on conditions ; but it was an entire 
receiving the whole gospel according to our baptismal vow. 

And what are the conditions here implied ? St. Paul clearly says, 



3GG HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

"If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe 
in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
saved." Now all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It was the 
Spirit of Truth who thus spoke by the mouth of St. Paul. And can the 
Holy Spirit lie? We must believe that God hath raised up Jesus from 
the dead, to be " a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to all who 
receive him." The Lord himself saith, " He that believeth on the Son, 
hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.'* Again, St. Paul to the 
Romans observes, " Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, 
Father; the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirits that we are the 
children of God." " I am the resurrection and the life," saith Christ 
again; " he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die:" that is, 
eternally. Now if all this is indeed believed, eternal glory is confirmed, 
since we have the promise of him whose word is truth. But, alas! how 
has error overwhelmed mankind ! for ask all the professors of the day 
whether they believe? they will answer, yes; but ask them again, 
whether they are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ? they will tell 
you that they live in hope— but dare not, cannot say they are. They 
will tell you it is presumptuous so to say. What! is it presumptuous 
to believe the word of God? " If thou believest, thou shalt be saved." 
Do they believe this, " that the fearful and unbelieving shall have their 
part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone?" Alas! these 
are not believers, but doubters: for "he who believeth hath set to his 
seal that God is true." Their " fear towards God is taught them by the 
precept of men," and not by the Holy Ghost; for if it were, they would 
sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. It can be only the " love of 
God shed abroad in the heart" that can give a disposition cheerfully to 
perform the " works of faith and labours of love/' 

Oh, ye deceivers or deceived, do not any longer reject the plain 
glorious words of God against yourselves, nor under a feigned humility 
refuse to rejoice in him whom ye profess to believe. You would be 
thought to have the Spirit; but when we would look at your fruit, you 
shew us darkness, despair, and doubt, forgetting that Jesus drank the 
bitter cup of his Father's wrath, for you, that you, through faith, might 
drink the cup of joy and salvation. " The fruits of the Spirit are love, 
joy, peace;" and yours are the reverse. It cannot, therefore, be the 
work of the Spirit. Cease, cease, frail man, to pervert the ways of the 
Lord. Take the Bible in your hand, and compare yourself with the 
glorious host of saints, and see if you be like them. They, as must also 
all their descendants, mourned for their sins, and suffered from a wicked 
generation; but amidst all their mournings, they rejoiced that Christ 
was their righteousness: amidst all their sufferings, they rejoiced that 
they had a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. They 
knew that the promises of God were yea and amen. God can be wor- 
shipped only by the faith that works by love; this love alone can lead 
his people to obedience; because they know that they were " called to 
glory and virtue." They will, therefore, be holy, because their King is 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH EXPLAINED. 367 

holy; and when they offend, they hate themselves, because they feel 
that they are ungrateful to him who purchased them with his blood. 

O reader! art thou a believer? Hast thou " set to thy seal that God 
is true?" Is thy faith founded in the evidence of the scripture, not 
because thy parents, thy country, thy teachers have told thee so — these 
are only the evidences of" men ; but because the Spirit of Truth hath 
by his written word revealed it to thee? If so, "rejoice with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory," for know, that although thou art here 
perhaps " tossed with tempests and afflicted," yet " all things are thine, 
and thou art Christ's, and Christ is God's." Thou shalt inherit all things, 
and he shall be thy God, and thou shalt be his sox. Doubts become 
not thy lips, nor despair thy heart. Sing praises then unto him who 
washed your robes, and made them white in the pure blood of his own 
spotless sacrifice. He has said enough to satisfy the most scrupulous 
mind — " These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye may have 
peace : in the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good cheer, I 
have overcome the world." 

Cranmer took great pains to state these matters right; and made a 
large collection of many places, all written with his own hand, out of 
the ancient and modern authors, concerning faith, justification, and the 
merit of good works; and concluded with this, that our justification 
was to be ascribed only to the merits of Christ, and that those who are 
justified must have charity as well as faith, but that neither of these was 
the meritorious cause of justification. After this was stated agreeably 
to his views, the commissioners made next a large and full explanation of 
the apostle's creed with great judgment, and many excellent practical in- 
ferences. The definition they gave of the catholic church runs thus: 
" It comprehends all assemblies of men in the whole world that receive 
the faith of Christ, w r ho ought to hold an unity of love and brotherly 
agreement together, by which they become members of the catholic 
church." After this they explained the seven sacraments. 

In discussing these things there were great debates ; for, as was formerly 
mentioned, the method used was to open the point in hand by proposing 
many queries, and every one was to give in his answers with the reasons 
of it; and then others were appointed to make an abstract of those 
things, in which all either agreed or differed. The original papers 
relating to these points are yet preserved, which shew with what great 
consideration they proceeded. Baptism was explained as had been done 
formerly. Penance was made to consist in the absolution of the priests, 
which had been formerly declared only to be desirable where it could 
be had. In the communion, transubstantiation, private masses, and 
communion in one kind, were asserted: also the obligation of the 
Levitical law about the degrees of marriage, and the indissolubleness of 
that bond. They declared the divine institution of priests and deacons; 
and that no bishop had authority over another. They made a long dis- 
sertation against the pope's pretensions, and for justifying the king's 
supremacy. They said, confirmation was instituted by the apostles, and 
was profitable but not necessary to salvation; and they also asserted ex- 
treme unction to have been commanded by the apostle James for the health 
both of soul and body. Then were the ten commandments explained ; 



363 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the second was added to the first, but the introductory words were left 
out. It was declared that no religious honour was to be done unto 
images, and that they ought only to be reverenced for their sake whom 
they represented; therefore the preferring one image to another, and 
making pilgrimages and offerings to them, were condemned, while 
kneeling before them was permitted; yet the people were to be taught 
that this was done only to the honour of God. Invocation of saints, 
as intercessors, was allowed; but immediate addresses to them for the 
blessings that were prayed for were condemned. The strict rest from 
labour on the seventh day was declared to be ceremonial ; but it was 
asserted to be essential to rest from sin and carnal pleasure, and to follow 
holy duties. The other commandments were explained in a very simple 
and practical way. 

Then was the Lord's Prayer explained, and it was enjoined that the 
people pray in their vulgar tongues, for exciting their devotion the more. 
The angel's salutation to the virgin was also paraphrased. They 
handled free-will, and defined it to be a power by which the will, guided 
by reason, did without constraint discern and choose good and evil ; the 
former by the help of God's spirit, and the latter of itself. Grace was 
said to be offered to all men, but was made effectual by a willing appli- 
cation of it; and grace and free-will did consist well together, the one 
being added for the help of the other. Men were justified freely by 
the grace of God, but that was applied by faith; and faith is the gift 
of God, saith the apostle; so that salvation is all of God. " Thy people 
shall be willing in the day of thy power." " No man can come unto 
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." In the good 
works thus divinely produced, both the fear of God, repentance, and 
amendment of life were included. All curious reasonings about pre- 
destination were condemned. Those works were necessary which were not 
the superstitious inventions of monks and friars; not only moral works 
done by the power of nature, but works of charity flowing from a pure 
heart and faith unfeigned. Fasting, and the other fruits of penance, 
were also good works, but of an inferior nature to justice and the other 
virtues : these were all in a sense meritorious, yet since they were wrought 
in men by God's spirit, all boasting was excluded. The commissioners 
ended with an account of prayers for souls departed, almost the same 
that was in the articles published before. 

The reformers were dissatisfied with many things in the book, yet 
were they glad to find the morals of religion so well opened; for the 
purity of soul which that might effect would dispose people to sound 
opinions: many superstitious practices were also condemned, and the 
gospel covenant was rightly stated. One article was also asserted in it, 
which opened the way to a further reformation ; for every national church 
was declared to be a complete body, with power to reform heresies, and 
do every thing that was necessary for preserving its own purity, or 
governing its members. The popish party now thought they had re- 
covered much ground, which seemed lost formerly. They knew the 
reformers would never submit to all things in this book, which would 
alienate the king from them; but they were safe, being resolved to 
comply with him in every thing, without which it was dangerous to live 



DR. BARNES ACCUSED OF HERESY. 369 

in England, for the king's peevishness grew upon him with his age. 
This party now studied to engage the king in new severities against the 
reformers; the first instance of which fell on three preachers, Barnes, 
Garret, and Jerome, who had been early wrought on by the works of 
Luther. These were worthies in the christian cause, richly deserving the 
reader's knowledge and admiration. 

Dr. Barnes was educated in the university of Louvain, in Brabant. 
On his return to England he went to Cambridge, where he was made 
prior of the order of Augustines, and steward of the house in which 
that order resided. On his entrance, the darkest ignorance pervaded the 
university, all things being full of rudeness and barbarity, excepting a 
few persons whose learning was unknown to the rest. Dr. Barnes, 
zealous to promote knowledge and truth, soon began to instruct the 
students in classic languages, and, with the assistance of Parnel, his 
scholar, whom he had brought from Louvain, he soon caused learning to 
flourish, and the university to bear a very different aspect. These foun- 
dations laid, he began to read openly the epistles of St. Paul, and to 
teach in greater purity the doctrine of Christ. He preached and dis- 
puted with great warmth against the luxuries of the higher clergy, par- 
ticularly against cardinal Wolsey, and the lamentable hypocrisy of the 
times. But still he remained ignorant of the great cause of these evils, 
namely, the idolatry and superstition of the church; and while he 
declaimed against the stream, he himself drank at the spring, and kept 
it running for others to quench their fanatical thirst. At length, 
happily becoming acquainted with Bilney, he was by that martyr's con- 
versation wholly converted unto Christ. 

The first reformed sermon he preached, was on the Sunday before 
Christmas-day, at St. Edward's church, Trinity Hall, in Cambridge. 
His theme was the epistle of the day, Gaudete in Domino, and he com- 
mented on the whole epistle, following the scripture and Luther's expo- 
sition. For that sermon he was immediately accused of heresy by two 
fellows of the King's Hall. On this the learned in Christ, of Pembroke 
Hall, St. John's, Peter's House, King and Queen's Colleges, Gunwell 
Hall, and Benet College, flocked together both in the schools and in 
more public places, almost daily and hourly conferring together, a.nd 
many of them disputing about the course it was their duty to pursue. 

The house to which they chiefly resorted was the White Horse Inn, 
which, in contempt, was called Germany. This house especially was 
chosen, because many of them of St. John's, the King's College, and 
the Queen's College, were able to enter at the back gate. At this time 
much trouble began to ensue. The adversaries of Dr. Barnes accused 
him in the Regent House before the vice-chancellor, whereon his articles 
were presented and received, he promising to make answer at the next 
convocation. Then Dr. Nottoris, a bitter enemy to Christ, moved 
Barnes to recant; but he refused, as appears in his book which he 
wrote to king Henry in English, confuting the judgment of cardinal 
Wolsey, and the residue of the popish bishops. They continued in 
Cambridge, one preaching against another, until within six days of 
Shrovetide, when suddenly a sergeant at arms was sent down, called 
Gibson, dwelling in St. Thomas Apostle, in London, to arrest Dr. Barnes 

•2 B 



370 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

openly in the convocation-house, to strike others with fear. It was also 
privily determined to search for Luther's books. 

Dr. Farman, of the Queen's College, learning this, sent word of it 
privately to the chambers of those who were suspected, which were 
thirty persons; and they were conveyed away by the time that the 
sergeant at arms, the vice-chancellor, and the proctors were at their 
chamber, going directly to the place where the books lay. It was this 
proceeding which shewed that there were spies with the sergeant, and 
that night they studied together, and gave Barnes his answer, which 
answer he carried with him to London the next morning, being the 
Tuesday before Shrove Sunday. On Wednesday he arrived in London, 
and lay at Mr. Parnel's house. Next morning he was taken before 
cardinal Wolsey at Westminster, waiting there all day, and could not 
speak with him till night, when by reason of Dr. Gardiner, secretary to 
the cardinal, and of Mr. Fox, master of the wards, he spake with the 
cardinal in his chamber of state, kneeling. " Is this," said Wolsey to 
them, "Dr. Barnes, who is accused of heresy?" "Yes, and please 
your grace," replied they; " and we trust you will find him reformable, 
for he is learned and wise." 

" What, Mr. Doctor," said Wolsey, " had you not a sufficient scope 
in the scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my poll- 
axes, my pillars, my cushions, my crosses, did so offend you, that you 
must make us ridiculum caput amongst the people, who that day laughed 
us to scorn ? Verily it was a sermon fitter to be preached on a stage 
than in a pulpit; for at last you said, I wear a pair of red gloves, ' I 
should say bloody gloves,' quoth you, that I should not be cold in the 
midst of my ceremonies." To this banter Dr. Barnes answered, " I 
spake nothing but the truth out of the scriptures, according to my 
conscience, and according to the ancient doctors." And then he 
delivered him six sheets of paper written, to confirm and corroborate 
his sentiments. 

The cardinal received them smiling, saying, "We perceive then that 
you intend to stand to your articles, and to shew your learning." To 
which Barnes replied, "Yea, that I do by God's grace, with your lord- 
ship's favour." The cardinal now became angry and said, "Such as 
you bear us little favour, and the catholic church less. I will ask you a 
question ; whether you do think it more necessary that I should have all 
this royalty, because I represent the king's majesty in all the high courts 
of this realm, to the terror and keeping down of all rebellious traitors, 
all wicked and corrupt members of this commonwealth, or to be as 
simple as you would have us, to sell all these things, and to give them 
to the poor, who shortly will cast them in the dirt, and to pull away this 
princely dignity, which is a terror to the wicked, and to follow your 
counsel?" 

" I think it necessary," said Barnes, "to be sold and given to the 
poor. All this is not becoming your calling; nor is the king's majesty 
maintained by your pomp and poll-axes, but by God, who saith per me 
reges regnant, kings and their majesty reign and stand by me." Turning 
to the attendants, the cardinal then satirically said, " Lo, master doctors, 
he is the learned and wise man that you told me of." Then they kneeled 



DR. BARNES COMMITTED TO THE FLEET PRISON. 371 

down and said, " We desire your grace to be good unto him, for he will be 
reformable." The cardinal appeared softened by their words, and mildly 
said, "Stand you up; for your sakes and the university we will be good 
unto him." Turning to Barnes, he added, "How say you, master 
doctor, do you not know that I am legatus de latere, and that I am able 
to dispense in all matters concerning religion within this realm, as much 
as the pope himself?" Barnes meekly said, "I know it be so." The 
cardinal then asked, "Will you be ruled by us, and we will do all things 
for your honesty, and for the honesty of the university." Barnes 
answered, "I thank your grace for your good will; I will adhere to the 
holy scripture, as to God's book, according to the simple talent that 
God hath lent me." The cardinal ended the dialogue by saying, 
"Well, thou shalt have thy learning tried to the uttermost, and thou 
shalt have the law." 

He would then have been sent to the Tower, but Gardiner and Fox 
standing sureties for him, he returned to Mr. Parnel's again, and 
devoted the whole night to writing. Next morning he came to Gardiner 
and Fox, and soon after he was committed to the sergeant at arms, who 
brought him into the chapter-house, before the bishops, and Islip, 
the abbot of Westminster. At this time there were five men to 
be examined for Luther's book and Lollardy; but after they spied 
Barnes they set these aside, and asked the sergeant at arms what was 
his errand. He said he had brought Dr. Barnes on a charge of heresy, 
and then presented both his articles and his accusers. Immediately 
after a little talk they swore him, and laid his articles to him, on which 
he answered as he had done the cardinal before, and offered the book 
of his probations unto them. They took it from him, but said they had 
no leisure to dispute with him at present, on account of other affairs of 
the king's majesty which they had to do, and therefore bade him stand 
aside. They then called the five men again, one by one, and after 
they were examined, they were all committed to the Fleet. Dr. Barnes 
was recalled and asked, whether he would subscribe to his articles? he 
subscribed willingly, when they committed him and young Parnel to the 
Fleet with the others. There they remained till Saturday morning, and 
the warden had orders that no man should speak with him. 

On the Saturday he was again brought before them into the chapter- 
house, and there with the men remained till five at night. After 
long disputations, threatenings, and scornings, they called upon him 
to know whether he would abjure or burn. He was greatly agitated, and 
felt inclined rather to burn than abjure. But he was then said again to 
have the council of Gardiner and Fox, and they persuaded him rather 
to abjure than to burn, because they pleaded he might in future be 
silent, urging other reasons to save his life and check his heresy at the 
same time. Upon that, kneeling down, he consented to abjure, and the 
abjuration being put into his hand, he abjured as it was there written, 
and then he subscribed with his own hand ; yet they would scarcely 
receive him into the bosom of the church, as they termed it. Then they 
put him to an oath, and charged him to execute and fulfil all that they 
commanded him, which he accordingly promised. 

On this they commanded the warden of the Fleet to carry him and 



372 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 



his fellows to the place whence he came, and to be kept in close prison, 
and in the morning to provide five fagots for Dr. Barnes and the four 
men; the fifth man being ordered to have a taper of five pounds 
weight to be provided for him, to offer to the rood of Northen in 
Paul's, and all these things to be ready by eight on the following 
morning; and that he with all that he could make with bills and 
glaves, and the knight-marshal with all his tipstaves that he could 
make, should bring them to Paul's, and conduct them home again. 
Accordingly, in the morning they were all ready by their appointed hour 
in St. Paul's church, which was crowded beyond measure. The cardinal 
had a scaffold made on the top of the stairs for himself, with six and 
thirty abbots, mitred priors, and bishops, and in his whole pomp mitred 
sat there enthroned, his chaplains and spiritual doctors in gowns of 
damask and satin, and he himself in purple. There was also a new 
pulpit erected on the top of the stairs for the bishop of Rochester to 
preach against Luther and Barnes; and great baskets full of books 
standing before them within the rails, which were commanded, after the 
great fire was made before the rood of Northen, there to be burned, and 
these heretics after the sermon to go thrice about the fire and to cast in 
their fagots. 

During the sermon, Dr. Barnes and the men were commanded to 
kneel down and ask forgiveness of God, and the catholic church, and 
the cardinal's grace; after which he was commanded, at the end of the 
sermon, to declare that he was used more charitably than he deserved, 
his heresies being so horrible and detestable: once more he kneeled, 
desiring of the people forgiveness and to pray for him. This farce being 
ended, the cardinal departed under a canopy, with all his mitred men 
with him, till he came to the second gate of Paul's, when he took his 
mule, and the mitred men came back again. Then the prisoners being 
commanded to come down from the stage, whereon the sweepers used 
to stand when they swept the church, the bishops sat them down again, 
and commanded the knight-marshal and the warden of the Fleet, with 
their company, to carry them about the fire, and then were they brought 
to the bishops, and there kneeled down for absolution. The bishop of 
Rochester standing up, and declaring to the people how many days of 
pardon and forgiveness of sins they had for being at that sermon, and 
that Dr. Barnes with the others were received into the church again. 
This done, the warden of the Fleet and knight-marshal were com- 
manded to take them to the Fleet again, there to remain till the lord 
cardinal's pleasure was known, and charged that they should have the 
same liberty as other prisoners, and that their friends might be admitted 
to them. 

Dr. Barnes having remained here half a year, was delivered to be a 
free prisoner at the Austin friars in London. But here being watched 
by his enemies, they made new complaints of him to the cardinal, upon 
which he was removed to the Austin friars of Northampton, there to be 
burned ; of which intention, however, he was perfectly ignorant. At 
length Mr. Home, who had brought him up, and who was his particular 
friend, gaining intelligence of the writ which was shortly to be sent 
down to burn him, advised him to feign himself to be in a state of 



DR. BARNES PREACHES BEFORE GARDINER. 373 

despair, and to write a letter to the cardinal and leave it on his table 
where he lay, with a paper to declare whither he was gone to drown 
himself, and to leave his clothes in the same place; and another letter 
to be left to the mayor of the town to search for him in the water, 
because he had a letter written in parchment about his neck, closed in 
wax for the cardinal, which should teach all men to beware of him. 
This scheme he accordingly put in execution, and they were seven days 
searching for him; but he was conveyed to London in poor man's 
apparel, and from thence took shipping, and went to Antwerp, where he 
found Luther. Here he renewed his studies, and wrote a book, which 
was an answer to all the bishops of the realm, entitled, Acta Romanorwn 
Pontificum, and another with a supplication to king Henry. Immediately 
it was told the cardinal that he was drowned, he said, " Perit memoria 
ejus cum sonitu," — a sentence which lighted upon himself shortly after, 
when he died wretchedly at Leicester. 

Dr. Barnes now became learned in the word of God, and strong in 
Christ, and was in great esteem with all men whose esteem was honour- 
able, particularly Luther, Melancthon, Pomeran, Justice Jonas, Hegen- 
dorphinus, and JEpinus ; the duke of Saxony, and the king of Denmark, 
the last of whom, in the time of More and Stokesly, sent him with the 
Lubecks as ambassador to king Henry the Eighth. Sir Thomas More, 
who had now succeeded Wolsey as chancellor, would fain have entrapped 
him : but the king would not let him, and Cromwell was his great friend. 
Before he left, the Lubecks and he disputed with the bishops of England 
in defence of the truth, and he was allowed to depart again without 
restraint. After going to Wittenberg, to the duke of Saxony and 
Luther, he remained there to forward his works in print which he had 
begun, after which he returned again in the beginning of the reign of 
queen Anne, as others did, and continued a faithful preacher in London, 
being all her time well entertained and promoted. After that he was 
sent ambassador by Henry to the duke of Cleves, upon the business of 
the marriage between the lady Anne of Cleves and the king. He gave 
great satisfaction in every duty which was entrusted to him, till Gardiner 
arrived from France, after which neither religion, the queen's majesty, 
Cromwell, nor the preachers prospered. 

Not long after this, Dr. Barnes, with his brethren, were apprehended 
and carried before the king at Hampton Court, where he was examined. 
The king being desirous to bring about an agreement between him and 
Gardiner did, at the request of the latter, grant him leave to go home 
with the bishop to confer with him. But as it happened, they not agree- 
ing, Gardiner and his co-partners sought by all subtle means how to 
entangle and entrap Barnes and his friends in furthur danger, which 
not long after was brought to pass. By certain complaints made to 
the king of them, they were enjoined to preach three sermons the fol- 
lowing Easter at the Spittle; at which sermons, besides other reporters 
which were sent thither, Gardiner himself was present, sitting with the 
mayor, either to bear record of their recantation, or else, as the Phari- 
sees came to Christ, to ensnare them in their talk, if they should speak 
any thing amiss. Barnes preached first; and at the conclusion of his 
sermon, requested Gardiner, if he thought he had said nothing contra- 



374 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

dictory to truth, to hold up his hand in the face of all present, upon 
which Gardiner immediately held up his finger. Notwithstanding this, 
they were all three, by the means of the reporters, sent for to Hampton 
Court, whence they were conducted to the Tower, where they remained 
till they were brought out to death. 

Mr. Garret was a London curate. About the year 1526, he came to 
Oxford, and brought with him sundry books in Latin, treating of the 
Scriptures, with the first of Unio dissidentium, and Tindal's first transla- 
tion of the New Testament in English, which books he sold to several 
scholars in Oxford. After he had disposed of them, news came from 
London that he was searched for through all that city, to be apprehended 
as a heretic, and to be imprisoned for selling heretical publications, 
as they were termed. It was not unknown to cardinal Wolsey, the 
bishop of London, and others, that Mr. Garret had a great number of 
those books, and that he was gone to Oxford to sell them to such as he 
knew to be the lovers of the gospel. Wherefore they determined to 
make a secret search through all Oxford, to apprehend and imprison 
him, and to burn all his books, and him too if they could. But happily 
one of the proctors, Mr. Cole of Magdalen College, being well ac- 
quainted with Mr. Garret, gave secret warning to a friend or two of his 
of the search, and advised that he should, as secretly as possible, depart 
from Oxford : for if he were taken, he would certainly be forthwith 
sent to the cardinal, and be committed unto the Tower. 

The Christmas before that time, Anthony Dalabar,student of Alban's 
Hall, paid a visit to his native place, Stalbridge, in Dorsetshire, where 
he had a brother, a clergyman of the parish, who was very desirous to 
have a curate from Oxford, and wished him to get one thence if he could. 
This just occasion offered, and was approved among the brethren, for so 
they were not only called, but were indeed such one to the other, that Mr. 
Garret, changing his name, should be sent with letters into Dorsetshire 
to his brother to serve him there for a time, until he might secretly con- 
vey himself somewhere over the sea. Accordingly hereunto he wrote 
letters in all possible haste to his brother, in favour of Mr. Garret, to be 
his curate ; but not declaring what he was indeed, his brother being a 
papist, and afterwards the most mortal enemy that ever he had for the 
gospel's sake. 

Things being thus settled, on the Wednesday morning before Shrove- 
tide, Mr. Garret departed for Dorsetshire, with his letters for his new 
service. How far he went, and by what occasion he soon returned, was 
not known. But the following Friday night, he came to Radley's house 
where he lay before, and after midnight, in the privy search which was 
then made for him, he was taken in bed by the two proctors, and on the 
Saturday morning was delivered to Dr. Cottisford, master of Lincoln 
college, then being commissary of the university, who kept him as pri- 
soner in his own chamber. At this there was great joy and rejoicing 
among all the papists, and especially with Dr. Loudon, warden of the 
New College, and Dr. Higdon, dean of Frideswide, who immediately sent 
their letters post-haste to the cardinal, to inform him of the apprehen- 
sion of this notable heretic, for which they were well assured of receiving 
great thanks. But of all this sudden hurly-burly, Dalabar was utterly 



PARTICULARS OF THOMAS GARRET. 37.5 

ignorant, so that he knew neither of Mr. Garret's sudden return, nor 
that he was taken, until he came into his chamber, being then in Glou- 
cester college, as a man amazed; and as soon as he saw him he said he 
was undone, for he was taken. He spake thus unadvisedly in the pre- 
sence of a young man who came with him. When the young man 
was departed, Dalabar asked him what he was, and what acquaintance 
he had with him. He said, he knew him not ; but that he had been to 
seek a monk of his acquaintance in that college, who was not in his 
chamber, and thereupon desired his servant to conduct him to his brother. 
He then declared how he was returned and taken in the privy search. 

Dalabar then said to him, " Alas! Mr. Garret, by your uncircumspect 
coming and speaking before this young man, you have disclosed yourself 
and utterly undone me." He asked him why he went not to his brother 
with his letters. He answered that after he was gone a day's journey 
and a half, he was so fearful, that his heart suggested that he must needs 
return to Oxford ; and accordingly he came again on Friday at night, 
and then was taken. But now, with tears, he prayed Dalabar to help 
to convey him away, and then cast off his hood and gown wherein he 
came, and desired a coat with sleeves, saying he would if possible dis- 
guise himself, go into Wales, and thence convey himself into Germany. 
Dalabar then put on him a sleeved coat of his own. He would also 
have had another kind of cap, but there was no one to be found for 
him. 

Then they both kneeled down together, and lifting up their hearts and 
hands to God their heavenly Father, desiring him so to conduct and 
prosper him in his journey, that he might escape the danger of all his 
enemies, to the glory of his holy name, if his good pleasure so were. 
They then embraced, and could scarcely bid adieu for sorrow • at length, 
disguised in his brother's garments he departed. But his escape soon 
became known, and immediate search was made for him about the col- 
lege ; not being found there, he was pursued and taken at a place called 
Hinksey, a little beyond Oxford, and being brought back again was 
committed to ward : that done he was convened before the commissary, 
Dr. Loudon, and Dr. Higdon, dean of Frideswide, now called Christ's 
College, in St. Mary's church, where they sat in judgment, convicted him 
according to their law as a heretic, and afterward compelled him to carry 
a fagot in open procession from St. Mary's church to the place whence 
he came. After this, flying from place to place, he escaped their 
tyranny, until the time that he was again apprehended with Dr. Barnes. 
William Jerome was vicar of Stepney, and was convinced of the 
disgusting errors of the church of Rome, and the consequences that 
flowed from them, preaching with great zeal, and substituting the pure and 
simple doctrines of the gospel for the perversions and traditions of men. 
Thus proceeding, he soon became known to the enemies of truth, who 
watchedWiim with malignant jealousy. It was not long before, in a sermon 
he preached at St. Paul's, on the fourth Sunday in Lent, wherein he 
dwelt upon justification by faith, he so offended the legal preachers of 
the day, that he was summoned to the presence of the king at West- 
minster, and there accused of heresy. 

It was urged against him, that he had insisted, according to St. Paul 



376 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

in his epistle to the Galatians — That the children of Sara, allegorically 
used for the children of the promise, were all born free, and, independent 
of baptism or of penance, were through faith made heirs of God. Dr. 
Wilson argued against him, and strongly opposed this doctrine. But 
Jerome defended it with all the force of truth, and said that although good 
works were the means of salvation, yet that they followed as a conse- 
quence of faith, whose fruits they were, and which discovered their root, 
even as good fruit proves a good tree. But in spite of this good confes- 
sion, so inveterate were his enemies, and so deluded was the king, that 
Jerome was committed to the Tower, in company with the other two 
soldiers of Christ, destined with them to suffer for his faith. 

Here they remained, while a process was issuing against them by the 
king's council in parliament, by whom, without hearing or knowledge 
of their fate, they were attainted of heresy, and sentenced to the flames. 
On the 30th of the following June they were brought from the Tower 
to Smithfield, where they were permitted to address the people. 
Dr. Barnes spoke first, as follows — " I am come hither to be burned as 
a heretic, and you shall hear my belief, whereby you may perceive what 
erroneous opinion I hold. God I take to record, I never to my know- 
ledge taught any erroneous doctrine, but only those things which scrip- 
ture led me into ; neither in my sermons have I ever maintained or 
given occasion for any insurrection ; but with all diligence evermore did 
I study to set forth the glory of God, the obedience to our sovereign 
lord the king, and the true and sincere religion of Christ: and now 
hearken to my faith. 

" I believe in the holy and blessed Trinity, three persons and one 
God, who created and made all the world, and that this blessed Trinity 
sent down the second person, Jesus Christ, into the womb of the most 
blessed and pure virgin Mary. I believe that he was conceived by the 
Holy Ghost, and took flesh of her ; and that he suffered hunger, thirst, 
cold, and other passions of our body, sin excepted, according to. the 
saying of St. Peter, ' He was made in all things like to his brethren, 
except sin.' And I believe that this his death and passion was a suffi- 
cient ransom for sin. And I believe that through his death he overcame 
sin, death, and hell, and that there is none other satisfaction unto 
the Father, but this his death and passion only, and that no work of 
man does deserve any thing of God, but Christ's passion only as touching 
our justification, for I know the best work that ever I performed is im- 
pure and imperfect." With this, he cast abroad his hands, and desired 
God to forgive him his trespasses. " For although perchance," said he, 
" you know nothing by me, yet do I confess that my thoughts and cogi^ 
tations are innumerable ; wherefore I beseech thee, O Lord, not to enter 
into judgment with me, according to the saying of the prophet David ; 
and in another place, Lord, if thou straitly mark our iniquities, who is 
able to abide thy judgment ? Wherefore, I trust in no good work that 
ever I did, but only in the death of Christ. I do not doubt but through 
him to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But imagine not that I speak 
against good works, for they are to be done, and verily they that do 
them not shall never come into the kingdom of God. We must do 
them, because they are commanded us of God, to shew and set forth 



DR. BARNES' ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 377 

our profession, not to deserve or merit ; for that is only by the death of 
Christ. I believe that there is a holy church, and a company of all 
that do profess Christ ; and that all who have suffered and confessed his 
name are saints, and that they praise and laud God in heaven, more 
than I or any man's tongue can express." 

Then there was one that asked his opinion upon praying to saints. 
" Now of saints," said he," you shall hear my opinion. I believe they 
are in heaven with God, and that they are worthy of all the honour that 
scripture willeth them to have. But I say, throughout scripture we are 
not commanded to pray to any saints. Therefore I neither can nor will 
preach to you that saints ought to be prayed unto ; for then should I 
preach unto you a doctrine of mine own head. Notwithstanding, 
whether they pray for us or no, that I refer to God. And if saints do 
pray for us, then I trust to pray for you within this half hour, Mr. 
Sheriff, and for every Christian living in the faith of Christ, and dying 
in the same as a saint. Wherefore, if the dead may pray for the quick, 
I will surely pray for you." 

The Dr. then appealed more pointedly to the sheriff, and asked — 
(i Have ye any articles against me for which I am condemned V* The 
sheriff answered, " No." Then said Barnes, " Is there here any man 
else that knoweth wherefore I die, or that by my preaching hath taken 
any error? Let him now speak, and 1 will make him answer." But no 
man answered. Then said he, " Well, I am condemned by the law to 
die, and as I understand by an act of parliament, but wherefore I can- 
not tell ; perhaps it is for heresy, for we are likely to suffer under this 
charge, cruel as it is. But they that have been the occasion of it, I pray 
God forgive them, as I would be forgiven myself. And Dr. Stephen, 
bishop of Winchester, if he have sought or wrought this my death, either 
by word or deed, I pray God to forgive him, as heartily, as freely, as 
charitably, and as sincerely, as Christ forgave them that put him to 
death. And if any of the council, or any other, have sought or wrought 
it through malice or ignorance, I pray God forgive their ignorance, and 
illuminate their eyes, that they may see and ask mercy for it. I beseech 
you all to pray for the king's grace, as I have done ever since I was in 
prison, and do now, that God may give him prosperity, and that he 
may long reign among you ; and after him that godly prince Edward, 
that he may finish those things that his father hath begun. I have 
been reported to be a preacher of sedition, and disobedience unto the 
king; but here I say to you, that you are all bound by the command- 
ment of God to obey your prince with all humility, and with all your 
heart, and that not only for fear of the sword, but also for conscience 
sake before God." 

After this admirable address, Dr. Barnes desired, if he had said any 
evil at any time unadvisedly, whereby he had offended any, or given 
any occasion of evil, that they would pardon him, and amend that evil 
they took of him, and to bear him witness that he detested and abhorred 
all evil opinions and doctrines against the word of God, and that he 
died in the faith of Jesus Christ, by whom he doubted not but to be 
saved. With these words, he entreated them all to pray for him, and 
then he turned about, put off his clothes, and prepared himself to suffer. 



378 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



Jerome and Garret made a similar profession of their faith, reciting the 
several articles of their belief, and declaring their minds upon every 
article, as the time would allow, whereby the people might understand 
that there was no error for which they could justly be condemned; pro- 
testing, moreover, that they denied nothing that was either in the Old 
or New Testament, set forth by their sovereign lord the king, whom 
they prayed the Lord long to continue amongst them, with his son 
prince Edward. 

Jerome then addressed himself as follows: "I say unto you, good 
brethren, that Christ hath bought us all with no small price, neither 
with gold nor silver, or other such things of small value, but with his 
most precious blood. Be not unthankful therefore to him again, but 
do as much as to christian men belongeth to fulfil his commandments, 
that is, love your brethren. Love hurteth no man, love fulfilleth all 
things. If God hath sent thee plenty, help thy neighbour that hath 
need. Give him good counsel. If he lack, consider if you were in 
necessity, you would gladly be refreshed. And again, bear your cross 
with Christ. Consider what reproof, slander, and reproach, he suffered 
for his enemies, and how patiently he suffered all things. Consider, 
that all Christ did was of his mere goodness, and not for our 
deserving. If we could merit our own salvation, Christ would not have 
died for us. But for Adam's breaking of God's precepts we had been 
all lost, if Christ had not redeemed us again. And like as Adam broke 
the precepts, and was driven out of Paradise, so we, if we break God's 
commandments, shall have damnation, if we do not repent and ask 
mercy. Now, therefore, let all christians put no trust nor confidence in 
their works, but in the blood of Christ, to whom I commit my soul to 
guide, beseeching you all to pray to God for me, and for my brethren 
here present with me, that our souls leaving these wretched bodies, may 
consistently depart in the true faith of Christ." 

After he had concluded, Garret thus spoke: "I also detest and refuse 
all heresies and errors, and if either by negligence or ignorance I have 
taught or maintained any, I am sorry for it, and ask God's mercy. Or 
if I have been so vehement or rash in preaching, whereby any person 
hath taken any offence, error, or evil opinion, I desire him and all 
other persons whom 1 have any way offended, forgiveness. Notwith- 
standing, to my remembrance, I have never preached willingly any thing 
against God's holy word, or contrary to the true faith; but have ever 
endeavoured, with my little learning and wisdom, to set forth the honour 
of God and right obedience to his laws, and also the king's accordingly, 
if I could have done better, I would. Wherefore, Lord, if I have taken 
in hand to do that thing which I could not perfectly perform, 1 desire 
thy pardon for my bold presumption. And I pray God to give the king 
good and godly counsel to his glory, to the king's honour, and the 
increase of virtue in this realm. And thus do I yield my soul up unto 
Almighty God, trusting and believing that he, of his infinite mercy, 
according to his promise made in the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ, 
will take it and pardon all my sins, of which I ask him mercy, and 
desire you all to pray with and for me, that I may patiently suffer this 
pain, and die in true faith, hope, and charity." The three martyrs then 



PERSECUTIONS IN SCOTLAND. 379 

took each other by the hand, and after embracing, submitted themselves 
to the tormentors, who, fastening them to the stake, soon lighted the 
fagots, and terminated their mortal life and care. 

Nearly at the same time Thomas Bernard and James Merton suffered. 
The offence of Bernard was the teaching of the Lord's Prayer in 
English; that of Merton, his keeping an English translation of the 
epistle of St. James. They were taken up at the instigation of 
Longland, bishop of Lincoln, and condemned to the flames. 

This summer the king went to York, to meet his nephew the king of 
Scotland, who promised him an interview there. The Scottish prince 
was an extraordinary person, a great patron both of learning and 
justice, but immoderately addicted to his pleasures. The clergy in 
Scotland were very apprehensive of his seeing his uncle, lest Henry 
might have persuaded him to follow his example with respect to the 
church; and they used such persuasions, that seconded by a message 
from France, they diverted the king from his purpose. 

Before we proceed to record the events relative to Scotland, which 
took place at this period, it will be necessary to give a brief relation of 
the reformation in that country. The long alliance between Scotland 
and France had rendered the two nations extremely attached to each 
other; and Paris was the place where the learned of Scotland had their 
education. Yet after the year 1412, learning came to have more footing 
in Scotland, and universities were set up in several episcopal sees. At 
the same time some of Wickliffe's followers began to creep into the 
country; and an Englishman, named Resby, was burnt in 1407 for 
teaching opinions contrary to the pope's authority. A few years after 
that, Paul Craw, a Bohemian, who had been converted by the ministry 
of John Huss, was burnt for infusing the opinions of that martyr into 
some members of the bigoted college of St. Andrew. About the end 
of that century, the sentiments of the Lollards spread themselves into 
many parts of the diocese of Glasgow, for which several persons of 
quality were accused; but they answered the archbishop of that see 
with such assurance, that he dismissed them, having admonished them 
to content themselves with the faith of the church, and to beware of 
new doctrines. The same spirit of ignorance, immorality, and super- 
stition, had overrun the church there, that was so much complained of 
in other parts of Europe. The total neglect of the pastoral care, and 
the gross scandals of the clergy, possessed the people with such pre- 
judices against them, that they were easily disposed to hearken to new 
preachers, the most conspicuous of whom are now to pass before us. 

Patrick Hamilton, a noble martyr, was highly descended. He was 
nephew, on his father's side, to the earl of Arran, and on his mother's, 
to the duke of Albany. He was bred up with the design of being 
advanced to clerical dignity, and he hoped to have an abbey given him 
for prosecuting his studies. He went over to Germany, and studied at 
the university of Marpurg, where he soon distinguished himself by his 
zeal, assiduity, and great progress, particularly in the scriptures, which 
were his grand object, and to which he made every thing else subservient. 
There he became acquainted with Luther and Melancthon; and being 
convinced, from his own researches, as well as their ministry and advice, 



380 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the truth of their doctrines, he burned to impart the light of the 
gospel to his own countrymen, and to shew them the errors and cor- 
ruptions of their church. For this great purpose he returned to 
Scotland, fearless of any injury that might come upon himself, so that 
he might be faithful and useful to others. 

After preaching some time, and holding up the truth to his deluded 
countrymen, he was at length invited to St. Andrews to confer upon 
the points in question. But his enemies could not stand the light, and 
rinding that they were unable to defend themselves by argument, 
resolved upon violence and revenge. Hamilton was accordingly im- 
prisoned. Articles were exhibited against him, 1 and upon his refusing 
to abjure them, Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews, with the archbishop 
of Glasgow, three bishops, and five abbots, condemned him as an 
obstinate heretic, delivered him to the secular power, and ordered his 
execution to take place that very afternoon : for the king had gone in 
pilgrimage to Ross, and they were afraid, lest, upon his return, 
Hamilton's friends might intercede effectually for him. When he was 
tied to the stake, he expressed great joy in his suffering, since by these 
he was to enter into everlasting life. A train of powder being fired, it 
did not kindle the fuel, but only burnt his face, which occasioned a 
delay till more powder was brought; and in that time the friars called 
repeatedly to him to recant, to pray to the Virgin, and to say the Salve 
Regina. Among the rest, a friar named Campbell, who had been with 
him in prison, was very officious. Hamilton answered, that he knew he 
was not a heretic, and had confessed it to him in private, and charged 
him to answer for that at the throne of Almighty God. By this time 
the gunpowder was brought, and the fire being kindled, he died, often 
repeating these words, " Lord Jesus, receive my soul." His relentless 
persecutor, Campbell, soon after became deranged, and died without 
recovering his reason. 

The views and doctrines of Hamilton were such as cannot fail to 
excite the highest admiration of every real believer; and they are withal 
expressed with such brevity, such clearness, and such peculiar vigour 
and beauty— forming in themselves a complete summary of the gospel 
— that they cannot but afford instruction to every class of readers who 
seek to know more of God, and of Jesus our Lord. We shall, therefore, 
make no apology for giving them at the following length. They were 
written by Hamilton himself in Latin, and translated into English by 
John Frith, a man worthy of such a task and such a friend. 

' These were the articles for which he suffered: 

1. Man hath no free-will. 

2. Man is only justified by faith in Christ. 

3. Man, so long as he liveth, is not without sin. 

4. He is not worthy to be called a Christian, which believeth not that he is in grace. 

5. A good man doeth good works: good works do not make a good man. 

6. An evil man bringeth forth evil works: evil works, being faithfully repented, do 
not make an evil man. 

7. Faith, hope, and charity, are so linked together, that one of them cannot be 
without another in one man in this life. 



PROPOSITIONS PROVED BY SCRIPTURE. 381 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAW. 

The law is a doctrine that biddeth good, and forbiddeth evil, as the 
commandments do here specify. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. 

1. Thou shalt worship but one God. Exod. xx. 3. 

2. Thou shalt make thee no image to worship it. Exod. xx. 4, 5. 

3. Thou shalt not swear by his name in vain. Exod. xx. 7. 

4. Hold the Sabbath day holy. Exod. xx. 8, 9, 10, 11. 

5. Honour thy father and thy mother. Exod. xx. 12. 

6. Thou shalt not kill. Exod. xx. 13. 

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Exod. xx. 14. 

8. Thou shalt not steal. Exod. xx. 15. 

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Exod. xx. 16. 

10. Thou shalt not desire ought that belongeth to thy neighbour. 
Exod. xx. 17. 

All these are briefly comprised in the two ensuing : — Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind; this is the first and great commandment. The second is like 
unto this, that is, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two 
commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt. xxii. 37, 38, 39. 

CERTAIN GENERAL PROPOSITIONS PROVED BY SCRIPTURE. 

Proposition. — He that loveth God loveth his neighbour. 

This proposition is proved, 1 John iv. 20. " If a man say, I love 
God, and yet hateth his brother, he is a liar. He that loveth not his 
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
seen?" 

Proposition. — He that loveth his neighbour as himself, keepeth all 
the commandments of God. 

This proposition is proved, Matt. vii. Rom. xiii. "Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, even so do to them. For this is the 
law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12. "He that loveth his neighbour 
fulfilleth the law." Rom. xiii. 8. " All the law is fulfilled in one word, 
that is, love thy neighbour as thyself." Gal. v. 14. 

Proposition. — He that hath faith loveth God. 

"My father loveth you, because you love me, and believe that I come 
of God." John xvi. 27. 

Proposition. — It is not in our power to keep any one of the com- 
mandments of God. 

It is impossible to keep any of the commandments of God without 
grace. It is not in our power to have grace. Therefore, it is not in 
our power to keep any of the commandments of God. And even so 
you may reason concerning the Holy Ghost and faith, forasmuch as 
neither without them we are able to keep any of the commandments of 
God, neither yet be they in our power to have. 



382 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

"It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God 
that sheweth mercy," or giveth grace. Rom. ix. 16. 

Proposition. — The law was given us to shew our sin. 

"By the law cometh the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. "I knew 
not what sin meant, but through the law : for I had not known what 
lust had meant, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. Without 
the law sin was dead," it moved me not, neither wist I that I was in sin. 
which notwithstanding was sin, and forbidden by the law. Rom. vii. 7. 

Proposition. — The law biddeth us to do that thing which is impossible 
for us. 

The keeping of the commandments is to us impossible. 

The law commandeth to us the keeping of the commandments; there- 
fore, the law commandeth unto us what is impossible. But thou wilt 
say, wherefore doth God bid us do that which is impossible for us? I 
answer, to make us know that we are but evil, and that there is no 
remedy to save us in our own hand: and that we may seek remedy 
at some other; for the law doth nothing else but command and 
condemn us. 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE GOSPEL. 

The gospel is as much as to say in our tongue, good tidings; and 
these be the following, and others like them. 

Christ is the Saviour of the world. "God so lo\ed the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved." John iii. 16, 17. 

Christ died for our sins. "Who was delivered for our offences." 
Rom. iv. 25. 

Christ bought us with his blood. "We are redeemed by the precious 
blood of Christ." 1 Peter i. 19. 

Christ washed us with his blood. "Unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood." Rev. i. 5. 

Christ offered himself for us. " Who gave himself for our sins." 
Gal. i. 4. 

Christ bare our sins on his back. "He bare the sin of many." 
Isaiah liii. 12. 

Christ came into this world to take away our sins. "For this purpose 
the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the 
devil." 1 John iii. 8. 

Christ was the price that was given for us and our sins. " Who gave 
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." 1 Tim. ii. 6. 

Christ was made debtor for us. " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2. 

Christ has paid our debt, for he died for us. " Blotting out the 
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to 
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Col. ii. 14. 

Christ made satisfaction for us and our sins. "All things are of God, 
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us 
the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor. v. 18. 



EXPOSITION OF THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 383 

Christ is our righteousness. " Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of 
God is made unto us righteousness." 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Christ is our sanctification. " Of him who is made unto us our 
sanctification." 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Christ is our redemption. " In whom we have redemption through 
his blood." Eph. i. 7. 

Christ is our peace. " Being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. 

Christ hath pacified the Father of Heaven for us. " It pleased the 
Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace 
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto 
himself; whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." 
Col. i. 19, 20. 

Christ is ours, and all are his. " All things are your's ; ye are Christ's ; 
and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. iii. 21, 23. 



THE DISTINCT NATURE AND OFFICE OF THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 

The law sheweth us our sin. " Now we know that what things soever 
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every 
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before 
God." Rom. iii. 19. 

The gospel sheweth us remedy for it. " Grace and truth came bv 
Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins 
of the world." John i. 17, 29. 

The law sheweth us our condemnation. "I was alive without the law 
once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And 
the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto 
death." Rom. vii. 9, 10. 

The gospel sheweth us our redemption. " Who hath delivered us 
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom 
of his dear Son : in whom we have redemption through his blood, even 
the forgiveness of sins." Col. i. 13, 14. 

The law is the word of ire. " The law worketh wrath : for where no 
law is, there is no transgression." Rom. iv. 15. 

The gospel is the word of grace. " We believe that through the 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved." Acts xv. 11. 

The law is the word of despair. " Cursed be he that confirmeth not 
all the words of this law to do them." Deut. xxvii. 26. 

The gospel is the word of comfort. " Waiting for the consolation of 
Israel." Luke ii. 25. 

The law is the word of restlessness. "When we were in the flesh, 
the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to 
bring forth fruit unto death." Rom. vii. 5. 

The gospel is the word of peace. " He came and preached peace to 
you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Eph. ii. 17. k 

k The whole of this is so excellent, and manifests such a devout acquaintance with 
scripture in a dark age, that the editor has been anxious to render it as complete and 



384 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



A DISPUTATION BETWEEN THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 

The law saith, Pay thy debt. The gospel saith, Christ hath paid it. 

The law saith, Thou art a sinner, despair, and thou shalt be damned, 
The gospel saith, Thy sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort, for 
thou shalt be saved. 

The law saith, Make amends for thy sins. The gospel saith, Christ 
hath made it for thee. 

The law saith, The Father of Heaven is angry with thee. The gospel 
saith, Christ hath pacified him with his blood. 

The law saith, Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction? 
The gospel saith, Christ is thy righteousness, thy goodness, and thy 
satisfaction. 

The law saith, Thou art bound and obliged to me, to the devil, *and 
to hell. The gospel saith, Christ hath delivered thee from them all. 

THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH. 

Faith is to believe God, like as Abraham believed God, and it was 
imputed unto him for righteousness. To believe God is to credit his 
word, and to reckon it true that he saith. He that believeth not God's 
word, believeth not God himself. He that believeth not God's word 
counteth him false and a liar, and believeth not that he may and will 
fulfil his word; and so he denieth both the might of God, and God 
himself. 

Proposition. — Faith is the gift of God. 

Argument.-— Every good thing is the gift of God. Faith is a good 
thing; therefore faith is the gift of God. 

Proposition. — Faith is not in our power. 

Argument. — The gift of God is not in our power. Faith is the gift 
of God ; therefore faith is not in our power. 

Proposition. — He that lacketh faith cannot please God. For saith 
the apostle Paul — "Without faith it is impossible to please God," 
Hebrews xi. 6 ; and " whatsoever is not of faith is sin," Romans xiv. 
23 ; and sin, being a transgression of his law, must be displeasing 
to him. 

Hence he that lacketh faith, trusteth not God ; he that trusteth not 
God, trusteth not his word ; he that trusteth not his word, holdeth 
him false and a liar ; he that holdeth him false and a liar, believeth 
not that he may do that he promiseth, and so he denieth that he is 
God. Therefore, " a primo ad ultimum," he that lacketh faith cannot 
please God. 

If it were possible for any man to do all the good deeds that ever were 
done, either of men or angels, yet being in this case it is impossible for 
him to please God. 

accurate as possible. The edition of 1806 was left in a state of great incorrectness in 
this part, which above all others seemed to demand and deserve the greatest precision. To 
have again left such a blot on Hamilton's memory would have been unpardonable. 



EXPOSITION OF FAITH. 385 

Proposition. — All that is done in faith pleaseth God. 

"Right is the word of God, and all his works are done in truth." 
Psalm xxxiii. 4. "0 Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth." 
Jer. v. 3. That is as much as to say, Lord, thou delightest in faith; as 
faith can have to do only with truth. 

Proposition. — He that hath faith, and believeth God> cannot dis^ 
please him. 

He that hath faith, believeth God ; he that believeth God, believeth 
his word ; he that believeth his word knoweth well that he is true and 
faithful, and cannot lie, knowing that he both can and will fulfil his 
word. Therefore he that hath faith cannot displease God, neither can 
any man do a greater honour to God, than to count him true. 

Objection. — Thou wilt then say, that theft, murder, adultery, and all 
vices that a believer may be tempted to commit, are pleasing to God. 

Nay> verily, for they cannot be done in faith: "For a good tree 
beareth good fruit, and corrupt fruit is borne by an evil tree," 
Matt. vii. 17, 18. 

Proposition. — Faith is certainty or assuredness. 

" Faith is a sure confidence of things which are hoped for, and 
certainty of things which are not seen." Heb. xi. 1. " The same Spirit 
certifieth our spirit, that we are the children of God." Rom. viii. 16. 
Moreover, he that hath faith knoweth well that God will fulfil his word. 
Whereby it appeareth, that faith is a certainty or assuredness. " These 
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of 
God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may- 
believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John v. 13. m 

A MAN IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. 

"Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteous- 
ness." Rom. iv. 3. "We conclude therefore, that a man is justified by 
faith, without the deeds of the law." Rom. hi. 28. "He that worketh 
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the wicked, his faith is counted 
to him for righteousness." Rom. iv. 5. " The just liveth by his faith." 
Hab. ii. 4. Heb. x. 38. "We know that a man is not justified by the 
deeds of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; and we believe in 
Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not 
by the deeds of the law." Gal. ii. 16. 

WHAT IS THE FAITH OF CHRIST 1 

The faith of Christ is to believe in him ; that is, to believe in his word, 
and believe that he will help us in all our need, and deliver us from all 
evil. If it be asked — what word? I answer with St. Paul, "The word 

m In the articles that were objected to this noble soul by the priests, was this s " A person 
professing the gospel, and who is not assured of his own salvation, is unworthy of beino- 
called a believer, since the very belief is itself the evidence of his conversion." Such was 
the faith of martyrs, and such must be the faith of all who believe that Jesus is the Christ. 
We say not that nothing is faith short of this full assuran-ce of personal salvation; but we 
say that every holy believer sooner or later acquires it, and is unworthy of the name if he 
live and die without it. 

9 2 C 



386 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of truth, and gospel of salvation." Eph. i. 13. " He that believeth in 
Christ shall be saved." Mark xvi. 16. " He that believeth the Son hath 
everlasting life." John iii. 36. "Verily I say unto you, he that believeth 
in me hath everlasting life." John vi. 24. "This I write unto you, that 
you believe on the Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal 
life." 1 John v. 13. "All the prophets to him bear witness, that who- 
soever believeth in him shall have remission of their sins." Acts x. 43. 
"What must I do to be saved?" was the question of the jailer. The 
apostle answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." Acts xvi. 30, 31. "If thou acknowledge with thy mouth that 
Jesus is the Lord, and believest with thine heart that God raised him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. x. 9. 

He that believeth not in Christ shall be condemned. — " He that 
believeth not the Son shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth 
on him." John iii. 18, 36. "The Holy Ghost shall reprove the world 
of sin, because they believe not in me." John xvi. 9. 

They that believe in Jesus Christ are the sons of God. — " Ye are all 
the sons of God, because ye believe in Jesus Christ." Gal. iii. 26. " He 
that believeth that Christ is the Son of God is safe." John i. 12. "Peter 
said, 'Thou art Christ the Son of the living God.' Jesus answered and 
said unto him, ' Happy art thou Simon the son of Jonas, for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.' " 
Matt. xvi. 17. "These things are written that ye might believe, that 
Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that ye in believing might have 
life." John xx. 36. 

Proposition. — He that believeth the gospel believeth God. 

Argument. — He that believeth God's word believeth God. The gospel 
is God's word ; therefore, it follows that he that believeth the gospel 
believeth God. Now to believe the gospel is this, "That Christ is the 
Saviour of the world." John iv. 42. And then faith is more particular, 
and saith, Christ is our Saviour. Christ bought us with his blood. 
Christ washed us with his blood. Christ offered himself for us. Christ 
bare our sins in his own flesh. 

Proposition. — He that believeth not the gospel believeth not God. 

Argument. — He that believeth not God's word, believeth not God 
himself. The gospel is God's word; therefore, we infer that he that 
believeth not the gospel believeth not God himself; and consequently 
he that believeth not those things above written, and such other as God 
has revealed, believeth not God. What then is the sum of all? He 
that believeth the gospel shall be saved. "Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believeth and is 
baptised shall be saved : but he that believeth not shall be condemned." 
Mark xvi. 16. 



A COMPARISON BETWEEN FAITH AND INCREDULITY. 

Faith is the root of all good. Incredulity is the root of all evil. 
Faith maketh God and man good "friends. Incredulity maketh them 
foes. 

Faith bringeth God and man together. Incredulity sundereth them. 



EXPOSITION OF HOPE AND CHARITY. 387 

All that faith doth pleaseth God. All that incredulity doth dis- 
pleaseth God. 

Faith only maketh a man good and righteous. Incredulity only 
maketh him unjust and evil. 

Faith maketh a man a member of Christ. Incredulity maketh him a 
member of the devil. 

Faith maketh a man an inheritor of heaven. Incredulity maketh him 
an inheritor of hell. 

Faith maketh a man a servant of God. Incredulity maketh him a 
servant of the devil. 

Faith sheweth us God to be a sweet father. Incredulity sheweth him 
a terrible judge. 

Faith holdeth stiff by the word of God. Incredulity wavereth here 
and there. 

Faith counteth and holdeth God to be true. Incredulity holdeth him 
false and a liar. 

Faith knoweth God. Incredulity knoweth him not. 

Faith loveth both God and his neighbour. Incredulity loveth neither 
of them. 

Faith only saveth us. Incredulity only condemneth us. 

Faith extolleth God and his deeds. Incredulity extolleth herself and 
her own deeds. 

DISSERTATION ON HOPE. 

Hope is a trusty looking after the thing that is promised us to come, 
as we hope after the everlasting joy, which Christ hath promised unto 
all that believe in him. Our hope and trust should be fixed on divine 
power and grace, and on them alone. " It is good to trust in God and 
not in man." Psalm cxviii. 8. " He that trusteth in his own heart is a 
fool." Prov. xxviii. 26. " It is good to trust in God, and not in 
princes." Psalm, cxviii. 9. "They shall be like unto the images which 
they make, and all that trust in them." Psalm cxv. 8. "He that 
trusteth in his own thoughts doth ungodly." Prov. xii. 5. " Cursed is 
he that trusteth in man." Jer. xvii. 5. " Bid the rich men of this world 
that they trust not in their unstable riches, but that they trust in the 
living God." 1 Tim. vi. 17. " It is hard for them that trust in money 
to enter into the kingdom of Heaven." Luke xviii. 24. 

Moreover, we should trust in him only that may help us; God only 
may help us, therefore we should trust in him only. — " Well are they 
that trust in God, and woe to them that trust not in him." Psalm ii. 12. 
Jer. xvii. 7. " He that trusteth in him shall understand the verity." 
Wisd. iii. 13. "They shall rejoice that trust in thee: they shall ever 
be glad, and thou wilt defend them." Psalm v. 11. 

OF CHARITY. 

Charity is the love of our neighbour. The rule of charity is this : do 
as thou wouldst be done to ; for Christ holdeth all alike, the rich and 
the poor, the friend and the foe, the thankful and the unthankful, the 



388 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

kinsman and the stranger. Wouldst thou know the line between this 
and the other christian virtues, faith and hope? then remember well that 
faith cometh of the word of God, hope cometh of faith, and chanty 
springeth of them both. Faith believeth the word; hope trusteth after 
that that is promised by the word : charity doth good unto her neighbour, 
through the love that it hath to God, and gladness that is within herself. 
Faith looketh to God and his word ; hope looketh unto his gift and 
reward : charity looketh on her neighbour's profit. Faith receiveth 
God; hope receiveth his reward : charity loveth her neighbour with a 
glad heart, and that without any respect of reward. Faith pertaineth to 
God only ; hope to his reward : and charity to her neighbour. Faith 
is the leading grace ; hope follows to anticipate the enjoyment of what 
faith believes : but charity endures when these have done their office — 
according to the apostle, " Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 
three ; but the greatest — that is, the most abiding — of these is charity. 
1 Cor. xiii. 13. 

THE DOCTRINE OF GOOD WORKS. 

No works of our own make us righteous before God. The apostle 
saith — " We believe that a man shall be justified without works." 
Rom. iii. 20. " No man is justified by the deeds of the law, but by the 
faith of Jesus Christ, and we believe in Jesus Christ that we may be 
justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the deeds of the law ; for if 
righteousness come by the law, then died Christ in vain." Gal. ii. 16. 17. 

Moreover since Christ the maker of heaven and earth, and all that is 
therein, behoved to die for us, we are compelled to grant that we were 
so far drowned and sunken in sin, that neither our deeds, nor all the 
treasures that ever God made or might make, could have holpen us out 
of them ; therefore no deeds or works may make us righteous. 

Nor are works necessary to make us unrighteous. 

If any evil works make us unrighteous, then the contrary works 
should make us righteous. But it is proved that no works can make us 
righteous : therefore no works make us unrighteous — that is, are neces- 
sary to constitute us guilty before God. It is proved that works neither 
make us righteous nor unrighteous ; for righteous and good are one thing, 
and unrighteous and evil likewise one. Good works make not a good 
man, nor evil works an evil man : but a good man bringeth forth good 
works, and an evil man evil works. Good fruit maketh not thetreegood, 
nor evil fruit the tree evil : but a good tree beareth good fruit, and an 
evil tree evil fruit. A good man cannot do evil works, nor an evil man 
good works ; for a good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor an evil tree good 
fruit. A man is good ere he do good works, and evil ere he do evil works : 
for the tree is good ere it bear good fruit, and evil ere it bear evil fruit. 

The conclusion from this is, that every man, and the works of man, 
are either good or evil. Every tree, and the fruits thereof, are either 
good or evil. " Either make ye the tree good, and the fruit good also, 
or else make the tree evil, and the fruit of it likewise evil." Mat. xii. 33. 
A good man is known by his works : for a good man doeth good works, 
and an evil man evil works. Ye shall know them by their fruit; for 






THE DOCTRINE OF WORKS. 389 

a good tree beareth good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit. A man is 
likened to the tree, and his works to the fruit of the tree. "Beware of 
the false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly 
they are ravening wolves : ye shall know them by their fruits." 
Matt. vii. 15. If works make us neither righteous nor unrighteous, then 
thou wilt say, It maketh no matter what we do. I answer, If thou do 
evil, it is a sure argument that thou art evil, and wantest faith. If thou 
do good it is an argument that thou art good, and hast faith ; for a good 
tree beareth good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit. Yet good fruit maketh 
not the tree good, nor evil fruit the tree evil ; so that man is good ere 
he do good deeds, and evil ere he do evil deeds. 

Faith maketh the good tree, and incredulity the evil tree : such a 
tree, such fruit, such a man, such works. For all things that are done 
in faith please God, and are good works ; and all that are done without 
faith displease God, and are evil works. Whosoever believeth or thinketh 
to be saved by his works, denieth that Christ is his saviour, that Christ died 
for him, and all things that pertain to Christ. For how is he thy saviour 
if thou mightest save thyself by thy works ? or whereto should he die 
for thee, if any works might have saved thee? What is this to say, Christ 
died for thee ? Verily that thou deservedstto have died perpetually ; and 
Christ to deliver thee from death died for thee, and changed thy per- 
petual death into his own temporary death : for thou madest the fault, 
and he suffered the pain, and that for the love he had to thee before 
thou wast born, when thou hadst done neither good nor evil. 

Now seeing he hath paid thy debt, thou needest not endeavour to pay 
it, neither couldst thou pay it ; but shouldst be damned if his blood 
were not to ransom thee. But since he was punished for thee, thou shall 
not be punished. For remember he hath delivered thee from thy con- 
demnation and all evil, and desireth nought of thee, but that thou wilt 
acknowledge what he hath done for thee, and bear it in mind, and that 
thou wouldst help others for his sake both in word and deed, even as he 
hath holpen thee for nought, and without reward. O how ready should 
we be to help others, if we knew his goodness and gentleness towards 
us ; he is a good and a gentle Lord, for he doth all for nought. Let us 
I beseech you, therefore, follow his footsteps, whom all the world ought 
to praise and worship. 11 

He that assumeth to save himself by his works calleth himself Jesus, 
a saviour, a name belonging not to any mere man, but to him alone who 
was the Son of God, and who was Christ as well as Jesus, anointed of 
God for our salvation. What is a saviour, but he that saveth ? and he 

n Some of the objectors to this doctrine contend, that it leads its professors to deny good 
works. They do certainly deny them as being the ground and cause of salvation, but they 
follow them as the consequence of salvation, they being the natural fruits of faith. A 
person cares but little for offending one who hates him; but if a person loves him, it is a 
grief to offend that person. "A child governed by fear," says a philosopher, "is always 
the weaker for it," and the obedience of fear can never be sincere. It is the known love 
of God shed abroad in the heart that is the best incentive to obedience ; and that obedience, 
which is accompanied by love, is the best offering that can be made to God. It is the 
grossest mockery in the world, for persons to join singing the praises and glory of God, who 
are in doubt as to their being acceptable; such melody may please themselves, it may 
please men; but it can never please him who seeks to be worshipped in truth. 



390 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that saith, I saved myself, is as much as to say, I am Christ ; for Christ 
only is the Saviour of the world. We should do no good works to the 
intent of getting the inheritance of heaven, or obtaining remission of sin. 
For whosoever believeth to get the inheritance of heaven, or remission 
of sin, through works, he believeth not to get the same for Christ's sake; 
and they that believe not that their sins are forgiven them, and that 
they shall be saved for Christ's sake, they believe not the Gospel : for 
the Gospel saith, " You shall be saved for Christ's sake, your sins are 
forgiven for Christ's sake." He that believeth not the gospel, believeth 
not God. So it followeth, that they which believe to be saved by their 
works, or to get remission of their sins by their own deeds, believe not 
God, but account him a liar, and so utterly deny him to be God. 

Objection. — Thou wilt say, shall we then do no good deeds ? 

I answer not so, but I say we should do no good works to the intent 
to get the inheritance of heaven, or remission of sin. For if we believe 
the inheritance of heaven to be through good works, then we believe 
not to get it through the promise of God. Or if we think to get remis- 
sion of our sins by our deeds, then we believe not that they are forgive* 
us, and so we count God a liar. For God saith, " Thou shalt have the 
inheritance of heaven for my Son's sake ; thy sins are forgiven thee for 
my Son's sake :" and you say it is not so, " But I will win it through 
my works." Thus you see I condemn not good deeds, but I condemn 
the false trust in any works ; for all the works wherein a man putteth 
any confidence, are therewith poisoned and become evil. 

Wherefore thou must do good works, but beware thou do them not 
to deserve any good through them ; for if thou do, thou receivest the 
good not as the gift of God, but as a debt to thee, and makest thyself 
fellow with God, because thou wilt take nothing of him for nought. 
And what needeth he any thing of thine, which giveth all things, and 
is not the poorer ? Therefore do nothing to him, but take of him, for 
he is a gentle Lord, and with a glad will giveth us all that we need, 
rather than we can deserve it of him. Press not therefore to the inheri- 
tance of heaven through presumption of thy good works ; for if thou 
do, thou countest thyself holy and equal to God, because thou wilt take 
nothing of him for nought ; and so shalt thou fall as Lucifer fell for his 
pride. 

The force of these truths, the firmness of the martyr's death, and the 
singular catastrophe of the Friar Campbell, made strong impressions on 
the people, and excited them to examine the principles which wrought 
such surprising effects. And now that these points began to be enquired 
into, many received them. Seaton, a dominican, the king's confessor, 
preaching in Lent, described the nature of true repentance, and the 
means of it, without mixing the directions which the friars commonly 
gave on that subject: and when another friar shewed the defectiveness 
of what he had taught, he defended himself in another sermon, and 
reflected on those bishops who did not preach, and called them dumb- 
dogs. But the clergy would not meddle with him, till they found him 
in ill terms with the king: and the freedom he used in reproving him 
for his vices, quickly alienated royal favour from him, upon which they 
resolved to fall on him. However, he withdrew into England, and wrote 



BURNING OF HENRY FOREST AND OTHERS. 391 

to the king, taxing the clergy for their cruelty, and praying him to 
restrain it. 

Henry Forest, a young man of Lithquow, soon appeared on the stage 
of reform, His first offence was in saying that Patrick Hamilton died a 
martyr, and that his articles were true : for which he was apprehended, 
and put in prison by James Beaton, archbishop of Saint Andrews. 
He shortly after caused a certain friar, named Walter Laing, to 
hear his confession. When Henry in secret confession had declared 
his conscience, that he thought Patrick to be a good man, and wrong- 
fully put to death, and that his articles were true and not heretical, 
the friar came and uttered to the bishop the confession he had heard, 
which before was not thoroughly known. The consequence was that 
his confession being brought as sufficient probation against him, he was 
summoned before the council of the clergy and doctors, there concluded 
to be a heretic, and decreed to be given to the secular judges to suffer death. 

When the day of his death came, and that he should first be degraded, 
he was brought before the clergy on a green between the castle of St. 
Andrews and a place called Monymaill. As soon as he entered in at 
the doors, and saw the faces of the clergy, perceiving whereunto they 
tended, he cried with a loud voice, " Fie on falsehood, fie on false friars, 
revealers of confession : after this day let no man trust any friars, 
contemners of God's word and deceivers of men." They then proceeded 
to degrade him of his orders, and he said with a loud voice, " Take from 
me not only your own orders, but also your own baptism :" meaning 
thereby whatever is besides that which Christ himself instituted. Then 
after his degradation, they condemned him as a heretic equal with 
Patrick : and he suffered death for his faithful testimony of the truth 
of Christ and of his gospel, at the north church-stile of the abbey church 
of St. Andrews, a conspicuous spot selected to the intent that all the 
people might see the fire, and thus might be deterred from falling into 
the like doctrine, which they term by the name of heresy. Forest died 
with firmness ; but he was not the last martyr of the age. 

Several others were brought into the bishops' courts, of whom the 
greatest part abjured ; but two suffered death, imitating the constancy of 
their friends, and rejoicing in the love of Christ. 

Their names were Norman Gurly and David Stratton. Gurly had said 
that there was no such place as purgatory, and that the pope was not a 
christian bishop, but antichrist, and had no jurisdiction in Scotland. 
Stratton was a fisherman ; he also said there was no purgatory, that 
the passion of Christ was the only expiation for sin, and that the tribu- 
lations of this world were the only sufferings that the saints underwent. 
When the vicar asked him for his tithe-fish, Stratton cast them to him 
out of the boat, so that some fell into the sea ; on which the other 
accused him as having said that no tythes should be paid. These two 
shrewd and firm men, though greatly solicited by the king, refused to 
recant, and were accordingly condemned by the bishop of Ross as here- 
tics, and burned upon the green side between Leith and Edinburgh, 
with a view to strike terror into the surrounding country. Several others 
were accused, and would have suffered ; but some fled to England, 
others to Germany, and all eventually escaped. 



392 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The changes made in England raised in all the people a curiosity of 
searching into matters of religion, which is always fatal to superstition. 
Pope Clement the seventh wrote earnestly to the king of Scotland, to 
continue firm to the Catholic faith : upon which he called a parliament, 
and made new laws for maintaining the pope's authority, and proceeding 
against heretics. But the pope could not engage him to make war on 
England. King Henry sent Barlow, bishop, of St. David's, to him with 
some books that were written in defence of his proceedings, and desired 
him to examine them impartially. He also proposed an interview at 
York, and a match between him and lady Mary, the king's eldest 
daughter ; and promised that he should be made duke of York, and 
lord-lieutenant of the whole kingdom. Yet the clergy diverted him 
from this welcome prospect, and working on his fears, persuaded him 
to go in person to France and court Madelaine, daughter of the French 
king. He accordingly gratified their wishes, and married her in January 
1537 ; but she died in May. This princess had been bred in the queen 
of Navarre's court, and was well disposed towards the reformation. 
Upon her death the king married Mary of Guise ; she was a branch of 
the family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old 
superstition ; and her interest, joined with the influence of the clergy, 
engaged the king to become a violent persecutor of all who were of 
another mind. 

The king of Scotland was very expensive both in his pleasures and 
buildings, so that he came to want money more than ever. The nobility 
proposed to him seizing on the abbey-lands as his uncle had done. The 
clergy, on the other hand, advised him to proceed severely against all 
suspected of heresy ; by which means, according to the lists they shewed 
him, he might raise 100,000 crowns a year. They also advised him to 
provide his children with abbeys and priories ; and represented to him, 
that if he continued stedfast in the old religion, he would still have a 
great party in England, and might be made the head of a league which 
was then in project against the English king. This so far prevailed with 
him, that as he made four of his sons abbots and priors, so he gave way 
to the persecuting spirit of the clergy : upon which many reformers were 
cited to answer for heresy ; some of these abjured, and some were 
banished. A canon regular, a secular priest, two friars, and a gentleman 
were burnt, 

Forest, the canon regular, had been reproved by his ordinary, the 
bishop of Dunkall, for meddling with the Scriptures too much. The 
bishop told him he had lived long, and had never known what was in the 
Old or New Testament ; but contented himself with his portoise and 
pontifical ; and that Forest might come to repent it if he troubled him- 
self with such fancies. The archbishop of Glasgow was a moderate man, 
and disliked cruel proceedings. Russel, a friar, and Kennedy, a young 
man of good family, were brought before him ; they expressed wonder- 
ful joy, and a steady resolution in their sufferings. And after a long 
dispute between Russel and the archbishop's divines, Russel concluded, 
"This is your hour, and the power of darkness; go on, and fill up the 
measure of your iniquities." 

The archbishop was unwilling to give sentence ; he said, he thought 



EXAMINATION OF THE QUEEN AND HER ACCOMPLICES. 393 

these executions did the church more hurt than good. But those about 
him said that he must not take a different way from the rest of the 
bishops, and threatened him till he pronounced sentence. They were 
accordingly burned ; but they gave such demonstrations of patience and 
joy, as made no small impression on all who saw or heard of their con- 
duct. Among those who were in trouble was George Buchanan, who, 
at the king's instigation, had written a very sharp poem against the 
Franciscans, but was now abandoned by him. He made his escape, 
and lived twenty years in foreign parts, and at last returned to do his 
country honour ; and what by his poems and by his history of Scotland 
he showed how great a master he was in the Roman tongue, and how 
true a judge he was, both in wit against church abuses, and in the know- 
ledge of human affairs. 

King Henry, finding that his nephew did not come to meet him, stayed 
not long at York. He issued a proclamation inviting all that had been 
of late oppressed, to come to him and make their complaints, and he 
promised to repair them. This was done to cast the load of all past 
errors upon Cromwell. The king was greatly delighted by the charms 
of his new wife ; so that on the first of November he gave public thanks 
to God for the happy choice he had made : but he had soon cause to 
change his tone and opinion ; for the next day Cranmer came, and gave 
him an account of the queen's ill life, which one Lassels had revealed 
to him, as having learnt it from his sister. She had been very lewd be- 
fore her marriage with two persons, one named Deirham and the other 
named Mannock. Cranmer, by the advice of the other privy-counsel- 
lors, put this in writing, and delivered it to Henry, not knowing how 
to open it in discourse. The king was struck with it, and was at first 
inclined to believe it a forgery ; he, however, ordered a strict enquiry 
to be made into it, and quickly found proof enough ; for the queen had 
so far cast off both modesty and the fear of discovery, that several 
women had been witnesses to her lewdness. It also appeared, that she 
intended to continue in that ill course ; for she had brought Deirham 
into her service ; and at Lincoln, by the lady Rochford's means, one 
Culpeper was brought to her in the night, and stayed many hours with 
her, and at his going away she gave him a gold chain. The queen, 
after a slight denial at first, did at last confess all. Deirham and Cul- 
peper were executed, and a parliament was called upon it. 

At the first meeting a committee was sent to examine the queen : their 
report is recorded only in general terms, that she confessed ; but no 
particulars are mentioned. Upon this they passed an act in the form of 
a petition, in which they prayed the king, that the queen and her ac- 
complices, with her bawd the lady Rochford, might be attainted of trea- 
son ; and that all those who knew of the queen's vicious course before 
her marriage might be attainted of misprision of treason for not reveal- 
ing it to the king before he married her. Among these were her father 
and mother, and her grandmother, the duchess of Norfolk. It was 
also declared treason to know any thing of the incontinence of any 
queen for the future, and not to reveal it. And it was made treason in 
any whom the king intended to marry judging they were maids, not to 
reveal it if they were not such. The queen and the lady Rochford 



394 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

were beheaded on the 14th of February. The former confessed her 
incontinence before her marriage, but denied to the last that she had 
broken her marriage vow, though the lasciviousness of her former life 
easily inclined the world to believe the worst of her. 

All reflecting persons observed the judgment of God on the lady 
Rochford, who had been so instrumental in the ruin of Anne Boleyn 
and her own husband : and when she, to whose artifices their fall was in 
a great measure ascribed, was found to be so vile a woman, it removed 
every remaining doubt of their innocence. The attainting the unhappy 
queen's kindred and parents, for not discovering her former lewdness, 
was thought extreme severity ; for it had been a hard piece of duty to 
the king for them to have discovered such a secret : hence though they 
lay some time in prison, the king, when his anger was abated, pardoned 
them. That other proviso, obliging a young woman to discover her 
own faultiness, if the king should make love to her, was thought a piece 
of grievous tyranny : so that it was not so much choice as necessity, 
that made him marry a widow two years after. Some hospitals were 
this year resigned to the king ; but there was good ground to question 
the validity of the deeds, because by their statutes it was provided, that 
the consent of all the fellows was necessary to make any deeds re- 
lating to them good in law : on this account those statutes were by a 
special act annulled, and this made way for the dissolution of many 
hospitals. 

The bishops sitting in convocation, took great pains to suppress the 
English Bible ; but the king could not be prevailed on directly to call 
it in. They therefore complained much of the translation then set out; 
and pretended to procure a condemnation of it on the plea that they 
would set about a new one; in which it would be easy to put such 
delays that it should not be finished in many years. Gardiner also pro- 
posed a singular conceit, namely, that many of the Latin words should 
be still retained in the English ; for he thought they had either such a 
majesty, or so peculiar a signification, that they could not be fitly trans- 
lated. He proposed an hundred of these, and it seems hoped that if 
this could be carried, the translation would be so full of Latin words, 
that the people could not at last understand it. Cranmer, perceiving 
that the Bible was the great annoyance to the papal party, and that they 
were resolved to suppress it by all the means they could think of, procured 
an order from the king, referring the correction of the translation to the 
two universities. The bishops took this very ill, and all of them, except 
those of Ely and St. David's, protested against it. 

In the former times there had been few or no sermons, except in Lent; 
for on holy days the sermons were panegyrics on the saints, and on the 
virtue of their relics. But in Lent there was a more solemn way of 
preaching ; and the friars maintained their credit much by the pathetic 
sermons they preached at that season, and by which they wrought much 
on the feelings of the people; yet these for the most part tended to 
extol some of the laws of the church, as fasting, confession, and other 
austerities, with undertaking pilgrimages ; but they were careful to 
acquaint the people as little as possible with the true simplicity of Chris- 
tianity, and they seemed designed rather to raise a sudden heat, than to 



STATUTE REGULATING THE USE OF RELIGIOUS BOOKS. 395 

work a real change in their auditors. They also mixed so much of 
legends with their sermons, that the people came to disbelieve all that 
they said for the sake of those fabulous things, with which every dis- 
course was debased. The reformers, on the other hand, took pains to 
instruct their hearers in the fundamentals of religion, of which they had 
known little formerly : this made the nation follow the new teachers 
with a wonderful zeal : but some of these mixed more sharpness against 
the friars in their sermons than perhaps became their profession, although 
the hypocrisy of the latter did in a great measure excuse those heats. 
It was observed that our Saviour had exposed the Pharisees in so plain 
a manner, that it justified resentment for the cruelties which they or 
their friends had suffered by treating them in return with roughness ; it 
is not, however, to be denied but that such measures might have too 
much influence on them. This made it necessary to suffer none to 
preach, at least out of their own parishes, without licence, and many 
were licensed to preach as itinerants. There was also published a book 
of homilies on all the epistles and gospels in the year, which 
contained a plain paraphrase of those parts of scripture, together 
with some practical exhortations founded on them. Many complaints 
were made of those who were licensed to preach, and that they might 
be able to justify themselves, they began generally to write and read 
their sermons ; and thus commenced a practice more discouraging 
to the advance of a zealous piety than can easily be found among 
the lawful customs of the English church. 

Plays and interludes were a great abuse in that time ; in them mock 
representations were made both of the clergy and of the pageantry of 
their worship. The clergy complained much of these as an introduction 
to atheism, when things sacred were thus burlesqued and laughed at. 
They said that such as began to laugh at abuses, would not cease till they 
had represented all the mysteries of religion as ridiculous : the more en- 
lightened reformers also condemned it, and judged it an improper method 
of treating the subject. 

In 1543, a bill was proposed by Cranmer for the advancement of true 
religion, for the spirits of the popish party were much fallen ever since 
the last queen's death ; yet at this time a treaty was set on foot between 
the king and the emperor, which raised them a little : for the king being 
likely to engage in a war with France, it was necessary for him to make 

* The editor wishes not to be suspected of offering an apology for a theatrical representa- 
tion of religious subjects or ceremonies of any kind : such a mode of amusing the world is 
made at too great an expense of sacred propriety and feeling not to be at once condemned. 
He must, however, be allowed to say that for much of this practice in England at the 
period now in view, and on the continent to the present day, papists must be content to 
consider themselves responsible. How can they blame men for rehearsing in other places 
the comedies and tragedies which they themselves perform in their several churches ! What 
are these churches but so many theatres for the exhibition of scenes, which are a much 
greater burlesque on christian devotion than any theatrical exhibition can be of the general 
worship of catholic priests and people ! If any doubt this, let them go behind the scenes — 
there the editor has been more than once or twice, and he is assured that no collection of 
properties behind the scenes of a theatre can surpass in ridiculous mummery the collection 
of stars and crowns, of caps and garments, of plans and frames, of crosses and banners, 
and other unmentionable trumpery, to be found in the recesses of every considerable popish 
church. 



396 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the emperor his friend. Cranmer's motion was much opposed, and the 
timorous bishops, who at first joined him, forsook him ; yet he proceeded 
with it as far as it would go, though in most points things went against 
him. By it Tindal's translation of the Bible was condemned as crafty 
and false, and also all other books contrary to the doctrine set forth 
by the bishops. But bibles of another translation were still allowed to 
be kept, only all prefaces or annotations that might be in them were to 
be erased. The king's injunctions were confirmed : no books of religion 
were to be printed without licence ; there was to be no exposition of 
scripture in plays or interludes ; none of the laity might read the scrip- 
ture, or explain it in any public assembly : but a proviso was made for 
public speeches, which then began generally with a text of scripture, 
and were like modern sermons. Noblemen, gentlemen, and their wives, 
or merchants, might have bibles ; but no ordinary woman, tradesman, 
apprentice, or husbandman, was allowed to retain any : every person 
might have the book set out by the bishops, the psalter, and other rudi- 
ments of religion, in English. All churchmen who preached contrary 
to that book, for the first offence were only required to recant ; for the 
second to abjure and carry a fagot ; but for the third they were to be 
burnt. The laity, for the third offence, were only to forfeit their goods 
and chattels, and to be liable to perpetual imprisonment ; but they were 
to be proceeded against within a year. The parties accused were not 
allowed witnesses for their defence. The act of the six articles was 
confirmed, and it was left free to the king to change this act or any 
proviso in it. There was also a new act passed, giving authority to the 
king's proclamations, and any nine privy-counsellors were empowered 
to proceed against offenders. To this the lord Mountjoy dissented, and 
it is the only instance of protestation against any of the public acts 
which passed in this reign. 

The act being put entirely in the king's power, he had now the refor- 
mers at his mercy ; for he could bind up the act, to execute it as he 
pleased ; and he affected much to have his people depend entirely upon 
him. The league offensive and defensive for England and Calais, and 
for the Netherlands, was sworn to by the king and the emperor : and 
assurances were given, that though the king would not declare lady Mary 
legitimate, upon which the emperor insisted much, yet she should be 
put in the succession to the crown next to prince Edward. The emperor 
was glad thus to engage the kings of England and France in a war, by 
which the Germans being left without support, enabled him to carry on 
his great design of making himself master of Germany. 

The war with France, accordingly, began the same year, and one of 
the reasons which Henry assigned for it was, that Francis had failed in 
the matter of shaking off the pope's authority, and advancing a refor- 
mation, in which he had promised to second him. In the same year the 
king espoused Catherine Parr, widow to Nevill, lord Latimer. This lady 
secretly favoured the reformation, but could not divert a storm which fell 
on a family at Windsor. This family consisted of the following per- 
sons, whose shameful persecution it will be proper to examine at some 
length: Robert Testwood, Henry Filmer, Anthony Pearson, John Mar- 
beck, Robert Benet, Sir Philip Hobby and his wife, Sir Thomas Cardine 



DISCUSSION BETWEEN TESTWOOD AND ELY. 397 

and his wife, Edmund Harman, Thomas Weldon, William Snowball and 
his wife of the king's chamber, and Dr. Haynes, dean of Exeter. 

The commencement of this persecution was thus : Robert Testwood 
dwelling in the city of London, had by his knowledge in music attained 
so great a name that the musicians in Windsor college thought him wor- 
thy to have a place among them ; whereupon they informed doctor 
Sampson, then their dean, of him and their purpose. But as some of 
the canons had heard of Testwood that he smelled of the new 
learning, as they called it, they would not consent to it at first. 
Notwithstanding, with the earnest suit of the musicians made to 
one doctor Tate,P a place being void, Testwood was sent for to be 
heard. Being there four or five days among the choir-men, he 
was so well liked, both for his voice and skill, that he was admitted 
and settled in Windsor with his household, and held in estimation 
with the dean and canons a great while ; but when they perceived him 
by his talk at their tables (for he could not well dissemble his religion) 
that he leaned to Luther's sect* they began to dislike him. It was his 
chance one day to be at dinner with one of the canons, named doctor 
Rawson, at which was one of king Edward's four chantry priests, named 
Ely, an old bachelor of divinity. Mr. Ely, in his talk at the board, 
began to rail against laymen who took upon them to meddle with the 
scriptures, and to be better learned, knowing only the English tongue, 
than they who had been students in the universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Testwood, perceiving he meant that for him, could bear his 
railing no longer, and said, " Mr. Ely, by your patience, I think it be' 
no hurt for layman as I am to read and to know the scriptures." 

" Which of you," quoth Ely, " that be unlearned, knoweth them or 
understandeth them ? St. Paul saith, ' If thine enemy hunger, feed 
him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; and in so doing thou shalt heap 
coals of fire upon his head.' Now, sir," quoth Ely, " what meaneth 
St. Paul by those coals of fire ?" " Marry, sir," quoth Testwood, "he 
meaneth nothing else by them, as I have learned, but burning charity, 
that by doing good to our enemies we should thereby win them." " Ah, 
sirrah," quoth he, " you are an old scholar indeed !" Then they began 
disputing about the pope, whose supremacy was much spoken of at that 
time, but not known to be so far in question in parliament as it was. 
In their talk Ely demanded of Testwood, whether the pope ought to be 
the head of their church or no ; against which Testwood durst not say 
his full mind, but reasoned a great while. When they were both well 
stricken in a heat, Testwood, forgetting himself, chanced to say, " Every 
king, in his own realm and dominion, ought to be the head of the church 
under Christ." At these words Ely was so chafed, that he rose up from 
the table in a great fume, calling Testwood a heretic, and so went braw- 
ling and chiding away, to the great disquiet of all the company that were 
there. Testwood was sorry to see the old man act such a part, and 
after dinner he went and sought him, and found him walking in the 
body of the church, thinking to have talked with him charitably; but 
as Testwood pressed towards him, the other shunned him, and would not 

p This was an ancestor, we believe grandfather or great grandfather, to the Nahum Tate 
to whom we are indebted for the new version of the Psalms. 



398 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

come nigh him ; saying to others that walked by, " Beware of this fel- 
low, for he is the greatest heretic and schismatic than ever came into 
Windsor." 

Now began the matter to brew. When Ely had made his complaint 
to the dean's deputy and other of the canons, they were all against 
Testwood, purposing at the dean's coming home to accuse him ; but it 
was not twelve days ere the king's supremacy passed in the parliament- 
house. Whereupon the dean, Dr. Sampson, came home suddenly in the 
night late, and sent his verger about to all the canons and ministers of 
the college, from the highest to the lowest, commanding them to be in 
the Chapter-house by eight o'clock in the morning. Then Ely consulted 
with the canons overnight, and thought on the next day to have put 
Testwood to great distress. " But he that layeth a snare for another 
man shall be taken in it himself." Thus it was with Ely: for when the 
dean and other officials were in the Chapter-house, and the dean had 
commended the ministers of the church for their diligence in attending 
the choir, exhorting them also to continue in the same ; he began, con- 
trary to every man's expection, to inveigh against the bishop of Rome's 
supremacy and authority, confounding the same by manifest scriptures 
and probable reasons so earnestly, that it was a wonder to hear him ; 
and at length declared openly, that by the unanimous consent of parlia- 
ment, the pope's supremacy was utterly abolished out of this realm of 
England for ever; and so commanded every man there, upon his alle- 
giance, to call him pope no more, but bishop of Rome, and whosoever 
he was that would not so do, or did from that day forth maintain or 
favour his cause by any means, he should not only lose the benefit of 
that house, but be reputed as an utter enemy to God and to the king. 
The canons on hearing this were all thunder-struck. Ely's heart was 
ready to burst, and he began to belch forth his fury against Testwood ; 
but the dean, breaking his tale, called him an old fool, and took him up 
so sharply, that he was obliged to hold his peace. Then the dean com- 
manded all the pope's pardons which hung about the church to be 
brought into the Chapter-house, and burnt before all their faces. 

As Testwood one day walked in the church and beheld the pilgrims, 
especially of Devonshire and Cornwall, come in with candles and 
images of wax in their hands, to offer to good king Henry of Windsor 
as they called him, it pitied his heart to see such great idolatry committed 
and how vainly the people spent their goods in coming so far to kiss a 
spur, and to have an old hat set upon their heads. He was so ardent 
that he could not refrain, seeing a certain company which had done their 
offering stand gazing about the church, went to them, and began to 
exhort them to leave such false worshipping of dumb creatures, and to 
learn to worship the true living God, putting them in remembrance what 
those things were which they worshipped, and how God many times had 
plagued his people for running to such stocks and stones, and so would 
plague them and their posterity, if they would not keep themselves from 
idols. He admonished them so long, till at last his words affected some of 
them, that they said they never would go a pilgrimage more. Then he went 
further, and found another kissing a white lady made of alabaster, which 
was in a wall behind the high altar, and adorned with a fringe made like 



TESTWOOD DEFACES AN IMAGE. 399 

branches with hanging apples and flowers. On seeing several so super- 
stitiously use the image, as to wipe their hands upon it, and then to 
stroke them over their heads and faces, as though there had been great 
virtue in touching the picture, he lifted up his hand, in the which he 
had a key, and smote a piece of the border about the image, and with 
a slight inadvertent stroke chanced to break off the idol's nose. " Lo, 
good people," quoth he, " you see what it is, nothing but earth and can- 
not help itself; and how then will you have it to help you? For God's 
sake, brethren, be no more deceived." And as he went home to his house 
the rumour was so great, that many came to see the image as it was 
defaced ; and among others one William Simons, a lawyer, who seeing 
the image to lack its nose, took the matter grievously, and looking down 
upon the pavement, he spied the broken fragment, which he took up and 
put in his purse, saying it should be a dear nose to the infidel Testwood. 

Many were offended with Testwood; the canons for his speaking against 
their profit, the wax merchants for hindering their market, and Simons 
for an art which threatened to deprive him of certain fees and gains. 
There were of the canons men that threatened to kill him : where- 
upon Testwood kept his house, and durst not come forth, but sent the 
whole matter in writing by his wife to Cromwell, the king's secretary, 
who was his special friend. The canons hearing that Testwood would 
send to Cromwell, sent the verger unto him, to induce him to come to 
the church ; but he sent them word again that he was in fear of his life, 
and therefore would not come. Then they sent two of the eider minor 
canons to entreat him, and to assure him that no man should do him 
harm. He made them a plain answer, that he had no trust in their 
promises, but would complain to his friends. Then not knowing what 
shift to make, for of all men they feared Cromwell, they sent post haste 
for an old gentleman named Ward, a justice of peace, dwelling three or 
four miles off, who on hearing the matter was loath to meddle in it. 
But through their entreaty he went to Testwood, and had much ado to 
persuade him ; but at last he did faithfully promise him, by the oath he 
had made to God and the king, to defend him from all danger and harm, 
and Testwood was content to go with him. When they were come into 
the church, and were going toward the Chapter-House, where the canons 
abode their coming, one of the men drew his dagger at Testwood, and 
would have killed him ; but Ward with his man resisted, and got Test- 
wood into the Chapter-house, causing the assassin to be called in and 
sharply rebuked. Testwood, being alone in the Chapter-House with the 
canons and Ward, was gently treated, and the matter so pacified that 
Testwood might quietly come and go to the church, and do his duty as 
he had done before. 

Upon a relic Sunday, when every minister after their custom should 
have borne a relic in a procession, one was brought to Testwood, which 
as they said, was a rochet of bishop Becket's. But as the sexton would 
have put the rochet in Testwood's hands, he pushed it from him, saying, 
if he did give it to him, he would use it for an unclean purpose; and so 
the rochet was given to another. This is one among several instances of 
the rash and indecent conduct of the zealous protestants of that age. 
They might doubtless often have escaped annoyance and suffering had 



■a 



400 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

they adopted a gentler and more prudent course. The taste of the times, 
however, and the irritating provocation they received, offer considerable 
apology for their ebullitions of displeasure and impropriety. 

In the days of Mr. Franklin, who succeeded Dr. Sampson in the 
deanery of Windsor, there was set up at the choir door a certain foolish 
printed paper in rhyme to the praise and commendation of our lady, 
ascribing unto her our justification, our salvation, our redemption, the 
forgiveness of sins, to the great derogation of Christ : this paper one of 
the canons, named Magnus, caused to be set up in despite of Test- 
wood and his sect. When Testwood saw the paper, he plucked it 
down secretly. The next day another was set up in the same place. 
Then Testwood coming into the church, and seeing another paper 
set up, and also the dean coming a little way off, made haste to be 
at the choir door, while the dean stayed to take holy water ; then 
reaching up his hand as he went he plucked away the paper with 
him. The dean being come to his stall called Testwood to him, 
and said, that he marvelled greatly how he durst be so bold to take down 
the paper in his presence; Testwood answered again, that he marvelled 
much more that his reverence would suffer such a blasphemous paper to 
to be set up, beseeching him not to be offended with what he had done, 
for he would stand to it. After this were no more papers set up, but 
poor Testwood was reviled as a heretic deserving of death. Such were 
the principal causes which moved Testwood's enemies to seek his des- 
truction ; but they could not attain their purpose, till that wicked Haman 
Dr. Loudon came into office at Windsor as one of the prebendaries. 

Anthony Pearson frequently went to Windsor, about the year of our 
Lord 1540, and using the talent that God had given him in preaching, 
was greatly esteemed among the people, who flocked so much to his ser^ 
mons both in town and country, that the great priests of the castle* with 
other papists in the town* especially Simons, were sore offended : inso- 
much, that Simons at the last began to take down his sermons, and to 
mark his auditors; whereof ensued the death of many honest men. 
About a year and more after Dr. Loudon, warden of the New College 
in Oxford, was admitted one of the prebendaries of Windsor, who, at 
his first coming to Windsor, began to betray his bitter aversion to the 
friends of the Lutheran doctrine. At his first residence dinner which 
he made to the clerks, who for the most part at that time favoured the 
gospel, all his whole talk to two gentlemen, strangers at his board, was 
nothing else but of heretics, and what a desolation they would bring 
the realm to, if they were to be suffered. " And by St. Mary, masters," 
quoth he to the clerks at last, " I cannot tell, but there goeth a shrewd 
report abroad of this house." Some made answer, it was undeserved. 
"1 pray God it be. I am but a stranger, and have but small experience 
amongst you ; but I have heard it said before I came hither, that there be 
some in this house that will neither have prayer nor fasting." 

Then Testwood could not refrain, but said, " By my troth, sir, I 
think that was spoken in malice : for prayer, as you know better than 
I, is one of the first lessons that Christ taught us." " Yea sir," quoth he, 
"but the heretics will have no invocation to saints, which all the oil 
fathers do allow." " What the old fathers do allow," quoth Testwood, 



COMPLAINTS AGAINST HERETICS. 401 

" I cannot tell ; but scripture doth appoint us to go to the Father, and to 
ask our petitions of him in Christ's name." " Then you will have no mean 
between you and God," quoth the doctor. " Yes, sir," quoth Testwood, 
" our mean is Christ, as St. Paul saith, ' There is one mediator between 
God and man, even Jesus Christ.' " " Give us water," quoth the enraged 
doctor, as though he were rendered impure by heretical company. Water 
being set on the board, he said grace and washed, and so falling into 
other communication with the stranger, the clerks took their leave and 
departed. 

When this new and haughty prebendary had been at Windsor awhile 
among his catholic brethren, and learned what Testwood was, and also 
of Simons what a sort of heretics were in the town and about the same, 
and how they increased daily by reason of a priest called Anthony Pear- 
son, he was so maliciously set against them, that he appeared almost in- 
fernally bent on doing them injury. To bring his wicked purpose about 
he conspired with Simons, a meet clerk to serve such a curate, how they 
might compass the matter, first to have all the arch-heretics, as they 
termed them, in Windsor and thereabout indicted, and if possible 
punished and destroyed. They had good ground to work upon, as they 
thought, which was the six articles, on which foundation they began to 
build. First, they drew out certain notes of Anthony Pearson's ser- 
mons, which he had preached against the sacrament of the altar, and 
their popish mass. That done, they accused Sir William Hobby with 
his wife, Sir Thomas Cardine, Mr. Edmund Harman, Mr. Thomas 
Weldon, with one Snowball and his wife, as chief aiders and maintainers 
of Anthony Pearson. Also they noted Dr. Haynes, dean of Exeter, 
and a prebendary of Windsor, to be a common receiver of all suspected 
persons. They wrote the names of all such as commonly attended 
Anthony Pearson's sermons, and of all such as had the Testament and 
favoured the gospel. 

They employed spies to walk up and down the church, to hear what 
men said, and to mark who did not reverence the sacrament at the eleva- 
tion time, and to bring the name of every offender. Of these spies some 
were chantry priests : among which there was one notable spy, Sir 
William Bows, a fleering priest, as would be in every corner of the church 
pattering to himself, with his portoise in his hand, to hear and note the 
gesture of men towards the sacrament. Thus, when they had gathered 
as much as they could, and made a perfect book thereof, Loudon, with 
two of his catholic brethren, gave them to the bishop of Winchester, 
Stephen Gardiner, with a great complaint against the heretics that were 
in Windsor, declaring the town was disquieted through their doctrine 
and evil example, and beseeching his lordship's help, in purging both 
town and castle of such wicked persons. The bishop hearing their com- 
plaint and seeing their book, praised their doings, and bade them make 
friends and go forward, and they should not want his help. Then they 
applied to the matter seriously, sparing no money nor pains, as Marbeck 
says that he heard one of them say, who was afterwards sorry for what 
he had done, that it cost him that year, for his part only, an hundred 
marks, besides the death of three good horses. 

Bishop Gardiner now brought Wriothsley and other of the council on 

2 d 




402 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

his side, and went to the king, complaining what sort of heretics he had 
in his realm, and how they not only crept into every corner of his court, 
but even into his privy chamber, beseeching his majesty that his laws 
might be executed. The king, giving credit to the council's words, was 
content his laws should be executed on such as were offenders. Then 
had the bishop what he desired, and forthwith procured a commission for 
private search to be made in Windsor for books and letters that Anthony 
Pearson intended to send abroad : this commission the king granted to 
take place in the town of Windsor, but not in the castle. 

About the same time the canons of Exeter, especially Suthran, trea- 
surer of the church, and Brurewood the chancellor, had accused Dr. 
Haynes, their dean, to the council, for preaching against holy bread 
and water, and that he had said in one of his sermons that marriage and 
hanging were destiny ; upon which they imputed treason to him, because 
of the king's marriage. The bishop of Winchester had also informed the 
council of Sir W. Hobby, how he was a supporter of Anthony Pearson, 
and a great maintainer of heretics : whereupon both he and Dr. Haynes 
were apprehended and sent to the Fleet. But not very long after, by 
the mediation of friends, they were both released ; it was supposed by 
the king's command, because marriage was too tender a subject for him 
to allow to be discussed. 

As to the commission for searching for books, Ward and Fachel of 
Reading were appointed commissioners, and came to Windsor the 
Thursday before Palm-Sunday, in the year 1543, and began their search 
about eleven o'clock at night. There were then apprehended Robert 
Benet, Henry Filmer, John Marbeck, and Robert Testwood, for certain 
books and writings found in their houses against the six articles : they 
were kept till Monday after, and then fetched up to the council, except- 
ing Testwood, with whom the bailiffs of the town were charged, because 
he lay diseased of the gout. The other three, being examined before 
the council, were committed to prison ; Filmer and Benet to the bishop 
of London's gaol, and Marbeck to the Marshalsea. His examination 
we shall here give, to the great goodness of the council, and the cruelty 
of the bishop. We are of opinion, and are convinced that our readers 
will coincide with us, that it would deteriorate the importance of these 
arguments, were we strictly to modernize the style in which they were 
delivered : we have, therefore, only changed such expressions as, being 
now obsolete, would not be understood by the general reader ; and the 
speeches, in consequence, remain nearly as they were uttered by the 
Christians and their accusers. 

Marbeck had begun a great work in English, called The Concordance 
of the Bible ; which not being half finished, was among his other books 
taken in the search, and given up to the council. When he came into 
their presence to be examined, the whole work lay before the bishop of 
Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, at the upper end of the board. Looking 
steadfastly at the poor man awhile the bishop said, " Marbeck, dost thou 
knowwherefore thou art sentfor?" " No my lord," quoth he. " No !" quoth 
the bishop ; " that is a marvellous thing." " Forsooth my lord," quoth 
he, " unless it be for a certain search made of late in Windsor, I cannot 
tell wherefore it should be." "Then thou knowest the matter well 






THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF MAHBECK. 403 

enough," quoth the bishop; and taking up a quire of the Concordance 
in his hand, said, " Understandeth thou the Latin tongue V " No, my 
lord," quoth he, " but simply." " No !" quoth the bishop. And with 
that spake Mr. Wriothsley, then secretary to the. king, " He saith but sim- 
ply." " I cannot tell," quoth the bishop, " but the book is translated 
word for word out of the Latin Concordance," and so began to declare 
to the rest of the council the nature of a Concordance, and how it was 
first compiled in Latin by the great diligence of the learned men for the 
ease of preachers ; concluding with this reason, that if such a book 
should go forth in English, it would destroy the Latin tongue. Then 
casting down the quire, he reached another book> the book of Isaiah the 
prophet, and turning to the last chapter, gave the book to Marbeck, 
and asked him who had written the note in the margin. Marbeck look- 
ing upon it, said, " Forsooth, my lord, I wrote it." " Read it," quoth 
the bishop. Then he read it thus : " Heaven is my seat, and the earth 
is my foot-stool." " Nay," quoth the bishop, " read it as thou hast 
written it." " Then shall I read it wrong," quoth he, " for I had written it 
false." " How hadst thou written it?" quoth the bishop. " I had writ- 
ten it," quoth he, " Heaven is my seat, and the earth is not my foot- 
stool." " Yea," quoth the bishop, " that was thy meaning." " No 
my lord," quoth he, " it was but an oversight in writing; for, as your 
lordship seeth, this negative is blotted out." At this time came other 
matters into the council, so that Marbeck was sent out to the next cham- 
ber. When he had stayed there awhile, one of the council, named Sir 
Anthony Wingfield, captain of the guard, came forth, and calling for 
Marbeck) committed him to one Belson of the guard, saying to him, 
" Take this man and have him to the Marshalsea, and tell the keeper 
that it is the council's pleasure that he should be treated gently^ and if 
he have any money in his purse, as I think he hath not much, take it 
from him, lest the prisoners take it, and minister it to him as he shall 
have need." The messenger departed with Marbeck to the Marshalsea, 
and did his commission faithfully. The hope of the prisoner that he 
should soon be released was revived by the result of this examination. 
However on the next day, at eight o'clock in the morning, there came 
one of the bishop of Winchester's gentlemen into the Marshalsea, whose 
man brought after him two great books under his arm, and finding Mar- 
beck walking up and down in the chapel, demanded of the keeper why 
he was not in irons. " I had no such command," quoth he, " for the 
messenger who brought him yesternight from the council, said it was their 
pleasure he should be gently used." " My lord," quoth the gentleman, 
whose name was Knight, "will not be content with you;" and so 
taking the book of his man, he called for a chamber, to which he com- 
manded the prisoner* and casting the books from him upon a bed, sat 
down and said, " Marbeck, my lord doth favour thee well for certain good 
qualities that thou hast, and hath sent me hither to admonish thee to 
beware, lest thou cast away thyself wilfully. If thou wilt be plain, thou 
shalt do thyself much good ; if not, thou shalt do thyself much harm. 
I assure thee, my lord laments thy case, for as much as he hath always 
heard good report of thee ; wherefore now see to thyself, and play the 
wise man. Thou art acquainted with great heretics, as Hobby and 



404 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






Haynes, and with many others beside, and knowest much of their secrets; 
if thou wilt open them at my lord's request, he will procure thy deliver- 
ance out of hand, and prefer thee to a better living." 

" Alas, Sir," quoth he, "what secrets do I know? I am but a poor 
man, and was never worthy to be so conversant either with Mr. Hobby 
or Mr. Haynes, as to know any part of their minds." " Well," quoth 
the gentleman, "make it not so strange, for my lord doth know well 
enough in what estimation they held both thee and Anthony Pearson, 
for your religion." " For Anthony Pearson," quoth he, " I can say 
nothing, for I never saw him with them in all my life ; and as for my- 
self, I cannot deny but that they have always, I thank them, taken me 
for an honest man, and shewed me much kindness ; but as for their 
secrets, they were too wise to commit them to any such as 1 am." 
" Perhaps," quoth the gentleman, " thou fearest to utter any thing of 
them, because they were thy friends, lest hearing thereof they might 
hereafter withdraw their friendship from thee: which thou needest not 
to fear, I warrant thee, for they are safe enough, and never likely to 
pleasure thee any more, or any man else." 

With that the water stood in Marbeck's eyes. " Why weepest thou ?" 
quoth the gentleman. " Oh Sir," quoth he, " I pray you pardon me ; 
these men have done me good, wherefore I beseech the living God to 
comfort them as I would be comforted myself." " Well," quoth the 
gentleman, " I perceive thou wilt play the fool ;" and then he opened 
one of the books and asked him, if he understood any Latin ? " But 
a little, sir," quoth he. " How is it then," quoth the gentleman, " that 
thou hast translated thy book out of the Latin Concordance, and yet. 
understandest not the tongue?" " I will tell you," quoth he: "in my 
youth I learned the principles of my grammar, whereby I have some 
understanding therein, though it be very small." Then the gentleman 
began to try him in the Latin Concordance and English Bible which he 
had brought; and when he had so done, and was satisfied, he called 
up his man to fetch away the book, and so departed, leaving Marbeck 
alone in the chamber, the door fast shut upon him. 

About two hours after, the gentleman came again, with a sheet of 
paper folded in his hand, and sat down upon the bedside, and said, 
" By my troth, Marbeck, my lord seeth so much wilfulness in thee, that 
he saith it is pity to do thee good. When wast thou last with Haynes?" 
"About three weeks ago," said he, "I was at dinner with him." 
" And what talk," quoth the gentleman, "had heat his board?" "I 
cannot tell now," quothhe. "No!" said the gentleman, " thou art not 
so dull witted, to forget a thing in so short a space." " Yes, sir," 
quoth he, " such familiar talk as men use at their tables, is most com- 
monly by the next day forgotten, and so it was with me." " Didst thou 
never," quoth the gentleman, " talk with him, nor with any of thy fel- 
lows, of the mass, or of the blessed sacrament?" "No," answered 
Marbeck, firmly. " Now forsooth," quoth the gentleman, " thou liest; 
for thou hast been seen to walk with Testwood, and other of thy fellows, 
an hour together in the church, when honest men have walked up and 
down beside you, and as they have drawn near you, ye have stopped 
your talk till they have passed you, because they should not hear whereof 



THE SECOND EXAM IN ATI ON OF MARBECK. 405 

you talked." " I deny not," quoth he, " but I have talked with Test- 
wood and other of my fellows, I cannot tell how often, which makes 
not that we talked either of the mass, or of the sacrament: for men may 
commune and talk of many matters, that they would not wish every 
man should hear, and yet far from any such thing; therefore it is 
good to judge the best." "Well," quoth the gentleman, "thou must 
be plainer with my lord than this, or else it will be wrong with thee, and 
that sooner than thou weenest." " How plain will his lordship have me 
to be, Sir?" quoth he. " There is nothing that I can do or say with a 
safe conscience, but 1 am ready to do it at his lordship's pleasure." 
"What tellest thou me," quoth the gentleman, " of thy conscience? 
Thou mayst with a safe conscience tell of those that be heretics, and so 
doing thou canst do God and the king no greater service." " If I knew, 
sir," quoth he, "who was a heretic indeed, it were another thing; but 
if I should accuse him to be a heretic that is none, what a worm would 
that be in my conscience so long as I lived? yea it were a great deal 
better for me to be out of this life, than to live in such torment." " In 
faith," quoth the gentleman, "thou knowest as well who are heretics ot 
thy fellows at home, and who are not, as I know this paper to be in my 
hand : but it is no matter, for they shall all be sent for and examined : 
and thinkest thou that they will not utter and tell of thee all that they 
can? Yes, I warrant thee. And what a foolish dolt art thou, that wilt 
not utter aforehand what they are, seeing it standeth upon thy deliverance 
to tell the truth?" " Whatsoever," quoth he, "they shall say of me, 
let them do it in the name of God, for I will say no more of them, nor 
of any man else, than I know." " Well," quoth the gentleman, " if 
thou wilt so do, my lord requireth no more. And forasmuch as now thy 
wits are troubled, so that thou canst not call things to thy remembrance, 
I have brought the ink and paper, that thou mayest write such things as 
shall come to thy mind." " O God !" quoth Marbeck, " what will my lord 
do? Will his lordship compel me to accuse men I know not whereof?" 
" No," quoth the gentleman, " my lord compelleth thee not, but gently 
intreateth thee to tell the truth; therefore make no more ado, but write, 
for my lord will have it so." So he laid down the ink and paper, and 
went "his way. 

Marbeck was now so full of sorrow, that he knew not what to do, 
nor how to set the pen to the book to satisfy the bishop's mind, unless 
he accused men, to the wounding of his own soul. And thus being 
compassed with nothing but sorrow and care, he cried out to God in his 
heart, falling down weeping, and said — " O most merciful Father of 
heaven, thou that knowest the secret doings of all men, have mercy upon 
thy poor prisoner who is destitute of all help and comfort. Assist me, 
O Lord, with thy special grace, for to save this frail and vile body which 
shall turn to corruption at his time, I have no power to say or to write 
any thing that may be to the casting away of my christian brother; but 
rather, O Lord, let this vile flesh suffer at thy will and pleasure. Grant 
this, O most merciful Father, for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake." 

Then he rose up and began to search his conscience what he might 
write, and at last framed out these words: " Whereas your lordship will 
have me to write such things as I know of my fellows at home; pleaseth 



406 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

it your lordship to understand, that I cannot call to remembrance 
any manner of thing whereby I might justly accuse any one of them 
unless it be the reading of the New Testament, which is common to all 
men ; more than this I know not/' 

The gentleman came again, and found Marbeck walking up and 
down the chamber. "How now," quoth he, " hast thou written 
nothing?" "Yes, Sir," quoth he, " as much as I know." "Wellsaid," 
quoth the gentleman ; and took up the paper. But when he had looked 
over it, he cast it from him in a great fume, swearing by our Lord's 
body, that he would not for twenty pounds carry it to his lord and master. 
" Therefore," quoth he, "go to it again, and advise thyself better, or 
else thou wilt set my lord against thee, and then art thou utterly un- 
done." " By my troth, sir," quoth Marbeck, " if his lordship shall 
keep me here these seven years I can say no more than I have said." 
" Then wilt thou repent it," quoth the gentleman; and so putting up 
his pen and inkhorn, departed with the paper in his hand. 

The next and third examination of this excellent man was by Gardiner 
himself, who seemed impatient of the result, and fearful to trust any 
more to his deputy. The next day, by eight o'clock in the morning, the 
bishop sent for Marbeck to his house at St. Mary Overy's, and as he 
was entering into the hall, he saw the bishop himself coming out at a 
door in the upper end thereof, with a roll in his hand, and going toward 
the great window, who called to him and said, " Marbeck, wilt thou cast 
away thyself?" " No, my lord," quoth he, " I trust." " Yes," quoth the 
bishop, " thou goest about it, for thou wilt utter nothing. What the 
devil made thee meddle with the scriptures?^ Thy vocation was another 
way, wherein thou hast a goodly gift, if thou didst esteem it." " Yes, 
my lord," quoth he, " I do esteem it, and have done my part therein, 
according to the little knowledge that God hath given me." " And why 
the devil," quoth the bishop, " didst thou not hold thee there?" And 
with that he went away from the window out of the hall, the poor man 
following him from place to place, till he had brought him into a long 
gallery, and being there, the bishop began on thiswise: "Ah, sirrah, 
the nest of you is broken, I trow." And unfolding his roll, which was 
about an ell long, he said, " Behold, here be your captains, both Hobby 
and Haynes, with all the whole pack of thy sect about Windsor, and yet 
thou wilt accuse none of them." " Alas, my lord," quoth he, " how 
should I accuse them, of whom I know nothing?" "Well," quoth the bi- 
shop," if thou wilt needs cast away thyself, who can help thee? what 
helpers hadst thou in setting forth thy book?" "Forsooth, my lord," 
quoth he, "none." "None!" quoth the bishop, " how can that be? 
It is not possible that thou shouldst do it without help." "Truly, my 
lord," quoth he, " I cannot tell in what part your lordship doth take it, 
but howsoever it be, I will not deny but I did it without the help of any 

1 If this be a faithful record, it would appear true, as asserted of Gardiner, that he was 
a profane as well as a cruel man. Indeed, these base qualities are generally found in 
union. A modern member of the episcopal bench, of splendid talents, and high reputation 
for his orthodox and gifted publications, is said to have been in his violent passions a most 
profane swearer. Judging by the fury with which he sometimes treats his literary oppo- 
nents, he might, in the age of Gardiner, have been an inquisitor equally barbarous. 



EXAMINATION OF MARBECK. 407 

one save God alone." " Nay," quoth the bishop, " I do not discom- 
mend thy diligence, but why shouldst thou meddle with that thing which 
pertaineth not to thee ?" 

On speaking these words, one of his chaplains, called Mr. Medow, 
came up, and stopped at a window, to whom the bishop said, " Here 
is a marvellous thing: this fellow hath taken upon him to set out the 
Concordance in English, which book when it was set out in Latin, was 
not done without the help and diligence of a dozen learned men at the 
least, and yet will he insist that he hath done it alone. But say what 
thou wilt," quoth the bishop, " except God himself would come down 
from heaven, and tell me so, I will not believe it:" and so going forth 
to a window where two great bibles lay upon a cushion, the one in Latin 
and the other in English, he called Marbeck unto him, and pointing his 
finger to a place in the Latin bible, said, " Canst thou English this 
sentence?" " Nay, my lord," quoth he, " I trow I be not so clever to 
give it perfect English, but I can make out the English thereof in an 
English bible." " Let us see," quoth the bishop. Then Marbeck turn- 
ing the English bible, found out the place, and read it to the bishop. So 
he tried him three or four times, till one of his men came up and told 
him the priest was ready to go to mass. 

As the bishop was going, the gentleman who had examined Marbeck 
in the Marshalsea the day before, said, " Shall this fellow write nothing 
while your lordship is at mass?" " It is no matter," quoth the bishop, 
" for he will tell nothing;" and so went down to hear mass, leaving 
Marbeck alone in the gallery. The bishop was no sooner down, but 
the gentleman came up again with ink and paper. " Come, sir," quoth 
he, M my lord will have you occupied till mass be done ;" persuading him 
with fair words that he would soon be dispatched out of trouble, if he 
would use truth and plainness. " Alas, sir," quoth he, " what would 
my lord have me to do ? For more than I wrote to his lordship yester- 
day, I cannot." " Well, well, go to," quoth the gentleman, " and 
make speed," and so went his way. There was no remedy, but Marbeck 
must now write something; wherefore he, calling to God again in his 
mind, wrote a few words, as near as he could frame them, to those he 
had written the day before. When the bishop was come from mass, 
and had looked on the writing, he pushed it from him, saying, " What 
will this do? It hath neither head nor foot. There is a marvellous sect 
of them," quoth the bishop to his men, " for the devil cannot make one 
of them betray another." Then was there nothing among the bishop's 
gentlemen, as they were making him ready to go to the court, but 
erucifige* upon the poor man. And when the bishop's white rochet was 
on him — " Well, Marbeck," quoth he, " I am now going to the court, 
and intended, if I had found thee tractable, to have spoken to the king's 
majesty for thee, and to have given thee thy meat, drink, and lodging 
here in mine house; but seeing thou art so wilful and so stubborn, thou 
shalt go to the devil for me." 

Then was he carried down by the bishop's men, with many railing 

r This appears to have been a slang word of frequent use in that day — a term of abuse, 
as though they would say eruptionize him, belch him, let him be emptied — that is compel 
him to confess. 



408 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

words. And coming through the great chamber there stood Dr. Loudon, 
with two more of his fellows, waiting the bishop's coming by them into 
the hali; he was there received by his keeper, and carried to prison 
again. In half an hour after, the bishop sent one of his gentlemen 
to the under keeper, called Stokes, commanding him to put irons upon 
Marbeck, and to keep him fast shut in a chamber alone, and when he 
should bring him down to dinner or supper, to see that he spake 
to no man, and no man to him. Further, that he should suffer no 
manner of person, not even his own wife, to come and see him, or give 
any thing to him. When the porter, who was the cruellest man that 
could be to all such as were imprisoned for any matter of religion, and 
yet providentially favourable to Marbeck, had received this command 
from the bishop, he put irons upon him, and shut him up, giving warn- 
ing to all the house, that no man should speak or talk to Marbeck, 
whensoever he was brought down; and so he continued the space 
of three weeks or more, during which time, however, his wife was suffered 
to visit him once or twice at least. 

About three weeks before Whit Sunday, Marbeck was sent for to the 
bishop of London's house, where sat in commission Dr. Capon, bishop 
of Salisbury; Dr. Skip, bishop of Hereford; Dr. Goodrick, bishop of 
Ely; Dr. Oking, Dr. May, and the bishop of London's clerk, having 
before them all Marbeck's books. Then said the bishop of Salisbury, 
" We are here in commission from the king, to examine thee of certain 
things whereof thou must be sworn to answer us faithfully and truly." 
" I am content, my lord," quoth he, " to tell you the truth so far as 
I can," and so took his oath. Then the bishop of Salisbury laid before 
him his three books of notes, demanding whose hand writing they were. 
He answered they were his own, and notes which he had gathered out 
of other men's works six years ago. " For what cause," quoth the 
bishop of Salisbury, " didst thou gather them?" " For no other cause, 
my lord, but to come to knowledge. For I being unlearned, and de- 
sirous to understand some part of Scripture, thought by reading learned 
men's works, to come the sooner thereby; and where I found any place 
of scripture opened- and expounded by them, that I noted, as ye see, 
with a letter of his name in the margin, that had set out the work." 
"So methinks," quoth the bishop of Ely, who had one of the books 
in his hand all the time of their sitting, " thou hast read all sorts of 
books, both good and bad, as seemeth by the notes." " So I have, my 
lord," quoth he. " And to what purpose?" quoth the bishop of 
Salisbury. " By my troth," quoth he, " for no other purpose but to 
see every man's mind." Then the bishop of Salisbury drew out a quire 
of the Concordance, and laid it before the bishop of Hereford, who 
looking upon it awhile, lifting up his eyes to Dr. Oking, standing next 
him, and said, " This man hath been better occupied than a great many 
of our priests." To which he made no answer. 

Then said the bishop of Salisbury, " Whose help hadst thou in setting 
forth this book?" "Truly my lord," quoth he, "no help at all." — 
" How couldst thou," quoth the bishop, " invent such a book, or know 
what a concordance meant, without an instructor?" " I will tell you, 
my lord," quoth he, " what instructor I had to begin it. When Thomas 



FOURTH EXAMINATION OF MARBECK. 409 

Matthew's Bible came out in print, I was much desirous to have it, 
and being a poor man, not able to buy it, determined with myself to 
borrow one amongst my friends, and to write it forth. And when I had 
written out the five books of Moses in fair great paper, and was entered 
into the book of Joshua, my friend Turner, chanced to steal upon me 
unawares, and seeing me writing out the Bible, asked me what I meant 
thereby. And when I had told him the cause — ' Tush,' quoth he, ' thou 
goest about a vain and tedious labour. But this were a profitable work 
for thee, to set out a concordance in English.' 'A concordance,' said I, 
■ what is that?' Then he told me it was a book to find out any word in 
the bible by the letter, and that there was such an one in Latin already. 
Then I told him I had no learning to go about such a thing. ' Enough,' 
quoth he, ' for that matter, for it requireth not so much learning as 
diligence. And seeing thou art so industrious a man, and one that 
cannot be unoccupied, it were a good exercise for thee.' And this, my 
lord, is all the instruction that ever I had, before or after, of any man." 
" And who is that Turner?" quoth the bishop of Salisbury. " Marry," 
quoth Dr. May, " an honest learned man, and a bachelor of divinity, 
and some time a fellow in Magdalen College, in Oxford." " How 
couldst thou," quoth the bishop of Salisbury, "with this instruction, 
bring it to this order and form as it is?" " I borrowed a Latin Con- 
cordance," quoth he, " and began to practise, and at last, with great 
labour and diligence, brought it into this order, as your lordship doth 
see." " It is a great pity," quoth the bishop of Ely, " he had not the 
Latin tongue." " So it is," quoth Dr. May. " Yet I cannot believe," 
quoth the bishop of Salisbury, " that he hath done any more in this 
work than written it out after some other that is more learned than 
himself." 

*' My lords," quoth Marbeck, " I shall beseech you all to pardon 
me what I shall say, and grant my request if it shall seem good unto 
you." " Say what thou wilt," quoth the bishop. " I do marvel greatly 
wherefore I should be so much examined for this book, and whether I 
have committed any offence in doing it or no? If I have, then were I 
loth any other should be molested or punished for my fault. There- 
fore, to clear all men in this matter, this is my request, that ye will try 
me in the rest of the book that is undone. Ye see that I am yet but 
at the letter L, begin now at M, and take out what word ye will of that 
letter, and so in every letter following, and give me the words on a piece 
of paper, and set me in a place alone where it shall please you, with 
ink and paper, the English Bible, and the Latin Concordance ; and if 
I bring you not these words written in the same order and form that the 
rest before is, then was it not I that did it, but some other." 

" By my truth, Marbeck," quoth the bishop of Ely, " that is honestly 
spoken, and then shalt thou bring many out of suspicion." "That he 
shall," quoth they all. Then they bade Dr. Oking draw out such words 
as he thought best on a piece of paper, and so rose up; and in the 
mean time fell into familiar talk with Marbeck (as the bishops of Ely 
and Hereford were both acquainted with him afore, and his friends, so 
far as they durst), who perceiving the bishops so pleasantly disposed, 
besought them to tell him in what danger he stood. " I shall tell thee, 



410 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Marbeck," quoth the bishop of Sarum, " thou art in a better case than 
any of thy fellows, of whom there be some would give forty pounds to 
be in no worse case than thou art," whose sayings the others affirmed. 
Then came Dr. Oking with the words he had written ; and while the bishops 
were perusing them over, Dr. Oking said to Marbeck, very friendly, 
" Good Mr. Marbeck make haste, for the sooner you have done, the 
sooner you shall be delivered." And as the bishops were going away, 
the bishop of Hereford took Marbeck a little aside, and informed him a 
word which Dr. Oking had written false, and also to comfort him, said, 
" fear not, there can no law condemn you for any thing that ye 
have done; for if ye had written a thousand heresies, so long as they 
be not your sayings nor your opinions, the law cannot hurt you." 
And so they all went with the bishop of Sarum to dinner, taking the 
poor man with them, who dined in the hall at the steward's board, and 
had wine and meat sent down from the bishop's table. 

When dinner was over, the bishop of Sarum came down into the 
hall, commanding ink and paper to be given to Marbeck, and the two 
books to one of his men to go with him; at whose going he demanded 
of the bishop, what time his lordship would appoint him to do it in. 
" Against to-morrow this time," quoth the bishop, which was about two 
of the clock, and so departed. Marbeck now being in his prison-chamber 
fell to his business, and so applied himself, that by the next day, when 
the bishop sent for him again, he had written so much, in the same order 
and form he had done the rest before, as contained three sheets of paper 
and more, which, when he had delivered to the bishop of Sarum, 
Dr. Oking standing by, he marvelled and said, " Well, Marbeck, thou 
hast put me out of all doubt, I assure thee;" and added, putting up 
the paper into his bosom, " the king shall see this ere I be twenty-four 
hours older." But he dissembled every word. For afterwards the 
matter being come to light, and known to the king what a book the 
poor man had begun, which the bishops would not suffer him to finish, 
the king said he was better occupied than they that took it from him. 
So Marbeck departed from the bishop of Sarum to prison again, and 
heard no more of his book till at Whitsuntide he was ordered to prepare 
for another and a fifth examination at the same place. 8 

On Whit Sunday following in the afternoon, Marbeck was sent for 
again to St. Mary Overy's, where he found Dr. Oking and another 
gentleman in a gown of damask, with a chain of gold about his neck, 
sitting together in one of the stalls, their backs towards the church door, 
looking upon an epistle of John Calvin's which Marbeck had written 
out; and when they saw the prisoner come, they rose and had him up 
to a side altar, leaving his keeper in the body of the church alone. Now 
as soon as Marbeck saw the face of a gentleman which before he knew 
not by reason of his apparel, he saw it was the same person that first 
examined him in the Marshalsea, and caused him to write in the bishop's 

* It may please the antiquarian reader to be reminded that these lively and crafty exami- 
nations took place in a chapel, which has lately excited no small portion of interest in the 
public mind — our Lndye's chapelle, at the east end of St. Saviour's church, and which, in 
a restored and beautified state, now adorns the western scene of the new London bridge. 



THE FIFTH EXAMINATION OF MARBECK. 411 

gallery, but never knew his name till now he heard Dr. Oking call him 
Mr. Knight. This man held forth the paper to Marbeck, and said, 
" Look upon this, and tell whose hand it is." 

When Marbeck had taken the paper and seen what it was, he 
confessed it to be all his hand, saving the first leaf and the notes 
that were placed in the margin. " Then I perceive," quoth Mr. 
Knight, " thou wilt not go from thine own hand." " No, Sir," quoth 
he, " I will deny nothing that I have done." " Thou dost well in that," 
quoth Knight; " for if thou shouldst, we have testimonies enough to try 
thy hand by : but I pray thee tell me whose hand is the first leaf?" 
"That I cannot tell you," quoth Marbeck. "Then how earnest thou 
by it?" quoth Knight. " There was a priest," answered he, "dwelling 
with us five or six years ago, called Marshall, who sent it unto me with the 
first leaf written, desiring me to write it out with speed, because the 
copy could not be spared but an hour or two, and so I wrote it out, 
and sent him both the copy and it again." " And how came this hand 
in the margin," quoth he, " which is a contrary hand to both the 
others?" " That I will tell you," quoth Marbeck. " When I wrote it 
out at the first, I made so much haste that I understood not the matter, 
whereof I was desirous to see it again, and to read it with more delibera- 
tion : and being sent to me the second time, it was thus quoted in the 
margin as you see. And shortly after this it was his chance to go beyond 
the seas, by reason whereof the epistle remaineth with me; but whether 
the first leaf or the notes in the margin were his hand, or whose hand 
else, that I cannot tell." " Tush," quoth Dr. Oking to Mr. Knight, 
" he knoweth well enough that the notes be Haynes's own hand." 
" If you know so much," quoth Marbeck, " you know more than I do; 
for I tell you truly, I know it not." " By my faith, Marbeck," quoth 
Knight, " if thou wilt not tell by fair means, those fingers of thine shall 
be made to tell." . " By my truth, Sir," quoth Marbeck, " if you do 
tear my whole body in pieces, I trust in God you shall never make me 
accuse any man wrongfully." " If thou be so stubborn," quoth 
Dr. Oking, "thou wilt die for it." "Die! Mr. Oking," quoth he; 
" wherefore should I die? You told me the last day before the bishops, 
that as soon as I had made an end of the piece of concordance they 
took me, I should be delivered ; and shall I now die ? This is a sudden 
mutation. You seemed then to be my friend. But I know the cause; ye 
have read the ballad I made of Moses' chair, and that hath set you 
against me; but whenever ye shall put me to death, I doubt not but 
that I shall die God's true man and the king's." "How so?" quoth 
Knight, " How canst thou die a true man unto the king, when thou hast 
offended his laws? Are not this epistle, and most of thy notes thou 
hast written, directly against the six articles?" " No, sir," qu^th 
Marbeck, " I have not offended the king's laws therein; for since the 
first time I began with the concordance, which is almost six years ago, 
I have been occupied in nothing else; so that both this epistle, and 
all the notes I have gathered, were written a great while before the six 
articles came forth, and are clearly remitted by the king's general 
pardon." " Trust not to that," quoth Knight, " for it will not help 
thee." "No, I warrant him," quoth Dr. Oking; and so going down 



412 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to the body of the church, they committed him to his keeper, who led 
him away to prison again. 

Some particulars of other interesting characters must now receive our 
attention. When the time drew nigh that the king (who was newly 
married to lady Catharine Parr) should make his progress abroad, 
the bishop of Winchester had so compassed his matters, that no man 
bore so great sway about the king as he did : at which the reformers 
were so concerned, that the best of them looked every hour to be 
destroyed. The saying went abroad, that the bishop had bent his 
bow to shoot at some of the head deer. In the mean time three or 
four of the leading men were caught — Anthony Pearson, Henry 
Filmer, and John Marbeck — and sent to Windsor by the sheriff's men, 
the Saturday before St. James' day, and laid fast in the town jail; 
and Testwood, who had kept his bed, was brought out of his house 
upon crutches, and laid with them; but as for Benet, who should have 
been the fifth man, his chance was to be sick of the pestilence, 
and was therefore left behind in the bishop of London's jail. 

These men being brought to Windsor, there was a session specially 
procured to be holden the Thursday following, which was St. Anne's 
day. Against these sessions, by the counsel of Dr. Loudon, and 
Simons, were all the farmers belonging to the college of Windsor 
warned to appear, because they could not select papists enough in the 
town to go upon the jury. The judges that day were, Dr. Capon, 
bishop of Salisbury; Sir William Essex; Sir Thomas Bridges; Sir 
Humfrey Foster; Mr. Franklen, dean of Windsor; and Fachel of 
Reading. When they had taken their places, and the prisoners were 
brought forth before them, Robert Ockam, occupying for that day the 
clerk of the peace's room, called Anthony Pearson, according to the 
manner of the court, and read his indictment, as follows: — 

That he had preached, two years before, in a place called Winkfield, 
and there said, that "like as Christ was hanged between two thieves, 
even so when the priest is at mass, and hath consecrated and lifted him 
over his head, there he hangeth between two thieves, except he preach 
the word of God truly, as he hath taken upon him to do." Also that 
he said to the people in the pulpit — " Ye shall not eat the body of 
Christ, as it did hang upon the cross, gnawing it with your teeth, that 
the blood may run about your lips; but you shall eat him this day as 
ye eat him to-morrow, the next day, and every day; for it refresheth 
not the body but the soul." Also, that after he had preached and com- 
mended the scripture, calling it the word of God, he said as follows : 
"This is the word, this is the bread, this is the body of Christ." Also 
he said, that Christ, sitting with his disciples, took bread, and blessed, 
and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat, this is 
my body. What is this to us, but to take the scripture of God and to 
break it to the people?" 

To these things Anthony answered, " I will be tried by God and his 
holy word, and by the true church of Christ, whether this be heresy or 
no, whereof ye have indicted me this day. So long as I preached the 
bishop of Rome, and his filthy traditions, I never was troubled; but 
since I have taken upon me to preach Christ and his gospel, ye have 



TRIALS OF PEARSON, TE3TWOOD, AND FILMER. 413 

always sought my life. But it maketh no matter, for when you have 
taken your pleasure of my body, I trust it shall not lie in your power to 
hurt my soul." " Thou callest us thieves," quoth the bishop. "I say," 
quoth Anthony, "ye are not only thieves, but murderers, except ye 
preach and teach the word of God purely and sincerely to the people; 
which ye do not, nor ever did, but have allured them to idolatry, super- 
stition, and hypocrisy, for your own lucre and honour's sake, through 
which ye are become rather bite-sheeps, than true bishops; biting and 
devouring the poor sheep of Christ, like ravening wolves, never satisfied 
with blood; which God will require at your hands one day, doubt it 
not." Then spoke Simons his accuser, standing within the bar — " It is 
a pity this fellow had not been burnt long ago, as he deserved." " In 
faith," quoth Anthony, " if you had as you deserved, you are more 
worthy to stand in this place than I am ; but I trust, in the last day, 
when we shall both appear before the tribunal of Christ, it will be 
known which of us hath best deserved this place." " Shall I have so 
long a day?" quoth Simons, holding up his finger; " nay, then I care 
not;" and thus the most solemn of all seasons and subjects was turned 
into laughter, which the grave bishop did not suppress. 

Testwood was next called, and his indictment read, which was that 
he should say in the time the priest was lifting up the sacrament — " What 
wilt thou lift up so high ? what higher? take heed, let him not fall." 
To this charge Testwood answered it was but a thing maliciously forged 
by his enemies to bring him to death. "Yes," quoth the bishop, "thou 
hast been seen, that when the priest should lift up the consecrated host 
over his head, then wouldst thou look upon thy boo'k, or some other 
way, because thou wouldst not abide to look upon the blessed sacra- 
ment." "I beseeh you, my lord," quoth Testwood, " whereon did he 
look that marked me so well?" " Marry," quoth Bucklayer, the king's 
attorney, "he could not be better occupied, than to mark such heretics 
that so despised the blessed sacrament." A striking proof this of the 
arrant sophistry with which the judicious arguments of the reformers 
were met by their enemies. 

After Testwood, Filmer was called, and his indictment read; that he 
should say that the sacrament of the altar is nothing but a similitude 
and a ceremony ; and also if God be in the sacrament of the altar, he 
had eaten many Christs in his day. Here it should be understood, that 
these words were gathered of certain communications which passed 
between Filmer and his brother. The story was as follows: — Henry 
Filmer coming on a Sunday from Clewer, his parish church, in the 
company of one or two of his neighbours, chanced in his way to meet 
his brother, who was a poor labouring man, and asked him whither he 
went? "To the church," said he. "And what to do?" quoth Filmer, 
"To do," quoth he, "as other men do." "Nay," quoth Filmer, " you 
go to hear mass, and to see your Christ." " What if I do so?" quoth 
he. " If that be Christ," Filmer said, " I have eaten twenty Christs in 
my days. Turn again, fool, and go home with me, and I will read thee 
a chapter out of the Bible, that will be better than all that thou shalt 
see or hear there." 

This tale was no sooner brought to Dr. Loudon, by Simons, Filmer 's 



414 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

utter enemy, but he sent for the poor man home to his house, telling 
him he should never want so long as he lived, so that Filmer, thinking 
to have a daily friend in the doctor, was content to do so, and say what- 
soever he and Simons would have him against his own brother. And 
when the doctor had thus won the poor man, he retained him as one of 
his household, until the court day was come, and then sent him up to 
witness this aforesaid tale against his brother: which tale Filmer denied 
utterly, saying that Dr. Loudon, for a little meat and drink, had set him 
on and made him say what he pleased. " Wherefore my lord," quoth 
Filmer to the bishop, " I beseech your lordship weigh the matter indif- 
ferently, forasmuch as there is no man, in all this town, that can or will 
testify that ever he heard any such talk between him and me; and if he 
can bring forth any that will witness it, I refuse not to die." But say 
what he could it would not prevail. 

On Filmer seeing that his brother's accusement would take place, he 
said, "Ah, brother, what cause hast thou to shew me this unkindness? 
I have always been a natural brother unto thee and thine, and helped 
thee all in my power, from time to time, as thou thyself knowest; and 
is this a brotherly part, thus to reward me now for my kindness? God 
forgive thee, my brother, and grant thee grace to repent." Then Filmer, 
looking over his shoulder, desired some good person to let him see the 
book of statutes. His wife being at the end of the hall, and hearing 
her husband call for the book of statutes, ran down to the keeper, and 
brought up the book, and got it conveyed to her husband. The bishop 
seeing the book in his hand, started up from the bench in a great fume, 
demanding who had given the prisoner that book, commanding it to be 
taken from him, and to make search who had brought it, swearing by 
the faith of his body that he should go to prison. Some said it was his 
wife, some said the keeper. " Like enough, my lord," quoth Simons, 
"for he is one of the same sort, and as worthy to be here as the best, if 
he were rightly served." But whosoever it was, the truth was not known, 
and so the bishop sat down again. 

Then said Filmer, " O my lord, I am this day judged by a law, and 
why should I not see the law that I am judged by? The law is, I should 
have two lawful witnesses, and here is but one, who acts not by his own 
will, but is forced thereunto by the suggestion of mine enemies." " Nay," 
quoth Bucklayer, the king's attorney, " thine heresy is so heinous, and 
so much against thine own brother, that it forceth him to witness against 
thee, which is more than two other witnesses." Thus was Filmer brought 
unjustly to his death by the malice of Simons and Dr. Loudon, who had 
incited his wretched brother to work his destruction. But God, who is 
a just avenger of all falsehoods and wrongs, would not suffer that wretch 
to live long upon earth ; but the next year he was taken up for a labourer 
to go to Boulogne, and had not been there three days, when a spring-gun 
took him and tore him all to pieces. Thus were the words of Solomon 
fulfilled — "A false witness shall not remain unpunished." 

John Marbeck was now called, and his indictment was nearly the 
same as that of the others — that he should say that the holy mass, which 
the priest consecrates into the body of our Lord, is polluted, deformed, 
sinful, and open robbery of the glory of God, from which a christian 



CONDEMNATION OF MARBECK AND OTHERS. 415 

heart ought both to abhor and flee. And the elevation of the sacrament 
is the similitude of setting up the images of the calves in the temple 
built by Jeroboam : and that it is greater abomination than the 
sacrifices made by the Jews in Jeroboam's temple to those calves. And 
that certain and sure it is, that Christ himself is made in the mass 
man's laughing-stock. 

To this Marbeck answered and said, that the words whereof they had 
indicted him were not his, but the words of a learned man called John 
Calvin, drawn out of a certain epistle which Calvin had made, which 
epistle he had only written out, and that long before the six articles 
came forth; so that now he was discharged of that offence by the king's 
general pardon, desiring that he might enjoy the benefit thereof. 

Then was the jury called, who were ail farmers belonging to the 
college of Windsor, whereof few or none had ever seen the men before, 
on whose life and death they sat. Wherefore the prisoners, counting 
the farmers as partial, desired to have the townsmen, or such as did 
know them, and had heard their daily conversations, in place of the 
farmers, or else to be equally joined with them; but this justice was not 
allowed, for the matter was otherwise foreseen and determined. 

When the jury had taken their oath, Bucklayer, the king's attorney, 
began to speak; first he alleged many reasons against Anthony Pearson, 
to prove him a heretic : and when Anthony would have disproved them, 
the bishop said, " Let him alone, sir, he speaketh for the king:" and so 
went Bucklayer on, making every man's cause as heinous to the hearers as 
he could devise. When he had done, Sir Humfrey Foster spoke in favour 
of Marbeck, as follows: " Masters, you see there is no man here that 
accuseth or layeth any thing to the charge of this poor man, Marbeck, 
saying he hath writ certain things of other men's sayings, with his own 
hand, whereof he is discharged by the king's general pardon ; therefore ye 
ought to have a conscience therein." Then started up Fachel, at the lower 
end of the bench, and said, " How can we tell whether they were writ- 
ten before the pardon, or after? they may as well be written since as 
before, for any thing that we know." These words of Fachel, as every 
one said, were the cause of Marbeck's being cast that day. 

Then the jury went up to the chamber, and when they had been 
together there about the space of a quarter of an hour, Simons went up 
to them. After that came one of them down to the bishop, and talked 
with him and the other two a good while: whereby many conjectured 
that the jury could not agree. But whether it was so or no, it was not 
long after his going up again, ere that they came down to give their 
verdict; and being required according to the form of the law to say 
their minds, one Hide, the foreman, said the prisoners were all guilty of 
the charges brought against them. 

The judges, beholding the prisoners a good while — some of them even 
with tears — contended who should give judgment. Fachel requiring 
the bishop to do it, he said, "I may not." The others also being 
required, said, "We will not." Then said Fachel, " It must be done; 
one must do it, and if no man will, then will I." And so he, though 
he was the lowest of all the bench, gave judgment. Then Marbeck, 
being the last upon whom sentence was given, cried to the bishop, 



416 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

saying, "Ah, my lord, you told me otherwise when I was before you 
and the other two bishops. You said then, that I was in better case 
than any of my fellows, and is your saying come to this? Ah, my lord, 
you have deceived me!" Then the bishop, casting up his hand, said, 
" I cannot do so with all," — evidently meaning that, as he could not 
spare all, all must die. 

The prisoners being condemned and had away, prepared to die on the 
morrow, comforting one another in the death and passion of their master 
Christ, who had led the way before them, trusting that the same Lord, 
who had made them worthy to suffer thus far for his sake, would not 
now withdraw his strength from them, but give them stedfast faith and 
power to overcome all fiery torments, and of his free mercy and 
goodness, for his promise sake, receive their souls. Thus lay they all 
the night long, calling to God for his aid and strength, and praying for 
their persecutors, who from blind zeal and ignorance had done they 
knew not what; that God of his merciful goodness would forgive them, 
and turn their hearts to the love and knowledge of his blessed and holy 
word. Indeed, such heavenly talk was amongst them that night, that 
the hearers watching the prison without, and of whom the sheriff himself 
was one, with many gentlemen more, were constrained to shed tears, as 
they themselves confessed 

On the morrow, which was Friday, as the prisoners were all preparing 
themselves to suffer, word was brought that they should not die that day. 
The cause was this : the bishop of Sarum had sent a letter to the bishop of 
Winchester, who was with the court at Okingham, in favour of Marbeck; 
at the sight of which the bishop straightway went to the king, and 
obtained his pardon. This being granted, he caused a warrant to be 
made for the sheriff's discharge, delivering the same to the messenger, 
who returned with speed, bringing news of the pardon, whereat many 
rejoiced. Of the cause of this pardon were divers conjectures made; 
some said it was through the suit of the good sheriff Sir William 
Barrington, and Sir Humfrey Foster, with other gentlemen who favoured 
Marbeck, to the bishop of Sarum and the other commissioners, that the 
letter was again sent. Some said again that it came through the bishop 
of Sarum, and because Fachel himself was troubled in conscience for 
having convicted Marbeck. Others thought again that it was a policy 
of the bishops of Winchester and of Sarum, and of Dr. Loudon, 
because they would for once at least seem to be merciful. 

On Saturday in the morning, when the prisoners were to go to exe- 
cution, came into the prison two of the canons of the college, the one 
called Dr. Blithe, and the other Mr. Arch, who were both sent to be 
their confessors. Mr. Arch asked them, if they would be confest? and 
they said, "Yea." Then he demanded if they would receive the sacra- 
ment? "Yea," said they, "with all our hearts." "I am glad," quoth 
Arch, "to hear you say so; but the law is, that it may not be ministered 
to any that are condemned of heresy : however, it is enough for you 
that ye desire it." And so he had them up to the hall to hear their 
confessions, because the prison was full of people. Dr. Blithe took 
Anthony Pearson to confess, and Mr. Arch the other two. But how- 
soever the matter went between the doctor and Anthony, he was not long 



DEATH OF TESTWOOD, FILMER, AND PEARSON. 417 

with him, but came down again, saying, " I will have no more of his 
doctrine." Soon after the other two came down also. Then Anthony, 
seeing many people in the prison, began to say the Lord's prayer, 
wherein he continued till the officers came to fetch them away; then 
taking their leave of Marbeck, they praised God for his deliverance, 
wishing him an increase of godliness and virtue, and last of all besought 
him heartily to help them with his prayer unto God, to make them 
strong in their afflictions : and so kissing him one after another, they 
departed. 

As the prisoners passed through the people in the street, they desired 
all the people to pray for them, and to stand fast in the truth of the 
gospel, and not to be moved at their afflictions, for it was the happiest 
thing that ever came to them. And as Dr. Blithe and Arch, who rode 
on each side the prisoners, would persuade them to turn to their mother 
holy church — "Away," would Anthony cry, "away with your Romish 
doctrine and all your trumpery, for we will have no more of it." When 
Filmer came to his brother's door, he stayed and called for his brother ; 
but he could not be seen, for Dr. Loudon had kept him out of sight. 
When he had called for him three or four times, and saw he came not, 
he said, "And will he not come? Then God forgive him, and make 
him a good man." Thus they came to the place of execution, where 
Anthony Pearson, with a cheerful countenance, embraced the post in 
his arms, and kissing it said, " Now welcome mine own sweet wife; for 
this day shalt thou and I be married together in the love and peace 
of God." 

When they were all three bound to the post, a young man of Filmer 's 
acquaintance brought him some liquor, asking if he would drink? 
"Yea," quoth Filmer, " I thank you. And now, my brother, I shall 
desire you in the name of the living Lord to stand fast in the truth of 
the gospel of Jesus Christ, which you have received;" and so taking 
the cup into his hand, asked his brother Anthony if he would drink. 
"Yea, brother Filmer," quoth he, "I pledge you in the Lord," 

When he had drunk, he gave the cup to Anthony, and Anthony gave 
it to Testwood, of which their adversaries made a jest, reporting abroad 
that they were all drunk, and knew not what they said ; though they 
were no otherwise drunk than the apostles were, when the people said 
they were full of new wine, as their deeds declared; for when Anthony 
and Testwood had both drunk, and given the cup from them, Filmer, 
rejoicing in the Lord, said, " Be merry, my brethren, and lift up your 
hearts and hands unto God, for after this sharp breakfast I trust we 
shall have a good dinner in the kingdom of Christ, our Lord and 
Redeemer." At these words Testwood, lifting up his hands and eyes to 
heaven, desired the Lord above to receive his spirit. Anthony Pearson, 
pulling the straw towards him, laid a good deal thereof upon the top of 
his head, saying, "This is God's hat; now I am dressed like a true 
soldier of Christ, by whose merits only I trust this day to enter his joy." 
Thus yielded they up their souls to the Father of Heaven, in the faith 
of his dear Son Jesus Christ, with such humility and stedfastness, that 
many who saw their patient suffering, confessed that they could have 
found in their hearts to have died with them. 

2 E 



418 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

About the same time suffered, for the cause of God and truth, Adam 
Damlip, who was martyred at Calais, then belonging to the English, and 
was an Englishman. The spot is still shewn, just without the city, 
where he and others, at different times, endured with greater or less 
constancy the fiery trial by which the reformed faith was thus early put 
to the test. Calais would have witnessed many more martyrdoms* but 
that England began to lose its hold of the place as the persecutions 
advanced. 

Adam Damlip, otherwise George Bucker, went to Calais, in the year 
1539. He had formerly been a zealous papist, and chaplain to Fisher, 
bishop of Rochester. After the death of the bishop, he travelled through 
France, Holland, and Italy, and as he went conferred with learned men 
concerning matters of controversy in religion, and thence proceeded to 
Rome, where he thought to have found all godliness and sincere 
religion; but instead of this, he found there, according to his assertion, 
such blasphemy of God, contempt of Christ's true religion, looseness 
of life, and abundance of all abominations and impurities, that his heart 
abhorred any longer to remain there. He was indeed earnestly requested 
by cardinal Pole, who wished him to read three lectures in the week in 
his house, for which he offered him great entertainment; but he preferred 
returning homeward by way of Calais. As he was waiting without the 
gate of the place for a passage to England, he was perceived by certain 
Calais men, named William Steven, and Thomas Lancaster, through 
conference of talk, to be a learned man, and also well affected; and 
that being of late a zealous papist, he was now turned to a more perfect 
knowledge of true religion; they therefore heartily entreated him to 
stay at Calais awhile, and to read there a day or two, to the intent he 
might do some good in the city, after his painful travel. To this request 
Adam gladly consented, if he could be licensed by such as were in 
authority so to do. 

Whereupon Steven, at the opening of the gates, brought him to lord 
Lisle, the king's deputy of the town and marshes of Calais, to whom he 
declared thoroughly what conference had been between Damlip and 
him; which known, the lord deputy instantly desired Damlip to stay 
there, and to preach three or four days or more at pleasure, saying, that 
he should have both his licence and that of Sir John Butler, his com- 
missary, for that purpose. Having preached three or four times, he was 
so liked, both for his learning, his utterance, and the truth of his 
doctrine, that not only the soldiers and commoners, but the lord deputy 
and a great part of the council, gave him great praise and thanks for it; 
and the lord deputy offered him a chamber in his own house, and to 
dine and sup at his own mess, to have a man or two of his to wait upon 
him, and to have whatsoever he lacked, if it were to be had for money: 
he also offered him his purse to buy books, or otherwise, so that he 
would remain with them, and preach only so long as it should seem good 
to himself. Damlip refused with much gratitude these liberal offers of 
his lordship, requesting him to be only so good as to appoint him some 
quiet and decent place in the town where he might not be disturbed or 
molested, but have opportunity to give himself to his books, and he 
would daily, once in the forenoon and again at one o'clock in the 



FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST DAMLIP. 419 

afternoon, by the grace of God, preach among them according to the 
talent that God had lent him. At this the lord deputy greatly rejoiced, 
and sent for William Stevens, whom he earnestly requested to lodge 
Damlip in his house, promising whatsoever he should demand, to see it 
paid; and moreover would send every meal from his own table of the 
best unto them: and indeed so he did, although Damlip refused that 
offer, shewing his lordship that thin diet was most convenient for 
students; yet could he not thus restrain the generous noble, who sent the 
choicest food. 

This godly man, for the space of twenty days or more, once everyday 
at seven o'clock, preached very learnedly and plainly the truth of the 
blessed sacrament of Christ's body and blood, inveighing against all 
papistry, and confuting the same, but especially those two most perni- 
cious errors — transubstantiation, and the propitiatory sacrifice of the 
Romish Mass. This he did by true conference of the scriptures, and 
applying of the ancient doctors, earnestly therewith oftentimes exhorting 
the people to return from their delusion, declaring how popish he him- 
self had been, and how by the detestable wickedness that he saw uni- 
versally in Rome, he was now become an enemy, through God's grace, 
to all papistry, shewing therewith that if gain or ambition could have 
moved him to the contrary, he might have been entertained by cardinal 
Pole; but for conscience sake, joined with true knowledge, grounded 
on God's most holy word, he now utterly abhorred the superstition, and 
willed them most earnestly to do the same. 

Thus he continued awhile reading in the Chapter-house of the "White 
Friars; but the place not being large enough, he was desired to read 
in the pulpit, 1 and so proceeded in his lectures to declare how the 
world was deceived by the Roman bishops, who had set forth the 
damnable doctrine of transubstantiation, and the real presence in the 
sacrament. He came at length to speak against the pageant* or picture 
set forth of the resurrection in St. Nicholas' church, declaring the same 
to be but mere idolatry > and an illusion of the French, which the 
English should remove. The consequence of this was* there came a 
commission from the king to the lord deputy, that search should be 
made whether there were three hosts lying upon a marble stone be- 
sprinkled with blood ; and if they found it so> that immediately it should 
be plucked up, and so it was. For in searching thereof, as they 
brake up a stone in a corner of the tomb, they found soldered, in the 
cross of marble lying under the sepulchre, three plain white counters, 
which had been painted like unto hosts, and a bone; all this trumpery 
Damlip shewed to the people the Sunday following from the pulpit, 
and after that they were sent by the deputy to the king. 

Very soon, however, a prior of the White Friars, named Dove, with 
Buttoll, chaplain to the lord Lisle, began to speak against him. Yet 
after Adam had in three or four sermons confuted the erroneous doctrine 
of transubstantiation, and of the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass; the 

t This must have been the public rostrum of the city, then fixed in front of the town- 
hall, and near the centre of the great market-place ; and not the pulpit of the single 
church in Calais, which is in a remote corner of the place, and must then have been closed 
against all reformers. 



420 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

friar outwardly seemed to give place, ceasing openly to inveigh, yet 
secretly practised to impeach him by letters sent unto the clergy in 
England; so that within eight or ten days after, Damlip was sent for to 
appear before the archbishop of Canterbury, with whom was assistant 
the bishop of Winchester, the bishop of Chichester, and divers others, 
before whom he constantly affirmed and defended the doctrine which 
he had taught, answering, confuting, and solving the objections; so that 
his adversaries, among whom was the learned and pious Cranmer, mar- 
velled at it, and said plainly, that the scriptures knew not such a term 
as transubstantiation. Then began the other bishops to threaten him, 
shortly to confute him with their accustomed argument of fire and 
fagot, if he would still stand to the defence of that he had spoken. 
To this he constantly answered, that he would the next day deliver unto 
them fully as much in writing as he had said, whereunto also he would 
stand; and so he was dismissed. 

The next day at the appointed hour for his appearance, when they 
looked surely to have apprehended him, he came not; for he had secret 
intimation from the archbishop of Canterbury, that if he again person- 
ally appeared, he would be committed to ward and not likely to escape 
a cruel death. On this he sent them four sheets of paper, learnedly 
written in the Latin tongue, containing his faith, with his arguments, 
conferences of the scriptures, and allegations of the doctors, by a friend 
of his; which done, he with a little money given him, stepped aside and 
fled into the west country; where he continued teaching a school about 
a year or two, after which. he was again apprehended by the inquisition 
of the six articles, and brought to London. Gardiner commanded him 
into the Marshalsea, and there he lay the space of other tw r o years, or 
about that time. 

During his confinement in the Marshalsea, John Marbeck was com- 
mitted to the same prison, on the morrow after Palm Sunday. It should 
be understood that at Easter every person must needs come to confes- 
sion ; whereupon Marbeck, who had never seen him before, entering 
into conference with him, perceived what he was, what he had been, 
what troubles he had sustained, how long he had lain in prison, which 
Damlip related to him. " And now," said he, "because I think they 
have forgotten me, I am fully minded to make my humble suit to the 
bishop of Winchester, in an epistle, declaring therein mine obedience, 
humble submission, and earnest desire to come to examination. I know 
the worst: I can but lose my life at present, which I had rather do, than 
remain here and not be suffered to use my talent to God's glory; 
wherefore, God willing, I will surely put it to the proof." 

Damlip, for honest and goodly behaviour, was beloved of all the 
house; but especially by the keeper himself whose name was Massy, 
whom he always called master; and being suffered to go at liberty 
within the premises whither he would, he did much good among the 
common and dissolute sort of prisoners, in rebuking vice and sin, and 
thus kept them in such good order and awe, that the gaoler thought 
him a great treasure. And no less also Marbeck himself confessed to 
have found great comfort from him. For notwithstanding the strict 
command given by the bishop of Winchester, that no man should come 



MARTYRDOM OF DAM LI P. 421 

to him, nor he to speak with any man, yet Adam many times would 
find the means to comfort his companion. 

Now when he had made known and drawn out his epistle, he de- 
livered it to the keeper on Saturday in the morning 1 , which was about 
the second week before Whit Sunday, desiring him to deliver it at the 
court to the bishop of Winchester. The keeper said he would, and so 
did. Having done it, he came home at night very late, and when the 
prisoners, who had waited supper for his coming, saw him sad and 
heavy, they deemed something to be amiss. At last casting his eyes 
upon Damlip, he said, " O George, u I can tell thee tidings." " What 
is that, master?" quoth he. " Upon Monday next, thou and I must go 
to Calais." "To Calais! what to do?" "I know not," quoth the 
keeper, and pulled out of his purse a piece of wax, with a little label 
of parchment, hanging out thereat, which seemed to be a precept. 
When Damlip saw it, he said, " Well, well, master, now I know what 
the matter is." " What?" quoth the keeper. "Truly, master, I shall 
die in Calais." " Nay," quoth the keeper, " I trust it will not be so." 
" Yes, yes, master, it is most true ; and I praise God for his goodness 
therein." And so the keeper with Damlip and Marbeck went together 
to supper, with heavy cheer for Sir George, as they used to call him. 
He notwithstanding was merry himself, and ate his meat as well as 
ever: insomuch that some of the board told him they marvelled how 
he could eat so well, knowing he was so near his death. " Ah, mas- 
ters," quoth he, " do you think that I have been God's prisoner so 
long in the Marshalsea, and have not yet learned to die ? Yes, yes, 
and I doubt not but God will strengthen me therein." 

On Monday, early in the morning, the keeper, with three others of 
the knight -marshal's servants, setting out of London, conveyed Adam 
Damlip to Calais, upon Ascension Eve, and there committed him to the 
mayor's prison. On the same day, John Butler, the commissary afore- 
said, and Sir Daniel, the curate of St. Peter's, were also committed to 
the same prison, and commandment given for no njan to speak with 
Butler especially, nor generally to the rest. 

The following Saturday was the day of execution for Damlip. The 
cause which they laid to his charge was heresy ; but by reason of an act 
of parliament all such offences, done by a certain day, were pardoned. 
Through this act he could not be burdened with any thing that he had 
preached or taught before ; yet for receiving a French crown of cardi- 
nal Pole, w T hich he gave him merely to assist him in his travelling ex- 
pences, he was condemned of treason, and cruelly put to death, being 
hung, drawn, and quartered. 

The day before his execution, came unto him one Mr. Mote, then 
parson of our Lady's church in Calais, saying, " Your four quarters 
shall be hanged at four parts of the town." " And where shall my head 
be?" said Damlip. "Upon the Lantern gate," said Mote. "Then," 
answered Damlip, " shall I not need to provide for my burial." At his 
death, Sir R. Ellerker. then knight-marshal there, would not suffer the 
innocent and godly man to declare either his faith, or the cause he died 

u Plis names as before observed, were George Bucker, Adam Damlip. 



422 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

for; but said to the executioner, "Dispatch the knave, have done!" 
Mote was appointed there to preach, and declared to the people how 
Damlip had been a sower of seditious doctrine; and albeit he was for 
that absolved by the general pardon, yet he was condemned for being 
a traitor against the king. To which when Adam Damlip would have 
replied, Ellerker would not suffer him to speak a word, but commanded 
him to be had away. Thus most meekly, patiently, and joyfully, the 
blessed and innocent martyr took his death; Ellerker saying, that he 
would not away before he had seen the traitor's heart plucked out of his 
body. Divine Providence, however, shortly after overtook this san- 
guinary monster with a just punishment: for in a skirmish between the 
French and English at Boulogne, he was among others slain. His 
mere death sufficed not his enemies : but after they had stripped him 
naked, they cut the heart out of his body, and so left him a terrible 
example to all bloody and merciless men. For no cause was known 
why they shewed such indignation against Sir Ralph Ellerker more than 
against the rest, but that it is written, Faciens justitias Dominus fy 
judicia omnibus injuria pressis. Among others who suffered there, was 
a certain scholar, counted to be a Scotchman, named Dod, who coming 
out of Germany was taken with certain German books about him, and 
being examined, and standing constantly to the truth that he learned, 
was condemned to death, and burned in the same city. 

The chief thing now aimed at by the whole popish party was Cran- 
mer's ruin. Gardiner employed many to insinuate to the king, that he 
gave the chief encouragement to heresy of any in England, and that it 
was in vain to lop off the branches, and leave the root still growing. 
The king, till then, would never hear the complaints that were made 
him : but now, to penetrate into the depths of this design, he was 
willing to draw out all that was to be alleged. Gardiner reckoned that 
this point being gained, all the rest would follow; and judging that 
the king was now alienated from him, more instruments and artifices 
than ever were accordingly made use of. A long paper containing 
many particulars, both against Cranmer and his chaplains, was put in 
the king's hands. Upon this the king sent for him; and after he had 
complained much of the heresy in England, he said he resolved to find 
out the chief promoter of it, and to make him an example. Cranmer 
wished him first to consider well what heresy was, that so he might not 
condemn those as heretics who stood for the word of God against 
human inventions. Then the king told him frankly, that he was the 
man complained of as most guilty ; and shewed him all the informations 
he had received against him. Cranmer confessed he was still of the 
same mind that he had when he opposed the six articles, and submitted 
himself to a trial; he confessed many things to the king — in particular 
that he had a wife, but he had sent her out of England when the act 
of the six articles passed ; and expressed so great a sincerity, and put 
so entire a confidence in the king, that, instead of being ruined, he was 
now better established with him than ever, 

The king was so well pleased that he even commanded him to appoint 
some to examine the contrivance that was laid to destroy him. Cranmer 
answered that it was not decent for him to nominate the judge in a 



A GENERAL PARDON EXCEPT FOR HERESY. 423 

cause in which himself was concerned; but the king being- positive, 
he named some to undertake it, and the whole secret was found out. It 
appeared that Gardiner had been the chief instrument, and had en- 
couraged informers to appear against him. Cranmer did not press the 
king to give him any reparation; for he was so noted for his readiness 
to forgive injuries, and to do good for evil, that it was commonly said 
by the king himself, that the best way to obtain his favour, was to do 
him an injury. Of this he gave signal proof at this time, both in rela- 
tion to some of the clergy and laity who sought to undermine him: by 
which it appeared that he was actuated by that meek and lowly spirit 
which became all the followers of Christ; and more particularly one 
who was so great an instrument in reforming the Christian church, and 
who therefore was publicly pledged to eminent acts of charity, and him- 
self to practise that which he taught others to do. 

A parliament w T as now called, in which the great act of succession to 
the crown passed. By it the crown was first to descend to prince Edward 
and his heirs, or the heirs by the king's present marriage: after them to 
the lady Mary, and lady Elizabeth; and in case they had no issue, or 
did not observe such limitations and conditions as the king should 
appoint, then it was to fall to any other whom he should name, either 
by letters patent, or by his last will signed with his own hand. An oath 
was appointed both against the pope's supremacy, and for maintaining 
the succession according to this act, which all were required to take 
under the penalty of treason. It was made treason to say or write any 
thing contrary to this act, or to the slander of any of the king's heirs 
named in it. : Another act passed, qualifying the severity of the act of 
the six articles : none were to be imprisoned but upon a legal present- 
ment, except upon the king's warrant. None were to be challenged 
for words but within a year ; nor for a sermon, but within forty days. 
This was made to prevent such conspiracies as had been discovered 
the former year. Another act passed, renewing the authority given to 
thirty-two commissioners to reform the ecclesiastical law, which Cranmer 
promoted much; and, to push it forward, he put out of the canon law, 
a collection of many things against the regal, and for the papal au- 
thority, with several other very extravagant propositions, to shew how 
indecent a thing it was to let a book, in which such things were, con- 
tinue still in any credit in England : but he could not bring this to 
any good issue. A general pardon now was granted, out of which 
heresy was excepted. 

The king was now engaged in a war both with France and Scotland. 
The earl of Hertford was sent with an army by sea to Scotland, who, 
landing at Grantham a little above Leith, burnt both Leith and Edin- 
burgh; but neither stayed to take the castle of Edinburgh, nor did he 
fortify Leith, but only wasted the country from that to Berwick. He did 
too much, if it was intended to gain the hearts of that nation; and too 
little, if it was intended to subdue them; for this only inflamed their 
spirits more, and rendered them so united in their aversion to England, 
that the Earl of Lennox, who had been cast off by France and was gone 
mess to the English interest, could make no party in the west, but was 
forced for his own preservation to flee into concealment. Audley, the 



424 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

chancellor, dying at this time, Wriothesly, who was of the popish party, 
was put in his place. On the other hand Dr. Petre, hitherto Cranmer's 
friend, was made secretary of state: so equally did the king keep the 
balance between both parties. Being to cross the seas, he left a com- 
mission for the administration of affairs during his absence, to the queen, 
the archbishop, the chancellor, the earl of Hertford, and secretary Petre; 
with the proviso that if they should have any occasion to raise any force, 
he appointed the earl of Hertford his lieutenant. He gave orders also 
to translate the prayers, processions, and litanies, into the English 
tongue, which gave the reformers some hope that he had not quite cast 
off his design of reforming such abuses as had crept into the worship of 
God. And they also hoped that the reasons which prevailed with the 
king for this, would also induce him to order a translation of all the 
other offices into the English tongue. 

The king crossed the sea with great pomp, the sails of his ship being 
of cloth of gold. He sat down before Boulogne, and took it after a 
siege of two months. It was soon after almost retaken by a surprise; 
but the garrison were quickly put in order, and beat out the French. 
Thus the king returned victorious, and was as much flattered for taking 
this single town as if he had conquered a kingdom. The next year the 
king of France set out a fleet of above 300 ships; and the king of 
England set out an hundred sail : on both sides they were mostly mere 
merchantmen hired for the occasion. The French made two descents 
upon England, but were beaten back with loss. The English made a 
descent in Normandy, and burnt some towns. The people of Germany 
saw their danger if this war went on ; for the pope and the emperor had 
made a league for procuring obedience to the council now opened at 
Trent. The emperor was raising an army, though he had made peace 
both with France and the Porte; and he was resolved to make good use 
of this opportunity, the two crowns being now at war. So the Germans 
sent to mediate a peace between them : but it stuck long at the business 
of Boulogne. 

Lee, archbishop of York, died at this time, and Holgate was removed 
from LandafT thither, who in his heart favoured the reformation. 
Kitchen was put in LandarF, who turned with every change that was 
made — was " tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine." . Heath 
was removed from Rochester to Worcester, Holbeck was put into 
Rochester, and Day was appointed bishop of Chichester. All those 
were moderate men, and well disposed to a reformation, at least to 
comply with it. Still the punishments for pretended heresy went on, and 
the year 1546 was celebrated by the persecution and death of that 
glorious martyr, George Wishart, in Scotland. But, before we proceed 
to him, we shall relate the sufferings of some other martyrs of that 
country, who, although not so conspicuous in history, were equally 
deserving public admiration and gratitude, being all of one spirit, and 
that "the spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of Jesus 
Christ." 

Not long after the burning of Stratton and Gurley, by the influence 
of David Beaton, bishop and cardinal of St. Andrew's, and George 
Treichton, bishop of Dunkeld, there arose a canon of St. Colmes and 



ACCOUNT OF THOMAS FORRET. 425 

vicar of Dolone, called dean Thomas Forret, who preached every Sunday 
to his parishioners out of the epistle or gospel as it fell for the time; 
which then was a great novelty in Scotland, scarcely any one ever 
preaching except a black or a grey friar. Therefore the friars envied 
Forret, and accused him to the bishop of Dunkeld, in whose diocese 
he remained, as a heretic, and one that showed the mysteries of the 
scriptures to the vulgar in English, to make the clergy detestable in the 
sight of the people. 

The bishop, moved by the friars' instigation, called Forret before 
him and said, " I love you well, and therefore must give you my council 
how you should rule and guide yourself in these days. My dear dean 
Thomas, I am informed that you preach from the epistle or gospel every 
Sunday to your parishioners, and that you take not the cow, nor the 
uppermost cloth from your parishioners, which is very prejudicial to the 
churchmen; and, therefore, I would you took your cow and your upper- 
most cloth as other churchmen do, or else it is too much to preach every, 
Sunday ; for in so doing you may make the people think that we should 
preach likewise. v But it is enough for you, when you find any good 
epistle, or any good gospel, that setteth forth the liberty of the holy 
church, to preach that, and let the rest be." 

Thomas answered, " My lord, I think that none of my parishioners 
will complain that I take not the cow nor the uppermost cloth, but will 
gladly give me the same, together with any other thing that they have; 
and I will give and communicate with them anything that I have; and 
so, my lord, we agree right well, and there is no discord among us. In 
regard to what your lordship saith, ' it is too much to preach every 
Sunday,' indeed I think it is too little; and also would wish that your 
lordship did the like." " Nay, nay, dean Thomas, let that be," said the 
bishop, " for we are not ordained to preach." Then said Thomas, 
" Where your lordship biddeth me preach, when I find any good epistle, 
or a good gospel, truly, my lord, I have read the new Testament and 
Old, and all the epistles and gospels, and among them all I could never 
find an evil epistle or an evil gospel ; but if your lordship will shew me 
the good epistle and the good gospel, and the evil epistle and the evil 
gospel, then I shall preach the good and omit the evil." Then spake 
my lord stoutly, and said, *' I thank God that I never knew what the 
Old and New Testament was; w therefore, dean Thomas, I will know 
nothing but my portuise and my pontificial. Go your way, and let be 
all these fantasies, for if you persevere in these erroneous opinions, ye 
will repent when ye may not mend it." 

Thomas said, " I trust my cause to be just in the presence of God; 
and, therefore, I pass not much what do follow thereupon;" and thus 
my lord and he parted at that time. Soon after a summons was directed 

v What a vile criminal was this reformer, Forret, for waving his right to the cow and the 
upper garment of his poor parishioners, that their families might have more milk and be 
better clothed than usual, and then to think of supporting his charitable conduct by appeal- 
ing to the gospels and epistles of the New Testament! And what a holy churchman was 
the bishop of Dunkeld to insist upon both these novel practices being discontinued ! 

w From this arose the proverb so common in Scotland — " You are like the bishop of 
Dunkeld, you know not either the old or the new one." 



426 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

from the cardinal of Saint Andrew's and the bishop of Dunkeld, upon 
the dean Thomas Forret, upon two black friars, called Kelow and 
Benarage, and upon a priest of Striveling, called Duncane Sympson, 
and a gentleman called Robert Foster, with three or four others of the 
town of Striveling; who, at the day of their appearance, were condemned 
to death, without any place for recantation; because, as was alleged, 
they were heresiarchs, or chief heretics and teachers of heresy ; and 
especially because many of them were at the bridal of a priest, the vicar 
of Twybody, and did eat flesh in Lent at the said bridal. These were 
the heinous crimes of the several prisoners, and for which they were 
altogether burnt upon the castle-hill at Edinburgh, where they that were 
first bound to the stake piously and marvellously did comfort them 
which came behind, and by their example induced them to be equally 
courageous and submissive. 

Robert Lambe, William Anderson, James Hunter, James Ravelson, 
James Founleson, and Hellen his wife, were not long after the victims 
of a cruel persecution in the city of Perth; the occasion and preparation 
of which was chiefly as follows. There was a certain act of parliament 
made in the time of the lord Hamilton, earl of Arran, and governor of 
Scotland, giving privilege to all men of the realm of Scotland to read 
the scriptures in their mother tongue and language; yet forbidding all 
reasoning, conference, and convocation of people to hear the scriptures 
read or expounded. This liberty of private reading, being granted by 
public proclamation, lacked not his own fruit, so that in sundry parts of 
Scotland thereby were opened the eyes of the people of God to see the 
truth and abhor the papistical abominations. Among these were certain 
persons in Perth, then called by the ancient and ecclesiastical name of 
St. Johnstone. 

At this time there was a sermon by friar Spense, in Perth, affirming 
prayers made to saints to be so necessary, that without them there could 
be no hope of salvation to man. This blasphemous doctrine a burgess 
of the town, called Robert Lambe, could not abide, but accused the friar 
in open audience of erroneous doctrine, and abjured him in God's name 
to utter the truth. The friar, being stricken with fear, promised to do 
this, but the trouble and tumult of the people increased so, that he could 
have no audience; and yet Lambe with great danger of his life, escaped 
the hands of the multitude, chiefly made up of women, who contrary to 
nature addressed themselves to extreme cruelty against him. The ene- 
mies of truth proceeded so far as to procure John Chartuous, who 
favoured the truth, and was provost of the city of Perth, to be deposed 
from his office by the governor's authority: a papist, named Alexander 
Marbeck, was chosen in his room, that they might the more easily 
accomplish their ungodly enterprise. 

After deposing the former provost, and electing the other, which 
took place in the month of January on St. Paul's day, there came to 
Perth the governor, the cardinal, the earl of Argyle, justice Campbel of 
Lunde, justice Defort, the lord Borthwike, the bishops of Dunblane and 
Orkeney, with certain others of the nobility and gentry. And although 
there were many accused of the crime of heresy, as they term it, yet 
these persons only were at this time apprehended : Robert Lambe, 



CONDEMNATION OF ANDERSON AND OTHERS. 427 

William Anderson, James Hunter, James Raveleson, James Founleson, 
and Hellen his wife. They were cast that night in the Spay Tower of 
the said city, to abide judgment on the morrow. When they then were 
brought forth to judgment, there was laid in general to all their charge, 
violating of the act of parliament before expressed, and their conference 
and assemblies in hearing and expounding scripture against the tenor of 
the said act. Robert Lambe was specially accused for interrupting the 
friar in the pulpit; which he not only confessed, but also affirmed 
constantly that it was the duty of no man, who understood and knew 
the truth, to hear the same impugned without contradiction ; and there- 
fore any who were there present in judgment, who withheld their defence 
of the truth, should bear the burden in God's presence for neglecting 
the same. 

William Anderson and James Raveleson, were accused of hanging up 
the image of St. Francis in a cord, nailing ram's horns to his head, and 
a cow's rump to his tail, and for eating a goose on Allhallows eve. 
James Hunter, being a simple man and without learning, and a fletcher x 
by occupation, so that he could be charged with no great knowledge in 
doctrine, yet because he was often found in the company of the rest was 
accused with them. 

The woman, Hellen, was charged with not calling upon the name of 
the Virgin Mary, being exhorted thereto by her neighbours, but only 
upon God for Jesus Christ's sake; and because she said in like manner 
that if she herself had been in the time of Virgin Mary, God might 
have looked to her humility and base estate, as he did to the Virgin's, 
in making her the mother of Christ : thereby meaning, that there was 
no merit in the Virgin, which procured her the honour to be made 
mother of Christ, and to be preferred before other women; but only 
God's free mercy exalted her to that estate. These words were counted 
most execrable in the face of all the clergy, and of the whole multitude. 
James Raveleson building a house, set upon the round of his fourth pair 
of stairs the triple crown of the pope in carved work, which the cardinal 
took as done in derision of St. Peter, the pope, and himself; and this 
procured no favour to James at his hands. 

These persons, on the morrow after St. Paul's day, were condemned to 
death, and that by an assize, for violating the act of parliament, for 
reasoning and conferring upon scripture, for eating flesh upon days for- 
bidden, for interrupting the holy friar in the pulpit, for dishonouring 
images, and blaspheming the Virgin Mary. After sentence was given, 
their hands were bound, and they were cruelly treated; all but the 
woman; when she desired likewise to be bound by the sergeants with 
her husband for the sake of Christ. 

There was great intercession made by the people of the town to the 
governor for the life of these persons, and he seemed willing so to have 
done, that they might have been delivered. But the governor was so 
subject to the tyranny of the cruel priests, that he could not do that 
which he would. They even menaced to assist his enemies and to depose 

x This was a maker of arrows, an occupation which the discovery of gunpowder and other 
modern means of warfare were fast reducing in importance; but which at earlier periods 
was one of the most prosperous and active concerns in the land. 



4<28 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

him, except he assisted their cruelty. There were certain priests in 
the city who had eaten and drunken before in the honest men's houses 
and were much indebted to them. These priests were earnestly desired 
to intreat for their friends at the cardinal's hands; but altogether 
refused, desiring rather their death than their preservation. In fact no 
means could be found to save them, and they were carried by a great 
band of armed men to the place of execution, which was common to 
the worst criminals, and that to make their cause appear more odious to 
the people. 

Robert Lambe made his exhortations to the people, desiring them to 
fear God, and leave the leaven of papistical abominations. He prophe- 
sied of the ruin and plague which came upon the cardinal thereafter. 
The rest were also firm and resigned, so that every one comforting ano- 
ther, and assuring themselves that they should sup together in the king- 
dom of heaven that night, they commended their souls to God, died in 
the Lord, and were truly blessed. The woman desired earnestly to die 
with her husband, but she was not allowed ; yet, following him to the 
place of execution, she gave him comfort, exhorting him to perseverance 
and patience for Christ's sake, and parting from him with a kiss, said : 
" Husband, rejoice, for we have lived together many joyful days; but 
this day, in which we must die, ought to be the most joyful unto us both, 
because we must have joy for ever; therefore I will not bid you good 
night, for we shall very very soon meet with joy in the kingdom of 
heaven." The woman was taken to a place to be drowned, and though 
she had a child sucking on her breast, yet this moved not the unmerci- 
ful hearts of her enemies. So after she had commended her children to 
the neighbours of the town for God's sake, and the sucking infant was 
given to the nurse, she sealed the truth by her death. 

The reader will now be introduced to George Wishart, or Wisehart, 
another Scottish martyr, who suffered in 1546 at St. Andrews ; but 
before we enter upon the examination of this bright luminary of the 
church of Christ, we will give a testimonial of his manners, written by 
one of his scholars to Mr. Fox. He was commonly called Mr. George, 
of Bennet's college, was a man of tall stature, bald-headed, and wore a 
round French cap : judged to be of melancholy complexion by his phy- 
siognomy, black- haired, long-bearded, comely of personage, well spoken 
after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, 
desirous to learn, and was well travelled, wearing never but a mantle or 
frieze gown to the shoes, and plain black hose, coarse canvass for his 
shirts, and white falling bands. All this apparel he gave to the poor, 
some weekly, some monthly, some quarterly, as he liked, saving his 
French cap, which he kept at least a whole year. 

He was modest and temperate, fearing God and hating covetousness ; 
his charity had never end, night, noon, nor day ; he forbare one meal 
in three, one day in four, for the most part, except what was necessary 
to sustain nature. He lay upon straw, and coarse canvass sheets, which 
when he changed he gave away. He had commonly by his bed-side a 
tub of water, in which he used to bathe himself. He taught the young 
with great modesty and gravity. Some of his people thought him severe, 
and would have slain him, but the Lord was his defence. And he, after 



WISHART'S EXAMINATION. 429 

due correction for their malice, by good exhortation amended them and 
went his way. His learning was no less sufficient than his desire ; al- 
ways pressed and ready to do good in that he was able, both in the 
house privately and in the school publicly, professing and reading divers 
authors. If we should declare his love to all men, his charity to the 
poor, in giving, relieving, caring, helping, providing, yea, infinitely 
studying how to do good unto all, and hurt to none, we should sooner 
want words than just cause to commend him. This is the testimony of 
a young servant and friend of the name of Tylney, who knew Wishart 
well, and who was every way worthy of credit and confidence. 

Wishart was by birth a Scotchman, but received his education at 
Cambridge. The year before his death he returned to his own country, 
and on his way preached in many places against idolatry. He made 
some stay at Dundee ; but by means of Beaton he was expelled thence, 
and at his departure, he denounced heavy judgment on them for reject- 
ing the gospel. He then went and preached in many other places, and 
entrance to the churches being denied him, he preached in the fields. 
He would not suffer the people to open the church doors by violence, 
for that he said became not the gospel of peace which he preached. 
He heard the plague had broken out in Dundee, within four days after 
he was banished ; so he returned thither, and took care of the sick, and 
did all the offices of a faithful pastor among them. He shewed his gen- 
tleness towards his enemies, by rescuing a priest who was coming to kill 
him, but was discovered, and was almost torn in pieces by the people. 
He foretold several extraordinary things; particularly his own sufferings, 
and the spread of the reformation over the land. He preached last in 
Lothian, and there the earl of Bothwell took him, but promised upon his 
honour that no harm should be done him ; yet he delivered him to the 
cardinal, who brought him to St. Andrews, and called a meeting of 
bishops thither to destroy him with the more solemnity. 

While imprisoned in the castle, the dean of St. Andrews was sent by 
the cardinal to summon him to appear before the judge on the following 
morning, to render an account of his seditious and heretical doctrine, as 
they termed it. Wishart answered — •" What need my lord cardinal to 
summon me, when I am thus in his power and bound in irons ? Can he 
not compel me to answer ; or does he believe that I am unprovided with 
the means of defending my doctrine ? But to manifest yourselves, ye do 
well to keep your old ceremonies and constitutions made by men." 

The next morning, the lord cardinal caused his servants to clothe and 
arm themselves in their warlike array, with jack, knapskal, splent, spear, 
and axe, more seeming for the battle, than for defending the true word 
of God. When the procession of these armed champions marching in 
warlike order had conveyed the bishops into the abbey church, they sent 
for Wishart, who was conducted into church by the captain of the castle 
accompanied by a hundred men thus equipped, like a lamb led to the 
sacrifice. As he entered the abbey church door, there was a poor man 
lying, vexed with great infirmities, asking of him alms, to whom he flung 
his purse. And when he came before the lord cardinal, the superior of the 
abbey, called dean John Winryme, stood up in the pulpit, and made a 



430 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

sermon to all the congregation, taking his matter out of the 13th chap- 
ter of Matthew, and dividing his sermon into four principal parts. 

The first part was a brief and short declaration of the Evangelist. 
The second, part of the interpretation of the good seed. He called the 
word of God the good seed, and heresy the evil seed, and declared how 
heresy should be known ; which he defined thus : " Heresy is a false 
opinion defended with pertinacy, clearly impugning the word of God." 
The third part of the sermon was, the cause of heresy in that realm and 
all other realms. " The cause of heresy, is the ignorance of them which 
have the cure of men's souls : to whom it belongeth to have the true un- 
derstanding of the word of God, that they may be able to refute heresies 
with the word of God ; as saith St. Paul : " A bishop must be faultless, 
as becometh the minister of God, not stubborn nor angry, no drunkard, 
no fighter, not given to filthy lucre, but one that loveth goodness, sober- 
minded, righteous, holy, temperate, and that cleaveth to the true word, 
that he may be able to exhort with wholesome learning, and to answer 
that which they say against him." The fourth part was, how heresies 
should be known. " Heresies are known after this manner; as the gold- 
smith knoweth fine gold by the touchstone ; so likewise may we know 
heresy by the undoubted touchstone, the true and undefiled word of God." 
At last he added, that heretics should be put down in this present life. 
Here he faultered, because the gospel said," Let both grow together till 
the harvest/' and "The harvest is the end of the world." Nevertheless, 
he affirmed that they should be put down by the civil magistrate and 
law in this life. 

When he ended his sermon, they caused Wishart to ascend the pulpit, 
there to hear his accusation and articles. Over against him stood one 
of the fed flock, John Lauder, laden full of cursings written on paper. 
Of these he took out a roll, both long and also full of devilish spite and 
malice, saying to the innocent George so many cruel and abominable words, 
and striking him so spitefully with the pope's thunder, that the ignorant 
people dreaded lest the earth would have swallowed him up quick. Not- 
withstanding he stood still with great patience, hearing the dreadful say- 
ings, not once moving or changing his countenance. When Lauder had 
read throughout his menacings, he spat in Wishart's face, saying, " What 
answerest thou to these sayings, thou runagate, traitor, which we have 
duly proved thee to be by sufficient witness?" Wishart hearing this, 
kneeled down in the pulpit, making his prayer to God. When he had 
ended his prayer, sweetly and christianly, he answered as follows : — 

" Many horrible sayings unto me a Christian man, many words abo- 
minable to hear, ye have spoken this day, which not only to teach, but 
also to think, must be great abomination. Wherefore I pray your dis- 
cretion quietly to hear me, that ye may know what were my sayings, and 
the manner of my doctrine. This my petition, my lord, 1 desire to be 
heard for three causes. First, because by means of preaching the word 
of God, his glory is made manifest. It is reasonable therefore, for ad- 
vancing the glory of God, that ye hear me, teaching truly, as I do, the 
pure word of God without any dissimulation. Second, because your 
health springeth of the word of God ; for he worketh all things by his 
word. It were therefore an unrighteous tiling if ye should stop your ears 



CHARGES AGAINST WISHART. 431 

from me, teaching truly the word of God. Third, because you utter 
many blasphemous and abominable words, not coming of the inspiration 
of God, but of the devil, with no less peril than of my life. It is just 
therefore and reasonable, that your discretion should know what my 
words and doctrine are, and what I have ever taught in this realm, that 
I perish not unjustly to the great peril of your souls. Wherefore both 
for the glory and honour of God, your own health, and safeguard of my 
life, I beseech your patience to hear me, and in the mean time I shall 
recite my doctrine without any colour." 

" Since the time I came into this realm, I taught nothing but the ten 
commandments of God, the twelve articles of the faith, and the prayer 
of the Lord in the mother tongue. Moreover, in Dundee, I taught the 
epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. And I shall shew you faithfully 
what manner I used when I taught without any human dread ; so that 
your discretion give your ears benevolence and attention." This was 
more than his enemies could endure, and with a high voice the accuser 
cried out, " Thou heretic, runagate, traitor, and thief, it was not lawful 
for thee to preach. Thou hast taken the power in thine own hand, 
without any authority of the church. We forethink that thou hast been 
a preacher so long." Then all the congregation of the prelates, with 
their accomplices, said : "If we give him licence to preach, he is so 
crafty, and in the Holy Scriptures so exercised, that he will persuade 
the people to his opinion, and raise them against us." 

Seeing their malicious and wicked intent, Wishart appealed from the 
lord cardinal to the lord governor, as to an indifferent and equal judge. 
To whom Lauder answered, " Is not my lord cardinal the second per- 
son within this realm, chancellor of Scotland, archbishop of St. 
Andrews, bishop of Meropois, commendator of Aberbroshok, Legatus 
natus, Legatus a Latere?" thus reciting all his unworthy honours. ''Is 
not he an equal judge of thy cause and conduct? what other desirest 
thou to be thy judge!" "I refuse not my lord Cardinal," said Wishart, 
" but I desire the word of God to be my judge, and the temporal estate, 
with some of your lordships mine auditors, because I am here my lord 
governor's prisoner." Whereupon the proud and scornful people that 
stood by, mocked him, saying, "Such man, such judge! speaking 
seditious and reproachful words against the governor and other nobles 
meaning them also to be heretics." Then without delay and without 
further process they would have given sentence upon him, had not cer- 
tain men present counselled the Cardinal to read again the articles, and 
to hear his answers thereupon, that the people might not complain of 
his unjust condemnation. 

These were the articles following, with his answers, so far as they 
would give him leave to speak. For when he intended to mitigate their 
falsehoods, and shew the manner of his doctrine, they stopped his mouth 
with some new charge. Thus ran their bitter invectives — "Thou false 
heretic, runagate, traitor, and thief, deceiver of the people, thou de- 
spisest the holy church, and contemnest my lord governor's authority. 
And this we know, that when thou didst preach in Dundee, and wast 
charged by my lord's authority to desist, nevertheless thou wouldst not 
obey, but persevered in the same ; and therefore the bishop of Brothen 



432 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

cursed thee, and delivered thee into the devil's hands, and gave thee in 
commandment that thou should preach no more : notwithstanding, thou 
didst continue obstinately." 

Wishart availed himself of a pause and said — " My lords, I have read 
in the Acts of the Apostles, that it is not lawful to desist from preaching 
the gospel for the threats and menaces of men. There it is written, 
' We should rather obey God than man.' I have also read in the pro- 
phet Malachi, * I shall curse your blessings, and bless your cursings;' 
and I believe firmly that the Lord will turn your cursing into blessings." 

No longer could he speak, for they cried out — "Thou false heretic 
didst say that the priest, standing at the altar saying mass, was like a 
fox wagging his tail in July." Wishart answered — " My lords, I said 
not so, these were my sayings— The moving of the body outward, with- 
out the inward moving of the heart, is nought else but the playing of 
an ape, and not the true serving of God : for God is a secret searcher 
of men's hearts; therefore whoever will truly adore and honour God, 
must in spirit and verity serve and worship him." 

Again they sought anew charge, and said — "Thou preachedst against 
the sacrament, saying, that there were not seven sacraments." To this 
absurdity he replied with caution and wisdom. — " My lords, if it be 
your pleasure, I never taught the number of the sacraments, whether 
they were seven or eleven. So many as are instituted by Christ are 
shewed to us by the evangelists, and all these I profess openly. Except 
it be the word of God, I dare affirm nothing." 

Without striving to refute him, they railed again — " Thou hast openly 
taught that auricular confession is not a blessed sacrament, and sayest 
that we should only confess to God, and not to any priest." To this he 
answered — " My lords, I say that auricular confession, seeing that it 
hath no promise of the gospel, it therefore cannot be a sacrament. Of 
the confession to be made to God, there are many testimonies in scripture, 
as when David saith, ' I said I would acknowledge mine iniquity unto 
the Lord, and he forgave the punishment of my sin.' In this Psalm 
xxxii, David's confession signifieth the secret knowledge of our sins 
before God. When I exhorted the people in this manner I reproved 
no manner of confession; but I taught what St. James saith, ' Acknow- 
ledge your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you 
may be healed.' " On his speaking thus cautiously, the bishops and 
their accomplices cried and grinned, saying — " See ye not what colour 
he hath in his speaking, that he may beguile and seduce us to his 
opinion ?" One of them said, " Heretic, thou didst say openly, that it 
was necessary to every man to know and understand his baptism, and what 
it was, contrary to general councils and the estate of the holy church." 

He answered — " My lords, I believe there be none so unwise here 
that will make merchandise with a Frenchman, or any other unknown 
stranger, except he know and understand first the condition or promise 
made by such foreigners: so likewise I would that we understood what 
thing we promise in the name of the infant unto God in baptism. For 
this cause I believe ye have confirmation." Bleiter, the chaplain, then 
furiously interposed, and insinuated that he had the devil within him, 
and the spirit of error. On which a little child who was present, and 



WISHART DEFENDS HIS DOCTRINE. 433 

heard the chaplain, said, "The devil cannot speak such words as yonder 
man doth speak." 

This enraged his foes to madness, and one cried out — " Heretic, traitor, 
thief, thou saidst that the sacrament of the altar was but a piece of bread 
baked upon the ashes, and no other thing; and that all which is there 
done is but a superstitious rite against the commandment of God." 
To this abuse he boldly replied thus — "As concerning the sacrament 
of the altar, my lords, I never taught any thing against the Scripture, 
which I shall, by God's grace, make manifest this day, being ready there- 
fore to suffer death." 

No one interposing, he went on — " The lawful use of the sacrament 
is most acceptable unto God; but the great abuse of it is very detestable 
unto him. But what occasion they have to say such words of me, I 
shall shortly shew your lordships. I once chanced to meet with a Jew 
when I was sailing upon the Rhine. I did enquire of him what was the 
cause of his pertinacy, that he did not believe that the true Messiah was 
come, considering that he had seen all the prophecies which were spoken 
of him to be fulfilled. Moreover the prophecies taken away, and the 
sceptre of Judah departed; and by many other testimonies of scripture 
I convinced him that Messiah was come, whom they called Jesus of 
Nazareth. This Jew answered me that * when the Messiah cometh, he 
shall restore all things, and he shall not abrogate the law, which was 
given to our fore-fathers, as ye do. For why? ye see the poor almost 
perish through hunger amongst you; yet you are not moved with pity 
toward them : but amongst us, though we be poor Jews, there are no 
beggars found.' y 

" It is forbidden by the law to feign any kind of imagery of things in 
heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the sea under the earth; 
but one God only is to be honoured : while your sanctuaries and churches 
are full of idols. Moreover, I must repeat what the Jew said, that a 
peace of bread baked upon the ashes ye adore and worship, and say, 
that it is your God. I have rehearsed here but the sayings of the Jew, 
which I never affirmed to be true." Some one replied — " Thou saidst, 
that extreme unction was not a sacrament." He denied the charge, " I 
never taught any thing of extreme unction in my doctrine, whether fc 
were a sacrament or not." Again they accused him — " Thou saidst that 
holy water is not so good as wash, and such like. Thou condemnest 
conjuring, and saidst holy churches' cursings avail not." To this he 
was as usual quick in answering — " As for holy water, what strength it 
is of I never taught in my doctrine. Conjurings, and exorcisms, if they 
are conformable to the word of God, I would commend them ; but in- 
somuch as they are not conformable to the commandment and word of 
God, I reprove them." 

Again — " Heretic and runagate, thou hast said, that every layman is a 
priest, and such like ; thou saidst that the pope had no more power than 
any other man." Wishart now felt greater need of prudence, and said 
— " My lords, I have taught nothing but the word of God; I remember 
that I have read in some places in St. John, and St. Peter, ' He hath 

y This speech, though found among the answers of Wishart, and introduced in the place 
in which he uttered it, does not appear to be so appropriate as his other replies. 
10 2f 






434 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

made us kings and priests/ and * He hath made us a royal priesthood.' 
Wherefore 1 have affirmed that any man wise in the word of God, and 
the true faith of Jesus Christ, hath this power given him from God; not 
by the power or violence of men, but by the virtue of the word of 
God, which word is called the power of God, as St. Paul witnesseth 
evidently enough. And again I say, that any unlearned man, not exer- 
cised in the word of God, nor yet constant in his faith, whatsoever estate 
or order he be of, I say, he hath no power to bind or loose, seeing he 
wanteth the instrument, by which he bindeth or looseth; that is to say, 
the word of God." 

After he had uttered this admirable speech, all the bishops laughed 
and mocked him. " Laugh ye, my lords?" said he; " though these say- 
ings appear scornful and worthy of derision to your lordships, neverthe- 
less they are very weighty to me, and of great value, because they stand 
not only upon myself, but also the honour and glory of God." While 
many godly men beholding the obstinacy and cruelty of the bishops 
and invincible patience of Wishart, greatly mourned and lamented, his 
implacable foes added to their impieties and insults, and cried out — ' 
" False heretic, thou saidst that a man hath no free will, but like as 
the stoics say, that it is not in man's will to do any thing, but that all 
cometh by God, whatsoever kind it be of." To which he wisely answered 
"My lords, I said not so, truly; but I said that as many as believe in 
Christ firmly, unto them is given freedom, conformable to the saying of 
St. John — ' If the Son make you free, then shall ye verily be free.' Of 
the contrary, as many as believe not in Christ Jesus, they are bond- 
servants of sin — ' He that sinneth is bound to sin.' " 

"Thou saidst," they exclaimed again, "it is as lawful to eat flesh 
upon the Friday as on Sunday." With another firm appeal to scrip- 
ture, he replied — " I have read in the epistles of St. Paul, that ' Whoso 
is clean, unto him all things are clean.' On the contrary, ' To the filthy 
man all things are unclean.' A faithful man, clean and holy, sancti- 
fieth by the word the creature of God ; but the creature maketh no man 
acceptable unto God. So that a creature may not sanctify any impure 
and unfaithful man ; but to the faithful man all things are sanctified 
by the word of God and prayer." 

At this all the bishops, with their accomplices, said — " What need we 
any witness against him? hath he not here openly spoken blasphemy ? 
Heretic, thou dost say, that we should not pray to saints, but to God 
only. Say whether thou hast said this or not?" To which he answered 
— " My lord there are two things worthy of note; the one is certain, the 
other uncertain. It is found plainly and certain in scripture, that we 
should worship and honour one God, according to the saying of the first 
commandment, thou shalt worship and honour thy Lord God only, with all 
thy heart. As for praying to and honouring saints, there is great doubt 
among many whether they hear or not any invocation made unto them. 
Therefore I exhorted all men equally in my doctrine, that they should 
leave the uncertain way, and follow that way which was taught us by 
our master Christ. He is the only mediator, and alone maketh inter- 
cession for us to God his father. He is the door by which we must enter 
in : he that entereth not by this door, but climbeth another way, is a 






WISHART DEFENDS HIS DOCTRINE. 435 

thief and a murderer. He is the verity and life. Every one that goeth 
out of this way, there is no doubt but he shall fall into the mire; yea 
verily, is fallen into it already. This is the fashion of my doctrine, 
which I have ever followed. Verily, that which I have heard and read 
in the word of God I taught openly, and in no corners. And now ye 
shall witness the same, if your lordships will hear me. Except it stand 
by the word of God, I dare not be so bold as to affirm any thing." 

Without attempting to answer these scriptural testimonies and appeals, 
his enemies multiplied their absurd accusations, and said — "Thou hast 
preached plainly, saying there is no purgatory, and that it is a feigned 
thing for any man after this life to be punished in purgatory." Wishart 
reminded them of his former answers — "As I have said heretofore, 
without express witness and testimony of the scripture I dare affirm 
nothing. I have oft read over the bible, and yet such a term found I 
never, nor yet any place of scripture applicable to it. Therefore I was 
ashamed ever to teach that thing which I could not find in the scripture." 
Then said he to Lauder, his accuser — " If you have any testimony of the 
scripture, by which you may prove any such place, shew it now before 
this auditory." Lauder had not a word to say for himself, but was as 
dumb as a beetle, except in devising a fresh charge. 

This was — "Thou hast taught against the vows of monks, friars, nuns, 
and priests; saying that whosoever was bound to such vows, vowed 
themselves to the estate of damnation. Moreover, that it was lawful 
for priests to marry." In answer, he again appealed to scripture — "My 
lords, I have read in the gospel, that there are three kinds of chaste 
men : * some are eunuchs from their birth ; some are made such by 
men ; and some make themselves such for the kingdom of heaven's sake.' 
Verily, I say these men are blessed by the scripture of God. But as 
many as have not the gift of continence, nor yet for the gospel's sake 
have overcome the concupiscence of the flesh, and have vowed chastity, 
ye have experience, although I should hold my peace, to what incon- 
venience they have vowed themselves." 

When he had said these words they were all dumb for a time, 
and then one broke out and said — "False heretic, thou sayest thou wilt 
not obey our general nor provincial councils." Once more he took the 
sword of the Spirit: " My lords, what your general councils are I know 
not, I was never exercised in them; but to the pure word of God I gave 
my labours. Read here your general councils, or else give me a book 
wherein they are contained, that I may read them: if they agree with 
the word of God, I will not dispute or disobey them." 

Upon this they cried out — "Why do we suffer him to speak further? 
Read on the rest of the articles, and do not stay upon them." Among 
the rest, John 'Grey-fiend' Scot, standing behind Lauder's chair, hastened 
him to read the rest of the articles, and not to tarry upon answers. 
" For we may not abide them," quoth he, " any more than the devil 
may abide the sign of the cross, when it is made." Then he turned to 
Wishart — "Thou sayest, that it is in vain to build to the honour of God 
costly churches, seeing that God remaineth not in the churches made 
with men's hands, nor yet can God be in so little space as between the 
priest's hands." He had now a sublime reply at hand — "My lords, 



436 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Solomon saith, ' If that the heaven of heavens cannot comprehend thee, 
how much less this house that I have built?' and Job consenteth to the 
same sentence : ' Seeing that he is higher than the heavens, therefore 
what canst thou build unto him? He is deeper than hell, then how 
shalt thou know him? He is longer than the earth and broader than 
the sea.' So that God cannot be comprehended in any one place, 
because he is infinite. Notwithstanding, I never said that churches 
should be destroyed; but the contrary, I affirm ever, that churches 
should be sustained and upholden, that the people should be con- 
gregated into them, there to hear of God. Moreover, wheresoever is 
the true preaching of the word of God, and the lawful use of the sacra- 
ments, undoubtedly there is God himself: so that both these sayings are 
true together; God cannot be comprehended in any place, and where- 
soever two or three are gathered together in his name, there he is present 
in the midst of them. If you think otherwise, show forth reasons before 
this auditory." Then Lauder, not answering one word, proceeded forth 
in his articles — 

" False heretic, thou contemneth fasting, and sayest thou didst not 
fast." Wishart could here be at no loss with scripture and reason before 
him — " My lords, I find that fasting is commended in the scripture; 
therefore I were a slanderer of the gospel, if I condemned fasting. And 
not so only, but I have learned, that fasting is good for the health of 
the body : but God knoweth who fasteth the true fast." 

Lauder proceeded — " Thou hast preached openly, saying, that the 
soul of man shall sleep till the latter day of judgment, and shall not 
obtain life immortal until that day." At this foul charge, Wishart was 
indignant, and said — " God full of mercy and goodness forgive them 
that say such things of me; I know surely by the word of God, that he 
which hath begun to have the faith of Jesus Christ, and believeth firmly 
in him, believeth that the soul of man shall never sleep, but ever shall 
live an immortal life; which life, from day to day, is renewed in grace 
and augmented ; nor yet shall ever perish or have an end, but ever 
immortal shall live with Christ. To which life all that believe in him 
shall come* and rest in eternal glory. Amen." 

When the bishops with their accomplices had thus accused this 
innocent man, they next condemned him to be burnt as a heretic, 
not having respect to his godly answers and true reasons which he 
alleged, nor yet to their own consciences, thinking verily that they 
should do to God good sacrifice, conformable to the saying of 
St. John — "They shall excommunicate you: yea, and the time shall 
come that he which killeth you shall think that he hath done God 
service." First they made the common people, whose desire was always 
to hear that innocent man speak, to disperse, after which these sons of 
darkness pronounced their sentence definitive, not having respect to the 
judgment of God. When all this was done and said, the cardinal 
caused his warders to return again with the prisoner into the castle, 
until such time as the fire was made ready. When he arrived at the 
castle there came Friar Scot and his mate, saying, " Sir, you must 
make your confession unto us." "I will make no confession unto you," 
replied Wishart; "go fetch me yonder man that preached this day, and 






DEATH OF WISHART. 437 

I will make my confession unto him." Then they sent for the sub-prior 
of the abbey, who came to him with all diligence; but what was said in 
this confession is unknown. 

When the fire was made ready, and the gallows at the west part of 
the castle near to the priory, the lord cardinal, dreading that Wishart 
should have been taken away by his friends, commanded to bend all the 
ordnance of the castle right against that part, and all his gunners to be 
ready and stand beside their guns, until such time as he was burned. 
All this being done, they bound the martyr's hands behind him, and led 
him forth with their soldiers from the castle to the place of execution. 
As he came out of the castle gate, there met him certain beggars, asking 
alms for God's sake; to whom he answered, " I want my hands where- 
with to give you alms, but the merciful Lord, of his benignity and 
abundance of grace that feedeth all men, vouchsafe to give you neces- 
saries both unto your bodies and souls." Then afterwards met him two 
fiends, called friars, saying, "Master George, pray to our lady, that she 
may be mediatrix for you to her Son." To whom he answered meekly, 
" Cease, tempt me not, my brethren." After this he was led to the fire 
with a rope about his neck, and a chain of iron for his girdle. 

When he came to the fire he sunk down upon his knees, rose again, 
and thrice he repeated these words: — "O thou Saviour of the world, 
have mercy on me. Father of heaven, I commend my spirit into thy 
holy hands." Then he turned him to the people and said — " I beseech 
you. Christian brethren and sisters, that ye be not offended with the 
word of God for the affliction and torments which ye see prepared for 
me; but I exhort you that you love the word of God, and suffer 
patiently and with a comfortable heart for the word's sake, which is 
your undoubted salvation and everlasting comfort. Moreover, I pray 
you shew my brethren and sisters, which have heard me oft before, that 
they cease not, nor leave off the word of God which I taught them, 
after the grace given to me, for any persecutions or troubles in this 
world, which last not; and shew unto them that my doctrine was no old 
wives' fable, after the constitution made by men. Had I taught men's 
doctrine, I had gotten great thanks by men ; but for the word's sake 
and the true gospel, which was given to me by the grace of God, I 
suffer this day by men, not sorrowfully, but with a glad heart and mind. 
For this cause I was sent, that I should suffer this fire for Christ's sake. 
Consider and behold my visage, ye shall not see me change my colour. 
This grim fire I fear not. If any persecution come to you for the word's 
sake, do not fear them that slay the body, and afterward have no power 
to slay the soul. Some have said of me that I have taught that the soul 
of man should sleep until the last day; but I know surely, and my faith 
is such, that my soul shall sup with my Saviour Christ this night, ere it 
be six hours, for whom I suffer this. I beseech thee, Father of Heaven, 
to forgive them that have of any ignorance or of any evil mind forged 
lies upon me; for I forgive them with all my heart. I beseech Christ 
to forgive them that have condemned me to death this day ignorantly; 
and, last of all, I beseech you brethren and sisters, to exhort your 
prelates to the learning of the word of God, that they at the last may 
be ashamed to do evil, and learn to do good. And if they will not 



438 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

convert themselves from their wicked error, there shall hastily come upon 
them the wrath of God, which they shall not eschew." 

Many other faithful words said he in the mean time, taking no heed 
or care of the cruel torments which were then prepared for him. At 
last the hangman fell upon his knees and said — " I pray you forgive me, 
for I am not guilty of your death." He answered — " Come hither to 
me." When he was come to him, he kissed his cheek, and said, " Lo! 
there is a token that I forgive thee. My heart, do thine office ;" and 
presently he was put upon the gibbet and hanged, and there burnt to 
ashes. The people beheld the glorious exit of this triumphant martyr 
with sentiments of mingled wonder, sorrow, and indignation. 

The clergy rejoiced much at his death, and extolled the courage of the 
cardinal, for proceeding in it against the orders of the governor. But 
the people looked on Wishart as a martyr and a prophet. It was also 
said that his death was nothing less than murder, since no writ had 
been obtained for it; and the clergy had no right to burn any one without 
a warrant from the secular power. It was therefore inferred that the 
cardinal deserved to die for his presumption ; for if his dignity set him 
above the law, then private persons might execute that which the gover- 
nor could not do. Such practices had been formerly too common in 
the kingdom; and upon this occasion some gentlemen of quality began 
to think it would be an heroical action to conspire his death. His in- 
solence had rendered him generally hateful; thus public and private 
resentment concurring, twelve persons entered into an engagement to 
kill the cardinal privately in his house. On the 30th of May, they sur- 
prized the gate early in the morning; and though there were a hundred 
men in the castle, yet being all asleep, they came to them apart, and 
either turned them out, or shut them up in their chamber. Having 
made all sure, they proceeded to the cardinal's chamber; who, per- 
ceiving they had a design upon his life, exclaimed, "Alas! alas! slay 
me not, I am a priest:" but paying as little regard to him as he had 
done to Wishart, they immediately slew him, and laid out his body in 
the same window from which he had looked on Wishart's execution. 
Some justified this act, as the killing of a robber and murderer; but it 
was generally condemned ; yet the accomplishment of Wishart's pre- 
diction made great impression on the people. 

Before we return to our English history, we shall proceed with an ac- 
count of the Scottish martyrs who suffered at this time, and the few 
following years. The violent death of cardinal Beaton was expected to 
put a stop to all such proceedings; but his successor unhappily resolved 
to continue them. The famous, or rather infamous, John Hamilton suc- 
ceeded to the archbishopric of St. Andrews, who, in the spirit of per- 
secution, was not a jot inferior to his predecessor. The year following 
his elevation, he brought to judgment and martyrdom Adam Wallace. 

This excellent man was brought on a charge of heresy into a court 
assembled at the Black Friars' Church in Edinburgh, composed of many 
dignitaries and nobles in Scotland. Among them were the dean of 
Glasgow; the archbishop of St. Andrew's; the bishops of Dunblane 
and Moray ; the abbots of Dunfermline ana Glenluce ; with other 
churchmen of lower estimation, as the official of St. Andrew's, and 




MARTYRDOM OF GEORGE WI6EHART.— PAGB 43 



I 



EXAMINATION OF ADAM WALLACE. 430 

some doctors of that city. The earl of Argyle, the justice, with his 
deputy sir John Campbell; the earls of Huntley and Angus; the bishop 
of Galloway; the prior of St. Andrews; the bishop of Orkney; the 
lord Forbes ; dean John Winryme, sub-prior of St. Andrews, were also 
present ; and behind the seats stood the whole senate, the clerk of the 
register, and other officers of the court. 

At the further end of the chancelary wall, in the pulpit, was John 
Lauder, accuser, clad in a surplice and red hood, while a large congre- 
gation of the people were in the body of the church, standing on the 
ground. Before the examination of Wallace, John Ker, prebendary of 
St. Giles's church, was accused, convicted, and condemned, for the 
making and giving forth a sentence of divorce, whereby he falsely put 
asunder a man and his lawful wife, in the name of the dean of Restal- 
rige, and certain other judges appointed by the holy father the pope. 
He confessed the falsehood, and that never any such thing was done 
indeed, nor yet meant or moved by the aforesaid judges. His sentence 
was to be banished the realms of Scotland and England for his life- 
time, and to lose his right hand if he were found there after, and in the 
mean time to forfeit his benefices for ever, and they to be vacant. 

Adam Wallace was then introduced by a servant of the bishop of 
St. Andrews, set in the midst of the scaffold, and commanded to look 
to the accuser. He was a man of simple and humble appearance, but 
was by no means daunted by the grandeur of his judges. On being 
asked his name, he answered, " Adam Wallace." The accuser said 
he had another name, which he granted and said he was commonly 
called Fean. Then he asked, where he was born? " Within two miles 
of Fayle," said he, " in Kyle." Then said the accuser, " I repent 
that such a poor man as you should put these noble lords to so great 
encumbrance this day by your vain speaking." " I must speak," said 
he, " as God giveth me grace; and I believe I have said no evil to hurt 
any body." " Would to God," said the accuser, " ye had never spoken; 
but you are brought forth for such horrible crimes of heresy, as never 
were imagined nor heard of in this country before, and shall be suffi- 
ciently proved, that ye cannot deny them; and I forethink that they 
should be punished for hurting of weak consciences. Now I will say 
no more, but thou shalt hear the points against thee. 

" Adam Wallace, alias Fean: thou art openly accused for preaching 
and teaching of the blasphemies and abominable heresies under-written : 
— In the first, thou hast said and taught that the bread and wine on the 
altar, after the words of consecration, are not the body and blood of 
Christ." On this Wallace turned to the lord governor, and the whole 
court, saying — " I never said, nor taught any thing but what I found in 
this book (having a Bible at his belt in French, Dutch, and English), 
which is the word of God ; and if you will be content that the Lord 
God be judge to me, and this his holy writ, here it is; and wherein I 
have said wrong, I shall take that punishment you put me to; for I 
never said any thing concerning this that I am accused of, but that 
which I found in this blessed book." 

"What didst thou say?" said the accuser. "I said," quoth he, 
" that after our Lord Jesus Christ had eaten the paschal lamb in his last 



440 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

supper with his apostles, and fulfilled the ceremonies of the old law, he 
instituted a new sacrament, in remembrance of his death then to come. 
He took bread, he blessed, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, and 
said — ' Take ye, eat ye, this is my body which shall be broken and given 
for you.' And likewise the cup he blessed, and bade them drink all 
thereof, for that was the cup of the New Testament which should be 
shed for the forgiving of many. ' How oft ye do this, do it in my 
remembrance.' " 

Then said the bishop of St. Andrew's, the official of Lothian, and 
others, " We know this well enough." The earl of Huntley said, "Thou 
answerest not to that which is laid to thee ; say either nay or yea there- 
to." He answered, "If ye will admit God and his word spoken by 
the mouth of his blessed son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, ye will 
admit that which I have said : for I have said and taught nothing but 
what the word, which is the trial and touchstone, saith ; which ought to 
be judge to me, and to all the world. 

" Why," said the earl, again, " hast thou not a judge good enough? 
and thinkest thou that we know not God and his word? Answer to 
what is spoken to thee." And then they made the accuser repeat the 
question. 

Wallace answered, "I never said more than the word saith, nor yet 
more than I have said before. For I know well by St. Paul when he 
saith, ' Whosoever eateththis bread and drinketh of this cup unworthily, 
receiveth to himself damnation.' And therefore when I taught — which 
was but seldom, and to them only which required and desired me — I 
said, that if the sacrament of the altar were truly ministered, and used 
as the Son of the living God did institute it, where that was done, there 
was God himself by his divine power, by which he is over all." 

The bishop of Orkney then asked him, " Believest thou not 
that the bread and wine in the sacrament of the altar, after the 
words of the consecration, is the very body of Christ, flesh, blood, and 
bone?" To which he answered — " I know not what the word consecra- 
tion meaneth. I have not much Latin, but I believe that the Son of 
God was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary, 
and hath a natural body, with hands, feet, and other members; and in 
the same body he walked up and down in the world, preached and 
taught, suffered death under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and 
buried, and that by his godly power he raised that same body again the 
third day; and the same body ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the 
right hand of the Father, which shall come again to judge both the 
quick and the dead. I moreover believe that this body is a natural body 
with hands and feet, and cannot be in two places at once; this he 
sheweth well himself; for the which everlasting thanks be to him that 
maketh this matter clear. When the woman brake the ointment on him, 
answering to some of his disciples which grudged thereat, he said, ' The 
poor shall you always have with you, but me ye shall not have always,' 
meaning his natural body. And likewise at his ascension said he to the 
same disciples that were fleshly, and would ever have had him remaining 
with them corporeally, ' It is needful for you that I pass away ; for if I 
pass not away, the Comforter the Holy Ghost shall not come to you,' 



EXAMINATION OF ADAM WALLACE. 441 

meaning that his natural body behoved to be taken away from them : 
4 but be stout and be of good cheer, for I am with you always, unto the 
world's end.' Thus you must see that the eating of his very flesh profiteth 
not, as may well be known by his words which he spake in the sixth of 
John ; where, after he had said, ' Except ye eat my flesh, and drink my 
blood, ye shall not have life in you,' they murmuring thereat, he reproved 
them for their gross and fleshly taking of his words, and said, ' What will 
ye think when ye see the Son of man ascend to the place that he came 
from? It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing,' (to 
be eaten as they took it, and even so take ye it.") 

" It is a horrible heresy," said the bishop of Orkney. Then the 
accuser propounded the second article, and said to Wallace, " Thou saidst 
likewise, and openly didst teach, that the mass is very idolatry, and 
abominable in the sight of God." To this he ingeniously replied — 
" I have read the word of God in three tongues, and have understood 
them so far as God gave me grace, and yet never read I the word ' mass ' 
in any ; but I found that the thing which was highest and most in estima- 
tion among men, and not in the word of God, was idolatry, and abominable 
in his holy sight. And I say the mass is holden greatly in estimation, 
and high amongst men, and is not founded in the divine word ; therefore 
I said it was idolatry, and abominable in the sight of God. If any man 
will find it in the Scripture and prove it by God's word, I will grant mine 
error, and that I have failed ; otherwise not. In that case I will submit 
to all lawful correction and punishment." 

"Ad tertiam," said the bishop. " To the third charge." 

Then said the accuser, " Thou hast said and openly taught, that the 
God which we worship is but bread sown of corn, growing of the earth, 
baked of men's hands, and nothing else." To this Wallace answered, 
" I worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons in 
one Godhead, which made and fashioned the heaven and earth, and all 
that is therein, of nought. But I know not which God you worship ; 
and if you will show me whom you worship, I will show you what he is 
as well as I can by my judgment." 

" Believest thou not," said the accuser, " that the sacrament of the 
altar, after the words of the consecration, by the priest's hands, is the 
very body and blood of the Son of God, and God himself?" — " What 
the body of God is," Wallace replied, " and what kind of body he 
hath, I have shewed you, so far as I have found in the scripture." Then 
said the accuser — "Thou has preached divers other great errors and 
abominable heresies against all the seven sacraments, which for short- 
ness of time I pretermit and overpass. Whether dost thou grant thy 
foresaid articles that thou art accused of, or no? and thou shalt hear 
them shortly." And then repeated the accuser the three articles afore- 
said shortly over, and asked him whether he granted or denied them? 

Wallace answered, that he had said nothing but what he thought to 
agree with the holy word, so God judge him, and his own conscience 
accuse him, and thereby would he abide unto the time he were better 
instructed by scripture, and the contrary proved, even to the death: 
and lie said to the lord governor and the rest — " If you condemn me for 
holding by God's word, my blood shall be required at your hands, when 
ye shall be brought before the judgment seat of Christ, who is mighty 



442 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to defend my innocent cause ; before whom ye shall not deny it, nor yet 
be able to resist its wrath, to whom I refer the vengeance, as it is written, 
4 Vengeance is mine and I will reward.' " 

Then they gave sentence, and condemned him by the laws, and so 
left him to the secular power, in the hands of Sir John Campbell, justice 
deputy. He delivered him to the provost of Edinburgh to be burnt on 
the Castle-hill, who put him in the uppermost house in the town, with 
irons about his legs and neck, and gave charge to Sir Hugh Terry to 
keep the key of the house. Terry was an ignorant man, and a creature 
of the bishops, and as directed, sent to the poor man two grey 
friars, to instruct him, with whom he would enter into no communing. 
Soon after that were sent in two black friars, an English friar, and 
another subtle sophist, called Arbuthnot : with the English friar he 
would have reasoned and declared his faith by the scriptures ; but he 
said he had no commission to enter into disputation with him, and so 
departed and left him. Then was sent to him a man, not ungodly in 
the understanding of the truth, the dean of Restalrige, who gave him 
christian consolation, during which he exhorted him to believe the reality 
of the sacrament after the consecration; but he would consent to no- 
thing that had not evidence in the holy scripture, and so passed over 
that night in singing, and praising God, to the ears of divers hearers, 
having learned the psalter of David without book, to his consolation : 
for they had before taken from him his bible, which always, till after he 
was condemned, was with him wherever he went. When Sir Hugh 
knew that he had certain books to read and comfort his spirit, he came 
in a rage and took them from him, and gave divers ungodly and inju- 
rious provocations by his devilish venom, to pervert him from the patience 
and hope he had in Christ his Saviour : but God suffered him not to be 
moved therewith. 

All the next morning he remained in irons, and preparation was com- 
manded to be made for his burning against the next day. On that day 
the lord governor, and all the principal both spiritual and temporal lords, 
departed from Edinburgh. He soon knew of their departure, when 
there came the dean of Restalrige to him again, and reasoned with him. 
But Wallace answered as before, that he would say nothing concerning 
his faith, but as the scripture testifieth : yea, though an angel came from 
heaven to persuade him to the same; saving that he confessed himself 
to have received good consolation of the said dean in other behalf as 
becometh a christian. Then came in Sir Hugh Terry again, and ex- 
amined him after his old manner, and said he would force devils to come 
forth of him before night. Wallace answered, "You should rather give 
me consolation in my case. When I knew you were come, I prayed God 
I might resist your temptations; which I thank him, he hath made me 
able to do ; therefore I pray you let me alone in peace." Then he asked 
one of the officers that stood by — " Is your fire making ready?" who 
answered him it was. " As it pleaseth God," said Wallace, " I am 
ready soon or late as it shall please him ;" and then he spoke to one 
true in that company, and bade him commend him to all the faithful, 
being sure to meet together with them in heaven. From that time, to 
his coming to the fire, no man spake with him. 

At his forth-coming; the provost with great menacing words forbade 






ACCUSATION OF WALTER MILLE. 443 

him to speak to any one, or any to him, as probably he had command- 
ment of his superiors. Coming from the town to the Castle-hill, the 
common people said, " God have mercy upon you !" " And on you too," 
said he. Being beside the fire, he lifted up his eyes to heaven twice or 
thrice, and said to the people, " Let it not offend you that I suffer death 
this day for the truth's sake; for the disciple is not greater than his 
master." On this the provost was angry that he spake. Then he looked 
up to heaven again, and said, " They will not let me speak." The cord 
being about his neck, the fire was lighted, and so he departed to God 
constantly, and with good countenance. 

About this time a remarkable schism took place in the Scotch church, 
relative to the Pater-noster. Numbers of the clergy contending that it 
might be addressed to any saint in heaven ; while the less superstitious 
urged it was proper to be recited only to God. The first of these 
opinions, in all its extravagance and blasphemy, originated with a grey 
friar named Tottis, and the following distorted sophistry he used in 
supporting and defending it. " If we meet an old man in the street, 
we say to him, Good day, father! and, therefore, much more may w T e call 
the saints our fathers; and because we grant, also, that they are in 
heaven, we may say to them — Our fathers, who art in heaven! God 
hath made their names holy, therefore may we say to any one of them 
— hallowed be thy name; and for the same cause, as they are in heaven, 
we may say to them — thy kingdom come. And except their will had been 
the will of God, they had never been there; consequently we may say 
— thy will be done." But when he came to the fourth petition — give us 
this day our daily bread, he was rather at a loss : he however got over 
his difficulty, saying, that although the saints certainly could not them- 
selves give us bread, yet they could intercede for us, and that we might 
consequently address the prayer unto them, that they might pray unto 
the Father in our behalf. Thus did he impiously gloss over the rest in 
like manner. 

Among other martyrs of Scotland, the constancy of Walter Mille is 
not to be passed over with silence. Out of his ashes sprang thousands 
of his opinion and religion in Scotland, who altogether chose rather to 
die than to be any longer trodden over by the tyranny of the bishops, 
abbots, monks, and friars : and so began the congregation of Scotland to 
debate the true religion of Christ against the Frenchmen and papists, who 
sought always to depress and keep them down. The martyrdom of 
Mille was brought on by the following events. 

In the year of our Lord, 1558, in the time of Mary, duchess of 
Longueville, queen regent of Scotland, and John Hamilton, bishop of 
St. Andrew's and primate of Scotland, Walter Mille, who in his youth 
had been a papist, after he had travelled to Germany, where he had heard 
the doctrine of the gospel, returned to Scotland, and, contrary to papal 
celibacy took to himself a wife, which made the bishops of Scotland 
suspect him of heresy; and after long watching him he was taken by 
two popish priests, namely, sir George Strachen, and sir Hugh Terry, 
servants to the said bishop, and imprisoned in the castle of St. Andrew's. 
While in confinement, the papists earnestly laboured to seduce him, 
and threatened him with torture and death, to the intent they might 



444 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

cause him to recant and forsake the truth ; but seeing- they could profit 
nothing thereby, and that he remained firm and constant, they laboured 
to persuade him by fair promises, and offered him a monk's portion for 
the remainder of his life, in the abbey of Dunfermline, so that he would 
deny what he had taught, and grant that they were heresies : but he, 
continuing in the truth to the end, equally despised their threatenings and 
fair promises. 

Then assembled together the bishops of St. Andrew's, Moray, Brechin, 
Caithness, and Athens ; the abbots of Dunfermline, Lindores, Balindrinot, 
and Cowpers; with doctors in theology of St. Andrew's, as John Grison, 
black friar, and dean John Winryme, sub-prior of St. Andrew's, William 
Cranston, provost of the old college, with others, as sundry friars black 
and grey. These being assembled, and having consulted together, he 
was taken out of prison, and brought to the metropolitan church, where 
he was put in a pulpit before the bishops to be accused, the twentieth 
day of April. Being brought into the church, and climbing up into 
the pulpit, they seeing him so weak and feeble of person, partly 
by age and travel, partly by evil treatment, that without help he could 
not ascend, they were out of hope to have heard him for weakness of 
voice. But when he began to speak, he made the church to ring and 
echo, with so great courage and stoutness, that the christians which 
were present were no less rejoiced than his adversaries were confounded 
and ashamed. Being in the pulpit, on his knees at prayer, Andrew 
Oliphant, one of the bishop's chaplains, commanded him to rise and 
answer to the articles, saying on this manner — " Sir Walter Mille, rise and 
answer to the articles, for you hold my lord here over long." To whom 
Walter, after he had finished his prayer, answered, saying, " We ought 
to obey God more than man; I serve one more mighty, even the Omni- 
potent Lord; and I beseech you call me Walter, and not Sir Walter; 
I have been over-long one of the pope's knights. Now say what thou 
hast to say." 

Oliphant. What think you of priests' marriage? 

Mille. I hold it a blessed band: for Christ himself maintained it, and 
approved the same, and also made it free to all men ; but you think it 
not free to youj ye abhor it, and in the mean time take other men's 
wives and daughters, and will not keep the band God hath made. Ye 
vow chastity, and break the same. Saint Paul had rather marry than 
burn; the which I have done, for God never forbade marriage to any 
man, what state or degree soever he were. 

Oliphant. Thou sayst there be not seven sacraments. 

Mille. Give me the Lord's Supper and Baptism, and take you the 
rest, and part them among you. For if there be seven, why have you 
omitted one of them, to wit, marriage, and given yourselves to 
whoredom? 

Oliphant. Thou art against the blessed sacrament of the altar, and 
sayst that the mass is wrong, and is idolatry. 

Mille. A lord or a king sendeth and calleth many to a dinner, and 
when the dinner is in readiness, he causeth a bell to ring, and the men 
come to the hall, and sit down to be partakers of the dinner; but the 
lord, turning his back unto them, eateth all himself, and mocketh them : 






EXAMINATION OF WALTER MILLE. 445 

so do ye turn your backs in the sacrament on the people you have 
invited. 

Oliphant. Thou deniest the sacrament of the altar to be the very body 
of Christ really in flesh and blood. 

Mille. The scripture of God is not to be taken carnally, but spiri- 
tually, and standeth in faith only; and as for the mass it is wrong, for 
Christ was once offered on the cross for man's trespass, and will never 
be offered again, for then he ended all sacrifices. 

Oliphant. Thou deniest the office of a bishop. 

Mille. I affirm that they, whom ye call bishops, do no bishops' 
works; nor use the office of bishops, as Paul biddeth, writing to Timo- 
thy, but live after their own sensual pleasure, and take no care of the 
flock, nor yet regard they the word of Cod, but desire to be honoured 
and called, my lords. 

Oliphant. Thou spakest against pilgrimage, and calledst it a pilgrim- 
age to whoredom. 

Mille. I affirm and say, that it is not commanded in the scripture, 
and that there is no greater whoredom in any place, than at your pil- 
grimages, except it be in common brothels. 

Oliphant. Thou preachedst secretly and privately in houses, and 
openly in the fields. 

Mille. Yea, man, and on the sea also, sailing in a ship, as Christ did. 

Oliphant. Wilt thou not recant thy erroneous opinions ? and if thou 
wilt not, I will pronounce sentence against thee. 

Mille. I am accused of my life; I know I must die once, and there- 
fore as Christ said to Judas, what thou doest do quickly. Ye shall know 
that I will not recant the truth, for I am the corn, I am no chaff; I will 
not be blown away with the wind, nor burst with the flail ; but I will 
abide both. 

These things rehearsed they, with other trifles, to augment their final 
accusation; and then sir Andrew Oliphant pronounced sentence against 
him, that he should be delivered to the temporal judge, and punished 
as a heretic, that is to be burnt. Notwithstanding, his boldness and 
constancy moved so the hearts of many, that the bishop's steward of 
his regality, provost of the town, called Patrick Lermond, refused to be 
his temporal judge, to whom it appertained, if the cause had been just. 
Also the bishop's chamberlain, being therewith charged, would in no 
wise take upon him so ungodly an office. Indeed the whole town was 
so offended with his unjust condemnation, that the bishop's servants 
could not purchase for their money so much as one cord to tie him to 
the stake, or a tar-barrel to burn him, but were constrained to cut the 
cords of their master's own pavilion to serve their turn. At last, however, 
there was one servant of the bishop's more ignorant and cruel than the 
rest, named Alexander Somervaile, ambitious of the office of a temporal 
judge in that part, who conveyed him to the fire, where, against all 
natural reason of man, his boldness and firmness did more and more 
increase, so that the Spirit of God working miraculously in him, made 
it manifest to the people, that his cause and articles were most just, and 
that he died innocently and in the Lord. 

All things being ready for his death, he was conducted by armed men 
to t'he fire. On arriving there, Oliphant bade him pass to the stake : but 



446 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

he said, " Nay, but wilt thou put me up with thy hand and take part of my 
death? thou shalt see me pass up gladly; for by the law of God I am 
forbidden to put hands upon myself." Then Oliphant put him up with 
his hand, and he ascended gladly, saying, Introibo ad altare Dei, and 
desired that he might have space to speak to the people ; the which 
Oliphant and other of the burners denied, because he had spoken over- 
much, for the bishops were altogether offended that the matter was so 
long continued. Then some of the young men committed both the 
burners and the bishops their masters to the devil, remarking that they 
believed they should lament that day, and desired Walter to speak 
what he pleased. 

So after he made his humble supplication to God on his knees, he 
arose, and standing upon the coals said on this wise: " Dear friends, 
the cause why I suffer this day is not for any crime laid to my charge, 
albeit I be a miserable sinner before God, but only for the defence of 
the faith of Jesus Christ, set forth in the New and Old Testament unto 
us; for which as the faithful martyrs have offered themselves gladly 
before, being assured after death of their bodies of eternal felicity; so 
this day I praise God that he hath called me of his mercy among the 
rest of his servants to seal up his truth with my life : which as I have 
received it of him, so willingly I offer it to his glory. Therefore as you 
will escape the eternal death, be no more seduced with the lies of priests, 
monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the rest of the sect of Anti- 
christ, but depend only upon Jesus Christ and his mercy, that ye may 
be delivered from condemnation." While he spake there was great 
mourning and lamentation of the multitude ; who perceiving his patience, 
boldness, and constancy, were not only moved and stirred up, but their 
hearts also were so inflamed, that he was the last martyr that died in 
Scotland for the religion. After his prayer, he was hoisted up on the 
stake, and being in the fire, he said, " Lord have mercy on me; pray 
people whilst there is time : " and thus resigned his soul to Him who 
gave it. 

From Scotland we turn again to England, to the papal history of 
Henry VIII. This important reign, which draws near to a conclusion, 
is so replete with incidents, and the political and ecclesiastical affairs 
are so connected, that we entreat the reader to pardon the breaks 
and chasms he may observe, for were we to give this long chain of 
events link by link, as they stand in the pages of general history, 
we should too much swell the limited size of this work, which, be it 
remembered, is rather a history of individuals than of countries and 
general events. 

The next English martyrs who stand upon record are Kerby and 
Roger Clarke. They were apprehended at Ipswich, and brought before 
lord Wentworth, with other commissioners appointed there to sit upon 
their examinations. The night before they were arraigned, a bill was 
fixed upon the town-house door, by whom it was unknown, and brought 
the next day unto lord Wentworth; who answered, that it was good 
counsel to render them cautious and prudent. In the mean time, Kerby 
and Clarke, being in the house of the gaoler, whose name was Bird, 
there came in Mr. Robert Wingfield, son of Humfrey Wingfieid, knight, 
with Mr. Bruess, of Wenham ; who having conference with Kerby, 



CONDEMNATION OF KERBV AND CLARKE. 447 

Wingfield said to him, " Remember the fire is hot, take heed of thine 
enterprise, that thou take no more upon thee than thou shalt be able to 
perform. The terror is great, the pain will be extreme, and life is sweet. 
Better it were betimes to stick to mercy, while there is hope of life, 
than rashly to begin, and then to shrink." Kerby answered — "Ah, 
Mr. Wingfield, be at my burning, and you shall say, there standeth a 
christian soldier in the fire: for I know that fire and water, sword and 
all other things, are in the hands of God, and he will suffer no more to 
be laid upon us than he will give strength to bear." "Ah, Kerby," 
said Mr. Wingfield, " if thou be at that point, I will bid thee farewell; 
for I promise thee I am not so strong that I am able to burn." And so 
both the gentlemen saying that they would pray for them, shook hands 
with them and departed. 

When Kerby and Clarke came to the judgment seat, where were 
present lord Wentworth, the commissary, and others, they lifted up 
their eyes and hands to heaven with great devotion, making their 
prayers secretly to God for a space of time. That done, their articles 
were declared to them with all circumstances of the law: and then it 
was demanded and required of them, whether they believed, that after 
the words spoken by a priest, as Christ spake them to his apostles, 
there were not the very body and blood of Christ, flesh, blood, and 
bone, as he was born of the Virgin Mary, and no bread after?" To 
this usual and sweeping question they answered — "No! we do not so 
believe; but we believe the sacrament which Christ Jesus instituted at 
his last supper to his disciples, was only to put them in remembrance 
of his precious death and blood-shedding for the remission of sins; and 
that there was neither flesh nor blood to be eaten with the teeth, but 
bread and wine, and yet more than bread and wine, for they are con- 
secrated to a holy use." Then with much persuasions, both with fair 
means and threats were they beset, but most at the hands of Foster, an 
inferior justice, a man quite ignorant of what he spoke; yet they both 
continued faithful and constant, choosing rather to die than to live, and 
so continued unto the end. 

Then sentence was given upon them, Kerby to be burnt in the said 
town on the next Saturday, and Clarke at Bury on the Monday after. 
Kerby, when his judgment was given by lord Wentworth, with most 
humble reverence holding up his hands, and bowing himself devoutly, 
said — "Praised be Almighty God!" and stood still without anymore 
words. Then did lord Wentworth talk secretly, putting his hand 
behind another justice that sat near him. Clarke perceiving this, said 
with a loud voice, "Speak out, my lord; and if you have anything 
contrary to your conscience, ask God mercy, and we for our parts 
forgive you : and speak not in secret, for ye shall come before a judge, 
and then make answer openly, even before him that shall judge all 
men." Lord Wentworth, somewhat changing colour, as it was thought 
through remorse, answered, " I spoke nothing of you, nor have I done 
any thing unto you, but as the law is." Then were the prisoners sent 
forth, Kerby to prison there, and Clarke to Bury St. Edmunds. On 
quitting the court, Clarke exclaimed aloud — " Fight for your God, for 
he hath not long to continue." 

On Saturday, about ten o'clock, Kerby was brought to the market- 



448 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

place, where a stake with wood and straw was ready. He put off his 
clothes to his shirt, having a night-cap upon his head, and was then 
fastened to the stake with irons; there being in the gallery lord 
Wentworth, with the greater part of the justices of those quarters, 
where they might see his execution, how every thing should be done, 
and also might hear what Kerby had to say; there were also a great 
number of people. Upon the gallery also, by lord Wentworth, stood 
Dr. Rugham, who was before a monk of Bury, and sexton of the house, 
having on a surplice and stole about his neck. Then silence was pro- 
claimed, and the doctor began to excuse himself, as not meet to declare 
the Holy Scriptures, being unprovided because the time was so short, 
but that he hoped in God's assistance it should come well to pass. 

While the executioners were preparing their irons, fagots, and straw, 
for the martyr, he, as one that should be married with new garments, 
nothing changed in cheer nor countenance, but with a most meek spirit 
glorified God. Dr. Rugham at last entered into the sixth chapter of 
St. John, and in handling that matter, so oft as he alleged the Scriptures, 
and applied them rightly, Kerby told the people that he said true, and 
bade them believe him. But when he did otherwise, he told him again, 
''You say not true; believe him not, good people." Whereupon, as the 
voice of the people was, they judged Dr. Rugham a false prophet. 
When he had ended his collation, he said to Kerby, " Thou, good man, 
dost thou not believe that the blessed sacrament of the altar is the very 
flesh and blood of Christ, and no bread, even as he was born of the 
Virgin Mary?" Kerby answering boldly, said — "I do not so believe." 
" How dost thou believe?" said the doctor. Kerby answered boldly, 
saying, " I believe that in the sacrament which Jesus Christ instituted at 
his last supper to his disciples is his death and passion and his blood- 
shedding for the redemption of the world, to be remembered; and, as I 
said before, yet bread, and more than bread, for that it is consecrated 
to a holy use." After this the doctor spake not one word more to 
Kerby. 

Then the under-sheriff demanded of Kerby whether he had any thing 
more to say. "Yea, sir," said he, " if you will give me leave." " Say 
on then," said the sheriff. The martyr summoning all his fortitude, and 
taking the cap from his head, put it under his arms as though it should 
have done him service again : but remembering himself, he cast it from 
him, and lifting up his hands, he repeated the Te Deum, and the belief, 
with other prayers in the English tongue. Lord Wentworth, whilst 
Kerby was thus doing, concealed himself behind one of the posts of the 
gallery, and wept, and so did many others. " Then," said Kerby, " I 
have done: you may execute your office, good sheriff." On this, fire 
was set to the wood, while with a loud voice he called unto God, striking 
his breast, and holding up his hands so long as his remembrance would 
serve ; and so ended his life, the people giving shouts, and praising God 
with great admiration of his constancy, being so simple and unlettered. 

On the following Monday, about ten o'clock, Roger Clarke of Mendel- 
sham was brought out of prison, and led on foot to the gate, called South- 
gate, in Bury. By the way, the procession met with them; but he went on, 
and would not bow, but with most vehement words rebuked their idolatry 




ROGER CLARKE TURNING AWAY FROM THE HOST. — PUJK 448. 






PARTICULARS OF ANNE ASKEW. 449 

and superstition, the officers being much offended. Without the gate, 
where was the place of execution, the stake being ready, and the wood 
lying by, he came and kneeled down, and said Magnificat in the 
English tongue, making as it were a paraphrase upon the same, wherein 
he declared that the blessed Virgin Mary, who might as well rejoice in 
pureness, as any other, yet humbled herself to our Saviour. " And 
what sayest thou John Baptist," said he, " the greatest of all the children? 
* Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' " 
Thus with a loud voice he cried unto the people, while they were fasten- 
ing him to the stake, and then the fire was set to him. His sufferings 
were dreadful, for the wood was green, and would not burn, so that he was 
choaked with smoke : and moreover, being set in a pitch barrel, with 
some pitch sticking still by the sides, he was therewith sore pained, till 
he got his feet out of the barrel. At length one standing by took a 
fagot-stick, and striking at the ring of iron about his neck, and then 
upon his head, he shrunk down on one side into the fire, and so was 
destroyed. 

The reformation now appeared to go back instead of forward for a 
time. This year it was ordained and decreed, and solemnly given out 
in proclamation by the king's name and authority, and his council, that 
the English procession should be used throughout the kingdom, as it was 
set forth by his council, and none other to be used throughout the whole 
realm. In the month of November, after the king had subdued the 
Scots, and joining with the emperor had invaded France, and had got 
from them the town of Boulogne, he summoned his high court of par- 
liament; which granted unto him, besides other subsidies of money, all 
colleges, chantries, free chapels, hospitals, fraternities, brotherhoods, 
guilds, and perpetuities of stipendary priests, to be disposed of at his will 
and pleasure. Whereupon in the month of December following, the 
king after his wonted manner, came into the parliament house to give 
his royal assent to such acts as were there passed: where after an 
eloquent oration made to him by the speaker, he answered him, not by 
the lord chancellor, as the manner was, but in an artful speech which 
he himself composed and delivered. 

He first eloquently and lovingly declared his grateful heart to his 
subjects for their grants and supplies offered unto him. In the second 
part with no less vehemency, he exhorted them to concord, peace, and 
unity ; but had he sought the right way to work charity, and to help 
innocency amongst his subjects, he would have taken away the impious 
law of the six articles, that mother of all division. For what is it to the 
purpose, to exhort charity in words, and, at the same time, to put a 
weapon into the murderer's hand to run upon his naked brother, who 
never in conscience can leave his cause, nor yet hath power to defend 
himself? The mischief and misery produced by this law never were 
more fully shewn than in its operation against two or three martyrs at 
this time, upon whom it was put in force. Of these the most memorable 
was Anne Askew, whose bitter persecution and merciless death tended 
to shew the sanguinary spirit of the times, while they also shew the 
firmness which a female can attain when aided by the power of religion 
and truth. 

2 g 



450 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Anne Askew was descended from a good family, and had received an 
accomplished education; and the reader will best form his judgment of 
her by what follows of her trial and conduct under it. Her first 
examination was in the year of our Lord 1545, in the month of March. 
Christopher Dare examined her at Sadler's Hall, being one of the quest, 
and asked, if she did not believe that the sacrament hanging over the 
altar was the very body of Christ really. Then she demanded this 
question of him, Wherefore was St. Stephen stoned to death? and he 
said, he could not tell. Then she answered that no more would she 
answer his vain question. Then he said, that there was a woman, who 
did testify that Anne Askew should read, how God was not in temples 
made with hands. On this she shewed him the seventh and seventeenth 
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, what Stephen and Paul had said 
therein. Whereupon he asked her how she took those sentences? She 
answered, " I would not throw pearls amongst swine, for acorns were 
good enough." 

He proceeded to ask her why she said — " I had rather read five lines 
in the Bible, than hear five masses in the temple." She confessed she 
said so, not for the dispraise of either the epistle or the gospel, but 
because the one greatly edified her, and the other nothing at all. As 
St. Paul doth witness in the fourteenth chapter of his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, wherein he saith, " If the trumpet giveth an uncertain 
sound, who will prepare himself to the battle?" On this she was 
accused of saying, that if an ill priest ministered, it was the devil and 
not God. To which her answer was a denial of both the words and the 
sentiment. Instead of which she only said, " Whoever ministered unto 
me, his ill conditions could not hurt my faith, but in spirit I received 
nevertheless the body and blood of Christ." He then asked her what 
she said concerning confession. She answered, " My meaning was as 
St. James saith, that every man ought to acknowledge his faults to 
others, and the one to pray for the other." 

Enquiry was made what she said to the king's book; and she 
answered him that she could say nothing to it, because she never saw 
it. A priest was then sent for to examine her, and when he came to 
her, he asked several questions; but the principal one was what she said 
to the sacrament of the altar, and required much to know her meaning 
therein. But she desired him again to hold her excused concerning 
that matter: no other answer would she make him, because she per- 
ceived him to be a papist. On her silence he asked her if she did not 
think that private masses helped the departed souls; she said, it was 
great idolatry to believe more in them, than in the death which Christ 
died for us. 

Then they brought her unto my lord mayor, and he examined her, as 
they had before, and she answered him directly in all things in a lively 
manner, on which the bishop's chancellor rebuked her, and said that she 
was much to blame for uttering the scriptures. St. Paul, he said, forbade 
women to speak or to talk of the word of God. She answered him that 
she knew Paul's meaning as well as he, which was that a woman ought 
not to speak in the congregation by the way of teaching: and then she 
asked him how many women he had seen go into the pulpit and preach? 



EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW. 451 

He said he never saw any. Then said she you ought to find no fault 
with poor women, except they had offended the law. Then the lord 
mayor was for committing her to prison, when she asked him if 
sureties would not serve : he made her short answer, that he would take 
none. Then was she forced to the counter, where she remained eleven 
days, no friend being admitted to speak with her. In the mean time there 
was a priest sent unto her, who said that he was commanded by the 
bishop to examine her, and to give her good counsel, which he did not. 
But first he asked her, for what cause she was put in the counter, and 
she told him she could not tell. Then he said, it was great pity that she 
should be there without cause, and concluded that he was very sorry for 
her ; charging her with denying the sacrament of the altar : which she 
answered indifferently, observing that what she had said she had said. 

The priest then asked her if she were content to be shriven. She 
told him, so that she might have one of these three, that is to say, 
Dr. Crome, Sir Guillam, or Huntington, she was contented, because she 
knew them to be men of wisdom. " As for you, or any other," she said, 
" I will not dispraise, because I know you not." The priest answered. 
" Think not but that I, or any other who may be brought you, shall be as 
honest as they : for if we were not, you may be sure the king would not 
suffer us to preach." Then she answered with the saying of Solomon, 
" By communing with the wise I may learn wisdom, but by talking with 
a fool I shall take scathe." Confounded by her wit, the priest changed 
his course, and asked, If the host should fall, and a beast did eat it, 
whether the beast did receive God or no ? She answered, "Seeing that 
you have taken the pains to ask the question, I desire you also to assoil 
it yourself: for I will not do it, because I perceive you come to tempt 
me." He said it was against the order of schools, that he which asked 
the question should answer it: when she told him she was but a woman, 
and knew not the course of schools. 

Then he asked her if she intended to receive the sacrament at Easter 
or no? She answered, that else she were no Christian woman; and she 
rejoiced that the time was so near at hand. He then departed with 
many fair words. On the 23rd of March, her cousin came unto her, 
and asked her whether she might be put to bail. Then went he imme- 
diately to the lord mayor, desiring him to be so good to her, that she 
might be bailed. My lord answered him, that he would be glad to do 
the best, but he could not bail her without the consent of a spiritual 
officer; requiring him to go and speak to the chancellor of London. 
For as he could not commit her to prison without the consent of a 
spiritual officer, no more could he bail her without the consent of the 
same. 

Upon that he went to the chancellor, requiring of him, as he did 
before of my lord mayor. The chancellor answered, that the matter 
was so heinous, he durst not of himself do it, without my lord of London 
was made privy thereto. But said he would speak to my lord of it, and 
bade him repair to him the next morning, and he should know his plea- 
sure. Accordingly upon the day after he came thither, and spoke to both 
the chancellor and bishop of London. The bishop declared that he 
was well contented that she should come forth to communication, and 



452 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

appointed her to appear before him the next day, at three o'clock in 
the afternoon. Moreover he said, that he wished there should be, at the 
examination, such learned men as she was affectioned to, that they might 
see, and also make report, that she was handled with no rigour. He 
answered him, that he knew no man whom she had more affection to 
than another. Then said the bishop, " Yes, as I understand, she prefers 
Dr. Crome, Sir Guillam Whitehead, and Huntington, that they might 
hear the matter, for she did know them to be learned and of a godly 
judgment." Also he required her cousin Britain, that he should earnestly 
persuade her to utter even the very bottom of her heart ; and he swore 
by his fidelity, that no man should take any advantage of her words, 
neither yet would he lay any thing to her charge for any thing that she 
should there speak; but if she said anything amiss, he, with others, 
would be glad to reform her therein with godly counsel. 

Next day in the forenoon, the bishop of London sent for her, and 
as she came before him, he said he was sorry for her trouble, and desired 
to know her opinions in such nfatters as were laid against her. He re- 
quired her also in any wise boldly to utter the secrets of her heart, 
bidding her not to fear in any points, for whatever she said in his house, 
no man should hurt her for it. She answered — " As your lordship has 
appointed three o'clock; and my friends will not come till that hour, 
I desire you to pardon my giving answers till they arrive." Then he 
said that he thought it meet to send for those who were before named 
and appointed. She desired him not to put them to the trouble, be- 
cause the two gentlemen who were her friends, were able enough to 
testify what she should say. Afterwards he went into his gallery witli 
Mr. Spilman, and told him in any wise that he should exhort her to 
utter all she thought. And in the meanwhile he commanded his arch- 
deacon to commune with her, who said, " Mistress, wherefore are you 
accused and thus troubled here before the bishop ?" She answered, 
" Sir, ask my accusers, for I know not as yet." Then he took her hand, 
and pointing to the bible, said, " Such book as this has brought you to 
the trouble you are now in. Beware, beware, for he that made this 
book, and was the author thereof, was a heretic and burned in 
Smithfield." She asked him if he was certain and sure that it was true 
what he had spoken. He said he knew well the book was of John 
Frith's making. She asked him if he was not ashamed to judge of the 
book before he saw it within, or yet knew the truth thereof; and said 
also, that such unadvised hasty judgment is a token apparent of a very 
slender wit. Then she opened the book and shewed it him. He said 
he thought it had been another, for he could find no fault therein. 
Then she desired him no more to be so unadvisedly rash and swift in 
judgment, till he thoroughly knew the truth, and so he departed from 
her. 

Immediately after came her cousin Britain, with divers others, among 
whom was a Mr. Hall of Gray's-Inn. Then my lord of London per- 
suaded her cousin, as he had done oft before, that she should utter the 
very bottom of her heart in any wise. My lord said after that unto her 
that he would she should credit the counsel of such as were her friends 
and well-wishers in this behalf, which was that she should utter all 



EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW. 453 

things that burthened her conscience; for he assured her that she should 
not need to stand in doubt. For as he promised them, he promised 
her, and would perform it; namely, that neither he, nor any man for 
him, should take her at advantage of any word, and therefore he bade 
her speak her mind without fear. She answered him, that she had 
nought to say, for her conscience was burdened with nothing. Then 
the bishop, Bonner, began to use similitudes, and his first, especially to 
a delicate female, was not a very savoury similitude: " If a man had a 
wound, no wise surgeon would minister help unto it before he had seen 
it uncovered. In the same manner can I give you no good counsel, 
unless I know wherewith your conscience is burthened." " My con- 
science," she said, " is clear in all things, and to lay a plaister unto a 
whole skin would appear much folly." Bonner exclaimed — " Then you 
drive me to lay to your charge your own report, which is this: You 
did say, he that doth receive the sacrament by the hands of an ill priest, 
or a sinner, receiveth the devil, and not God." She answered, " I never 
spake such words; but, as I said before, that the wickedness of the 
priest did not hurt me, but in spirit and faith I received no less than the 
body and blood of Christ." " What saying is this, in spirit?" demanded 
he ; "I will not take you at the advantage." Then she answered, " My 
lord, without faith and spirit, I cannot receive him worthily." 

He said she had affirmed, that " the sacrament remaining in the pix 
was not bread." She answered, she had never said so ; but indeed the 
quest had asked the question, whereunto she would not reply till they 
had answered her question, "Wherefore Stephen was stoned to death?" 
The bishop evidently remembered this, and changing his tone, said, 
that she had alleged a certain text of the scripture. She answered, 
" I alleged none other but St. Paul's own saying to the Athenians, in 
the 17th chapter of the Acts, that God dwelleth not in temples made 
with hands." Then he inquired what her faith and belief was in that 
matter? She answered him, " I believe as the scripture doth teach me." 
On this he inquired, " What if the scripture doth say that it is the 
body of Christ?" " I believe," she said, " as the scripture doth teach." 
Then he asked again, " What if the scripture doth say that it is not the 
body of Christ?" Her answer was still, "I believe as the scripture 
informetli me." On this argument he tarried a great while, to have 
driven her to make him an answer to his mind. Howbeit she would 
not, but concluded this with him, " I believe therein, and in all other 
things, as Christ and his apostles did leave them. " 

The bishop, displeased that she said so little, sharply asked, " Why 
she had so few words?" when she answered, " God hath given me the 
gift of knowledge, but not of utterance; and Solomon saith, 'That a 
woman of few words is the gift of God.' " Then he laid to her charge, 
that she had said that the mass was superstitious, wicked, and no better 
than idolatry. She answered him that she had not said so: adding 
" The quest asked me whether private mass did relieve departed souls or 
no? Unto whom I answered— O Lord, what idolatry is this, that we 
should rather believe in private masses than in the death of the dear Son 
of God?" Then said the bishop again, " What an answer is that?" 
" Though it be but mean," she said, " yet is it good enough for the 



454 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

question. And there was a priest who did hear what I said there, before 
my lord mayor and them." The chancellor then asked the priest, who 
said she spake it in very deed, before the lord mayor and himself. 

There were certain priests, as Dr. Standish and others, who tempted 
her so much to know her mind. She answered them always thus : — 
" What I have said to my lord of London, I have said." Then Dr. 
Standish desired the bishop to bid her speak her mind concerning the 
text of St. Paul's learning, probably to betray her, that she being a 
woman should interpret the scriptures in the presence of so many wise 
and learned men. The bishop then quickly said, " I am informed that 
one has asked you if you would receive the sacrament at Easter, and 
you made a mock of it." To this she boldly yet calmly and meekly 
replied, " I desire that my accuser might come forth" — which he would 
not allow. But he said again unto her, " I sent one to give you good 
counsel, and at the first word you called him Papist." " I deny not 
that," she said, " for I perceived he was no less, and I made him no other 
reply." 

Then he rebuked her, and said that she had reported there were sent 
against her threescore priests at Lincoln. " Indeed," she answered, 
"I said so; for my friends told me, if I did come to Lincoln, the 
priests would assault me, and put me to great trouble, as thereof they 
had made their boast; and when I heard it I went thither not being 
afraid, because I knew my matter to be good. Moreover I remained 
there nine days, to see what would be said to me ; and as I was in the 
Minster, reading the Bible, they resorted unto me by two and two, 
and by greater numbers, minding to have spoken unto me, yet went 
they their ways again without speaking." The bishop asked if there were 
not one who had spoken to her ? She answered, " Yes, there was one of 
them at the last which did speak indeed, but his words were of small 
effect, so that I do not now remember them." Then said the bishop, 
" There are many that read and know the scripture, and yet follow it 
not, nor live thereafter." She said again, " My lord, I would wish that 
all men knew my conversation and living in all points; for I am sure 
myself this hour that there are none able to prove any dishonesty against 
me. If you know that any can do it, I pray you bring them forth." 
Then the bishop went away, and said he would put some of her meaning 
in writing; but what it was she was uncertain, for he would not suffer 
her to have the copy thereof. 

A small part of it ran thus: — " Be it known of all men, that I, Anne 
Askew, do confess this to be my faith and belief, notwithstanding many 
reports made afore to the contrary. I believe that they which are 
houseled at the hands of a priest, whether his conversation be good or 
not, do receive the body and blood of Christ in substance really. Also 
I do believe, that after the consecration, whether it be received or re- 
served, it is no less than the very body and blood of Christ in substance. 
Finally, I do believe in this and in all other sacraments of holy church 
in all points, according to the catholic faith of the same. In witness 
whereof, I the said Anne have subscribed my name." It is evident that 
all this was palmed on Mrs. Askew by the treacherous bishop; and 
there was somewhat more in it, which because she had not the copy, she 



RELEASEMENT OF ANNE ASKEW. 455 

could not remember. He read it to her, and asked if she did not agree 
to it? To which she said, " I believe so much thereof, as the holy 
scripture doth agree unto; wherefore I desire you that you will add 
that thereunto." To this he said, that she should not teach him what 
he should write; and with that he went forth into his great chamber 
and read the same bill before the audience, which inveigled and willed 
her to set to her hand, saying also, that she had been favoured, and 
that she might thank others, and not herself for the favour she found 
at his hand ; for he considered that she had good friends, and that she 
came of a good family. Never sure did a bishop shew favour to a lady 
with so ill a grace. 

Christopher, a servant to Mr. Denny, said to his lordship, " Rather 
ought you, my lord, to have done it in such case for God's sake, than 
for man's." Then my lord sat down, and took her the writing to set 
thereto her hand, and she wrote after this manner:—" I Anne Askew 
do believe all manner of things contained in the faith of the catholic 
church." Because of the latter words he flung the paper into his 
chamber in great fury. With that her cousin Britain followed, desiring 
him for God's sake to be a good bishop to her. He answered, that she 
was a woman, and that he was nothing deceived in her. Then her 
cousin Britain desired him to treat her as a woman, and not to set a 
weak woman's wit to his lordship's great wisdom. 

There went in unto him Dr. Weston, and said, " The cause why she 
did write there the catholic church, was, that she understood not the 
church written afore." So with much ado they persuaded the bishop 
to come out again, and take her name, with the names of the sureties, 
which were her cousin Britain and master Spilman of Gray's Inn. 
This being done, it was thought that she should have been put to bail 
immediately, according to the order of the law. Howbeit he would 
not suffer it, but committed her from thence to prison again until the 
morrow, and then he willed her to appear in the Guildhall, which she 
did. Notwithstanding they would not put her to bail there, but read 
the bishop's writing unto her as before, and commanded her again to 
prison. Then were her sureties appointed to come on the morrow in 
Paul's church, who did so. They would once again have broken off with 
them, because they would not be bound also for another woman, 
whom they knew not, nor yet what matter was laid unto her charge. 
Notwithstanding at the last, after much ado and reasoning to and fro, 
they took a bond of them of recognizance for her forth coming: and 
thus she was at the last delivered. Thus ends her first persecution, from 
which, for a time, she escaped; but not conforming to the erroneous 
doctrine of the sacrament, she was in 1546, again apprehended. The 
following account of her examination before the council at Greenwich 
is taken, like the previous one, from her own papers: only this, for its 
peculiarity, is retained in her own words. 

" Your request as concerning my prison-fellows I am not able to 
satisfy, because I heard not their examinations. But the effect of mine 
was this. I being before the council, was asked of Mr. Kyme. I an- 
swered, that my lord chancellor knew already my mind in that matter. 
They with that answer were not contented, but said it was the king's 



456 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

pleasure that I should open the matter unto them. I answered them 
plainly, I would not do so; but if it were the king's pleasure to hear 
me, I would shew him the truth. Then they said it was not meet for 
the king to be troubled with me. I answered, that Solomon was 
reckoned the wisest king that ever lived, yet misliked he not to hear two 
poor common women ; much more his grace a simple woman and his 
faithful subject. So in conclusion, I made them none other answer in 
that matter. Then my lord chancellor asked of me my opinion in the 
sacrament. My answer was this, I believe that so oft as I in a Christian 
congregation do receive the bread in remembrance of Christ's death, 
and with thanksgiving, according to his holy institution, I receive there- 
with the fruits also of his most glorious passion. The bishop of Win- 
chester bade me make a direct answer : I said I would not sing the song 
of the Lord in a strange land. Then the bishop said I spake in parables. 
I answered, it was best for him, for if I shewed the open truth they 
would not accept it. Then he said I was a parrot. 25 I told him again 
1 was ready to suffer all things at his hands, not only his rebukes, but 
all that should follow besides, yea, and all that gladly. Then had I 
divers rebukes of the council, because I would not express my mind in 
all things as they would have me. But they were not in the mean time 
unanswered for all that, which now to rehearse were too much, for I 
was with them about five hours. Then the clerk of the council con- 
veyed me from thence to my lady Garnish. 

The next day I was brought again before the council, which would 
needs know what I said to the sacrament. I answered that I had 
already said what I could say. After many words they bid me go 
aside. Then came lord Lisle, lord Essex, and the bishop of Winchester, 
requiring me earnestly that I should confess the sacrament to be 
flesh, blood, and bone. I told these noblemen that it was a great 
shame for them to counsel contrary to their knowledge; whereunto in 
a few words they said, that they would gladly all things were well. 
The bishop said he would speak with me familiarly. I said, " So did 
Judas, when he betrayed Christ. " Then he desired to speak with me 
alone; but that I refused. He asked me why. I said, that in the 
mouth of two or three witnesses every matter should stand, after 
Christ's and Paul's doctrine. 

Then my lord chancellor began to examine me again on the sacra- 
ment. I asked him, How long he would halt on both. He asked where 
I found that. I said, in the scripture. Then he went his way. The 
bishop said I should be burnt. I answered, That I had searched all the 
scriptures, yet could I never find that either Christ or his apostles put 
any creature to death. " Well, well," said I, " God will laugh your 
threatenings to scorn." Then was I commanded to stand aside; after 

'•This is almost the only charge against this excellent woman which has a semblance of 
truth. If she had a fault it was of garrulity, so often laid to the account of her sex. 
Her wit was of the quickest and most piercing kind, and not at any time unmingled with 
prudence any more than piety. Before such treacherous judges, we rather rejoice than 
regret that her tongue felt itself at perfect liberty. Her rebukes are a standing protest against 
the assumptions of an intolerant and intolerable priesthood, and are moreover, some of the 
rnost interesting in both expression and sentiment that tongue ever uttered or pen recorded. 



ANNE ASKEW'S LETTERS. 4.57 

which came Dr. Cox and Dr. Robinson to me; but in conclusion we 
could not agree. After striving to convince me they drew out a confes- 
sion respecting the sacrament, urging me to set my hand thereunto; but 
this I refused. On the following Sunday I was so extremely ill, that I 
thought death was upon me; upon which I desired to see Mr. Latimer, 
but this was not granted. In the height of my illness I was conveyed 
to Newgate, where the Lord was pleased to renew my strength. 

On my being brought to trial at Guildhall they said to me there 
that I was a heretic, and condemned by the law, if I would stand in 
mine opinion. I answered, That I was no heretic, neither yet deserved 
I any death by the law of God. But as concerning the faith which I 
uttered and wrote to the council, I would not deny it, because I knew it 
true. Then would they needs know if I would deny the sacrament to be 
Christ's body and blood? I said, "Yea; for the same Son of God, who 
was born of the Virgin Mary, is now glorious in heaven, and will come 
again from thence at the latter day. And as for that ye call your God, 
it is a piece of bread. For more proof thereof, mark it when you list, 
if it lie in the box three months, it will be mouldy, and so turn to no- 
thing that is good. Whereupon I am persuaded that it cannot be God.'" 

After that they willed me to have a priest; at which I smiled. Then 
they asked me if it were not good? I said, I would confess my faults 
unto God, for I was sure that he would hear me with favour. And so 
I was condemned. And this was the ground of my sentence: — My 
belief, which I wrote to the council that the sacramental bread was left 
us to be received with thanksgiving, in remembrance of Christ's death, 
the only remedy of our soul's recovery; and that thereby we also receive 
the whole benefits and fruits of his most glorious passion. Then would 
they know whether the bread in the box were God or no : I said God 
is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and truth. Then they 
demanded, Will you plainly deny Christ to be in the sacrament? I 
answered, that I believe faithfully the eternal Son of God not to dwell 
there; in witness whereof I recited again the history of Bel, Dan. xix., 
Acts vii. and xvii., and Matt, xxiv., concluding thus : "I neither wish 
death, nor yet fear his might: God have the praise thereof with thanks." 

After this Mrs. Askew addressed a letter to the king, and sent it by the 
hands of the chancellor. It ran thus: — " I Anne Askew, of good 
memory, although God hath given me the bread of adversity, and the 
water of trouble, yet not so much as my sins have deserved, desire this 
to be known unto your grace, that forasmuch as I am by the law con- 
demned for an evil doer, here I take heaven and earth to record, that 
I shall die in my innocency ; and according to that I have said first, and 
will say last, I utterly abhor and detest all heresies. And as concern- 
ing the supper of the Lord, I believe so much as Christ hath said 
therein, which he confirmed with his most blessed blood. I believe 
so much as he willed me to follow, and believe so much as the 
Catholic church of him doth teach. For I will not forsake the com- 
mandment of his holy lips. But look what God hath charged me with 
his mouth, that I have shut up in my heart. And thus briefly I end for 
lack of learning." 

This pious and gifted lady was, notwithstanding, still deemed a 



458 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

heretic, and doomed to undergo farther suffering. In a few days she 
was sent from Newgate to the sign of the Crown, where Mr. Rich, and the 
bishop of London, with all their power and flattering words, went about 
to persuade her from God; but she did not esteem their glossing pre- 
tences. After them either came or was sent one Nicholas Shaxton, 
who counselled her to recant as others had done. She said to him, "It 
had been good for you never to have been born;" with many other like 
words, chiefly from Scripture. She was then sent to the Tower, where 
she remained till three o'clock, when Rich came and one of the council, 
charging her upon her obedience to show unto them if she knew any 
man or woman of her sect. Her answer was, " I know none." Then 
they asked her of lady Suffolk, lady Sussex, lady Hertford, lady Denny, 
and lady Fitzwilliam. Of whom she answered, " If I should pro- 
nounce any thing against them, that I were not able to prove it." Then 
said they unto her, " The king is informed that you could name, if you 
would, a great number of your sect." She answered, That the king was 
as well deceived in that behalf, as he w r as dissembled with by them in 
other matters. 

Then they commanded her to shew how she was maintained in the 
prison, and who willed her to stick to her opinion. She answered that 
there was no creature that therein did strengthen her. And as for the 
help that she had in the Compter, it was by the means of her maid. For 
as she went abroad in the streets, she told her case to the apprentices, 
and they by her did send her money, but who they were she never knew. 
On this they said, That there were several ladies that had sent her 
money. She answered, That there was a man who delivered her ten 
shillings, and said that my lady of Hertford sent it her; and another 
gave her eight shillings, and said my lady Denny sent it her. Whether 
it were true or no she could not tell, for she was not sure who 
sent it her, but as the maid did say. Then they said, " There are some 
of the council who maintain you," which she strictly denied. 

Then did they put her on the rack, because she confessed no ladies 
or gentlewomen to be of her opinion, and thereon they kept her a long 
time, and because she lay still and did not cry, the lord chancellor and 
Mr. Rich took pains to rack her with their own hands till she was nigh 
dead — an instance of unusual cruelty even for that age. The lieutenant 
then caused her to be loosed from the rack, when she immediately 
swooned, and then recovered again. After that she sat two hours rea- 
soning with the lord chancellor upon the bare floor, where he with many 
flattering words persuaded her to leave her opinion; but her Lord God, 
thanks to his everlasting goodness gave her grace to persevere. Then 
she was brought to a house and laid on a bed, with as weary and 
painful bones as ever had patient Job, yet expressing her thanks to God. 
Then the lord chancellor sent her word, if she would leave her opinion 
she should want for nothing; if she would not, she should forthwith to 
Newgate, and so be burned. She sent him again word, that she would 
rather die than break her faith — praying that God would open his eyes, 
that the truth might take place. 

Touching the order of her racking in the Tower, thus it was: first, 
she was led down into a dungeon, where Sir Anthony Knevet, the lieu- 



ANNE ASKEW'S ANSWERS. 459 

tenant, commanded his gaoler to pinch her with the rack : which being 
done so much as he thought sufficient, he went about to take her down, 
supposing that he had done enough. But Wriothesley, the chancellor, 
displeased that she was loosed so soon, confessing nothing, commanded 
the lieutenant to strain her on the rack again, which because he refused 
to do, tendering the weakness of the woman, he was threatened, the 
chancellor saying, that he would signify his disobedience unto the king; 
and so consequently, he and Mr. Rich, throwing off their gowns, would 
needs play the tormentors themselves, first asking her, if she were with 
child ; to whom she answering again, said, " Ye shall not need to spare 
for that, but do your wills upon me;" and so quietly and patiently pray- 
ing unto the Lord, she abode their tyranny, till her bones and joints 
were almost plucked asunder, so that she was carried away in a chair. 
When the racking was past, Wriothesley and his fellow left. 

Meantime, while they were making their way by land, the good lieu- 
tenant, eftsoons taking boat, sped him to the court in all haste to speak 
with the king before the other ; who there making his humble suit to the 
king, desired his pardon, and showed him the whole matter as it stood, 
and of the racking of Mrs. Askew ; and that he was threatened by the 
lord chancellor, because at his commandment, not knowing his high- 
ness's pleasure, he refused to rack her, which he for compassion could 
not find in his heart to do, and therefore desired his highness's pardon. 
This when the king had understood, he seemed not very well to like 
their so extreme handling the woman, and also granted to the lieutenant 
his pardon, willing him to return and see to his charge. There was 
great expectation in the mean season among the warders and officers 
of the Tower, waiting for his return. When they saw him come so 
cheerfully, declaring unto them how he had sped with the king, they 
were not a little joyous, and gave thanks to God therefore — a proof this 
that persecution was more in favour with the higher than the low r er 
officers. The following is a letter from Mrs. Askew to a fellow martyr, 
in answer to one which he had written to her: his name was John Lacel. 

" O friend, most dearly beloved in God ! I marvel not a little what 
should move you to judge me in so slender a faith as to fear death, which 
is the end of all misery. In the Lord, I desire you not to believe of me 
such weakness ; for I doubt it not, that God will perform his work in 
me, like as he hath begun. I understand the council is not a little dis- 
pleased, that it should be reported abroad that I was racked in the 
Tower. They say now, that what they did there was but to fear me; 
whereby I perceive they are ashamed of their uncomely doings, and fear 
much lest the king's majesty should have information thereof, wherefore 
they would no man to noise it. Well, their cruelty God forgive them." 

She was falsely accused of beginning to recant, and she thus answered 
the accusation. 

" I have read the process which is reported of them that know not 
the truth, to be my recantation. But, as the Lord liveth, I never meant 
a thing less than to recant. Notwithstanding this I confess, that in my 
first troubles, I was examined by the bishop of London about the sacra- 
ment. Yet had they no grant of my mouth but this, that I believed 
therein as the word of God did bind me to believe. More had thev 



460 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

never of me. Then he made a copy, which is now in print, and required 
me to set thereunto my hand; but I refused it. Then my two sureties 
did will me in no wise to stick thereat, for it was no great matters, 
they said. Then with much ado, at the last I wrote thus: — I, Anne 
Askew, do believe this, if God's word do agree to the same, and the 
true catholic church. Then the bishop being in great displeasure with 
me, because I made doubts in my writing, commanded me to prison, 
where I was awhile, but afterwards by the means of friends I came out 
again. Here is the truth of that matter; and as concerning the thing 
that ye covet most to know, resort to the sixth of John, and be ruled 
always thereby. Thus fare ye well." 

The reader has already seen a brief confession of this pious woman's 
faith, and will delight in perusing an enlargement of the same. 

" I, Anne Askew, of good memory, although my merciful Father hath 
given me the bread of adversity, and the water of trouble, yet not so 
much as my sins have deserved, do confess myself here a sinner before 
the throne of his heavenly majesty, desiring his forgiveness and mercy. 
And for so much as I am by the law unrighteously condemned for an 
evil doer, concerning opinions, I take the same most merciful God of 
mine, which hath made both heaven and earth, to record, that I hold 
no opinions contrary to his most holy word ; and I trust in my merciful 
Lord, who is the giver of all grace, that he will graciously assist me 
against all evil opinions which are contrary to his blessed verity; for I 
take him to witness that I have done, and will, unto my life's end, utterly 
abhor them to the uttermost of my pow r er. 

" But this is the heresy which they report me to hold, that after the 
priest hath spoken the words of consecration, there remaineth bread 
still. They both say, and also teach it for a necessary article of faith, 
that after these words be once spoken, there remaineth no bread, but 
even the self-same body that hung upon the cross on Good Friday, both 
flesh, blood, and bone. To this belief of theirs say I, nay. For then 
were our common creed false, which saith, that he sitteth on the right 
hand of God the Father Almighty, and from thence shall come to judge 
the quick and the dead. Lo, this is the heresy that I hold, and for it 
must suffer the death. But as touching the holy and blessed supper of 
the Lord, I believe it to be a most necessary remembrance of his glori- 
ous sufferings and death. Moreover, I believe as much therein as my 
eternal and only Redeemer Jesus Christ would I should believe. 

" Finally, I believe all those scriptures to be true, which he hath con- 
firmed with his most precious blood; yea, and as St. Paul saith, those 
scriptures are sufficient for our learning and salvation, that Christ hath 
left here with us: so that, I believe, we need no unwritten verities to 
rule his church with. Therefore look what he hath said unto me with 
his own mouth in his holy gospel that I have with God's grace closed 
up in my heart, and my full trust is, as David saith that it shall be a 
lantern to my footsteps. There be some that say I deny the eucharist, 
or sacrament of thanksgiving; but those people untruly report of me, 
for I both say and believe it, that if it were ordered as Christ instituted 
it and left it, a most singular comfort it were unto us all. But as con- 
cerning your mass as it is now used in our days, I say and believe it to 



MARTYRDOM OF ANNE ASKEW AND OTHERS. 461 

be the most abominable idol that is in the world. For my God will not be 
eaten with teeth, neither yet dieth he again; and upon these words that 
I have now spoken, will I suffer death." To this confession she added 
a prayer. 

" O Lord, I have more enemies now than there be hairs on my head ; 
yet Lord, let them never overcome me with vain words, but fight thou 
Lord in my stead, for on thee cast I my care. With all the spite they 
can imagine, they fall upon me who arn thy poor creature. Yet, sweet 
Lord, let me not set by them which are against me, for in thee is my 
whole delight; and, Lord, I heartily desire of thee, that thou wilt of 
thy most merciful goodness forgive them that violence which they do 
and have done unto me. Open also thou their blind hearts, that they 
may hereafter do that thing in thy sight, which is only acceptable before 
thee, and to set forth thy verity aright, without any vain fantasy of sinful 
men. So be it, O Lord, so be it." 

After these refreshing things we are better prepared to speak concern- 
ing her martyrdom. Being born of such stock and kindred as would 
have enabled her to live in great wealth and prosperity, if she had 
chosen rather to have followed the world than Christ, she now had been so 
tormented, that she could neither live long in such great distress, nor 
yet by her adversaries be suffered to die in secret; the day of her exe- 
cution being appointed, she was brought to Smithfield in a chair, 
because she could not walk, from the cruel effects of the torments. 
When she was brought to the stake, she was fastened to it by the 
middle with a chain that held up her body. Three others were brought 
to suffer with her, and for the same offence; these were, Nicholas 
Belenian, a priest of Shropshire; John Adams, a tailor; and John 
Lacel, gentleman of the court and household of king Henry. The 
martyrs being chained to the stake, and all things ready for the fire, 
Dr. Shaxton, then appointed to preach, began his sermon. Anne Askew 
hearing and answering him, where he said well, she approved; where he 
said amiss, expressing firmly her dissent, saying, " He speaketh without 
the book." 

The sermon being finished, the martyrs, standing at three several 
stakes ready to their martyrdom, began their prayers. The multitude 
of the people was exceeding great, the place where they stood being 
railed about to keep out the press. Upon the bench, under St. Bar- 
tholomew's church, sat Wriothesley, the chancellor of England, the 
old duke of Norfolk, the old earl of Bedford, the lord mayor, with 
divers others. Before the fire was kindled, one of the bench hearing 
that they had gunpowder about them, and being afraid lest the fagots, 
by strength of the gunpowder, would come flying about their ears, 
began to be afraid; but the earl of Bedford observing how the gun- 
powder was not laid under the fagots, but only about their bodies to rid 
them of their pain, which having vent, there was no danger to them, so 
diminished that fear. 

Then the lord chancellor sent to Anne Askew, offering to her the 
king's pardon if she would recant: a letter said to be written by the 
king was put into her hand ; but she, refusing once to look upon it, 
made this answer again, "I came not hither to deny my Lord and 



462 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

master." Then were letters likewise offered unto the others, who in like 
manner, following the constancy of the woman, denied not only to 
receive them, but also to look upon them, continuing to cheer and 
exhort each other by the end of their sufferings, and the glory they 
were about to enter; whereupon the lord mayor, commanding fire to be 
put to them, cried with a loud voice, "jiat justitia." Thus were these 
blessed martyrs compassed in with flames of fire, as holy sacrifices unto 
God and his truth. There is a letter extant, which John Lacel briefly 
wrote in prison respecting the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, 
wherein he confutes the error of them, who, not being contented with 
the spiritual receiving of the sacrament, will leave no substance of bread 
therein, and also the sinister interpretation of many thereupon. 

These events were so many triumphs to the popish party, who, stimu- 
lated by fresh hopes, sought to complete the victory they anticipated by 
an important scheme. This was the ruin of Cranmer and the queen, 
whom they considered the greatest barriers to their aims. They per- 
suaded the king that Cranmer was the source of all the heresies in 
England; but Henry's esteem for him was such, that none would 
come in against him; they therefore desired that he might at least be 
put in the Tower, as a place of safeguard, and then it would appear 
how many would inform against him. The king seemed to approve this 
plan, and they resolved to execute it the next day: but in the night the 
king relented, and he sent for Cranmer, and told him what was resolved 
concerning him. Cranmer thanked the king for giving him notice of it, 
and not leaving him to be surprised. He submitted to it, only desiring 
he might be heard in answer for himself; and that he might have im- 
partial judges, competent to decide. Henry wondered to see him so 
little concerned in his own preservation : and told him, since he took 
so little care of himself, that he must take care of him. He therefore 
gave him instructions to appear before the council, and to desire to see 
his accusers before he should be sent to the Tower ; and that he might 
be used by them, as they would desire to be used in a similar case; and, 
if he could not prevail by the force of reason, then he was to appeal to 
the king in person, and was to shew the royal seal ring, which he took 
from his finger and gave him, which they would know so well that they 
would do nothing after they once saw it. Accordingly, on being 
summoned next morning, he came over to Whitehall; there he was 
detained with great insolence in the lobby before he was called into 
the council chamber : but when that was done, and he had observed the 
method the king had directed him to use, and at last shewed the ring, 
they all rose in great confusion and went to the king. He upbraided 
them severely for what they had done, and expressed his esteem and 
kindness to Cranmer in such terms that his enemies were glad to get off, 
by pretending that they had no other design but that of having his inno- 
cence declared by a public trial. From this vain attempt they were so 
convinced of the king's unalterable favour to him, that they forbore any 
further designs against him. 

But what they durst not do in relation to Cranmer, they thought 
might be more safely tried against the queen, who was known to love 
the new learning, as the reformation was now called. She used to have 



THE QUEEN'S ARGUMENTS. 463 

sermons in her privy chamber, which could not be so secretly carried, 
but that it came to the knowledge of her royal spouse ; yet her conduct 
in all other things was so exact, and she expressed such a tender care of 
the king's person, that it was observed she had gained much upon him ; 
while his peevishness growing with his distempers, made him sometimes 
impatient even to her. They used often to talk of matters of religion, 
and sometimes she held the argument for the reformers so strenuously, 
that he was offended at it; yet as soon as that appeared she let it fall. 
But once the debate continuing long, the king expressed his displeasure 
at it to Gardiner, when she went away. The crafty bishop took this 
opportunity to persuade the king that she was a great cherisher of 
heretics. The chancellor joined with him in the same artifice, and 
filled the angry king with stories, insomuch that he signed the articles 
upon which she was to be impeached. The chancellor, however, letting 
the paper fall from him carelessly, it happened to be taken up by one 
of the queen's friends, who carried it to her. The night following after 
supper, she was waited upon only by lady Herbert, her sister, and lady Lane, 
who carried the candle before her, unto the king's bedchamber, whom 
she found sitting and talking with certain gentlemen of his chamber. 
Henry very courteously welcomed her, and breaking off the talk with 
the gentlemen, began of himself, contrary to his manner before ac- 
customed, to enter into talk of religion, seeming as it were desirous to 
be resolved by the queen of certain doubts which he propounded. 

The queen perceiving to what purpose this talk did tend, not being 
unprovided how to behave herself towards the king, resolved his ques- 
tions as the time and opportunity allowed. With a mild and reverent 
countenance she answered his inquiries thus — " Your majesty doth right 
well know, neither I myself am ignorant, what great imperfection and 
weakness by our first creation is allotted unto us women, to be ordained 
and appointed as inferior, and subject unto man as our head, from which 
head all our direction ought to proceed; and that as God made man to 
his own shape and likeness, whereby he, being endued with more special 
gifts of perfection, might rather be stirred to the contemplation of 
heavenly things, and to the earnest endeavour to obey his command- 
ments, even so also made he woman of man, of whom, and by whom, 
she is to be governed, commanded, and directed. Her womanly weak- 
ness and natural imperfection ought to be tolerated, aided and borne 
withal, so that by his wisdom such things as be lacking in her ought to 
be supplied. Since then God hath appointed such a natural difference 
between man and woman, and your majesty being so excellent in gifts 
and ornaments of wisdom, and I so much inferior in all respects of 
nature unto you, how then cometh it now to pass that your majesty, 
in such diffuse causes of religion, will seem to require my judgment? 
which, when I have uttered and said what I can, yet must I, and will I, 
refer my judgment in this, and in all other cases to your majesty's 
wisdom, as my only anchor, supreme head and governor here on earth, 
next under God to lean unto." 

"Not so, by St. Mary," quoth the king; " you are become a doctor, 
Kate, to instruct us, and not to be instructed or directed by us." 

"If your majesty take it so," replied the queen, "then hath your 



464 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

majesty very much mistaken me, who have ever been of the opinion to 
think it very unseemly, and preposterous, for the woman to take upon 
her the office of an instructor or teacher to her lord and husband ; but 
rather to learn of her husband, and to be taught by him. And whereas I 
have with your majesty's leave heretofore been bold to hold talk with 
your majesty, wherein sometimes in opinions there hath seemed some 
difference, I have not done it so much to maintain opinion, as I did it 
rather to minister talk, not only to the end your majesty might with less 
grief pass over this painful time of your infirmity, being intentive to our 
talk, and hoping that your majesty should reap some ease thereby; but 
also that I, hearing your majesty's learned discourse might receive to 
myself some profit thereby; wherein, I assure your majesty, I have not 
missed any part of my desire in that behalf, always referring myself in 
all such matters unto your majesty, as by ordinance of nature it is con- 
venient for me to do." 

"And is it even so, sweetheart?" quoth the king, " and tended your 
arguments to no worse end? Then perfect friends we are now again, as 
ever at any time heretofore. " And as he sat in his chair, embracing her 
in his arms, and kissing her, he added this, saying, that it did him more 
good at that time to hear those words of her own mouth, than if he had 
heard present news of a hundred thousand pounds in money fallen unto 
him; and with great signs and tokens of marvellous joy and liking, with 
promises and assurances never again in any sort more to mistake her, 
entering into other very pleasant discourses with the queen and the lords, 
and gentlemen standing by, about midnight he gave her leave to depart; 
and in her absence to the standers by, he gave as singular and affec- 
tionate commendations, as before to the bishop and the chancellor — 
who then were neither of them present — he seemed to mislike of her. 

The day, and almost the hour appointed being come, the king being 
disposed in the afternoon to take the air, waited upon by two gentlemen 
only of his bedchamber, went into the garden, whither the queen also 
came, being sent for by the king himself, the three ladies above named 
waiting upon her. Henry seemed at that time disposed to be as pleasant as 
ever he was in all his life before : when suddenly in the midst of their mirth 
came the lord chancellor into the garden with forty of the king's guards 
at his heels, intending to have taken the queen, together with the three 
ladies, even then unto the Tower. The king sternly beholding them, 
broke off his mirth with the queen, and stepping a little aside, called 
the chancellor unto him, who upon his knees spake unto the king, but 
what they were, on account of their whispering and distance, is not well 
known: but it is most certain that the king's reply unto him was, 
" Knave, yea, arrant knave, beast, and fool;" and then commanded 
him presently to avaunt out of his presence. These words, although 
they were uttered somewhat low, yet were they so vehemently whispered 
out by the king, that the queen and her ladies overheard them, which 
would have been not a little to her comfort, if she had known at that 
time the whole cause of his coming, so perfectly as after she knew it. 
Thus departed the lord chancellor out of the king's presence as he 
came, with all his train, the whole mould of his device being utterly 
broken. 






FALL OF THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 465 

The king immediately returned to the queen, who perceived him to be 
very much chafed : then, with as sweet words as she could utter, she en- 
deavoured to pacify his displeasure, with request unto his majesty in behalf 
of the lord chancellor, with whom he seemed to be offended ; saying, 
"Albeit I know not what just cause your majesty had at that time to be 
offended with him, yet I think that ignorance, not will, was the cause of 
his error;" and so besought his majesty for him. "Ah, poor soul," quoth 
he, " thou little knowest how ill he deserveth this grace at thy hands. On 
my word, sweetheart, he hath been towards thee an arrant knave, and so 
let him go." To this the queen, in charitable manner replying in few 
words, ended that talk. Thus the design against her vanished; and 
Gardiner, who had set it on, lost the king's favour entirely by it. 

Now the fall of the duke of Norfolk, and his son, the earl of Surrey, 
came "on. The father had been long treasurer, and served the king with 
great fidelity and success ; his son was a man of rare qualities, and more 
than ordinarily learned. He hated the earl of Hertford, and scorned 
an alliance with him, which his father had projected. The Seymours 
also were apprehensive of the opposition they might meet with, if the 
king should die, from the earl of Surrey, who was very haughty, had a 
vast fortune, and was the head of the popish party. The duke's family 
was also fatally divided; his duchess had been separated from him about 
four years, and now turned informer against him. His daughter also 
hated her brother. Mrs. Holland, a mistress of the duke, also betrayed 
him, and discovered all she could ; yet all amounted to no more than 
some complaints of the father's, who thought the services he had done 
the crown were little regarded, and some threatenings of the son's. It 
was also said, that the father gave the coat of arms that belonged to the 
prince of Wales, and the son gave Edward the Confessor's coat. One 
Southwell objected things of a higher nature to the earl of Surrey; he 
denied them, and desired that, according to the martial law, they might 
have a trial by combat : but that was not granted ; yet both father and 
son were sent to the Tower. The earl was tried by a jury of commoners, 
found guilty of treason, and executed. He was much lamented by his 
party, who threw the blame of his death on the Seymours, against whom 
they raised a general odium. The old duke saw a parliament called to 
destroy him by an act of attainder, for there was not matter enough to 
ruin him at common law. To prevent that, he made a very humble 
submission to the king; but it had no effect. 

When the parliament met, the king was not able to come to West- 
minster, but sent his pleasure to them by a commission. He intended 
to have his son Edward crowned prince of Wales, and therefore desired 
they would make all possible haste in the attainder of the duke of Norfolk, 
so that the places which he held by patent might be disposed of to others, 
who should assist at the coronation; which, though it was a very slight 
excuse for so high a piece of injustice, yet it had such an effect that in 
seven days both houses passed the bill. On the 27th of January, the royal 
assent was given by those commissioned by the king; and the execution 
was ordered to be next morning. There was no special matter in the 
act, but that of the coat of arms, which he and his ancestors were used 
to give, according to the records in the herald's office; so that this was 

2 ii 



466 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

condemned as a most inexcusable act of tyranny. But the night after, 
the king died ; and it was thought contrary to the decencies of govern- 
ment, to begin a new reign with such an act, and so he was preserved. 
Cranmer would not interfere in this matter, but that he might be out of 
the way, retired to Croydon; whereas Gardiner, who had been friendly 
to the duke all along, continued still about the court. 

The king's distemper had been growing long upon him. He was 
become so corpulent that he could not go up and down stairs, but made 
use of an engine, when he intended to walk in his garden, by which he 
was let down and drawn up. He had an old wound in his leg, which 
pained him much, the humours of his body discharging themselves that 
way, till at last all settled in a dropsy. Those about him were afraid to 
let him know that his death seemed near, lest it might have been brought 
within the statute of foretelling his death, which was made treason. His 
will was made ready, and as it was given out, was signed by him on the 
30th of December. He ordered Gardiner's name to be struck out, who 
had been named one of the executors. When Sir Anthony Brown 
endeavoured to persuade him not to put that disgrace on an old servant, 
he continued positive in it; for he said he knew his temper, and could 
govern him; but it would not be in the power of others to do it, if he 
were put in so high a trust. The most material thing in the will was, 
that of preferring the children of his second sister, by Sir Charles 
Brandon, to the children of his eldest sister, the queen of Scotland, in 
the succession to the crown. On his death-bed he finished the foundation 
of Trinity-college, in Cambridge, and of Christ's-church hospital, near 
Newgate; but this last was not so fully settled as was needful, till his 
son completed what he had begun. 

On the 27th of January his spirits sunk so that it was visible he had 
not long to live. Sir Anthony Denny took the courage to tell him that 
death was approaching, and desired him to call on God for his mercy. 
He expressed in general his sorrow for his past sins, and his trust in the 
mercies of God in Christ Jesus. He ordered Cranmer to be sent for, 
but he was speechless before he could be brought from Croydon ; yet 
he gave a sign that he understood what was said to him, and soon after 
he died, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, after he had reigned thirty- 
seven years and nine months. His death was concealed three days; for 
the parliament, which was dissolved with his last breath, continued to 
do business till the 31st, when his death was published. It is probable 
the Seymours concealed it so long, till they made a party for putting 
the government into their own hands. 

The severities which Henry used against many of his subjects, in 
matters of religion, made both sides write with great sharpness of him. 
His temper was imperious and cruel; he was both sudden and violent in 
his revenge, and stuck at nothing by which he could gratify his passions. 
These were much provoked by the sentence the pope thundered against 
him, by the virulent books cardinal Pole and others published, by the 
rebellions that were raised in England, and the apprehensions he was in 
of the emperor's greatness, and of the inclinations his people had to 
join with him, together with what he had read in history of the fates of 
those princes, against whom popes had thundered in former times : these 



SEVERITIES OF HENRY VIII. 467 

considerations made him think it necessary to keep his people under the 
terror of a severe government, and by some public examples to secure 
the peace of the nation, and thereby to prevent a more profuse effusion 
of blood, which might have otherwise followed if he had been more 
gentle ; and it was no wonder, if after the pope deposed him, he pro- 
ceeded to great severities against all who supported that authority. 

The first instance of capital proceeding upon that account, was in 
Easter term 1535, in which three priors and a monk of the Carthusian 
order were condemned of treason, for saying that the king was not 
supreme head of the church of England. It was then only premunire 
not to submit to the king's supremacy; but it was made treason to deny 
it, or speak against it. Hall, a secular priest, was condemned of 
treason, " for calling the king a tyrant, a heretic, a robber, and an 
adulterer; and saying that he would die as king John or Richard III. 
died ; and that it would never be well with the church till the king was 
defunct : that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise ; and 
were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them." 
All these pleaded not guilty; but being condemned they justified what 
they had said. The Carthusians were hanged in their habits. Soon 
after three other Carthusians were condemned and executed at London, 
and two more at York, upon the same account, for opposing the king's 
supremacy. Ten other monks were shut up in their cells, of whom nine 
died there, and one was condemned and hanged. These had been all 
accomplices in the business of the maid of Kent, and though that was 
pardoned, yet it gave the government ground to have a watchful eye 
over them, and to proceed more severely against them upon the first 
provocation. 

After these Fisher and More were brought to their trials. The first 
was tried by a jury of commoners, and was found guilty of treason, for 
having spoken against the king's supremacy ; but instead of the common 
death in cases of treason, the king ordered him to be beheaded. On 
the 22nd of June he suffered. He dressed himself with more than 
ordinary care that day, for he said it was to be his wedding day. 
As he was led out, he opened the New Testament at a venture, and 
prayed that such a place might turn up as would comfort him in 
his last moments. The words on which he cast his eyes were, " This 
is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent." So he shut the book, and continued me- 
ditating on these words to the last. On the scaffold he repeated the 
Te Deum, and so laid his head on the block, which was severed from 
his body. He was learned and devout; but much addicted to super- 
stition, and too cruel in his temper against heretics. 

It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More, for he was very 
cautious, and satisfied his own conscience by not swearing to the 
supremacy, but would not speak against it. He said the act had two 
edges, if he consented to it, it would damn his soul, and if he spoke 
against it, it would condemn his body, and that the matter of supremacy 
was a point of religion, to which the parliament's authority did not 
extend itself. He received his sentence with that equal temper of mind 
which he had shewed in both conditions of life. He expressed great 



468 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

contempt of the world, and much weariness in living in it. He was 
beheaded on the 6th of July, in the fifty-second or fifty-third year of 
his age. In his youth he had freer thoughts, but he was afterwards 
much corrupted by superstition, and became fierce for all the interests 
of the clergy. His learning in divinity was but ordinary; for he had 
read little more than some of St. Austin's treatises, and the canon law, 
and the master of the sentences, beyond which his quotations seldom go. 

There were no executions after these, till the rebellions of Lincoln- 
shire and Yorkshire gave new occasions to severity ; and then not only 
the lords of Darcy and Hussy, but six abbots, and many gentlemen, 
the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Percy, brother to the Earl of 
Northumberland, were attainted. When these judgments and executions 
were over, a new and unheard-of precedent was made, of attainting 
some without bringing them to make their answers, which is a blemish 
on this reign that can never be washed off, and was a breach of the most 
sacred and unalterable rules of justice. 

In the year 1541, five priests, and ten laymen, stirred up the people 
in the North to a new rebellion; but it was prevented, and they suffered 
for it. In the year 1543, the bishop of Winchester's secretary, and 
three other priests, were condemned and executed, for denying the 
king's supremacy : and this was the last occasion given to the king to 
shew his severity on that account. In all these executions it cannot be 
denied but the laws were excessively severe, and the proceedings upon 
them never tempered with that mildness which ought to be often applied 
for the mitigating the rigour of penal statutes; but though they are much 
aggravated by popish writers, they were trifling, compared with the 
cruelties in Queen Mary's reign. 

Before we leave the martyrdoms of this reign, justice to the memory 
of two good men in humble life, who have been passed over in their 
proper place, requires that some record be preserved in this work of 
their sufferings. Their names were Bent and Trapnell, and they 
suffered shortly after the heroic Thomas Bilney. They were Wiltshire 
men; and, as one suffered at Devizes and the other at Bradford in that 
county, it is likely they were born where they were martyred. Their 
offence was a resolute denial of the doctrine of transubstantiation. 

A curious incident follows in the order of time. In the year 1532, 
there was an idol named the Rood of Dover-court, whereunto was con- 
tinually a great resort of people. For at that time there was a great 
rumour abroad amongst the ignorant, that the power of the idol of 
Dover-court was so great, that no man could shut the church-door 
where he stood; and therefore they let the door, both night and day, 
continually stand open, to give more credit to their blind rumour. This 
once being conceived in the heads of the vulgar sort, seemed a great 
miracle unto many; but to others again, whom God had blessed with 
his Spirit, was greatly suspected, especially to those whose names 
follow: Robert King of Dedham, Robert Debnam of Eastbergholt, 
Nicholas Marsh of Dedham, and Robert Gardiner of Dedham, whose 
consciences were burthened to see the honour and power of the Almighty 
God so blasphemed Wherefore they were moved by the spirit of God 
to travel out of Dedham in a night suitable to their purpose, it being a 



MARTYRDOM OF KING AND OTHERS. 469 

hard frost, and moonlight, although the nights before were exceeding 
foul and rainy. It was from the town of Dedham, to the place where 
the Rood stood, ten miles. Notwithstanding, they were so willing in 
that their enterprize, that they went this distance without pain, and 
found the church-door open according to the blind talk of the igno- 
rant people : for there durst no unfaithful body shut it. This hap- 
pened well for their purpose; for they found the idol, which had as 
much power to keep the door shut as to keep it open. And for proof 
thereof, they took the image from its shrine, and carried it a quarter of 
a mile from the place where it stood, without any resistance from itself 
or any of its devotees. Whereupon they struck fire with a flint-stone, 
and suddenly set the idol on a blaze, who burned out so brightly that 
he lighted them homeward one good mile of the ten. 

This done, there went a great talk abroad that they should have 
great riches in that place ; but it was very untrue ; for it was not their 
thought or enterprize, as they themselves afterwards confessed, for 
there was nothing taken away but the coat, the shoes, and the tapers 
of the image. The tapers they used to burn him, the shoes they had 
again, and the coat one sir Thomas Rose burnt, but they had neither 
penny, halfpenny, gold, groat, nor jewel. However they could not 
hope to be deemed innocent, and soon three of them were indicted of 
felony, and hanged in chains within half-a-year after. Robert King 
was hanged in Dedham at Burchet; Robert Debnam at Cataway- 
cawsey; and Nicholas Marsh at Dover-court. They all, through the 
Spirit of God at their death, did more edify the people in godly learn- 
ing, than all the sermons that had been preached there a long time 
before. Robert Gardiner escaped their hands and fled. Although 
great search was made after him, the Lord preserved him; to whom be 
all honour and glory, world without end. The example of these reso- 
lute men was followed in other instances. The same year there were 
many images cast down and destroyed in many places: as the image 
of the crucifix in the highway of Cogshal, the image of St. Petronil in 
the church of great Horksleigh, the image of St. Christopher by Sud- 
bury, and another image of St. Petronil in a chapel at Ipswich. The 
most remarkable act was that of John Seward of Dedham, who over- 
threw the cross in Stoke-park, and took two images out of a chapel in 
the park, and cast them into the water. He however escaped the 
punishment threatened against such desperate heretics. 

We proceed to Exeter, honoured by the martyrdom of Thomas 
Benet, who was born in Cambridge, and by order of degree of the 
university there made M. A. He was formerly a priest, a man well 
learned and of a godly disposition, intimately acquainted with Thomas 
Bilney, the glorious martyr of Christ. The more he increased in the 
knowledge of God and his holy word, the more he disliked the corrupt 
state of religion then used ; and therefore thinking his own country to 
be no safe place for him to remain in, and being desirous to live in 
more freedom of conscience, he quitted the university, and went into 
Devonshire, in the year 1524, and resided at Torrington, a market-town, 
both town and country being to him altogether unknown, as he was 
also unknown to all men there. There, for the better maintenance of 



470 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

himself and his wife, he taught young children, and kept a school for 
the purpose. But that town not serving his expectation, after his 
abode there one year, he removed to the city of Exeter, and hiring a 
house resumed his teaching, and by that means maintained his wife 
and family. He was of a quiet behaviour, of a godly conversation, 
and of a very courteous nature, humble to all men, and offensive to 
none. His greatest delight was to be at all sermons and preachings, 
whereof he was a diligent and attentive hearer, and he devoted all his 
leisure to the study of the Scriptures, having no dealings nor confer- 
ences with any body, saving with such as he could learn and under- 
stand to be favourers of the gospel. Understanding that William Strowd, 
of Newnham, in the county of Devon, Esq. was committed to the 
bishop's prison in Exeter upon suspicion of heresy, although he was 
not before acquainted with him, yet did he send letters of consolation 
to him. In one of these letters, to avoid all suspicion which might be 
conceived of him, he disclosed himself, and said — " Because I would 
not be a whoremonger, or an unclean person, I married a wife, with 
whom I have hidden myself in Devonshire, from the tyranny of the 
antichristians these six years." 

But as every tree and herb hath its due time to bring forth its fruit, 
so did it appear by this man. For daily seeing the glory of God to be 
so blasphemed, idolatrous religion so embraced and maintained, and 
the usurped power of the bishop of Rome so extolled, he was so grieved 
in conscience, and troubled in spirit, that he could not be quiet till he 
uttered his mind therein. Wherefore dealing privately with certain of 
his friends, he plainly disclosed how blasphemously and abominably 
God was dishonoured, his word contemned, and the people, by blind 
guides, carried headlong to everlasting damnation. In fact he could 
no longer endure, but must needs utter their abominations publicly, 
and for his own part, for the testimony of his conscience, and for the 
defence of God's true religion, would yield himself most patiently, as 
God would give him grace, to die and shed his blood therein ; alleging 
that his death should be more profitable to the church of God, and for 
the edifying of his people, than his life should be. To whose per- 
suasions when his friends had yielded, they promised to pray to God 
for him, that he might be strong in the cause, and continue a faithful 
soldier to the end. This done, he gave order for bestowing of such 
books as he had, and shortly after, in the month of October, he wrote 
his mind in certain scrolls of paper, which privately he affixed upon the 
doors of the cathedral church of the city, in which was written — " The 
pope is antichrist, and we ought to worship God only, and no saints." 

These bills being found, there was no small ado, and no little search 
made for the heretic who had set them up. Orders were given that the 
doctors should haste to the pulpit every day, and confute this heresy. 
Nevertheless, Benet keeping his own doings in secret, went the Sunday 
following to the cathedral church to the sermon, and by chance sate 
down by two men, who had been the busiest in all the city in seeking 
and searching for heretics; and they beholding Benet, said the one to 
the other, Surely this fellow is the heretic that hath set up the bills, and 
it were good to examine him. Nevertheless when they had well beheld 



EXCOMMUNICATION OF BKNET. 471 

him, and saw the quiet and sober behaviour of the man, his attend ve- 
ness to the preacher, his godliness in the church, being always occupied 
in his book, which was a Testament in the Latin tongue, they were 
astonished and had no power to speak to him, but departed and left 
him reading his book. Mean while the canons and priests, with the 
officers and commons of that city, were earnestly busied, by what means 
such an enormous heretic might be espied and known ; but it was long 
before they obtained a clue to the man. At last the priests found out a 
toy to curse him. whatsoever he were, with book, bell, and candle; 
which curse at that day, seemed most fearful and terrible. The manner 
of the curse was after this sort. 

One of the priests, apparelled in white, ascended the pulpit. The 
other rabblement. with certain of the two orders of friars, and some 
superstitious monks of St. Nicholas standing round about, and the cross 
being holden up with holy candles of wax fixed to the same, he began 
his sermon with this theme of Joshua: Est blasphemia in castris — there 
is a curse in the camp. On this he made a long protestation, but not 
so long as tedious and superstitious; and concluded, that the foul and 
abominable heretic who had put up such a foul and blasphemous bill, 
was for that his blasphemy damnably cursed, and besought God, our 
lady, St. Peter, patron of that church, with all the holy company of 
martyrs, confessors, and virgins, that it might be known what heretic 
had done the accursed thing ! Then followed the curse, uttered by the 
priest in these words : — 

" By the authority of God the Father Almighty, and of the blessed 
Virgin Mary, of St. Peter and Paul, and of the holy saints, we excom- 
municate, we utterly curse and ban, commit and deliver to the devil of 
hell, him or her, whatsoever he or she be, that have in spite of God 
and of St. Peter, whose church this is, in spite of all holy saints, and 
in spite of our most holy father the pope, God's vicar here on earth, and 
in spite of the reverend father in God, John our diocesan, and the 
worshipful canons, masters, and priests, and clerks, which serve God 
daily in this cathedral church, fixed up with wax such cursed and here- 
tical bill full of blasphemy, upon the doors of this and other holy 
churches within this city. Excommunicate plainly be he or she 
plenally, or they, and delivered over to the devil, as perpetual male- 
factors and schismatics. Accursed may they be, and given body and 
soul to the devil. Cursed be they, he or she. in cities and towns, in 
fields, in ways, in paths, in houses, out of houses, and in all other 
places, standing, lying, rising, walking, running, waking, sleeping, 
eating, drinking, and whatsoever thing they do besides. We separate 
them, him or her. from the threshold, and from all the good prayers of 
the church, from the participation of the holy mass, from all sacraments, 
chapels, and altars, from holy bread and holy water, from all the merits 
of God's priests, and religious men. and from all their cloisters, all their 
pardons, privileges, grants, and immunities, which all the holy fathers, 
popes of Rome, have granted to them. We give them over utterly to 
the power of the fiend, and let us quench their souls, if they be dead, 
this night in the pains of hell-fire, as this candle is now quenched and 
put out — with that he put out one of the candles. And let us prav to 



472 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

God, if they be alive, that their eyes may be put out, as this candle 
light is — then he put out the other candle: and let us pray to God and 
to our lady, and to St. Peter and Paul, and all holy saints, that all the 
senses of their bodies may fail them, and that they may have no feeling-, 
as now the light of this candle is gone — putting out the third candle — 
except they, he, or she, come openly now and confess their blasphemy, 
and by repentance make satisfaction unto God, our lady, St. Peter, and 
the worshipful company of this cathedral church; and this holy cross 
staff now falleth down, so may they, except they repent and shew them- 
selves." Here one first taking away the cross, the staff fell down : and 
then what a shout and noise was there! what terrible fear! what holding 
up hands to heaven, to hear this terrible denunciation! 

This foolish fantasy and mockery being done and played, which was 
to a Christian heart a thing ridiculous, Benet could no longer forbear, 
but fell into laughter within himself, and for a great space could not 
cease, by the which thing the poor man was discovered. For those that 
were next to him, wondering at that great curse, and believing that it 
could not but light on one or the other, asked Benet, for what cause he 
should so laugh. "My friends," said he, "who can forbear, hearing 
such merry conceits and interludes?" Straightway a noise was made, 
" Here is the heretic ! here is the heretic ! Hold him fast ! hold him 
fast!" 

With that there was a great confusion of voices, and much clapping of 
hands, and yet they were uncertain whether he were the heretic or not. 
Some say that upon the same he was taken and apprehended. Others re- 
port, that his enemies, being uncertain of him, departed, and so he went home 
to his house; where he, being not able to digest the lies there preached, 
renewed his former bills, and caused his boy, early in the morning follow- 
ing, to replace them upon the gates of the churchyard. As the boy was 
performing his office at a gate, called "The Little Stile," it chanced that 
one going to the cathedral to hear mass, called Barton's Mass, which was 
daily said about five of the clock in the morning, found the boy at the 
gate, and asking him whose boy he was, charged him to be the heretic 
which had set the bills upon the gates; wherefore pulling them down, 
he brought the same together with the boy before the mayor; and there- 
upon Benet, being known and taken, was violently committed to 
prison. 

On the morrow began both the canons and heads of the city to fall 
to examination. Benet for that day had not much communication with 
them, but confessed and said to them, " It was even I that put up those 
bills; and if it were to do, I would do it again; for in them I have 
written nothing but that is very truth." " Couldst not thou," said they, 
" as well have declared thy mind by word of mouth, as by putting up 
bills of blasphemy?" " No," said he, " I put up the bills, that many 
should read and hear what abominable blasphemers ye are, and that 
they might the better know your antichrist, the pope, to be that boar 
out of the woods, which throweth down the hedges of God's church ; 
for if I had been heard to speak but one word, I should have been 
clapped fast in prison, and the matter of God hidden. But now I 
trust more of your blasphemous doings will thereby be opened and 



EXAMINATION OF BENET. 473 

come to light ; for God so will have it, and no longer will suffer you to 
prostitute his service and truth unrebuked. 

The next day he was sent unto the bishop, who first committed him to 
prison, where he was kept in stocks and strong irons. Then the bishop 
associating unto him one Dr. Brewer his chancellor, and other of his 
lewd clergy and friars, began to examine him and burthen him, that 
contrary to the Catholic faith, he denied praying to saints, and the 
supremacy of the pope. To this he answered in such sober manner, and 
so learnedly proved and defended his assertions, that he did not only 
confound and put to silence his adversaries, but also brought them in 
great admiration of him, the most part having pity and compassion on 
him. The friars took great pains with him to persuade him to recant 
and acknowledge his fault, touching the bills; but it was in vain, for 
God had manifestly appointed him to be a witness of his holy name. 

To declare here with what cruelty the officers searched his house for 
bills and books, how cruelly and shamefully they handled his wife, 
charging her with divers enormities, it were too long to write. But 
she, like a good woman, took all things patiently, as in other things 
she was contented to bear the cross with him, to fare hardly with him 
at home, and to live with coarse meat and drink, that they might be 
the more able somewhat to help the poor, which they did to the utter- 
most of their power. Among other priests, Gregory Basset was most 
busy with him. Basset was learned, and had a pleasant tongue, and 
not long before had fallen from the truth, for which he had been impri- 
soned in Bristol; at whose examination there was provided and set before 
him a great pan of fire, where his holy brethren, as the report went 
abroad, menaced to burn his hands off: whereupon he recanted, and 
became afterward a mortal enemy to the truth. He was fervent with 
Benet, to please the canons of the church, and marvellously tormented 
his brains how to turn him from his opinions, and was so diligent with 
him that he would not depart the prison, but lay there night and day. 
He, notwithstanding, lost his labour: for Benet made it a point of con- 
science not to deny Christ before men, upon which Gregory, with the 
other holy fathers, said in open audience, " There was never so obstinate 
a heretic. " 

The principal point between Basset and him was touching the supre- 
macy of the bishop of Rome, whom in his bills he named " Antichrist, 
the thief, the mercenary, and murderer of Christ's flock." These dis- 
putations lasted about eight days, during which at sundry times repaired 
to him both the black and grey friars, with priests and monks of that 
city. They who had some learning persuaded him to leave the church , 
and shewed by what tokens she is known. The unlearned railed, and 
said, that the devil tempted him, and spat upon him, calling him heretic : 
while he prayed God to give them a better mind and to forgive them. 
He boldly said, " I will rather die, than worship such a beast, the very 
whore of Babylon, and a false usurper, as manifestly doth appear by 
his doings. " They asked, "What doth the pope that he has not au- 
thority to do, being God's vicar?" "He doth," quoth he, "sell the 
sacraments for money, he selleth remission of sins for money, and so 
do you likewise: for there is no clay but ye say divers masses for souls 



474 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

in purgatory: yea, and ye spare not to make lying sermons to the 
people, to maintain your false traditions and foul gains. The whole 
world begins now to note your doings, to your utter confusion and 
shame." "The shame," said they, "shall be to thee, and such as 
thee, foul heretic. Wilt thou allow nothing done in holy church?" 
" I am," said he, "no heretic, but a Christian, I thank Christ, and with 
all my heart will allow all things done and used in the church to the 
glory of God, and edifying of my soul: but I see nothing in your 
church, but what maintaineth the devil." " What is our church?" 
said they. " It is not my church," quoth Benet; " God give me grace 
to be of a better church, for verily your church is the church of anti- 
christ, the malignant church, the false church, a den of thieves, and as 
far wide from the true universal and apostolic church, as heaven is dis- 
tant from the earth." 

" Dost not thou think," said they, " that we pertain to the universal 
church?" "Yes," quoth he, "but as dead members, unto whom the 
church is not beneficial: for your works are the devices of men, and 
your church a weak foundation; for ye say and preach, that the pope's 
word is equal with God's in every degree." " Why," said they, " did 
not Christ say to Peter, to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of 
Heaven?" " He said that," quoth he, " to all the apostles as well as 
Peter, and Peter had no more authority given him than the rest, or else 
the churches planted in every kingdom by their preaching are no 
churches. Doth not St. Paul say, ' Upon the foundations of the 
apostles and prophets?' Therefore I say plainly, that the church that 
is built upon a man, is a man's church and not God's. And as every 
church this day is appointed to be ruled by a bishop or pastor, ordained 
by the word of God for preaching and administration of the sacraments 
under the prince, the supreme governor under God ; so, to say that all 
the churches with their princes and governors be subject unto one bishop 
is detestable heresy ; and the pope, your god, challenging this power to 
himself, is the greatest schismatic that ever was in the church, and the 
most foul whore ; of whom John, in the Revelation, speaketh." 

" O thou blind and unlearned fool," said they, " is not the confes- 
sion and consent of all the world as we confess and consent; that the 
pope's holiness is the supreme head and vicar of Christ?" "That is," 
said Benet, "because they are blinded and know not the scriptures: 
but if God would of his mercy open the eyes of princes to know their 
office, his false supremacy would soon decay." " We think," said they, 
" thou art so malicious, that thou wilt confess no church." " Look," 
said he, " where they are that confess the true name of Jesus Christ, 
where only Christ is the head, and under him the prince of the realm, 
to order bishops, ministers, and preachers, and to see them do their 
duties in setting forth the glory of God by preaching his word; and 
where it is preached, that Christ is our only advocate, mediator, and 
patron before his Father, making intercession for us; and where the 
true faith and confidence in Christ's death and passion, and his only 
merits and deservings are extolled, and our own depressed; where the 
sacrament is duly without superstition or idolatry administered in re- 
membrance of his blessed passion, and only sacrifice upon the cross 



BENET AND THE FRIAR. 475 

once for all, and where no superstition reigneth — of that church 
will I be." 

" Doth not the pope," said they, " confess the true gospel? and do 
not we all the same?" " Yes," said he, "but ye deny the fruits thereof 
in every point. Ye build upon the sands, not upon the rock." " And 
wilt thou not believe indeed," said they, " that the pope is God's 
vicar?" "No," said he, "indeed! And that because he usurpeth a 
power not given him of Christ, any more than to other apostles; also 
because by force of that usurped supremacy, he blinds the whole world, 
and doth contrary to all that ever Christ ordained or commanded." 
" What," said they, " if he do all things after God's ordinance and 
commandment should he then be his vicar?" " Then," said he, " would 
I believe him to be a good bishop at Rome over his own diocese, but to 
have no further power. And if it pleased God, I would every bishop 
did this in his diocese: then should we live a peaceable life in the 
church of Christ, and there should be no seditions therein. If every 
bishop would seek no further power, it were a goodly thing. But now, 
because all are subject to one, they must do and consent to all wicked- 
ness as he doth, or be none of his. This is the cause of great super- 
stition in every kingdom ; and what bishop soever he be that preacheth 
the gospel, and maintaineth the truth, is a true bishop of the church." 
" And doth not," said they, " our holy father the pope maintain the 
gospel?" " Yea," said he, " I think he doth read it, and peradventure 
believe it, and so do you also ; but neither he nor you do fix the anchor 
of your salvation therein. Besides that, ye bear such a good will to it, 
that ye keep it close, and no man may read it but yourselves. And 
when you preach, God knows how you handle it: insomuch, that the 
people of Christ know no gospel but the pope's ; and so the blind lead 
the blind, and both fall into the pit. In the true gospel of Christ, confi- 
dence is none; but only in your popish traditions and fantastical inventions." 

Then said a black friar to him, (God knoweth, a blockhead,) " Do we 
not preach the gospel daily?" " Yes," said he ; " but what preaching of 
the gospel is that when you extol superstitious things, and make us believe 
that we have redemption through pardons and bulls from Rome, a poena 
et culpa, as ye term it ; and by the merits of your orders ye make many 
brethren and sisters, ye take yearly money of them, ye bury them in your 
coats, and in shrift ye beguile them : yea, and do a thousand superstitious 
things more ; a man may be weary to speak of them." " I see," said the 
friar, " thou art a damned wretch ; I will have no more talk with thee." 

Then stepped to him a grey friar, a doctor, (God knoweth, of small 
intelligence,) and laid before him great and many dangers. " I take 
God to record," said Benet, " my life is not dear to me ; I am content to 
depart from it, for I am weary of it, seeing your detestable doings, to the 
utter destruction of God's flock ; and, for my part, I can no longer for- 
bear. I had rather by death, which I know is not far off, depart this life, 
that I may no longer be witness of your idolatries, or be subject to anti- 
christ, your pope." " Our pope," said the friar, " is the vicar of God, and 
our ways are the ways of God." " I pray you," said Benet, " depart 
from me, and tell not me of your ways. He is my only way who saith, ' 1 am 
the way, the truth, and the life.' In this way will I walk, his doings shall 



476 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

be my example, not yours, nor your false pope's. His truth will I em- 
brace ; not the lies and falsehood of you and your pope. His everlasting 
life will I seek, the true reward of all faithful people. Away from me, I 
pray you. Vex my soul no longer; ye shall not prevail. There is no 
good example in you, no truth in you, no life to be hoped for at your hands. 
Ye are all more vain than vanity itself. If I should hear and follow you this 
day, everlasting death would hang over me, a just reward for all them that 
love the life of this world. Away from me: your company liketh me not." 

Never was confessor more to be admired for wisdom and courage, 
purity and truth, than this holy man. Well might such a mind and 
conscience be wearied with the blasphemies of his subtle adversaries. 
Yet did they continue to cast at him the venom of their poisoned 
tongue, and the arrows of their bitter words — thus through a whole 
week, night and day, was he harassed by these hypocrites. It were an 
infinite matter to declare all things done and said to him in the time of 
his imprisonment; and the hate of the people that time, by means of 
ignorance, was hot against him: notwithstanding they could never move 
his patience; he answered to every matter soberly, and that more by the 
aid of God's Spirit than by any worldly study. He was at least fifty 
years old. Being in prison, his wife provided sustenance for him; 
and when she lamented, he comforted her, and gave her many godly 
exhortations, praying her to move him not to apply to his adversaries for 
the least favour. 

His enemies at length, finding both their threats and their persuasions 
equally useless, proceeded to judgment, and condemned him to the 
flames ; which being done, and the writ which they had procured being 
brought from London, they delivered him the fifteenth of January, 1531, 
unto Sir Thomas Denis, knight, then sheriff of Devonshire, to be burn- 
ed. The mild martyr rejoicing that his end approached so near, as the 
sheep before the shearer, yielded himself, with all humbleness, to abide 
and suffer the cross of persecution. Being brought to his execution, in 
a place called Livery-dole, without Exeter, he made his humble confes- 
sion and prayer unto Almighty God, and requested all the people to do 
the like for him, exhorting them, at the same time, with such gravity 
and sobriety, and with such an impressive oration, to seek the true 
honouring of God, and the true knowledge of him; as also to leave 
the imaginations of man's inventions, that all the hearers were asto- 
nished and in great admiration: insomuch, that most of them, as also 
the scribe who wrote the sentence of condemnation against him, con- 
fessed that he was God's servant, and a good man. 

Two esquires, namely, Thomas Carew and John Barnehouse, standing 
at the stake by him, first with fair promises and goodly words, but at 
length through threatenings, required him to revoke his errors, to call to 
our lady and the saints, and to say, Precor sanctam Mariam, et omnes 
sanctos Dei. To them he with all meekness, answered, saying, "No, 
no; it is God only upon whose name we must call, and we have no 
advocate with him but Jesus Christ, who died for us, and now sitteth at 
the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. By him must we offer 
and make our prayers to God, if we will have them to take place and 
be heard." With this answer Barnehouse was so enraged, that he took 



BURNING OF BENET. 477 

a furze-bush upon a pike, and setting it on fire, thrust it into his face, 
saying-, " Heretic, pray to our Lady, and say, Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis, 
or by God's wounds I will make thee do it." To whom the said Thomas 
Benet, with an humble and a meek spirit, most patiently answered, "Alas, 
sir! trouble me not." And holding up his hands, he said, Pater! ignosce 
Mis. Whereupon the gentlemen caused the wood and furze to be set on 
fire, and therewith this godly man lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, 
saying, Domine ! recipe spiritum meum. And so, continuing in his 
prayers, most patiently abode the cruelty of the fire, until his life was 
ended. For this the Lord God be praised, and send us his grace and 
blessing, that at the latter day we may with him enjoy the bliss and joy 
prepared for the elect children of God. At his burning, such was the rage 
of the blind people, that well was he that could cast a stick into the fire. 

In the year 151 1, a severe persecution took place in the county of Kent, 
under Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, and five were committed to the 
flames. These were William Carder, of Tenterden ; Agnes Grebil, of 
Tenterden, aged sixty years ; Robert Harrison, of Halden, of the same 
age ; John Browne, of Ashford ; and Edward Walker, of Maidstone, 
cutler. The witnesses against Agnes Grebil were her husband and her two 
sons — all of whom had abjured, and, instigated by base fear, sacrificed the 
life of the unhappy woman to preserve their own. 

This may be a proper place for a few remarks on the laws of that day, 
as they affected different offenders, extracted from the register of the said 
William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury. It is first to be noted, that 
the catholic fathers, in their processes of heretical depravity, had three 
distinct kinds of judgments and proceeding. One class of offences required 
the offenders to be burned, that, others being brought into terror, they 
might therefore more quietly maintain their power. The persons thus con- 
demned consisted of either such as had before abjured, and fallen again 
into relapse; or else such as stood constantly in their doctrine, and refused 
to abjure ; or such as they intended to make a terror and example, not- 
withstanding their willingness to submit themselves, and to abjure. Against 
the last, the process used was this : First, after they are suspected by some 
promoter, they are denounced and cited ; then by virtue of inquisition they 
are taken, and confined fast in irons in prison. Then they are brought 
forth for examination, if they be not dead by famine, cold, or straitness of 
the prison. Then be articles drawn, or rather wrested, out of their writings 
or preachings, and they put to their oath, to answer truly to every point 
and circumstance against them ; which articles if they seem to deny, or 
solve by true expounding the articles, then are witnesses called in and 
admitted, what witnesses soever they are, be they never so infamous, 
usurers, ribalds, women, yea, and common harlots. Or, if no other wit- 
nesses can be found, then is the husband brought in and forced to swear 
against the wife, or the wife against the husband, or the children against 
the mother, as in the example of Agnes Grebil. Or, if no such witness 
at all can be found, then are they strained upon the rack, or by other 
bitter torments forced to confess their knowledge, and to impeach others. 
Neither must any be suffered to come to them, what need soever they 
have; neither must any public or private audience be given them to speak 
for themselves ; till at last sentence be read against them, to give them up 



478 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to the secular arm, or to degrade them, if they be priests, and so to burn 
them. Yet the malignity of these persecutors doth not here cease. For 
after the fire hath consumed their bodies, then they fall upon their books, 
and condemn them to be burned ; and no man must be so hardy as to 
read them, or keep them, under pain of heresy. But before they have 
abolished these books, they gather articles out of them, such as they list 
themselves, and so perversely wrest them after their own purpose, contrary 
to the meaning of the author. This done, and the books abolished, that 
no man may compare them, and espy their falsehood, they publish those 
extracts which they have so carefully perverted. 

To the second order belonged that sort of heretics whom the papists 
condemned not to death, but assigned them to monasteries, there to con- 
tinue, and to fast all their life, in pane doloris, et aqua angustice, with 
bread of sorrow, and water of affliction ; and that they should not re- 
move one mile out of the precinct of the monastery so long as they 
lived, unless they were by the archbishop himself or his successors 
dispensed withal. Frequently, however, the said persons were so dis- 
pensed withal that their penance of bread and water was confined only 
to Wednesdays and Fridays, or some similar punishment. 

The third class of heretics were those whom they did not judge 
to perpetual prison, but only enjoined them penance, either to stand 
before the preacher, or else to bear a fagot about the market, or in pro- 
cession; or else to wear the picture of a fagot bordered on their left 
sleeves, without any cloak or gown upon it; or else to kneel at the 
saying of certain masses, or to say so many pater nosters, to such or 
such a saint; or to go in pilgrimage to such or such a place; or to bear 
a fagot to the burning of some heretic ; or to fast certain Fridays on 
bread and water. 

In the year of our Lord 1539, John, a painter, and Giles German, 
were accused of heresy ; and whilst they were in examination in London 
before the bishop and other judges, by chance there came in one of the 
king's servants, named Launcelot, a very tall man, and of no less godly 
mind and disposition, than strong and tall of body. This man standing by 
seemed by his countenance and gesture, to favour the cause of the poor 
men as though they were his friends. Whereupon, being apprehended, 
he was examined and condemned together with them; and the next day, 
at five o'clock in the morning, they were all carried into St. Giles' 
Fields, and there burned. There was but a small company of people at 
their death; yet they behaved with remarkable firmness, and spoke to 
the few around them with a pious fidelity, exhorting them to embrace 
suffering rather than idolatry and sin. 

In the company and fellowship of those blessed saints and martyrs 
of Christ, who innocently suffered, and were burned in Smithfield about 
the latter end of Cuthbert Tonstal's time, bishop of London, was one 
called Stile, as is credibly reported to us by Sir Robert Outred, who was 
present at his martyrdom, and an eye witness of the same. With him 
there was burned also a book of the Apocalypse, which he was wont to 
read. This book when he saw fastened unto the stake to be burned 
with him, lifting up his voice he exclaimed, " O blessed Apocalypse ! 
how happy am I that I shall be burned with thee!" And so this "good 



IMPRISONMENT OF BROWN. 479 

man and the blessed Apocalypse were both together consumed in the 
same fire, whereas nothing could consume the spirit of either. 

As Gardiner and other bishops set on King Henry against Anne 
Askew and her fellow martyrs, so Dr. Repse, bishop of Norwich, incited 
no less the old duke of Norfolk against one Rogers, in the county of 
Norfolk ; who, much about the same year and time, was there condemned, 
and suffered martyrdom for the six articles. This martyr must be dis- 
tinguished from the clergyman of his name, one of the earliest victims 
of Mary's cruelty; though in christian courage he almost equalled his 
well known namesake and successor in suffering. 

A certain priest, passing down to Gravesend in the common barge 
about this time, where one Brown was amongst other passengers, and 
disdaining that he should sit so near him in the barge, began to swell 
against him. At length bursting forth in his priestly voice and dis- 
dainful countenance, he asked him, "Dost thou know whom I am? 
Thou sittest too near me, and sittest on my clothes." " No, sir," said 
the other, " I know not who or what you are." " I tell thee," quoth 
he, " I am a priest." " What, Sir, are you a parson or vicar, or some 
lady's chaplain?" asked Brown. " No, I am a soul priest, I sing for a 
soul," replied he. " Do you so, Sir," said Brown; " that is well done. 
I pray you, Sir, where find you the soul when you go to mass?" " I 
cannot tell thee," said the priest. " I pray you, where do you leave 
it, Sir, when the mass is done?" asked Brown. " I cannot tell thee," 
said the priest. "You cannot tell me where you find it when you go 
to mass, nor where you leave it when the mass is done; how can you 
then save the soul?" inquired Brown. " Go thy ways," said the priest, 
" I perceive thou art a heretic, and I will be even with thee." And 
he kept his word, for at the landing, the priest taking with him Walter 
and William More, two gentlemen and brethren, rode straight to arch- 
bishop Warham. John Brown, within three days after, was sent for by 
the archbishop. The messengers came suddenly into his house on the 
same day on which his wife was churched, and just as he was bringing 
in a mess of pottage to the serving his guest : and laying hands upon 
him, they set him upon his own horse, and binding his feet under the 
belly of the beast, carried him away to Canterbury — neither he, nor his 
wife, nor any of his friends knowing whither they went — and there was 
kept the space of forty days. 

During this long captivity, when he was thought to be lost, the arch- 
bishop caused his bare feet to be set on hot burning coals, to make him 
deny his faith; which, notwithstanding, he would not do, but patiently 
abiding the pain, continued in the Lord's cause unshaken. At length, 
after this cruelty, he was, on Friday before Whitsunday, sent to Ashford, 
where he dwelt, the next day to be burned, his wife being all the time 
ignorant of what happened. However, just after he was brought to the 
town over night to be set in the stocks, it happened, as God would have 
it, that a young maid of his house came by, and seeing her master, ran 
home and told her mistress. Her consternation may be imagined, when 
coming to him, and finding him in the stocks, appointed to be burned 
the next morning: she sat by him all night long. To whom he of 
course declared the whole story, or rather tragedy, how he had been 



480 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

handled, and how his feet were burned to the bones by the archbishop 
of Canterbury and bishop of Rochester, that he could not set them upon 
the ground, and all to make him deny his Lord, which he would never 
do — " for should I deny him in this world," he said, " he would deny 
me hereafter : therefore, I pray thee, good Elizabeth, continue as thou 
hast begun, and bring up thy children virtuously in the fear of God. 
The next day, being Whitsun-eve, this godly martyr was burned. 
Standing at the stake, he uttered this prayer, lifting up his hands and 
eyes to heaven : — 

" I. yield, O Lord, unto thy grace, 
O, let thy mercy crown my race. 
Let not the fiend my soul pursue, 
When death is near, and just in view ; 
But while by envious foes I'm driv'n, 
Save me from hell, and give me Heaven." 

William Tindall, or Tyndale, although he did not suffer in England, ought 
to be ranked with the martyrs of our country, of which, from his great 
zeal, perseverance, and dispersing of truth, he may properly be esteemed 
the apostle. Though he went to heaven from a foreign land, he came 
on earth in the land of the ancient Britons. He was born on the 
borders of Wales, and brought up from a child in the university of 
Oxford, where, by long continuance, he grew and increased as well in 
knowledge of tongues and other liberal arts, as in the knowledge of the 
scriptures, whereunto his mind was singularly addicted; insomuch, that 
lying then in Magdalen-hall, he read privily to certain of the students 
and fellows of that college, some parcel of divinity; instructing them 
in the knowledge and truth of the scriptures; and all that knew him 
reputed and esteemed him to be a man of most virtuous disposition, and 
of unspotted life. 

Having remained some time at Oxford, he removed to the other 
university of Cambridge, where, after making great progress in his 
studies, he quitted, went to Gloucestershire, and engaged himself to a 
knight, named Welch, as tutor of his children. To this gentleman's 
hospitable table used to resort several abbots, deans, and other beneficed 
men, with whom Tindall used to converse and talk of learned men, 
particularly of Luther and Erasmus; examining also many questions 
relative to the scriptures. Being learned and practised in religion, he 
spared not to avow unto them simply his opinions; and if they objected 
to his reasonings, he would shew them the book, and lay plainly before 
them the open and manifest places of the scriptures, to confute their 
errors, and confirm his sayings. And thus continued they for a certain 
season, reasoning and contending together, till at length they became 
envious, and bore a secret grudge in their hearts against him. 

Not long after this it happened that certain of these great doctors 
invited Mr. Welch and his wife to a banquet, where they spoke to him 
without the fear of contradiction, uttering their blindness and ignorance. 
Then Welch and his wife coming home, and calling for Mr. Tindall, 
began to reason with him about those matters; when Tindall as usual, 
answered by scripture, maintained the truth, and reproved their false 
opinions. Then said the lady Welch, a stout and wise woman, " Well 



ACCUSATIONS AGAINST TINDALL. 481 

there was such a doctor who spent a hundred, another two hundred, 
and another three hundred pounds : and were it reason, think you, that 
we should believe you before them?" Tindall gave her no answer at 
the time ; and after that, because he saw it would not avail, he talked 
but little in those matters. However, he was about the translation of a 
book called Enchiridion militis Christiani, written by Erasmus, which, 
being finished, he delivered to his master and lady. After they had 
read and well perused the same, the doctorly prelates were not so often 
called to the house, neither had they the cheer and countenance when 
they came as before. This they well perceiving', and supposing that it 
came by the means of Tindall, refrained themselves, and at last utterly 
withdrew from the house. 

As this grew on, the priests of the country clustered together, and began 
to storm upon Tindall, railing against him in ale-houses, and other 
places. Tindall himself, in his prologue to the first book of Moses, 
testifieth, that he " suffered much in that country by a sort of unlearned 
priests, being rude and ignorant, as God knoweth; who have seen 
no more Latin than that only which they read in their portueses and 
missals ; which yet many of them can scarcely read, except it be 
Albertus,de secretis midierum; in which yet, though they be never so 
sorrily learned, they pore day and night, and make notes therein, to 
assist the midwives, as they say; and also another called Lindwood, a 
book of constitutions to gather tithes, mortuaries, offerings, customs, 
and other pillage, which they call not theirs, but God's part — the duty of 
holy church, to discharge their consciences withal. For they are bound 
that they shall not diminish but increase all things unto the uttermost 
of their powers, which pertain to holy church." Thus these blind and 
rude priests flocking together to the ale-house, their preaching-place, 
railed against him, affirming that his sayings were heresy ; adding, 
moreover, unto his sayings of their own heads, and so accused him 
secretly to the chancellor, and other of the bishop's officers. 

It followed not long after this, that there was a sitting of the bishop's 
chancellor appointed, and warning was given to the priests to appear 
against Tindall. Whether he had any misdoubt by their threatenings, 
or knowledge given him that they would lay some things to his charge, 
it is uncertain ; but certain it is that he doubted their privy accusations ; 
so that he, by the way, in going thitherwards, cried in his mind heartily 
to God, to give him strength to stand in the truth of his word. When 
the time came for his appearance before the chancellor, he threatened 
him grievously, reviling and rating at him as though he had been a dog, 
and laid to his charge many things whereof no accuser could be brought 
forth, notwithstanding the priests of the country were there present. 
And thus did Tindall escape out of their hands, and returned home. 

There dwelt not far off* a certain doctor, named Mummuth, who had 
been formerly chancellor to a bishop, and who had been an old familiar 
acquaintance with Tindall, and favoured him well. Unto him Tindall 
went, and opened his mind upon divers questions of the Scripture : for to 
him he durst be bold to disclose his heart. After some discourse, the 
doctor said, "Do you not know that the pope is the very antichrist whom 
11 2 i 



482 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the Scripture speaketh of? but beware what you say; for if you be 
perceived of that opinion, it will cost you your life ; I have been an 
officer of his; but I have given it up, and defy him and all his works." 
Soon after, Tindall happened to be in company of a certain divine, 
accounted a learned man, and in communing and disputing with him, 
he drove him to that issue, that the great doctor burst out into these 
blasphemous words, " We were better to be without God's laws than 
the pope's." Tindall hearing this, full of godly zeal, and not bearing 
that blasphemous saying, replied, " I defy the pope, and all his laws :" 
and added, that if God spared him life, ere many years, he would cause 
a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than he 
did. 

The grudge of the priests now increased more against Tindall, they 
never ceased barking at him, and laid many things to his charge, say- 
ing that he was a heretic in sophistry, in logic, and in divinity ; more- 
over, that he bare himself boldly to the gentleman in that country ; but 
notwithstanding, shortly he should be otherwise talked withal. To 
whom Tindall said, that he was contented they should bring him into 
any county in England, giving him ten pounds a year to live with, and 
binding him to no more but to teach children, and to preach the gospel 
of Christ. 

At length being so molested and vexed by the priests, he was con- 
strained to leave that country, and to seek another place ; and coming 
to Mr. Welch, he requested his permission to depart, saying, " Sir, I 
perceive that I shall not be suffered to tarry long in this country, neither 
shall you be able, though you would, to keep me out of the hands of 
the spirituality ; and also what displeasure might grow thereby to you 
by keeping me, God knoweth, for the which I should be sorry." He 
accordingly departed, came up to London, and there preached awhile 
as he had done in the country before, and especially about the city of 
Bristol. At length bethinking himself of Tonstal, then bishop of 
London, and especially for his great commendation of Erasmus, who in 
his annotations so extolleth him for his learning, thus cast with himself, 
that if he might attain unto his service, he were a happy man. Coming 
to Sir Henry Gilford, the king's comptroller, and bringing with him an 
oration of Isocrates, which he had then translated from the Greek, he 
desired him to speak to the bishop for him ; which he did, and willed 
him moreover to write to the bishop, and accompany him. Thus he did 
and delivered his epistle to a servant. But God, who secretly disposeth 
the order of things, saw that was not the best for Tindall's purpose, nor 
for the profit of his church, and therefore gave him to find little favour 
in the bishop's sight, who said, that his house was full, he had more than 
he could well find, and advised him to seek about in London, where 
he said he could lack no service. He therefore remained in London 
almost a year, marking with himself the course of the world, and espe- 
cially the demeanour of the preachers, how they boasted themselves, 
and set up their authority and kingdom ; also the pomp of the prelates, 
with other things more which greatly vexed him. Soon he understood, 
not only there to be no room in the bishop's house for him to translate 
the New Testament, but also no place to do it in all England. And 



T1NDALL TRANSLATES THE BIBLE. 483 

therefore, having some aid by God's providence from his friend Humphrey 
Mummuth, and other good men, he took his leave of the realm, and 
departed to Germany. There, being inflamed with a tender care and 
zeal of his country, he studied how by all means possible to bring his 
countrymen to the same taste and understanding of God's holy word 
and verity, which the Lord had endued him withal. 

He perceived that the principal cause of the people's blindness, and 
of the gross errors of the church, with all their evils, was the scriptures 
being concealed in an unknown tongue, by which the truth was kept out 
of sight, and the corruptions of the priests remained undetected. No 
wonder therefore all their labour was with might and main to keep it 
down, so that either it should not be read at all, or if it were, they 
would darken the right sense with the mist of their sophistry, and so 
entangle those who rebuked or despised their abominations, with argu- 
ments of philosophy, worldly similitudes, apparent reasons of natural 
wisdom; and with wresting the Scripture unto their own purpose, that 
they would so delude, and amaze them, expounding it in many senses, 
laid before the unlearned lay people, that though they were sure that 
all were false, yet could none solve their subtle riddles. These and 
other considerations moved this good man, who was no doubt stirred up 
of God, to translate the scripture into his mother tongue, for the utility 
and profit of the simple people of the country. He first began with the 
New Testament, which he translated about the year 1527. After that 
he took in hand the old Testament, finishing the five books of Moses, 
with sundry learned and godly prefaces prefixed before every one, which 
he also did before the New Testament. Nor was he content with trans- 
lating scripture : he also wrote divers other works under sundry titles, 
amongst which was, " The obedience of a Christian man," wherein with 
singular dexterity he instructed all men in the office and duty of Chris- 
tian obedience, with several other treatises, as, "The wicked Mammon 
— The practice of prelates ;" with expositions upon certain parts of the 
Scripture, and other books also, answering Sir Thomas More and other 
adversaries of the truth. 

His books being compiled, published, and sent over to England, it is 
past description what a door of light they opened to the eyes of the 
whole nation, which before were many years shut up in darkness. At 
his first departure, he had taken his journey into the further parts of 
Germany, to Saxony, where he had conference with Luther, and other 
learned men in those quarters, whence, after he had continued a season, 
he came down into the Netherlands, and resided mostly in the town of 
Antwerp. His several publications, especially the New Testament, after 
they came into men's hands, wrought singular profit to the godly, while 
ungodly priests, envying and disdaining that the people should be wiser 
than they, and fearing lest by the shining beams of truth, their hypo- 
crisy and works of darkness should be discerned, took great offence; as 
at the birth of Christ, Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled with him. 
An accident befel our zealous and persevering martyr, which occasioned 
a considerable delay. Having finished the five books of Moses, he set 
sail to Hamburgh intending to print them there. But, on his voyage, 
he was shipwrecked and lost all his manuscripts, with almost all he pos- 



484 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

sessed. He, however, in another vessel, pursued his voyage, and arriv- 
ing at Hamburgh, where at his appointment, Mr. Coverdale tarried for 
him, and helped him in translating the whole five books of Moses, from 
Easter till December, in the house of Miss Margaret Van Emmerson, 
anno 1529. Having dispatched his business, he returned to Antwerp 
again. 

When God's will was that the New Testament in the common tongue 
should come abroad, Tindall added at the end a letter, wherein he 
desired the learned to amend ought they found amiss. But the fathers 
of the clergy, not willing to have that book to prosper, cried out against 
it, that there were a thousand heresies in it, and that it was not to be 
corrected, but utterly suppressed. Some said it was impossible to trans- 
late the Scripture into English ; others, that it was not lawful for the 
laity to have it in their mother-tongue; some that it would make them 
all heretics. To induce the temporal rulers also unto their purpose, 
they said that it would make the people rebel and rise against the king. 
All this Tindall himself declared, shewing moreover its truth ; while 
they scanned and examined every tittle and point in the translation so 
narrowly, that there was not one letter therein, but if it lacked a perfect 
form, they did note it, and numbered it unto the ignorant people for a 
heresy. So great were then the forward devices of the English clergy, 
to drive the people from the text and knowledge of the Scripture, 
which they would neither translate themselves, nor yet suffer it to be 
translated by others. 

The bishops and prelates of the realm, thus incensed and inflamed in 
their minds, and conspiring together with their councils, how to repeal 
the cause of their alarm, never rested till they had brought the king at 
last to their consent. By reason whereof, a proclamation in all haste 
was devised and set forth under public authority, but no just reason 
shewed, that the Testament of Tindall's translation, with other works 
both of his and of other writers, were prohibited and denounced. This 
was about the year 1527. Not contented herewith, they proceeded fur- 
ther, how to entangle him in their nets, and to bereave him of his life. 
The means they employed to ensnare him were these. In the registers 
of London it appeareth that the bishops and Sir Thomas More brought 
several poor men to be examined before them, namely, such as had been 
at Antwerp : most studiously would they search and examine all things 
belonging to Tindall, where and with whom he hosted, where stood the 
house, what was his stature, in what apparel he went, what resort he 
had. All these things when they had diligently learned, as appeared 
by the examination of Simon Smith and others, then began they to 
work their works of darkness. 

Tindall being in the city of Antwerp, had lodged about a year in the 
house of Thomas Pointz, an Englishman, who kept there an hostel of Eng- 
lish merchants, when there arrived thither out of England, Henry Philips, 
his father being customer of Pool, a comely fellow, and in appearance 
a gentleman, having a servant with him ; but wherefore he came, or 
for what purpose he was sent thither, no man could tell, unless it was 
for the work of darkness already mentioned. Tindall was frequently 
invited to dinner and supper amongst merchants ; by the means whereof 



TREACHERY OF PHILIPS. 435 

this Henry Philips became acquainted with him, so that in a short space 
Tindall conceived a great friendship and confidence for him, brought 
him to his lodging to the house of Thomas Pointz, had him once or 
twice to dinner and supper, and further entered into such friendship with 
him, that through his interest he lodged in the house of Pointz. He 
also shewed him his books and other secrets of his study, so little did 
Tindall then mistrust this traitor. 

Pointz having no great confidence in the fellow, asked Tindall how 
he came acquainted with him, who answered, that he was an honest 
man, tolerably learned, and very agreeable. Pointz, perceiving that he 
bare such favour to him, said no more, thinking that he was brought ac- 
quainted with him by some friend of his. Philips being in the city three 
or four days upon a time, desired Pointz to walk with him forth of the 
town to shew him the commodities thereof; and in walking together 
without the town, had communication of divers things, and some of the 
king's affairs ; by which talk Pointz as yet suspected nothing, but by 
the sequel he perceived more what he intended. In the mean time he 
learned, that he bare no great favour either to the setting forth of any 
good thing, or to the proceedings of the king of England, and perceived 
about him a deal of mystery, and a sort of courting him to make him 
subservient to his design, by the hopes of reward, he always 
appearing very full of money: but Pointz kept at a distance from all 
bribery. So Philips went from Antwerp to the court of Brussels, which 
is from thence twenty-four English miles, the king having there no am- 
bassador; for at that time the king of England and the emperor were 
at a controversy, for the question betwixt Henry and the lady Katharine. 
Philips, as a traitor both against God and the king, was there the better 
retained, as also other traitors more besides him ; and after he had 
betrayed Mr. Tindall into their hands, shewed himself likewise against 
the king's own person. To make short, the said Philips did so much 
there, that he procured to bring from thence with him to Antwerp, that 
procurator-general, who is the emperor's attorney, with certain other 
officers ; which was not done with small charges and expenses, from whom- 
soever it came. 

Sometime after, Pointz sitting at his door, Philips* servant came unto 
him, and asked whether Mr. Tindall were there, and said, his master 
would come to him, and so departed. Whether his master Philips were 
in the town or not, it was not known ; but at that time Pointz heard no 
more, neither of the master nor of the man. Within three or four days 
after, Pointz went on business to the town of Barrow, eighteen English 
miles from Antwerp, and in his absence Philips came again to Antwerp 
to the house of Pointz, and coming in, spake with his wife, asking her 
for Mr. Tindall, and whether he would dine there with him, saying, 
" What good meat shall we have?" She answered," Such as the market 
will give.'' Then went he forth as though he would purchase food, and 
set the officers which he brought with him from Brussels in the street 
and about the door. About noon he returned, went to Mr. Tindall, and 
desired him to lend him forty shillings ; for, said he, I lost my purse 
this morning, coming over at the passage between this and Mechlin. 
Tindall took him forty shillings, the which was easy to be had of him, if 



486 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

he had it, for in the wily subtilties of this world he was simple and 
unexpert. 

Then said Philips, " Mr. Tindall, you shall be my guest hereto-day." 
" No," said Tindall, " I am engaged this day to dinner, and you shall 
go with me, and be my guest, where you shall be welcome." So when 
it was dinner time they went. At the going out of Pointz' house, was 
a long narrow entry, so that two could not go in front. Tindall would 
have put Philips before him, but Philips would in no wise, but insisted 
on Tindall's going before. So Tindall, being a man of no great stature, 
went before, and Philips a tall and comely person, followed behind him. 
He had set officers on either side of the door upon two seats, who might 
see who came in the entry ; and on coming through, Philips pointed 
with his finger over Tindall's head down to him, that the officers which 
sate at the door might see that it was he whom they should take, as the 
officers themselves afterwards told Pointz, and said, that when they had 
laid him in prison, they pitied his simplicity when they took him. Then 
they seized him and brought him to the emperor's procurator-general, 
where he dined. Then came the procurator-general to the house of Pointz 
and sent away all that was there of Mr. Tindall's, as well his books as 
other things, and from thence Tindall was had to the castle of Filford, 
eighteen miles from Antwerp, where he remained until he was put to 
death. 

By the help of English merchants, letters were sent in favour of Tin- 
dall to the court of Brussels. Also, not long after, letters were directed 
from England to the council at Brussels, and sent to the merchant 
adventurers to Antwerp, commanding them to see that with speed they 
should be delivered. Then such of the chief of the merchants as were 
there at that time, being called together, required Pointz to take in hand 
the delivery of those letters, with letters also from them in favour of 
Tindall to the lord of Barrois and others. This lord, as it was told 
Pointz by the way, at that time had parted from Brussels, as the chief 
conductor of the eldest daughter of the king of Denmark, to be married 
to the palesgrave, whose mother was sister to the emperor, she being 
chief princess of Denmark. After he heard of his departure, he rode 
the same way, and overtook him at Achon, where he delivered to him 
his letters. When he had received and read them, he made no direct 
answer, but somewhat objecting, said — There were of their countrymen 
who had been burned in England not long before ; as indeed there were 
Anabaptists burned in Smithfield : and so Pointz said to him, " Howbeit, 
whatsoever the crime was, if his lordship or any other nobleman had written, 
requiring to have had them, he thought they should not have been denied." 
" Well," said he, " I have no leisure to write, for the princess is ready to 
ride." Then said Pointz, "If it please your lordship, I will attend upon 
you unto the next baiting place," which was at Maestricht. " If you 
will," said the lord, " I will advise myself by the way what to write." 
Upon this, Pointz followed him from Achon to Maestricht, which are 
fifteen English miles asunder; and there he received letters of him, one to 
the council there, another to the company of the merchant adventurers, 
and another also to the lord Cromwell in England. 

So Pointz rode from thence to Brussels, and then and there delivered 



ACCUSATIONS AGAINST POINTZ. 487 

to the council the letters from England, with the lord of Barrow's letters 
also, and received answers from England of the same by letters, which 
he brought to Antwerp to the English merchants, who required him to 
go with them into England. He very desirous to have Mr. Tindall out 
of prison, forbore no pains, nor regarded the loss of time in his own 
business, but diligently followed with the said letters, which he there 
delivered to the council, and was commanded to wait until he had others, 
of which he was not dispatched thence till a month after. At length 
the letters being delivered him, he returned again, and delivered them 
to the emperor's council at Brussels, and there tarried for answer of the 
same. After he had impatiently and fearfully remained three or four 
days, he was told by one that belonged to the chancery, that Tindall 
should have been delivered to him according to the tenor of the letters; 
but Philips being there, followed the suit against Tindall, and hearing 
that he should be delivered to Pointz, and doubting lest he should be 
put from his purpose, he knew no other remedy but to accuse Pointz, 
saying, that he was a dweller in the town of Antwerp, and had been 
a succourer of Tindall, and was one of the same opinion ; and that all this 
was only his own labour and suit, to have Master Tindall at liberty, and 
no man's else. 

Thus upon his information and accusation, Pointz was attached by 
the procurator-general, the emperor's attorney, delivered to the keeping 
of two sergeants at arms; and the same evening was sent to him one 
of the chancery, with the procurator-general, who ministered an oath, 
that he should truly make answer to all such things as should be in- 
quired of him, thinking they would have no other examinations of him 
but of his own message. The next day they came again, and had him 
in examination, and so five or six days successively, upon more than an 
hundred articles, as well of the king's affairs as of the messages con- 
cerning Tindall, of his aiders and his religion. Out of these examina- 
tions, the procurator-general drew twenty-three or four articles, and de- 
clared the same against Pointz, the copy whereof he delivered to him to 
make answer thereunto, and permitted him to have an advocate and 
proctor in the law for his defence ; and order was taken, that eight days 
after he should deliver unto them his answer, and from eight days to 
eight days to proceed till the process was ended. Also that he should 
send no messenger to Antwerp, where his house was, although only 
twenty-four English miles from Brussels, where he was now a prisoner; 
nor to any other place but by the post of Brussels ; nor to send any letters, 
nor any to be delivered to him, but such as were written in Dutch ; and the 
procurator-general, who was party against him, was to read them and ex- 
amine them thoroughly, contrary to all right and equity, before they were 
sent or delivered. Neither might any be suffered to speak or talk with 
him in any other tongue or language, except only in the Dutch tongue 
so that his keepers who were Dutchmen, might understand what the 
contents of letters or talk should be. Saving that at one certain time 
the provincial of the white friars came to dinner where Pointz was pri- 
soner, and brought with him a young novice, being an Englishman, 
whom the provincial after dinner, of his own accord bid to talk with 
Pointz, and so with him he was licensed to converse. The purpose 



is 



488 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and great policy of this was easy to be perceived. Between Pointz and 
the novice was much talk, as of Sir Thomas More, and of the bishop of 
Rochester. After this Pointz delivered up his answer to the procurator- 
general, and then at the days appointed he went forth with whatever he 
could gather as evidence against him. 

When the commissioners came to Pointz, Philips the traitor accom- 
panied them to the door in following the process against him, as he had 
also done against Tindall, for so they that had Pointz in keeping shewed 
him. Thus Pointz was greatly troubled for his friend, and long kept in 
prison ; but at length, when he saw no other remedy, by night he made 
his escape, and avoided their hands. Tindall however could not so 
escape, but remained in prison, and being brought unto his answer, was 
offered to have an advocate and a proctor ; for in any criminal cause 
there, it is permitted to have council, to make answer in the law. Ye 
he refused to have any such, saying, — that he would answer for himself; 
and so he did. Still nothing that he could say served him; and at 
last, after much reasoning, when no reason would avail, although he 
deserved no death, he was condemned by virtue of the emperor's decree, 
made in the assembly at Augsburgh, and upon that vile statute brought 
forth to the place of execution, where he was tied to the stake, and 
strangled first by the hangman, and afterwards burnt. His martyrdom 
was at the town of Filford, anno 1536. As he stood firmly amidst 
the wood, with the executioner at his side ready to strangle him, he 
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said in a loud and fervent manner — 
" Lord, open the eyes of the king of England!" 

Such was the power of his doctrine, and sincerity of the life of this 
most amiable man and glorious martyr, that during his imprisonment, 
which was a year and a half, it is said he converted the keeper, his 
daughter, and other of his household. Also the prisoners that were with 
him conversant in the castle reported of him, that if he were not a good 
Christian, they could not tell whom to trust. Even the procurator- 
general being there, left his testimony of him, that he was a most learned, 
good, and godly man. An instance this remarkably resembling that 
of the Centurion who said of Christ, watching his crucifixion — " Cer- 
tainly this was a righteous man." It was reported of Philips who be- 
trayed him, that he fell a victim to a loathsome disease, being consumed 
by vermin that preyed upon his body. 

To enumerate the virtues and actions of this blessed martyr would re- 
quire much time and many pages. Suffice it to say, that he was one of 
those who, by his works, shone as a light amidst a dark world, and gave 
evidence that he had been called and commissioned to bring others to 
glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life. 



489 



BOOK X. 

CONTAINING THE ACTS AND THINGS DONE IN THE REIGN OF 
KING EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Edward was the only son of Henry the Eighth, by his wife Jane Sey- 
mour, who died the second day after his birth. He was born on the twelfth 
of October 1537, and came to the throne in 1547, being but ten years old. 
At six years of age, he was placed under Dr. Coxe and Mr. Cheek : 
the one was to form his mind, and teach him philosophy and divinity ; 
the other to teach him languages and mathematics. Masters were also 
appointed for the other parts of his education. He discovered very 
early a good disposition to religion and virtue, and a particular rever- 
ence for the scriptures. As a striking proof of the latter, he was once 
greatly offended with a person, who in order to reach something hastily, 
laid a Bible on the floor to stand upon. He made great progress in 
learning, and at the age of eight years wrote Latin letters frequently to 
the king, to queen Katherine Parr, to the archbishop of Canterbury, 
and his uncle the earl of Hertford. On his father's decease, the latter 
nobleman and Sir Anthony Brown were sent to bring him to the Tower 
of London: and when Henry's death was published, Edward was pro- 
claimed king. 

On his coming to the Tower, his father's will was opened, by which 
it was found that he had named sixteen to be the governors of the king- 
dom, and of his son's person till he should be eighteen years of age. 
These were the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord Wriothesly, lord 
chancellor, the lord St. John, great master, the lord Russel, lord privy 
seal, the earl of Hertford, lord great chamberlain, viscount Lisle, lord 
admiral, Tonstal bishop of Durham, Sir Anthony Brown, master of the 
horse, Sir Willi'am Paget, secretary of state, Sir Edward North, chan- 
cellor of the augmentations, Sir Edward Montague, lord chief justice of 
the common pleas, judge Bromley, Sir Anthony Denny, and Sir William 
Herbert, chief gentlemen of the privy chamber, Sir Edward Wotton, 
treasurer of Calais, and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury and York. 
They were also to give the king's sisters in marriage; who, if they mar- 
ried without their consent, were to forfeit their right of succession : for 
the king was empowered by act of parliament to leave the crown to 
them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint. There was 
also a privy council named to be their assistants in the government; if 
any of the sixteen died, the survivors were to continue in the adminis- 
tration, without a power to substitute others in their room. 

It was also proposed that one should be chosen out of the sixteen to 
whom ambassadors should address themselves, and who should have the 
chief direction of affairs; but should be restrained to do every thing by 
consent of the greater part of the other co-executors. The chancellor, 
who thought the precedence fell to him by his office, since the arch- 
bishop did not meddle much in secular affairs, opposed this, and said, 
" It is a change of the king's will; who has made us all equal in power 



490 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and dignity; and if any are raised above the rest in title, it will not be 
possible to keep him within due bounds, since great titles make way 
for high power." Notwithstanding this, the earl of Hertford was de- 
clared governor of the king's person, and protector of the kingdom; 
with this restriction, that he should do nothing but by advice and con- 
sent of the rest. Upon this advancement and the opposition made to 
it, two parties were formed, the one headed by the protector, and the 
other by the chancellor : the favourers of the reformation were of the 
former, and those that opposed it of the latter. The chancellor was 
ordered to renew the commissions of the judges and justices of peace, 
and king Henry's great seal was to be made use of till a new one should 
be made. The day after this, all the executors took oaths to execute 
their trust faithfully ; the privy counsellors were also brought into the 
king's presence, who all expressed their satisfaction in the choice of the 
protector: and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign princes 
should be signed only by him. All that held offices were required to come 
and renew their commissions, and to swear allegiance to the king. 

Among the rest came the bishops, and took out such commissions as 
were granted in the former reign, by which they became subaltern to 
the king's vicegerent : but there being no one now in that office, they 
were immediately subaltern to the king. By these commissions they 
were to hold their bishoprics only during the king's pleasure, and were 
empowered in the king's name, as his delegates, to perform all parts of 
the episcopal function. Cranmer set an example to the rest in taking 
out such a commission. This check upon the bishops was judged ex- 
pedient in case they should become refractory in point of religion; but 
the ill-consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen, 
the bishops, who were afterwards promoted, were not so fettered, but 
were permitted to hold their bishoprics during life. The grant of so 
many ecclesiastical dignities to the earl of Hertford, was no extraordinary 
thing at that time, for as Cromwell had been dean of Wells, so divers 
other laymen were promoted to them; which was thus excused, because 
there was no cure of souls belonging to them; and during vacancies, 
even in times of popery, the king had by his own authority, by the right 
of the Regale, given institution to them, so that they seemed to be no 
spiritual employments, and the ecclesiastics that enjoyed them, were 
generally a lazy and sensual sort of men, 

An accident soon fell out, that made way for great changes in the 
church. The curate and churchwardens of St. Martin's in London were 
brought before the council for removing the crucifix and other images, 
and putting some texts of Scripture on the walls of their church. They 
answered, that they going to repair their church, had removed the 
images, which being rotten, they did not renew, but put words of Scrip- 
ture in their room: they had also removed others, which they found had 
been abused to idolatry. Great pains was taken by the popish party 
to punish them severely, in order to strike a terror into others; but 
Cranmer was for removing all images set up in churches, as expressly 
contrary both to the second commandment, and the practice of Chris- 
tians in the earliest and purest ages: and though in compliance with 
the gross abuses of paganism, there was very early much of the pomp 



GARDINER'S SUPERSTITIOUS ARGUMENTS. 491 

of their worship brought into the Christian church, yet it was long 
before any images were introduced. At first all were condemned by the 
fathers: then they allowed the use, but condemned the worship of them; 
and afterwards in the eighth and ninth centuries, the worship of them 
was, after a long contest both in the East and West, both approved and 
condemned. Finally they were however approved, and generally 
adopted. Some, in particular, were believed to be most wonderfully 
enchanted, and this was much improved by the cheats of the monks, 
who enriched themselves by such means. It was grown to such a 
height, that heathenism itself had not been guilty of greater absurdities 
towards its idols; and the singular virtues in some images shewed they 
were not worshipped only as representations, for then all should have 
equal degrees of veneration paid to them. Since these abuses had risen 
merely out of the use of them, and setting them up being contrary to 
the command of God, and the nature of the Christian religion, which 
is simple and spiritual, it seemed most reasonable to cure the disease in 
its root, and to clear the churches of them all, that the people might be 
preserved from idolatry. 

These reasons prevailed so far, that the curate and wardens were dis- 
missed with a reprimand ; they were required to beware of such rashness 
for the future, and to provide a crucifix, and till that could be had, were 
ordered to cause one to be painted on the wall. Upon this, Dr. Ridley, 
in a sermon preached before the king, inveighed against the superstition 
towards images and holy water, and spread over the whole nation a 
general disposition to pull them down; which soon after commenced in 
Portsmouth. Upon this, Gardiner made great complaints, and said the 
Lutherans themselves went not so far, for he had seen images in their 
churches. He distinguished between image and idol, as if the one, 
which he said was only condemned, was the representation of a false 
God, and the other of the true ; and he thought, that as words con- 
veyed through the ear begat devotion, so images, by conveyance through 
the eye, might have the same effect on the mind. He also thought a 
virtue might be both in them and in holy water, as well as there was in 
Christ's garments, Peter's shadow, or Elijah's staff: and there might be 
a virtue in holy water as in the water of baptism. But to these argu-; 
ments which Gardiner wrote in several letters, the protector answered, 
that the bishops had formerly argued in another strain, namely, that 
because the scriptures were abused by the vulgar readers, therefore they 
were not to be trusted to them ; and so made a pretended abuse the 
ground of taking away, that which by God's special appointment, was 
to be delivered to all Christians. This held much stronger against 
images forbidden by God. The brazen serpent set up by Moses, by 
God's own directions was broken when abused to idolatry ; for that was 
the greatest corruption of religion possible. Yet the protector acknow- 
ledged he had reason to complain of the forwardness of the people, 
who broke down images without authority: to prevent which, in future, 
orders were sent to the justices to look well to the peace and govern- 
ment of the nation, to meet often, and every six weeks to advertise the 
protector of the state of the country to which they belonged. 

The funeral of the deceased king was performed with the ordinary 



492 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ceremonies at Windsor. He had left six hundred pounds a year to the 
church of Windsor, for priests to say mass for his soul every day, and 
for four obiits a year, and sermons, and the distributions of alms at 
every one of them, and for a sermon every Sunday, and a maintenance 
for thirteen poor knights, which was settled upon that church by his 
executors in due form of law. Obiit was the anniversary of a person's 
death, and to observe such a day with prayers, alms, or other comme- 
moration, was termed keeping of the obiit. The chantries mentioned 
in this work were little churches, chapels, or particular altars, endowed 
with lands, or other revenues for the maintenance of one or more 
priests, to sing mass daily, and to perform divine service for the souls of 
the founders and such others as they appointed. 

The pomps of these endowments in a more inquisitive age, led people 
to examine the usefulness of soul-masses and obiits. Christ appointed 
the sacrament for a commemoration of his death among the living, but 
it was not easy to conceive how that was to be applied to departed souls. 
For all the good that they could receive, seemed only applicable to the 
prayers for them ; but bare prayers would not have wrought so much 
on the people, nor would they have paid so dear for them. It was a 
clear project for drawing the wealth of the world into the hands of the 
priests. In the primitive church there was a commemoration of the 
death, or an honourable remembrance, made in the daily offices; and 
for some very small faults names were not mentioned, which would 
not have been done if they had looked upon that as a thing that was 
really a relief to them in another state. But even this custom grew 
into abuse, and some inferred from it, that departed souls, unless they 
were signally pure, passed through a purgation in the next life, before 
they were admitted to Heaven; of which St. Austin, in whose time the 
opinion began to be received, says, that it was taken up without any 
sure ground in scripture. But what was wanting in scripture-proof 
was supplied by visions, dreams, and fables, till it was generally re- 
ceived. King Henry had acted like one who did not believe it, for he 
could expect no good usage in purgatory from those innumerable souls 
whom he had deprived of the masses that were to be said for them in 
monasteries, by destroying those foundations. 

Yet it seems even he intended to make sure work for himself, so that 
if masses could avail departed souls, he resolved to be secure ; and as 
he gratified the priests by this part of his endowment, so he pleased the 
people by appointing sermons and alms to be given on such days. 
Thus he died as he had lived, wavering between the two persuasions: 
and it occasioned no small debate, when men sought to find out what 
his opinions were in the controverted points of religion. But now the 
diversions of the coronation took them off from more serious thoughts. 
The protector was made duke of Somerset, the earl of Essex marquis 
of Northampton, the lords Lisle and Wriothesley earls of Warwick and 
Southampton; while Seymour, Rich, Willoughby, and Sheffield, were 
made barons. In order to the king's coronation, the office for that 
ceremony was reviewed, and much shortened : one remarkable alteration 
was, that whereas formerly the king used to be presented to. the people 
at the corners of the scaffold, and they were asked if they would have 



DIVISIONS IN ENGLAND. 493 

him to be their king, now their assent and good will were taken for 
granted. The former looked like a rite of an election, rather than a 
ceremony of investing one that was already king. This was therefore 
changed, and the people were desired only to give the duty of allegiance 
they were bound to do. On the twentieth of February, Edward was 
crowned, and a general pardon was proclaimed, out of which the duke 
of Norfolk, cardinal Pole, and some others were shamefully excepted. 
The lord chancellor, who was looked on as the head of the popish party, 
now lost his place by granting a commission to the master of the rolls 
and three masters of chancery, of these two were civilians, to execute 
his office in the court of chancery as if he were present, only their 
decrees were to be brought to him to be signed before they could be 
enrolled. 

The first business of consequence that required great consideration, 
was the Smalcaldic war, then begun between the emperor and the 
princes of that league; the effects of which, if the emperor prevailed, 
were likely to be, not only the abolition of Lutheranism, but his being 
the absolute master of Germany; which the emperor ambitiously sought 
after, in order to a universal monarchy, but disguised it to other princes. 
To the pope he pretended that his design was only to extirpate heresy ; 
to other princes he pretended it was only to repress some rebels, while 
he denied all design of suppressing their new doctrines ; which he 
managed so artfully, that he even divided Germany itself, and got some 
Lutheran princes to declare for him, and others to be neutrals. Having 
obtained a liberal supply for his wars with France and the Turks, for 
which he granted an edict for liberty of religion, he made peace with 
both these powers, and resolved to employ that treasure which the Ger- 
mans had given him against themselves. That he might deprive them of 
their chief allies, he had used means to engage king Henry and Francis 
the First in a war ; but that was now in a measure composed ; for as Henry 
died in January, so Francis followed him into another world in March 
following. Many of their confederates began to capitulate ; and the 
divided command of the duke of Saxe, and the landgrave of Hesse, 
lost them great advantages the former year ; in which it had been easy 
to have driven the emperor out of Germany ; but often it happened that 
when the one was for engaging, the other was against it ; which made 
many very doubtful of their. success. 

The pope had a mind to engage the emperor in a war in Germany, 
that so Italy might be at quiet : and in order to that, and to embroil 
him with all the Lutherans, he published his treaty so that it might appear 
that the design of the war was to extirpate heresy ; though the emperor 
was making great protestations to the contrary at home. He also opened 
the council at Trent, which the emperor had long desired in vain ; but 
it was now brought upon him when he least wished for it ; for the pro- 
testants all declared, that they could not look upon it as a free general 
council, since it was so entirely at the pope's command that not so 
much as a reformation of some of the grossest abuses that could not be 
justified, was like to be obtained, unless clogged with such clauses as 
made it ineffectual. Nor could the emperor prevail with the council 
not to proceed to condemn heresy : but the more he obstructed that by 



494 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

delays, the more did the pope drive it on to open the eyes of the 
Germans, and engage them vigorously against the emperor : yet he 
gave them such secret assurances of tolerating the Augsburgh confes- 
sion, that the marquis of Brandenburgh declared for him. This event, 
joined with the hopes of the electorate, drew in Maurice of Saxe. The 
count Palatine was old and feeble ; the archbishop of Cologne would 
not make resistance, but retired, being condemned both by pope and 
emperor; while many of the cities submitted. And Maurice, by falling 
into Saxe, forced the elector to separate from the landgrave, and return 
to the defence of his own dominions. This was the state of the affairs 
in Germany : so that it was a hard point to resolve on what answer the 
protector should give the duke of Saxe's chancellor, whom he sent over 
to obtain an aid in money for carrying on the war. It was, on the one 
hand, of great importance to the safety of England to preserve the 
German princes, and yet it was very dangerous to begin a war of such 
consequence, under an infant king. At present they promised, within 
three months, to send by the merchants 50,000 crowns to Hamburgh, 
and resolved to do no more till new emergencies should lead them to 
new councils. 

The nation was in an ill condition for a war with such a mighty 
prince, labouring under great distractions at home: moreover the 
people generally cried out for a reformation, despised the clergy, and 
loved the new preachers. The priests were, for the most part, both very 
ignorant and immoral : many of them had been monks, and those who 
had to pay them the pensions which were reserved to them at the 
destruction of the monasteries, till they should be provided, took care 
to get them into some small benefice. The greatest part of the par- 
sonages were impropriated, for they belonged to the monasteries, and 
the abbots had only granted the incumbents either the vicarage, or some 
small donative, and left them the perquisites raised by masses and other 
offices. At the suppression of those nouses there was no care taken to 
provide the incumbents better ; so that they chiefly subsisted by trentals 
and other devices, which brought them in some small relief, though the 
price of them was very low, for masses went often at half a groat, and 
a groat was a great bounty. 

Now these persons saw that a reformation of abuses took the bread 
out of their mouths ; therefore their interests prevailing more than any 
thing else, they were zealous against all changes : yet that same prin- 
ciple made them comply with every change which was made, rather than 
lose their benefices. Their poverty made them run into another abuse, 
that of holding more benefices than one at a time, a corruption of so 
crying and scandalous a nature, that wherever it is practised it is suffi- 
cient to possess the people with great prejudices against the church 
which is guilty of it : there being nothing more contrary to the plainest 
impressions of reason than that every man who undertakes a cure of 
souls, whom at his ordination he has vowed to instruct, feed, and govern, 
ought to discharge that trust himself as the greatest and most important 
of all others. The clergy were encouraged in their opposition to all 
changes, by the protection they expected from Gardiner, Bonner, and 
Tonstal, men of great reputation and in power: above all, the lady 



VISITATION OF THE CHURCHES. 495 

Mary openly declared against all changes till the king should be of age. 
On the other hand, Cranmer resolved to proceed more vigorously : the 
protector was firmly united to him, as were the young king's tutors. 
Edward himself was as much engaged as could be expected from so 
young a person ; for both his knowledge and zeal for true religion were 
above his age. Several of the bishops also declared for a reformation; 
but Dr. Ridley, now bishop of Rochester, was the person on whom he 
most depended. Latimer remained with him at Lambeth, and did great 
service by his sermons, which were very popular ; but he would not 
return to his bishopric, choosing rather to serve the church in a more 
disengaged manner. Many of the bishops were very ignorant and poor 
spirited men, raised merely by court favour, and little concerned for 
any thing but their revenues. Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees, 
and to state the reasons of every advance so fully, that he hoped, by 
the blessing of God, to possess the nation of the fitness of what they 
should do, and thereby prevent any dangerous opposition that might 
otherwise be apprehended. 

The power of the privy council had been much exalted in Henry's 
time, by act of parliament ; and one proviso in it was, that the king's 
council should have the same authority when he was under age that he 
himself had at full age : it was, therefore, resolved to begin with a gene- 
ral visitation of all England, which was divided into six precincts : and 
two gentlemen, a civilian, a divine, and a register, were appointed for 
each visit. But before they were sent out, a letter was written to all 
the bishops, giving them notice of it, suspending their jurisdiction while 
it lasted, and requiring them to preach nowhere but in their cathedrals; 
and the other clergy should not preach but in their own churches, with- 
out licence : by this it was intended to restrain such as were not accept- 
able to their own parishes, and to grant others the licences to preach in 
any church of England. The greatest difficulty the reformers found, was 
in the want of able and prudent men, most of whom were too hot and 
indiscreet ; while the few who were eminent, were required in London 
and the universities. These they intended to make as useful as possible, 
and appointed them to preach as itinerants and visitors. The only thing 
by which the people could be universally instructed, was a book of 
homilies: therefore, the twelve first homilies in the book, still known by 
that name, were compiled, in framing which the chief design was to 
acquaint the people aright with the nature of the gospel-covenant. The 
people were taught to depend on the sufferings of Christ, and to lead 
their lives according to the rules of the gospel. 

Orders were also given, that a Bible should be in every church, which 
though it had been commanded by Henry, yet had not been generally 
obeyed ; and for understanding the New Testament, Erasmus's paraphrase 
was translated into English, and appointed to be set up in every church. 
His great reputation and learning, and his dying in the communion of 
the Roman church, made this book to be preferable to any other, since 
there lay no prejudice to Erasmus, which would have been objected to 
in any other author. They renewed also all the injunctions made by 
Cromwell in the former reign, which, after his fall, were but little looked 
after, as those for instructing the people, for removing images, and 



496 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

putting down all other customs abused to superstition ; for reading the 
scriptures, saying the litany in English, frequent sermons and catechising, 
the exemplary lives of the clergy, their labours in visiting the sick, and 
other parts of their function, such as reconciling differences, and exhort- 
ing the people to charity. All who gave livings by simoniacal bargains, 
were declared to have forfeited their right of patronage to the king. 
A great charge was also given for the strict observation of the Lord's 
day, which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of God, it 
not being enough to hear mass in the morning, and spend the rest of 
the day in drunkenness and revelling, as was commonly practised ; 
but it ought to be all employed, either in the duties of religion, or in 
acts of charity. Direction was also given for the bidding of prayers, 
in which the king as supreme head, the queen and the king's sisters, the 
protector and council, and all orders of the kingdom were to be men- 
tioned. There were also injunctions given for the bishops to preach 
four times a year in all their dioceses, once in their cathedral, and thrice 
in any other church, unless they had a good excuse to the contrary : 
that their chaplains should preach often : and that they should ordain 
none but such as were duly qualified. 

These excellent rules were variously censured. The clergy were only 
empowered to remove the abused images, and the people were restrained 
from doing it; but this authority being put in their hands, it was thought 
they would be slow and backward in it. The corruptions of lay-patrons 
and simoniacal priests had been often complained of, but no laws nor 
provisions were ever able to preserve the church from this great mischief: 
which can never be removed till patrons look on their right to nominate 
a man to the charge of souls, as a trust for which they are to render a 
severe account to God ; and till priests are cured of aspiring to that 
charge, and look on it with dread and great caution. The prayer for 
departed souls was now moderated, to be a prayer only for the consum- 
mation of their happiness at the last day ; whereas in king Henry's time 
they prayed that God would grant them release from all sin, which 
implied a purgatory. 

The visitors at length ended the visitation, and had been every where 
submitted to. In London, and every part of England, the images, for 
refusing to bow down to which many a saint had been burnt, were now 
committed to the flames. Bonner at first protested that he would obey 
the injunctions, if they were not contrary to the laws of God and the 
ordinances of the church : but being called before the council, he 
retracted that, and asked pardon ; yet, for giving terror to others, he 
was for some time put in prison. Gardiner wrote to one of the visitors, 
before they came to Winchester, that he could not receive the homilies; 
and if he must either quit his bishopric, or sin against his conscience, 
he resolved to chose the former. Upon this he was called before the 
council, and required to receive the book of homilies : but he objected 
to one of them, which taught that charity did not justify, contrary to 
the book set out by the late king and confirmed in parliament. He also 
complained of many things in Erasmus's paraphrase ; and being pressed 
to declare whether he would obey the injunctions or not, he refused to 
promise it, and was in consequence sent to the Fleet. Cranmer treated 



ACT CONCERNING THE SACRAMENT. 497 

in private with him, and they argued much about justification. Gar- 
diner thought the sacraments justified, and that charity justified as well 
as faith. Cranmer urged, that nothing but the merits of Christ justified, 
as they were applied by faith, which could not exist without charity. 
Nothing could be more correct than this : for what is faith but the love 
of God shed abroad in the heart — -filling the believer with benevolence, 
and the desire of imparting the happiness he feels to all around him? 

Gardiner lay in prison till the act of general pardon, passed in par- 
liament, set him at liberty. Many blamed the severity of these pro 
ceedings, as contrary both to law and equity, and said, that all people, 
even those who complained most of arbitrary power, were apt to usurp 
it when in authority. Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings, 
that she wrote to the protector, that such changes were contrary to the 
honour due to her father's memory, and it was against their duty to the 
king to enter upon such points, and endanger the public peace before 
he was of age. To which he answered, that her father had died before 
he could finish the good things he had intended concerning religion; 
and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others, that 
he left things in so unsettled a state : moreover he assured her, that 
nothing should be done but what would turn to the glory of God, and 
the king's honour and happiness. 

Parliament was opened the 4th of November, and the protector was 
by patent authorized to sit under the cloth of state, on the right hand 
of the throne; and to have all the honours and privileges that any uncle 
of the crown ever had. Rich was made lord chancellor. The first act 
that passed, five bishops only dissenting, was, "A repeal of all statutes 
that had made any thing treason or felony in the late reign, which was 
not so before, and of the six articles, and the authority given to the 
king's proclamations, as also of the acts against Lollards. All who 
denied the king's supremacy, or asserted the pope's, for the first offence 
are to forfeit their goods, for the second are to be in a premunire, and 
to be attainted of treason for the third. But if any intend to deprive 
the king of his estate or title, that is made treason : none are to be 
accused of words but within a month after they were spoken." Par- 
liament also repealed the power that the king had of annulling all laws 
made, till he was twenty-four years of age, and restrained it only to 
annulling them for the time to come, but that it should not be of force 
for the declaring them null from the beginning. 

Another act passed, with the same dissent, for the laity receiving the 
sacrament in both kinds and that the people should always communi- 
cate with the priest; and by it irreverence to the sacrament was con- 
demned under severe penalties. Christ had clearly instituted the 
sacrament in both kinds, and St. Paul mentions both. In the primitive 
church that custom was universally observed, but upon the belief of 
transubstantiation, the reserving and carrying about the sacrament were 
brought in: this made them first endeavour to persuade the world, that 
the cup was not necessary, for wine could neither keep, nor be carried 
about conveniently. It was done away by degrees, the bread was for 
some time given dipped in the wine, as it is yet in the Greek church : 
but it being believed that Christ was entire under either kind, the 

? k 



498 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

council of Constance entirely took the cup from the laity ; while the 
Bohemians could not be brought to submit to the loss. The abuse 
being now clearly seen, the use of the cup was, in every part, one of 
the first things insisted on by those who demanded a reformation. At 
first all who were present communicated, and censures were passed on 
such as did it not : none were denied the sacrament "but penitents, 3 
who were made to withdraw during the action. But as the devotion of 
the world slackened, the people were still exhorted to continue their 
oblations, and come to the sacrament, though they did not receive it; 
and were made to believe, that the priests received it in their stead. 
The name sacrifice given to it, as being a holy oblation, was so far 
improved, that the world came to look on the priests officiating, as a 
sacrifice for the dead and living: hence followed an infinite variety 
of masses for all the accidents of human life ; and that was the chief 
part of the priests' trade, and occasioned many unseemly jests con- 
cerning it, which were now restrained by the act that stopped the cause. 

Another act passed without any dissent, that the conge d'elire, and 
the election pursuant to it, being but a shadow, since the person was 
named by the king, should cease for the future, and that bishops should 
be named by the king's letters patent, and thereupon be consecrated; 
and should hold their courts in the king's name, and not in their own, 
excepting only the archbishop of Canterbury's court : and they were to 
use the king's seal in all their writings, except in presentations, colla- 
tions, and letters of orders, in which they might use their own seals. 
The apostles chose bishops and pastors, by an extraordinary gift of 
discerning spirits, and proposed them to the approbation of the people; 
yet they left no rules to make that necessary in future. In times of 
persecution, the clergy being maintained by the oblations of the people, 
they were chosen by them. But when the emperors became Christian, 
the town-councils and eminent men took the elections out of the hands 
of the rabble: and the tumults in popular elections were such, that it 
was necessary to regulate them. In some places the clergy, and in 
others the bishops of the province made the choice. The emperors 
reserved the confirmation of the elections in the great sees to themselves. 
But when Charles the Great annexed vast territories and regalities to 
bishoprics, a change followed. Churchmen were soon corrupted by 
this undue greatness, and came to depend on the humours of those 
princes to whom they owed their increase of wealth. Princes named 
them, and invested them in their sees: but the popes intended to sepa- 
rate the ecclesiastical state from all subjection to secular princes, and 
to make themselves the heads of that state. At first they pretended to 
restore the freedom of elections, but these were now engrossed in a few 
hands, for only the chapters chose. 

Another act was made against idle vagabonds, that they should be 
made slaves for two years, by any who should seize on them ; this was 
chiefly designed against some vagrant monks, as appears by the provi- 

a This sounds strange to modern Christian ears: but by penitents are here evidently 
meant persons suspended for a time for certain offences from the communion of the 
church, and are supposed to bewail what they have done. 



REFORM IN POPISH CEREMONIES. 499 

sions of the act. These men went about the country infusing into the 
people a dislike of the government. The severity of this act excited 
in the nation, ever averse to slavery, a dislike so that it was but little 
attended to; and this was the reason that the other provisions for 
supplying those who were truly indigent, and willing to be employed, 
had no effect. After this followed the act for giving the king all those 
chantries which his father had not seized on by virtue of the grant made 
to him of them. Cranmer much opposed this; for the poverty of the 
clergy was such that the state of learning and religion was like to sutler 
greatly if it should not be relieved ; and yet he saw no probable fund 
for that, but the preserving these till the king should come to age, and 
allow the selling them, for buying in of at least such a share of the 
impropriations as might afford them some more comfortable subsistence : 
yet notwithstanding he and seven other bishops dissented, it was passed. 
Last of all a general pardon, but clogged with some exceptions, was 



The convocation sat at the same time; and moved, that a commission 
begun in the late reign of thirty-two persons for reforming the eccle- 
siastical laws might be revived, and that the inferior clergy might be 
admitted to sit in the house of commons, for which they alleged a clause 
in the bishop's writ and ancient custom. Since some prelates had, 
under the former reign, begun to alter the form of the service of the 
church, they desired this might be brought to perfection; and that some 
care might be had of supplying the poor clergy, and relieving them from 
the taxes that lay so heavily on them. The question of the inferior 
clergy sitting in the house of commons, was the subject of some debate, 
and was again set on foot, both under queen Elizabeth and king James, 
but to no effect. It was, however, resolved that some bishops and 
divines should be sent to Windsor, to finish some reformations in the 
public offices; for the whole lower house of convocation, without a 
contradictory vote, agreed to the bill about the sacrament, while it is 
not known what opposition it met with in the upper house. A proposi- 
tion being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the marriage of 
the clergy, thirty-five subscribed to the affirmative, and only fourteen 
dissented. Gardiner being included in the act of pardon was set at 
liberty: he promised to receive and obey the injunctions, objecting only 
to the homily of justification; yet he complied in that likewise: but it 
was visible that in his heart he abhorred all their proceedings, though 
he outwardly conformed. 

Candlemas and Lent were now approaching, and the clergy and 
people were much divided with respect to the ceremonies usual at those 
times. By some injunctions in king Henry's reign it had been declared 
that fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive law. Wakes and 
games were also suppressed, and hints were given that other customs, 
which were much abused, should be shortly done away. The gross 
rabble loved these things, as matters of diversion, and thought divine 
worship without them would be but a dull business. But others looked 
on them as relics of heathenism, and thought they did not become the 
gravity and simplicity of the Christian religion. Cranmer, upon this, 
procured an order of council against carrying candles on Candlemas- 



500 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

day, ashes on Ash-wednesday, and palms on Palm-sunday; which was 
directed to Bonner to be intimated to the bishops of the province of 
Canterbury. A proclamation followed against all who should make 
changes without authority. Creeping to the cross and taking holy bread 
and water were put down, and power was given to the archbishop of 
Canterbury to certify, in the king's name, what ceremonies should be 
afterwards laid aside; and none were to preach out of their own 
parishes without license from the king or the visitors, the archbishop, or 
the bishop of the diocese. Soon after this, when the general order 
followed for a removal of all images out of churches, there were every 
where great contests whether the images had been abused to superstition 
or not. Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common 
to them all. Those also which represented the Trinity as a man with 
three faces in one head ; or as an old man with a young man before 
him, and a dove over his head; gave so great scandal, that it was no 
wonder for the people as they grew more enlightened, not longer to 
endure them. The only occasion given to censure in this order was, 
that all shrines, and the plate belonging to them, were appointed to be 
brought into the king's use. 

Eighteen bishops, and other divines, were now employed to examine 
the offices of the church, to see which of them needed amendment. 
They began with the eucharist, and proceeded in the same manner as in 
the former reign. Every one gave his opinion in writing, in answer to 
the question put to him. It was clearly found that the plain institution 
of the sacrament was much vitiated, with a mixture of many heathenish 
rites and pomps, to raise the credit of the priests, in whose hands that 
great performance was lodged. This was at first done to draw over the 
heathens by those splendid rites to Christianity ; but superstition once 
begun had no bounds nor measures; and ignorance and barbarity 
increasing in the darker ages, there was no regard paid to any thing in 
religion, but as it was set off with pageantry; and the belief of the 
corporeal presence raised this to a still greater height. The office was 
in an unknown tongue; all the vessels and garments belonging to it 
were consecrated with much devotion ; great part of the service was 
secret, to make it look like a wonderful charm ; the consecration itself 
was to be said very softly, for words that were not to be heard agreed 
best with a change that was not to be seen : many gesticulations, and 
magnificent processions, all tended to raise this pageantry higher. 
Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of human life. 
Trentals, a custom of having thirty masses a year on the chief festivities 
for redeeming souls out of purgatory, was that which brought the priests 
most money, for these were thought God's best days, in which access 
was easier to him. On saints' days it was prayed, that by their inter- 
cession the sacrifice might become the more acceptable, and procure a 
larger indulgence ; which could not be easily explained, if the sacrifice 
was the death of Christ. 

The first step that was now made was a new office for the communion, 
that is, the distribution of the sacrament, for the office of consecration 
was not at this time touched. In the exhortation, auricular confession 
\o a priest is left free to be done or omitted, and all are required not to 



GARDINER BROUGHT BEFORE THE COUNCIL. 501 

judge one another in that matter. There was also a denunciation made, 
requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw. The bread was to be still the 
same as that formerly used. In the distribution it was said, "The body 
of our Lord preserve thy body;" and " the blood of our Lord preserve 
thy soul." This was printed with a proclamation, requiring all to 
receive it with such reverence and uniformity as might encourage the 
king to proceed further, and not to run to other things before the king 
gave direction, assuring the people of his earnest zeal to set forth godly 
orders; and therefore it was hoped they would wait for it: the books 
were sent all over England, and the clergy were appointed to give the 
communion next Easter according to them. 

Many were offended to find confession left indifferent, so thfs 
matter was examined. Christ gave his apostles a power of bindii.g 
and loosing; and St. James commanded all to confess their faults 
to one another. In the primitive church, all that denied the faith, 
or otherwise gave scandal, were separated from the communion, and 
not admitted to it till they made public confession: and according 
to the degrees of their sin, the time and degree of public penitence 
and their separation were proportioned : which was the chief subject 
of the consultations of the councils in the fourth and fifth centuries. 
Secret sins the people lay under no obligation to confess, but they 
went often to the priests for direction, even for these. Near the 
end of the fifth century they began to have secret penances and con- 
fessions, as well as public; and in the seventh century this became 
the general practice. In the eighth century the commutation of 
penance for money, or other services done the church, was brought in. 
Then the holy wars and pilgrimages came to be magnified. Crusades 
against heretics, or princes deposed by the pope, were set up instead of 
all other penances: priests managed confession and absolution, so as to 
enter into people's secrets, and to govern their consciences by them ; 
but they becoming very ignorant, and not so associated as to be governed 
by orders that might be sent them from Rome, friars were mostly em- 
ployed to hear confessions, and many reserved cases were made, in which 
the pope only gave absolution. Such cases were trusted to monks, who 
had the trade of indulgences put in their hands, which they managed 
with as much confidence as mountebanks used in selling their medicines, 
with this advantage, that the inefficiency of their devices was not so 
easily discovered, for the people believed all that was told them. In 
this they grew to such a pitch of confidence, that for saying some 
collects, indulgences for years, and for hundreds and thousands of years 
were granted ; so cheap a thing was heaven made. This trade was now 
thrown out of the church, and private confession was declared indifferent. 

Gardiner was again brought into trouble; many complaints were made 
of him, that he disparaged the preachers sent with the king's licence into 
his diocese, and that he secretly opposed all reformation. On being 
brought before the council, he denied most of the things objected to 
him, and offered to explain himself openly in a sermon before the king. 
This being granted, he justified many of the changes that had been 
made; but when he came to the sacrament, he contended so strongly 
for the corporeal presence, that a great disturbance took place in the 



502 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

church. This conduct of his being deemed seditious, he was sent to 
the Tower, where, however, he was treated with the greatest lenity, which 
he returned by sullen obstinacy and resentment. Now a more general 
reformation of the whole liturgy was under consideration, that all the 
nation might have an uniformity in the worship of God. Anciently the 
liturgies were short, and had few ceremonies in them : every bishop had 
one for his diocese ; but in the African churches they began first to put 
them into a more regular form. Gregory the great laboured much in 
this ; yet he left Austin the monk to his liberty, either to use the Roman 
or French forms in England, as he found they were like to tend most 
to edification. Great additions were made in every age ; for the pri- 
vate devotions of some who were reputed saints, were added to the pub- 
lic offices ; and mysterious significations were invented for every new 
rite, which was the chief study of some ages : this swelled them up to a 
vast bulk. It was not then thought of, that praying consisted in the 
inventing new words, and uttering them with warmth ; and it seemed 
too great a subjection of the people to their priests, that they should be 
compelled to join with them in all their hearts in prayer. It was then 
resolved to make a liturgy, and to bring the worship to a fit medium 
between the pomp of superstition and naked simplicity. It was resolved 
to change nothing merely in opposition to received practices, but rather 
in imitation of what Christ did in the institution of the two sacraments 
of the gospel, which consisted of rites used among the Jews, but blessed 
by him to higher purposes; to comply with what had been formerly in 
use as much as was possible, and thereby to gain the people. The con- 
secrations of water, salt, and other things, in the church of Rome, 
looked like the remainder of heathenism, and were laid aside : these 
had been like spirits, which being abjured, and a divine virtue supposed 
to be in them, the people came to think that by such observances they 
might be sure of Heaven. The absolutions by which, on account of 
the merits of the blessed virgin and the saints, the sprinklings of water, 
fastings, and pilgrimages, with many other observances, sins were par- 
doned, as well as on the account of the passion of Christ ; these and the 
absolution given to dead bodies looked like gross impostures, tending 
to make the world think, that besides the painful way to Heaven in a 
course of true holiness, the priests had secrets in their hands of carry- 
ing people thither by another method, and on easier terms. This drew 
them to purchase their favour, especially when they were dying : so that, 
as their fears were then heightened, there was no other way left them, in 
the conclusion of an ill life, to die with any good hopes, but as they 
bargained with their priests : therefore all this was now rejected. 

It was resolved to have the whole worship in the vulgar tongue ; upon 
which St. Paul has copiously enlarged ; and all nations, as they were 
converted to Christianity, had their offices translated into their own 
language. But of late it had been pretended, that it was part of the 
communion of saints, that the worship should be every where in the 
original tongue, though the people were hardly used, when for the sake 
of some vagrant priests that might come from foreign parts, they were 
kept from knowing what was said in the worship of God. It was pre- 
tended that Pilate having ordered the inscription on the cross in Greek, 



CHANGES IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP. 503 

Latin, and Hebrew, these three languages were sanctified ; but it is not 
easy to understand what authority the Jewish king had for conferring 
such a privilege on them. But keeping all in an unknown tongue pre- 
served in dark ages the esteem of their offices ; in which there were 
such prayers and hymns, and such lessons, that if the people had under- 
stood them they must have given great scandal. In many prayers the 
pardon of sins and the grace of God were asked in such a style of the 
saints, as if they had been wholly at their disposal, and as if they had 
been more merciful than God or Christ. In former times, all who 
officiated were peculiarly habited, and all their garments were blessed, 
and these were considered as a part of the train of the mass ; but on 
the other hand, white had been the colour of the priests' vestments 
under the mosaical law, and had early been brought into the Christian 
churches : it was a proper expression of innocence, and it being fit that 
the worship of God should be in a decent habit, it was continued. 
Since the sacrifices offered to idols were not thereby, according to St. 
Paul, of their own nature polluted, and every creature of God was good, 
it was thought, notwithstanding the former abuse, most reasonable to 
use these garments still. 

The morning and evening prayers were put almost in the same form 
as that in which they now stand, only there was no confession nor abso- 
lution. In the office for the communion there was a commemoration of 
thanksgiving for the Blessed Virgin and all departed saints, and they 
were commended to God's mercy and peace. In the consecration the 
use of crossing the elements was retained ; but there was no elevation 
of the host, which was at first used as an historical rite, to shew Christ's 
being lifted up on the cross, and was afterwards done to excite the people 
to adore it. No stamp was to be on the bread, and it was to be thicker 
than ordinary. It was to be put in the people's mouths by the priests, 
though it had been anciently put in their hands. Some in the Greek 
church began to take it in spoons of gold, others in a linen cloth, called 
their dominical : but after the corporeal presence was received, the 
people were not suffered to touch it, and the priests' hands were peculiarly 
anointed to qualify them for the mystic contact. In baptism the child's 
head and breast were crossed, and abjuration was made of the devil to 
depart from it : children were to be thrice dipped, or in case of weak- 
ness, water was to be sprinkled on their faces, and then they were to be 
anointed. The sick might also be anointed if they desired it. At 
funerals, the departed soul was recommended to God's mercy. 

The sacraments were formerly believed of such virtue, that they con- 
ferred grace by the very receiving them ; what was called the opus 
operatum was deemed sufficient, though both faith and repentance were 
absent. The ancients used to send portions of the eucharist to the 
sick, but without any pomp : which came in when the corporeal presence 
was believed. But it was now appointed that the sacraments should be 
ministered to the sick, and therefore, in case of weakness, children were 
allowed to be baptised in houses ; though it was more suitable to the 
design of baptism, which was the admission of a new member to the 
church, to do it before the whole congregation. This, which was then 
aprovision for weakness, is now a mark of vanity, and a piece of affected 



504 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

state. It was also appointed, that theLord's supper should be given to 
the sick; not to be sent from the church, but consecrated by their bed- 
sides : since Christ had said, that where two or three were assembled in 
his name he would be in the midst of them. But it is a gross relique of 
the worst part of popery for any to imagine, that after an ill life, some 
sudden sorrow for sin, with a hasty absolution, and the sacrament, will 
be a passport to Heaven ; since the mercies of God in Christ are offered 
in the gospel only to those who truly believe, sincerely repent, and 
change the course of their lives. 

The liturgy thus compiled was published with a preface concerning 
ceremonies. Of course it was narrowly scanned in every part. When 
the book came into all men's hands several things were censured : as 
particularly the frequent use of the cross, and anointing. The former 
began to be used as the badge of a crucified Saviour: but the supersti- 
tion of it was so much advanced that latria — the highest kind of worship 
— was given to the crosier. The using of it was also believed to have 
virtue for driving away evil spirits, and preserving from dangers; so 
that a sacramental efficacy was ascribed to it; which could not be 
maintained, since there is no institution for it in scripture. But the 
using it was made a ceremony, expressing the belief and worship of a 
crucified Saviour, which could import no superstition, nor involve 
idolatry. These several regulations were of great importance, because 
the protestant religion now appeared almost ruined in Germany, which 
made the divines of that country turn their eyes to England. Calvin 
wrote to the protector, and pressed him to go on to a more complete 
reformation; and that prayers for the dead, chrism, and extreme unction, 
might be laid aside. He desired him to trust in God, and advance, and 
wished there was more preaching, and in a more lively way than he 
heard was then in the land: but above all things he prayed him to 
suppress that impiety and profanity that, he heard, abounded in the 
nation. 

In February 1549, an act passed granting the clergy to marry. It 
was declared, that it were better for priests to live unmarried, free from 
all worldly cares; yet, since the laws compelling it had occasioned great 
debauchery, they were repealed. The pretence of chastity in the Romish 
priests had possessed the world with a high opinion of them, and had 
been a great reflection on the reformers, if the world had not clearly 
seen through it, and been made sensible of the ill effects of it, by the 
defilement it brought into their own houses and families. Nor was 
there any point in which the reformers had studied more to remove the 
prejudice that lay against them. In the Old Testament the priests were 
not only married, but the office descended by inheritance. In the New 
Testament, marriage was declared honourable in all: among the qualifi- 
cations of bishops and deacons, each being the husband of one wife 
is reckoned up. Many of the apostles were married, and carried their 
wives about with them, as also Aquilla did Priscilla. Forbidding to 
marry is reckoned a mark of the apostacy of the latter days, and called 
a doctrine of devils. 

All the canons made against the married clergy, were only positive 
laws which might be repealed. The priests in the Greek church still 



A NEW LITURGY FORMED. 505 

lived in a conjugal state. In the west the clergy generally married ; 
and in Edgar's time, they were for the most part married in England. 
In the ninth century, the doctrine of celibacy, though urged by pope 
Nicholas, was resisted by a large majority of both priests and people. 
In the eleventh century, Gregory VII. intending to set up a new eccle- 
siastical empire, found that the unmarried clergy would be his best 
servants, since the married clergy gave pledges to the state; therefore 
he proceeded furiously to celibate the church, and called all the married 
priests Nicolaitans: while in England, Lanfrac only imposed celibacy 
on the prebendaries, and the clergy that lived in towns. Anse>m im- 
posed it on all without exception; but both he, Bernard, and Peter 
Damiani, complained that lust abounded much, even among the bishops. 
Not only Panormitan, but Pius II., wished that the law of celibacy was 
taken away. It was therefore clear, that it was not founded on the 
law of God ; and it was a sin to force churchmen to vow that which 
sometimes was not in their power. It was found by examining the forms 
of ordination, that the priests in England had made no such vows; and 
even the vow in the Roman pontifical to live chastely, did not import a 
tie not to marry, since a man might live' chaste in a married state. Many 
lewd stories were published of the clergy, but none seemed more remark- 
able, than that of the pope's legate in the time of Henry II. who the very 
same night after he had put all the married clergy from their benefices, 
himself was chargeable with flagrant impurity. 

Another act passed confirming the liturgy which was now finished ; 
eight bishops and three temporal lords only protesting against it. There 
was a long preamble, setting forth the inconvenience of the former of- 
fices, and the pains that had been taken to reform them; and that 
divers bishops and divines had, by the aid of the Holy Ghost, with an 
uniform agreement concluded on the new book: therefore they enacted 
that by Whitsunday next, all divine offices should be performed accord- 
ing to it; and if any used other offices, for the first offence they should 
be imprisoned six months, lose their benefices for a second, and be im- 
prisoned during life for the third. 

Another act also passed respecting fasting. It declared that notwith- 
standing all days and meats were in themselves alike, yet fasting, being 
a great help to virtue, and to subduing the body to the mind, and a dis- 
tinction of meats conducing to the advancement of the fishing-trade, it 
was enacted, that Lent, and all Fridays, Saturdays, and Emberdays, 
should be fish-days, under several penalties, excepting the weak, or those 
that had the king's licence. Christ had told his disciples, that when he 
was taken from them they should fast: so in the primitive church chris- 
tians fasted before Easter; but the same number of days was not ob- 
served in all places: afterwards other rules and days were established; 
but St. Austin complained, that many in his time placed all their reli- 
gion in observing them. Fast-days were turned to a mockery in the 
church of Rome, in which clergy as well as laity sumptuously dined, 
and eat fish exquisitely dressed, and drank wine, and other choice 
beverage. 

Both the laity and clergy granted the king subsidies, upon which the 
parliament was prorogued. The first thing taken into care was the 



506 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

receiving the act of uniformity. Some complaints were made of the 
priests' manner of officiating ; who did it with such a tone of voice that 
the people could not understand what was said any more than when 
the prayers were said in Latin. Prayers were, therefore, ordered to be 
said in parish churches in a plain voice; while in cathedrals the old way 
was still kept up, as agreeing better with the music used in them. 
Though this seemed not very decent in the confession of sins, nor in 
the litany, where a simple voice, gravely uttered, agreed better with 
those devotions than cadences and quavering notes, it was yet retained. 
Others continued to use all the gesticulations, crossings, and kneelings, 
to which they had been formerly accustomed. The people also con- 
tinued the use of their beads, which had been brought in by Peter the 
Hermit, in the eleventh century, by which repeating the angels saluta- 
tion to the virgin was made a great part of their devotions, and was ten 
times said for one Pater Noster. Instructions were given to the visitors 
to put all these down in a new visitation, and to enquire if any priests 
continued their trentals, their thirty masses for departed souls. Orders 
were also given, that there should be no private masses at altars in the 
corners of churches ; also that there should be but one communion in a 
day, unless in great churches, and at high festivals, in which they were 
allowed to have two, one in the morning, and another at noon. 

The visitors made their report, that they found the book of common- 
prayer received universally over the kingdom, except that lady Mary 
continued to have mass said according to the abrogated forms. Upon 
this the council wrote to her to conform to the laws ; pleading with her 
that being so near to the king in blood, she was the more obliged to 
give example to the rest of the subjects. She refused to comply, and 
sent to the emperor for his protection; upon which he pressed the 
English ambassador, who promised that for some time she should be 
dispensed. The emperor pretended afterwards that they had made him 
an absolute promise that she should never more be troubled about it; 
but the ambassador said it was only a temporary one. She refused to 
acknowledge the laws made when the king was under age, and carried 
herself very haughtily. She well knew that the protector was then 
fearful of a war with France, which made the emperor's alliance more 
necessary to England : yet the council sent for the officers of her house- 
hold, and required them to let her know that the king's authority was 
the same while he was a child as at full age; and that it was now 
lodged in them ; and though as single persons, they were all inferior to 
her, yet as they were the king's council, she was bound to obey them, 
especially when they executed the law; which all subjects, of what- 
ever rank, were bound to obey. She obstinately refused to hear any 
of the bishops speak before her in favour of the reformation. Upon 
this the council returned an answer to her, that her objections were 
more the result of will than of reason, and therefore her grace must 
be admonished neither to trust her own opinion without ground, nor to 
mislike all others having ground. If hers were good, it were no hurt 
if she heard the worst. If it were ill, she might do well to hear the 
better. 

The reformation of the greatest errors in divine worship being thus 



FURTHER REFORMATION OF ERRORS. 507 

established, Cranmer proceeded next to establish a form of doctrine. 
The chief point hitherto untouched, was the presence of Christ in the 
sacrament, which the priests magnified as the greatest mystery of the 
Christian religion, and the chief privilege of Christians; with which the 
simple and credulous vulgar were mightily affected. The Lutherans 
received that which had been for some ages the doctrine of the Greek 
church, that in the sacraments there was both bread and wine, and 
also the substance of the body and blood of Christ. The Helvetians 
looked on it only as a commemoration of the death of Christ. The 
princes of Germany were at great pains to have these reconciled, in 
which Bucer had laboured with great industry. Some took a middle 
way, and asserted a real presence, while it was not easy to understand 
what was meant by that expression, unless it was a real application of 
Christ's death ; so that the meaning of really was effectually. Though 
Bucer followed this method, Peter Martyr in his lectures declared plainly 
for the Helvetians. Dr. Smith and some others intended publicly to 
oppose and affront him ; and challenged him to a dispute about it, which 
he readily accepted on condition that the king's council should first 
approve of it, and that it should be managed in scripture terms: for the 
strength of those doctors lay in a nimble managing of those barbarous 
and unintelligible terms of the schools, which, though they sounded 
high, yet really had no meaning : so that the protestants resolved to 
dispute in scripture terms, which were certainly more proper in matters 
of divinity than the metaphysical language of schoolmen. 

The council having appointed Dr. Cox and some others to preside in 
the dispute, Dr. Smith went out of the way, and a little after fled out 
of England : but before he went he wrote a very mean submission to 
Cranmer. Other doctors disputed with Peter Martyr concerning tran- 
substantiation, but it had the common fate of all public disputes, for 
both sides contended that they were victors. At this time there were 
also disputes at Cambridge, which were moderated by Ridley, who had 
been sent down by the council. He had fallen on Bertram's book of 
the sacrament, and wondered much to find so celebrated a writer in the 
ninth century engage so plainly against the corporeal presence. This 
disposed him to think that at that time it was not the received belief of 
the church : he communicated the opinion to Cranmer, and they together 
made great collections out of the fathers upon it r and both of them 
wrote concerning it. 

The substance of their arguments was, that as Christ called the cup 
"the fruit of the vine," so St. Paul called the other element breads 
after the consecration ; which shews that their nature was not changed. 
When Christ substituted the eucharist in the room of the paschal 
lamb, he used such expressions as had been customary among the Jews 
on that occasion ; who called the lamb the Lord's passover ; which 
could not be meant literally, since the passover was the angels' passing 
over their houses, when the first-born of the Egyptians were killed. 
Being a commemoration of what was called the Lord's passover, in 
the same sense did Christ call the bread his body : figurative expressions 
being ordinary in scripture, and not improper in sacraments, which may 
be called figurative actions. The Lord's supper was also appointed for 



108 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






a remembrance of Christ, and that supposes absence. The elements 
were also called by Christ his body broken, and his blood shed ; so it is 
plain they were his body, not as it is glorified in Heaven, but as it suf- 
fered on the cross : and since the scriptures speak of Christ's continu- 
ance in Heaven till the last day, from thence they inferred that he was 
not corporeally present. It was moreover shewed, that eating Christ's 
flesh, mentioned by St. John, was not to be understood of the sacrament, 
since of every partaker it is said that he has eternal life. It must there- 
fore be understood only of receiving Christ's doctrine as he himself ex- 
plained, when he said, "The flesh profiteth nothing; but my words, 
they are spirit and they are life." b 

There were some anabaptists at this time in England, who came from 
Germany. Of these there were two sorts ; the first only objected to 
baptising children, and to the manner of it by sprinkling instead of 
dipping. The other held many opinions, anciently condemned as here- 
sies : they had raised a cruel war in Germany, and had set up a new 
king at Munster : but all these bore the name of anabaptists from their 
rejection of infant baptism, though that was one of the mildest opinions 
they held. When they came over to England, a commission was granted 
to some bishops, and others, to search them out, and to proceed against 
them. Several of these persons on being taken up and brought before 
the council, abjured their errors, which were, that there was not a 
Trinity of persons ; that Christ was not God, and took not flesh of the 
Virgin ; and that a regenerate man could not sin. 

Among the most zealous and enthusiastic holders of the opinion that 
Christ was not the same flesh as his virgin mother, was Joan Bocher, 
generally called Joan of Kent. She was resolute in her opinions, and 
rejected all the instruction offered her with scorn : she was, therefore, 
condemned as an obstinate heretic, and delivered to the secular arm. 
It was with the most extreme reluctance that the king signed the war- 
rant for her execution ; he thought it was an instance of the same spirit 
of cruelty for which the reformers condemned the papists ; and, not- 
withstanding all the arguments that were used with him, he was rather 
silenced than satisfied. He signed the warrant with tears in his eyes, 
and said to Cranmer, that since he resigned up himself to his judgment, 
if he sinned in it the sin should lie at his door. This struck the arch- 
bishop ; and both he and Ridley took Joan into their houses, and tried 
what reason joined with gentleness could do. But she became more and 

b It is remarkable that in the ninth century, many of the greatest men wrote against the 
real presence, and none of them were condemned as heretics. The contrary opinion was 
then received in England, as appeared by the Saxon homily, which was read on Easter- 
day, in which are several of Bertram's words. It was generally received in the eleventh 
century, and fully established in the fourth council in the Lateran. At first it was believed 
that the whole loaf was turned into one entire body, so that in the distribution every one 
had a small part given him ; and according to that conceit it was pretended, that it often 
bled, and was turned into flesh. But this seemed an indecent way of handling Christ's 
glorified body, so that the schoolmen invented a more seemly notion — that such a body 
might be in a place after the manner of a spirit, so that in every crumb there was an entire 
Christ. This, though it appeared hard to be conceived, yet generally prevailed, after which 
the miracles fitted for the former opinion were no more heard of, but new ones agreeing to 
tliis hypothesis were imposed in their stead. So dexterously did the priests deceive the 
world, until the time arrived for the great standing deception of the host ! 



REBELLION IN DEVONSHIRE. 



509 



more resolute in her profession, and at last was burnt. She was sustained 
in her last moments by the peculiar fervor of her soul in the resistance of 
what she called, and justly called, a most cruel and unrighteous tyranny. 
Unprejudiced spirits, under full christian controul, would have mercifully 
provided this poor victim of lunacy with some appropriate asylum, 
rather than indulge the thought of leading her to the stake and kindling 
the flames around her. Gracious God ! that this should have been done 
by Christians and Protestants! and that, while they were reforming the 
church, and attempting to establish on the ruins of a barbarous policy 
the gospel of peace and love! Joan was not the only victim of protes- 
tant misrule. George Van Parre, a Dutchman, was also condemned and 
burnt for denying the divinity of Christ, and saying, that the Father only 
was God. He had led a very exemplary life, both for fasting, devotion, 
and a good conversation ; and he suffered with extraordinary composedness 
of mind. Against the other sort of anabaptists no severities were used; 
but several books were written to justify infant baptism ; and the prac- 
tice of the church so clearly begun, and so universally spread, was thought 
a good plea, especially being grounded on such arguments in scripture 
as demonstrated at least its lawfulness and propriety. 

About this time a rebellion broke out in many parts of England, 
partly arising from a jealousy in the commons against the nobility and 
gentry, who finding more advantage by the trade of wool than corn, 
generally inclosed their grounds, and turned them to pasture, by which 
a great number of persons were thrown out of employment, and a 
general consternation prevailed. The other cause was the unquenched 
enmity of the priests to the reformation, who endeavoured to revive in 
the minds of the blinded multitude their former errors. In Devonshire, 
the insurrection was very formidable ; the superstition of the priests 
joining with the rage of the commons, they became quickly ten thou- 
sand strong. The lord Russel was sent against them with a small force, 
and ordered to try if the matter could be composed without blood : but 
Arundel, a man of quality, commanding the rebels, they were not a 
loose body of people so easily dispersed. They sent their demand to 
court — that the old service and ceremonies might be set up again ; 
that the act of the six articles, and the decrees of general councils 
might be again in force : that the bible in English should be called in ; 
that preachers should pray for the souls in purgatory ; that Cardinal 
Pole should be restored ; that the half of the abbey lands should be 
restored, to found two abbeys in every county ; and that gentlemen of 
100 marks a year might have but one servant. They desired besides, 
a safe conduct for their chief leaders, in order to the redress of their 
particular grievances. 

Cranmer wrote an answer, shewing the impropriety and superstition of 
those rites and ceremonies, and of that whole way of worship of which 
they were so fond : and that the amendments and changes had been made 
according to the scriptures, and the customs of the primitive church : 
that their being fond of a worship which they understood not, and being 
desirous to be kept still in ignorance, without the scriptures, proved 
that their priests had greater power over them than the common reason 
of all mankind had. "As for the six articles," he added " that act had 



510 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

never passed if the king had not gone in person to the parliament, and 
argued for it: yet he soon saw his error, and was slack in executing it." 
After this a threatening answer was sent them in the king's name, 
charging them with their rebellion and blind obedience to their priests. 
In it the king's authority, though he was under age, was largely set 
forth; for by the pretence of his minority the people generally were 
taught to believe that their rising in arms was not rebellion. In con- 
clusion, they were earnestly invited to submit to the royal mercy, as 
others had done, whom the king had not only pardoned, but whose 
just grievances he had fully redressed. A fast was proclaimed at court, 
when Cranmer preached with great freedom and vehemence: he laid 
before them their vicious lives, particularly of those who pretended a 
love to the gospel; and declared the judgments of God which they 
might look for; enlarging on the fresh example of the calamities of 
Germany, and intimating the sad apprehensions he had of some terrible 
stroke, if they did not repent and amend. The rebels continuing in 
arms, troops were sent against them; and after some resistance, they 
were at length every where routed, their leaders punished, and tran- 
quillity restored. 

A visitation of Cambridge followed soon after. Ridley was the chief 
visitor. When he found that a design was laid to suppress some colleges, 
under pretence of uniting them to others, and to convert some fellow- 
ships that were provided for divines to the study of the civil law, he 
refused his assent. He said the church was already too much robbed, 
and yet some men's craving was not to be satisfied. It seems the de- 
sign was laid to drive both religion and learning out of the land; and 
therefore he desired leave to be gone. The visitors complained of him 
to the protector, who wrote him a chiding letter : but he answered it 
with the freedom that became a bishop, who was resolved to suffer all 
things rather than sin against his conscience ; and the protector was so 
well satisfied with him, that for his sake the college of Clare-hall, the 
suppression of which he had strongly objected to, was preserved. 

Bonner was now brought into trouble. It was not easy to know how 
to deal with him, for he obeyed every order that was sent to him ; and 
yet it was known that he secretly hated and condemned the whole re- 
forming system, and as often as he could declare that safely, he was 
not wanting by such ways to preserve his interest with the papists : 
thus though he obeyed the orders of council, he did it in so remiss a 
manner that it was visible it went against him. He was therefore called 
before it, and charged with several particulars, that whereas he used to 
officiate himself on the great festivals, he had not done it since the new 
service was set out; that he took no care to repress adultery, and that 
he never preached. In the end, proving very refractory and violent, 
he was deprived of his bishopric, and committed to prison during the 
king's pleasure. 

The English affairs this year upon the continent were extremely un- 
successful, and the protector being charged with the result, complaints 
went loud against him; and his enemies, who were very numerous and 
powerful, took off the mask and openly declared hostility to his govern- 
ment. The earls of Southampton and Warwick were the chief; the 



FALL OF THE PROTECTOR. 511 

one hated him for dismissing him from office, and the other hoped to 
be the chief man in the realm if he should fall. Nor was this all the 
protector's peril; the privy counsellors complained, that he was become 
so arbitrary in his proceedings, that he disregarded the opposition that 
was made by the majority of the council to any of his designs. All 
these things concurred to beget him many enemies : and except Cranmer, 
Paget, and Smith, all turned against him. The council violently com- 
plained of his conduct in foreign affairs, and enlarged upon the evils 
that had resulted from it. 

The protector carried the king to Hampton-court, and put many of 
his own people about him, which increased the jealousy against him : 
upon which, nine of the privy council met at Ely-house, and assumed 
to themselves the authority of the council ; and secretary Petre being 
sent by the king, to ask the account of their meeting, instead of re- 
turning joined himself to them. They made a large declaration of the 
protector's ill-government; and they resolved themselves to see to the 
safety of the king and kingdom. Both the city of London, and the 
lieutenant of the Tower declared for them : they also sent letters through 
England, desiring the assistance of the nobility and gentry. Seven 
more privy counsellors came and joined them. The protector had re- 
moved the king from Hampton-court to Windsor, which had some de- 
fence about it; and had armed some of his own servants, and set them 
about the king's person; yet seeing himself abandoned by all but a few 
friends, and finding the party against him was of such a strength that 
it would be in vain to struggle any longer, he offered to submit himself 
to the council. A proposition of treaty was set on foot, and the lords 
in London were desired to send two of their number with their pro- 
posals, and a passport was sent them for their safety. Cranmer and 
two others wrote to the council, to dispose them to an agreement, and 
not to follow cruel suggestions. Many false reports were abroad of the 
protector, that he had threatened, if they intended to put him to death, 
the king should die first, which served to increase the prejudices against 
him. The council wrote to Cranmer and Paget, charging them to look 
well to the king's person, that he should not be removed from Windsor; 
and that the protector's dependants might be put from him, and his own 
sworn servants admitted. They also protested that they would proceed 
with all the moderation and favour towards the duke that was possible. 
Understanding that all things were prepared as they had desired, they 
sent first three of their number, to see that the duke and some of his 
friends, namely, Smith, Stanhope, Thynne, Wolf, and Cecil, should be 
confined to their lodgings; and on the 12th of October, the whole 
council went to Windsor, and made great protestations of their duty to 
the king, which he received favourably, and assured them he took all 
that they had done in good part. 

On this the protector, with the rest of his friends except Cecil, who 
was presently enlarged, were sent to the Tower, and many articles were 
objected to him, that he had treated with ambassadors apart, had made 
bishops and lord-lieutenants of his own will, had held a court of requests 
in his house, had embased the coin and neglected the places the king 
had in France, had encouraged the commons in their late insurrections, 



512 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

had o-iven out commissions, and proclaimed a pardon without con« 
sent of the council; that he had animated the king against them, 
had proclaimed them traitors, and had put his own servants armed 
about the king's person. Hence it appears, that the crimes alleged 
against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation, which had 
made him too much forget that he was a subject: although in fact he 
had carried his greatness with much innocence, since in all the studied 
charges brought against him by his numerous enemies, no acts of 
cruelty, rapine, or bribery, were objected to him. His faults were 
rather errors and weaknesses, than crimes. His embasing the coin was 
done upon a common mistake of weak governments, who fly to that as 
their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs. In his imprisonment, 
he set himself to the study of moral philosophy and divinity, and wrote 
a preface to a book of patience, which had made great impressions on 
him. His fall was a great affliction to all who loved the reformation, 
and this was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the 
two chief men of the party against him. Southampton was a known 
papist, and Warwick was looked on as a man of no religion : and both 
at the emperor's court, and in France, it was expected that upon this 
revolution, religion would again drop into the posture in which king 
Henry had left it. The duke of Norfolk and bishop Gardiner hoped 
to be discharged, Bonner looked to be re-established in his bishopric, 
and all people began to neglect the new service: this would no doubt 
immediately have been the case had not the earl of Warwick, finding 
the king zealously affected to the reformation, quickly forsook the 
popish party, and become a mighty promoter of that cause. A court 
of civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's appeal, and upon their 
report the council rejected it, and confirmed the sentence that had been 
upon him. 

In November the parliament met, when an act was passed declaring 
it treason to call any to the number of twelve together about matter of 
state, if on being required they did not disperse. The bishops made a 
heavy complaint of the growth of vice and impiety, and that their power 
was so much abridged, they could not repress them. Accordingly a 
bill was read, enlarging their authority; but it was thought to give them 
too much power, and it was so moderated that the lords passed it; but 
the commons rejected it, and sent up a bill that empowered thirty-two 
who were to be named by the king, one half of the temporality, and 
the other of the spirituality, to compile a body of ecclesiastical laws 
within three years; and that these, not being contrary to the common 
or statute law, and approved of by the king, should have ecclesiastical 
authority in the land. Of this thirty-two, four were to be bishops, and 
as many to be common lawyers. Twelve divines were also empowered 
to prepare a new form of ordination ; which being confirmed under the 
great seal, should take place after April. Articles were then put in 
against the duke of Somerset, with a confession signed by him. He 
protested that his errors had flowed rather from indiscretion than malice, 
and denied all treasonable designs against the king or the realm : he 
was fined in 2000/. a year in land, and the loss of all his goods and 
offices. He complained of the heaviness of this censure, and desired 



CEREMONIES OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 513 

earnestly to be restored to the king's favour, trusting that he should 
make amends for his past follies. He was discharged in the beginning 
of February, soon after which he was pardoned, and was again brought 
both to the court and council. 

The reformation now proceeded with fresh vigour. The council sent 
orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new 
service, and to call in all the books of the old offices. An act passed 
in parliament to the same effect. All the old books and images were 
appointed to be defaced, and all prayers to saints were to be struck out 
of the primmers published by the late king. A remarkable privilege 
was this session granted to the eldest sons of peers, who were allowed 
as such to sit in the commons' house. The committee appointed to 
prepare the book of ordinations, finished their work with common con- 
sent. It was found that in the ancient church, there was nothing used 
in ordinations, but prayer and imposition of hands: the additions of 
anointing and giving consecrated vestments were afterwards brought 
in. In the council of Florence, it was declared that the rite of or- 
daining a priest, the delivering vessels for the eucharist, with a power 
to offer sacrifices to God for the dead and living, were novelties invented 
to support the belief of transubstantiation. All these additions were 
now cut off, and ordination was restored to a greater simplicity; and 
the form was almost the same as that still in use, only then in ordaining 
a priest, the bishop was to lay one hand on his head, and with the other 
to give him a Bible, and a chalice with bread in it. In the consecration 
of a bishop, the form was the same that we retain, only then the custom 
was retained of giving the bishop a staff, saying these words, " Be to 
the flock of Christ a shepherd." 

In the middle of the sixth century, the anointing the priests' hands 
was begun in France, but was not used in the Roman church for two 
ages after. In the eighth century, the vestments were given with a special 
blessing, empowering priests to offer expiatory sacrifices ; then their 
heads were anointed : and in the tenth century, the belief of transub- 
stantiation being received, the vessels for the sacrament were delivered. 
It is evident from the several forms of ordination, that the church did 
not believe itself tied to one manner; and that the prayer, which in 
some ages was the prayer of consecration, was in other ages esteemed 
only a prayer preparatory to it. There were some sponsions promised, 
as a covenant, to which the ordination was a seal : the first of these was 
that the persons who came to receive orders professed that they were 
inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. If this were well considered, it 
would no doubt put many that thirst after sacred offices to a stand ; 
who, if they examine themselves well, dare not pretend to a gift con- 
cerning which they know nothing, but that they have it not. 

At this time pope Paul the third died. In the conclave that followed, 
cardinal Farnese set up cardinal Pole, whose wise behaviour in the 
council of Trent had greatly raised his esteem. It also appeared, that 
though he was of the emperor's faction, yet he did not serve him blindly. 
Some loaded him with the imputations of Lutheranism, and incontinence : 
the last would not have hindered his advancement, though true, yet he 
fully cleared himself from it: but the former lay heavier, for in his re- 

2 L 



514 HIS10RY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tirement at Viterbo, where he was legate, he had given himself to the 
study of controversies ; and Tranellius, Flaminio, and others suspected 
of Lutheranism, had lived in his house; and in the council of Trent 
he seemed favourable to some of their opinions. But the great suffer- 
ings both of himself and family in England, seemed to set him above 
all suspicions. When his friends had almost gained a sufficient number 
of suffrages, he seemed little concerned at it, and rather declined than 
aspired to the dignity. When a full number had agreed, and came to 
adore him, according to the ordinary ceremony, he received it with his 
usual coldness; and it being done in the night, he said, "God loves 
light," advising them to delay it till day. The Italians, among whom 
ambition passes for the character of a great mind, looked on this as 
an insufferable piece of dulness ; so that the cardinals shrunk from him 
before day, and chose de Monte pope, who reigned by the name of 
Julius the Third. His first promotion is very extraordinary, for he gave 
his cardinal's hat to a servant who kept his monkey; and being asked 
the reason of it, he said, he saw as much in his servant to recommend 
him to be a cardinal, as the conclave saw in him to induce them to 
choose him pope. 

In February, Ridley was made bishop of London and Westminster; 
1000/. a year of the rents of the see were assigned him, with licence to 
hold two prebends. Repse, bishop of Norwich resigned, upon which 
Therleby, bishop of Westminster, was removed to Norwich ; and it was 
resolved to re-unite London and Westminster, and to place them under 
one man's care. Ridley's patent was not during pleasure but during 
life — a strong proof of the king's favour. About this time there was a 
discourse on foot of a marriage between the king and a French princess, 
which grieved the reformers, who rather wished him to marry Maximilian's 
daughter, who was believed to favour the reformation, and was esteemed 
one of the best men of the age. Dr. Latimer preached at court, and 
warned the king of the ill effects of bad marriages, which were made 
up only as political bargains, without affection between the parties; and 
that they occasioned so much iniquity, and so many divorces: he also 
complained of the luxury and vanity of the age, and pressed the setting 
up a primitive discipline in the church. He preached this as his last 
sermon, and therefore used great freedom. 

The see of Gloucester fell vacant, and Hooper was named to it. He 
had some scruples about the episcopal vestments, and thought all those 
garments having been consecrated with much superstition were to be 
reckoned among the elements condemned by St. Paul : but Ridley jus- 
tified the use of them, and said the elements condemned by St. Paul, 
were only the Jewish ceremonies; which the apostles condemned when 
they were imposed as essential, as though the Mosaical law was not 
abrogated, and the Messiah was not come. Cranmer desired Bucer's 
opinion concerning the lawfulness of those habits, and the obligation 
lying on subjects to obey the laws about them. His opinion was that 
every creature of God was good, and that no former abuse could make 
a thing indifferent in itself become unlawful. Yet since those garments 
had been abused to superstition, and were likely to become a subject of 
contention, he wished they might be taken away by law; and that eccle- 






REVIEW OF THE COMMON PRAYER BOOK. 515 

siastical discipline, and a more complete reformation might be pursued, 
and a stop put to the robbing of churches; otherwise they might see, 
in the present state of Germany, a dreadful prospect of that which 
England ought to look for. He wished that all good men would unite 
against the greater corruptions, and then lesser abuses would easily be 
redressed. Peter Martyr also delivered his opinion to the same purpose. 
Hooper was suspended from preaching ; but the earl of Warwick wrote 
to Cranmer to dispense with him in that matter: he answered, that while 
the law continued in force, he could not do it without incurring a 
Praemunire. Upon this the king wrote to him, allowing him to do it, 
and dispensing with the law : yet this matter was not settled till a year 
after. John a Lasco, with some Germans of the Helvetian confession, 
came this year into England, being driven out of Germany by persecu- 
tion: they were erected by letters patent into a corporation, and a Lasco 
was their superintendent. He wrote both against the habits, and against 
kneeling in the sacrament. Polydore Virgil was this year suffered to 
go out of England, and still to hold the preferments he had in it. 
Pomet was made bishop of Rochester, and Coverdale co-adjutor to 
Veysey in Exeter, the bishop of which he soon became. 

A design was now set on foot for a review of the common-prayer 
book, in order to which Bucer's opinion was asked. He approved the 
main parts of the former book, and wished there might not only be a 
denunciation against scandalous persons who came to the sacrament, but 
a discipline to exclude them : that the habits might be laid aside ; that 
no part of the communion office might be used, except when there was 
a sacrament; that communion might be more frequent; that the prayers 
might be said in a plain voice; the sacrament put in the people's 
hands; and that there might be no prayers for the dead. He advised 
a change of some phrases in the office of the communion which seemed 
to favour transubstantiation ; and that baptism might be only in 
churches. He thought the hallowing water, the chrism, and the 
white garment, were too scenical : nor did he approve of adjuring the 
devil, nor of the god-father's answering in the child's name: he thought 
confirmation should be delayed till the person was of age, and came 
sincerely to renew the baptismal covenant. He advised catechising every 
holy day, both of children and adults; he disliked private marriages, 
extreme unction, and offerings at the churching of women : and thought 
there ought to be greater strictness used in the examination of those 
who came to receive orders. 

At the same time he understood that the king expected a new-year's 
gift from him, of a book written particularly for his own use: he, there- 
fore, prepared a work for him concerning the kingdom of Christ: he 
pressed much the setting up a strict discipline, the sanctification of the 
Lord's day, appointed days of fasting, and that pluralities and non- 
residence might be effectually condemned; that children might be cate- 
chised ; that the reverence due to churches might be preserved ; that 
bishops should throw off secular affairs, take care of their dioceses, and 
govern them by the advice of their presbysters; that there might be 
rural bishops over twenty or thirty parishes ; that provincial councils 
might meet twice a year ; that church-lands should be restored, and a 



516 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

fourth part be assigned to the poor ; that marriage without consent of 
parents should be annulled ; that a second marriage might be declared 
lawful, after divorce for adultery, and some other reasons; that care should 
be taken of the education of youth, and for repressing luxury ; that 
the law might be reformed ; that no office might be sold, but given to 
the most deserving; that none should be put in prison upon slight 
offences ; and that the severity of some laws, as that which made theft 
capital, might be mitigated. 

Edward was much pleased with these advices ; and upon them began 
himself to form a scheme for amending many things that were amiss in 
the government. This he writ with his own hand, and in a style and 
manner which had much of a child in it, though the thoughts were 
manly. It appears that he intended to set up a church discipline, and 
settle a method of bringing up youth ; but the discourse was not finished. 
He also wrote a journal of every thing that passed at home, and of the 
news from beyond sea. It had clear marks of his own composing, as 
well as it is written with his own hand. He wrote another discourse in 
French, being a collection of all the places of scripture against idolatry, 
with a preface before it, dedicated to the protector. 

At this time Ridley made his first visitation to his diocese ; the articles 
upon which he proceeded chiefly related to the service and ceremonies 
that were abolished. He also carried some injunctions with him against 
certain remainders of the former superstition, and for exhorting the 
people to alms, and to come oft to the sacrament; and that altars 
might be removed, and tables put in their room, in the most con- 
venient place of the chancel. In the ancient church the tables 
were of wood ; but the sacrament being called a sacrifice, as prayers, 
alms, and all holy oblations were, they came to be called altars. 
This gave the rise to the opinion of expiatory sacrifice in the mass, 
and therefore it was thought fit to take away both the name 
and form of altars. Ridley only advised the curates to do this ; but 
upon some contests arising concerning it, the council interposed, and 
required it to be done ; and sent with their order a list of reasons justi- 
fying it. The following among others were most excellent reasons as- 
signed in this official paper of the council for the substitution of simple 
tables for carved and adorned altars. 

" The form of a table shall more move the simple from the supersti- 
tious opinions of the popish mass, unto the right use of the Lord's supper. 
— For the use of an altar is to make sacrifice upon it ; the use of a 
table is to serve for men to eat upon. Now when we come unto the 
Lord's board, what do we come for ? To sacrifice Christ again, and to 
crucify him again, or to feed upon him that was once only crucified 
and offered up for us? If we come to feed upon him, spiritually 
to eat his body, and spiritually to drink his blood, which is the 
use of the Lord's supper, then no man can deny but the form of a 
table is more meet for the Lord's board than the form of an altar." 
Then, moreover, " Jesus Christ did institute the sacrament of his body 
and blood at his last supper at a table, and not at an altar, as it ap- 
peareth manifestly by the three Evangelists. And St. Paul calleth the 
coming to the holy communion the coming unto the Lord's 'sUpper. 



PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 517 

And also it is not read that any of the apostles or the primitive church 
did ever use any altar in ministration of the holy communion. Where- 
fore seeing the form of a table is more agreeable to Christ's institution, 
and with the usage of the apostles, and of the primitive church, than 
the form of an altar, therefore the form of a table is rather to be used 
than the form of an altar in the administration of the holy communion." 

The government was now free of all disturbance : the coin was 
reformed, and commerce was encouraged. The faction in the court 
seemed also to be extinguished by a marriage between the earl of 
Warwick's son and the duke of Somerset's daughter. The duke of 
Lunenburgh made a proposition of marriage with lady Mary, but the 
treaty with the infant of Portugal did still depend, so it was not enter- 
tained. In addition the church promised well : even the popish clergy 
conformed to every change that was made. Oglethorpe, afterwards 
bishop of Carlisle, being informed against as favouring the old supersti- 
tion, under his hand declared, that he thought the order of religion 
then settled was nearex the use of the primitive church than that 
which was formerly received, and that he condemned transubstantiation 
as a late invention, and approved the communion in both kinds, 
also the people's receiving it always with the priest. Smith, who 
had written against the marriage of the clergy, and was upon some 
complaints put in prison, but discharged by Cranmer's intercession, 
wrote a submission to him, acknowledging the mistakes he had com- 
mitted in his book, and the archbishop's gentleness towards him: 
and wished he might perish if he was not sincere, and called God 
a witness against his soul if he lied. Day, bishop of Chichester, also 
preached at court against transubstantiation. The principle by which 
most of that party governed themselves was this — they concluded they 
ought to oppose all the changes before they were established by law ; 
yet that being done, that they might afterwards comply with them. 

Martin Bucer died in the beginning of this year. He had enter- 
tained great apprehensions of a fatal revolution in England, by reason 
of the ill lives of the people, the want of ecclesiastical discipline, and 
the neglect of the pastoral charge. Orders were sent from the court 
to Cambridge, to bury him with all the public honour to his memory 
that could be devised. Speeches and sermons were made both by 
Haddon, the university orator, and Parker, then Regius professor, and 
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the most extra- 
ordinary men both for learning and a true judgment of things in that 
*time : he had differed in some points from Bucer, and yet he acknow- 
ledged, that there was none alive of whom he hoped to learn so much 
as he had done by his conversation with him. Bucer was inferior to 
none of all the reformers in learning, and had a great zeal for preserv- 
ing the unity of the church : he had not that fluency in disputing for 
which Peter Martyr was admired, and the popish doctors took advantage 
from that to carry themselves more insolently towards him. 

Soon after this, Gardiner's process was put to an end : a commission 
was issued out to Cranmer, three bishops, and some civilians, to proceed 
against him, for his contempt in refusing to sign the articles that had 
been offered to him The things objected to him were, that he refused 



518 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to advocate in his sermon the king's power when he was under age, 
and had affronted the preachers whom the king had sent to his diocese ; 
that he had been negligent in executing the king's injunctions, and refused 
to confess his fault and ask the king's pardon. It was said that the 
rebellions raised in England might have been prevented, if he had in 
time set forth the king's authority : to which he answered, that he was 
not required to do it by any order of council, but only in a private dis- 
course ; yet witnesses being examined upon these particulars, the dele- 
gates proceeded to sentence of deprivation against him notwithstanding 
his appeal to the king in person ; and he was appointed to lie still in 
the tower, where he continued till queen Mary discharged him. 

By this time the greater number of the bishops were such men as 
heartily received the reformation : it was, therefore, resolved to proceed 
to a settlement of the doctrine of the church. Many thought that 
should have been done in the first place ; but Cranmer judged it was 
better to proceed slowly in such a matter : he thought corruptions in 
the worship were to be first begun with, since while they remained the 
addresses to God were so defiled that all people were involved in un- 
lawful compliances. He thought that speculative opinions might come 
last, since errors in them were not of such ill-consequence : and he 
judged it necessary to lay these open, in many treatises arid disputes, 
before the council should proceed to make alterations, in order that all 
people might be fully satisfied with what was done. Accordingly they 
framed a body of articles which contained the doctrine of the church 
of England : they divided them into forty-two, and afterwards some few 
alterations being made in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, 
they were reduced to their present number, thirty nine. c 

The greatest care was taken to frame these articles in the most com- 
prehensive words, and the greatest simplicity united with strength. 
When this was settled, commenced the review of the common prayer 
book. In the daily service they added the confession and absolution, 
that so the worship of God might begin in a grave and humble manner: 
after which a solemn declaration of the mercy of God, according to the 
terms of the gospel, was to be pronounced by the priest. This was 
thought much better than giving absolution in such formal words, as, 
" I absolve thee :" which begat in the superficial worshipper an opinion, 
that the priest had authority to pardon sin, and which made them think 
of nothing so much as how to purchase it at his hands. In the com- 
munion service they ordered a recital of the commandments, with a 
short devotion between every one of them. The holy oil, the use of the 
cross in consecrating the eucharist, prayers for the dead, and some ex- 
pressions that favoured transubstantiation, were rejected, and the book 

c In the ancient church there was at first a great simplicity in their creeds; but after- 
wards, upon the breaking- out of heresies concerning the person of Christ, equivocal senses 
being put on the terms formerly used, new ones, which could not be so easily eluded, were 
invented. A humour of explaining mysteries by similes and niceties, and of passing 
anathemas on all who did not receive these, was very common in the church : and though 
the council of Ephesus decreed that no new additions should be made to the creed, yet 
that did not restrain those who loved to make their own conceits be received as parts of 
the faith. 



LADY MARY REFUSES TO CONFORM. 519 

was put in the same order as that in which it continues to this day, ex- 
cepting only some inconsiderable variations. A rubrick was added to 
the office of the communion, explaining the reason of kneeling in it, 
that it was only an expression of reverence and gratitude upon receiving 
so particular a mark of the favour of God : but that no adoration was 
intended by it, and no intimation that Christ was corporeally present 
in it. In queen Elizabeth's time this was omitted, that such as con- 
formed in other things, but still retained the belief of the corporeal 
presence, might not be offended at such a declaration ; but it was again 
inserted on the restoration of Charles II., for removing the scruples of 
those who excepted to that posture. Christ at first instituted this sacra- 
ment in the ordinary table gesture. Moses appointed the pascal lamb 
to be eaten by the people standing, with staves in their hands, they 
being then to begin their march ; yet that was afterwards changed by 
the Jews, who ate it in the posture common at meals, which our Saviour's 
practice justifies. 

At this time six of the most eminent preachers were appointed to wait 
on the court by turns, two at a time, and the other four were sent as 
itinerant preachers into all the counties of England, in a circuit, for 
supplying the defects of the clergy, who were generally very weak and 
faulty. This was no new practice among reformers of the church. 
Wickliffe and his disciples went from town to town, and from county 
to county, to preach the gospel ; which they proclaimed in church yards 
as well as churches, and even in markets and fairs, and whatever public 
places would allow of the greatest numbers to hear them. The protes- 
tants of France early adopted the same custom. Even the catholics 
have been examples of this zeal in defence of corruption and error, 
which the reformed have found so remarkably efficient in propagating 
the true faith. 

The mass, which was still continued in lady Mary's chapel, was now 
again challenged. The court was less afraid of the emperor's displea- 
sure than formerly, and therefore would no longer bear with so public a 
breach of law : and the promise they had made being but temporary, 
and never given in writing, they thought they were not bound by it. 
But the emperor assured her that he had an absolute promise for that 
privilege in her behalf : this encouraged her so much, that when the 
council wrote, she said she would follow the catholic church, and adhere 
to her father's religion. Answer was written in the king's name, requir- 
ing her to obey the law, and not to pretend that the king was under 
age, since the late rebels had justified themselves by that. The way of 
worship then established, was also vindicated, as most consonant to the 
word of God. But she refused to engage in any disputes, and said she 
would continue in her former courses. She once was thinking of going 
out of England, insomuch that the emperor ordered a ship to lie near 
the coast for her transportation, and espoused her quarrel so warmly, 
that he threatened to make war, if she should be severely used. Dr. 
Wotton was sent over to the emperor, to convince him that no absolute 
promise was ever made 1 , but he pretended, that he had promised to 
her mother at her death to protect her, and was therefore bound in 
honour to take care of her : but now when the council were not in such 



520 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

fear of the emperor's displeasure, they sent to seize on two of her chap- 
lains, who had said mass in her house, when she was absent ; they kept 
out of the way, and she wrote to the council to stop the prosecution, 
and continuedto stand upon the promise made to the emperor. A long 
answer was returned to her by the council, in which after the matter of 
the promise was cleared, they urged the absurdity of prayers in an 
unknown tongue, offering the sacrament for the dead, and worshipping 
images : the ancients appealed upon all occasions to the scriptures, by 
which she might easily discover the errors and cheats of the old super- 
stition, that were supported only by false miracles and lying stories. 
They pleaded that being trusted with the execution of the laws, they 
were obliged to proceed equally. 

Mallet, one of the chaplains, was taken, and upon her earnestly 
desiring that he might be set at liberty, it was denied her. The council 
sent for the chief officers of her house, and required them to let her 
know the king's pleasure, that she must have the new service in her 
family ; and to give the like charge to her chaplains and servants. This 
vexed her much, and almost cast her into sickness. She said, she 
would obey the king in every thing in which her conscience was not 
touched ; but charged them not to deliver the council's message to her 
servants. Upon that, the lord chancellor, the lord Petre, and one 
other, were sent with the same orders to her : they carried to her a letter 
from the king, which she received on her knees ; but when she read it, 
she cast the blame of it on Cecil, then secretary of state. The chancellor 
told her, the whole council were of one mind, that they could not suffer 
her to use a form of worship against law, and had ordered them to in- 
timate this both to herself and her family. She made great protestations 
of duty to the king; but said, she would die rather than use any form 
of worship but that which was left by her father, only she was afraid 
she was not worthy to suffer on so good an account. If her chaplains 
refused to say mass, she could have none, for the new service she was 
resolved against, and if it was forced on her, she would leave her house. 
She insisted on the promise made to the emperor, and she believed him 
more than them all : she gave them a token to be carried to the king, 
and so dismissed them. Upon this her resolution, the council went no 
further, only after this her mass was said so secretly as to give no public 
offence. From Copthall, where this was done, she removed and lived 
at Hunsden, where Ridley went to see her. There is something so curious 
in this visit and dialogue between the bishop and Mary, that we shall 
give it in Mr. Fox's own words. 

About the eighth of September Dr. Ridley, then bishop of London , being 
at his house at Hadham, in Hertfordshire, went to visit the lady Mary 
then living at Hunsden, two miles off; and was gently entertained by 
Sir Thomas Wharton and other of her officers till it was almost eleven 
o'clock, about which time the lady Mary came forth into her chamber 
of presence, and then the bishop saluted her grace, and said, that he 
was come to do his duty to her grace. She thanked him for his pains, 
and for a quarter of an hour talked with him very pleasantly, saying 
that she knew him in the court when he was chaplain to her father, and 
could well remember a sermon that he made before king Henry her father, 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LADY MARY. 521 

at the marriage of my lady Clinton that now is, to Sir Anthony Brown. 
So she dismissed him to dine with her officers. After dinner was done 
the bishop being called for by the lady Mary, resorted again to her grace, 
between whom this communication was. First the bishop began in manner 
as followeth : — " Madam, I came not only to do my duty to see your 
grace, but also to offer myself to preach before you on Sunday next, if 
it will please you to hear me." At this her countenance changed, and 
after silence for a space, she answered thus — " My Lord, as for this last 
matter I pray you make the answer to it yourself." The dialogue then 
proceeded thus : — 

Bishop. Madam, considering mine office and calling, I am bound in 
duty to make to your grace this offer, to preach before you. 

Mary. Well, I pray you make the answer to this matter yourself; 
for you know the answer well enough. But if there be no remedy but 
I must make you answer, this shall be your answer ; the door of the 
parish-church adjoining shall be open for you if you come, and ye may 
preach if you list; but neither I nor any of mine shall hear you. 

Bishop. Madam, I trust you will not refuse God's word. 

Mary. I cannot tell what ye call God's word; that is not God's word 
now, that was God's word in my father's days. 

Bishop. God's word is all one in all times, but hath been better un- 
derstood and practised in some ages than in other. 

Mary. You durst not for your ears have avouched that for God's 
word in my father's days, that now you do. And as for your new 
books, I thank God I never read any of them ; I never did, nor ever 
will do. 

After many bitter words against the form of religion then established, 
and against the government of the realm, and the laws made in the 
young years of her brother, which she said she was not bound to obey 
till her brother came to perfect age, and then she affirmed she would 
obey them ; she asked the bishop whether he were one of the council : 
he answered, "No." "You might well enough," said she, "as the 
council goeth now a days." Then she concluded with these words: 
"My lord, for your gentleness to come and see me, I thank you; but 
for your offering to preach before me, I thank you never a whit ," 
The bishop was dismissed, and brought by Sir Thomas Wharton 
to the place where they dined, and was desired to drink. After 
he had drunk, he paused awhile, looking very sadly, and suddenly 
brake out into these words: "Surely, I have done amiss!" "Why 
so?" quoth Sir Thomas Wharton. " I have drunk," said he, "in that 
place where God's word offered hath been refused : whereas if I had 
remembered my duty, I ought to have departed immediately, and to have 
shaken off the dust of my shoes for a testimony against this house." 
These words were by the bishop spoken with such a vehemency, that 
some of the hearers afterward confessed their hair to stand upright on 
their heads. This done, the bishop departed, and so returned to his 
house. 

At this time a great creation of peers took place. Warwick was 
made duke of Northumberland, the Percies being then under an at- 
tainder: Paulet was made Marquis of Winchester; Herbert, earl of 



522 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Pembroke; and a little before this, Russel had been created earl of 
Bedford ; and Darcy was made a lord. There was none so likely to take 
the king out of Northumberland's hands, as the duke of Somerset, who 
was beginning to form a new party. Therefore, upon some informations, 
the duke of Somerset and his duchess, Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Thomas 
Palmer, Sir Thomas Arundel, and several others, of whom some were 
gentlemen of quality, and others the duke's servants, were all committed 
to the Tower. Committing Palmer was a mere delusion, for he had 
betrayed the duke, and was seized as an accomplice, after which, he 
pretended to discover a plot: he said, the duke intended to have raised 
the people, and that Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke, 
having been invited to dine at the lord Paget's, he intended to have 
set on them by the way, or have killed them at dinner; that Vane was 
to have 2000 men ready ; Arundel was to have seized on the Tower, and 
all the gendarmarie were to have been killed. These things were told 
the young king with such specious circumstances, that he was deluded 
by them, and unhappily became alienated from his uncle, judging him 
guilty of so foul a conspiracy. It was added by others, that the duke 
intended to have raised the city of London; one Crane confirmed 
Palmer's testimony, and both the earl of Arundel and Paget were com- 
mitted as accomplices. 

On the first of December the duke was brought to his trial : the marquis 
of Winchester, lord steward presided; and twenty-seven peers sat in 
judgment, among whom were the dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland, 
and the earl of Pembroke. The particular charges were, a design to 
seize on the king's person, to imprison Northumberland, and to raise 
the city of London. It seemed a gross dereliction of justice for Nor- 
thumberland to sit as judge, when one crime alleged was a design against 
his life: for though by the law of England no peer can be challenged, 
yet by the law of nature no man can judge where he is a party. The 
chancellor, though a peer, was left out, upon suspicion of a reconcilia- 
tion which he was making with the duke. The protector was not deeply 
skilled in law, and neither objected to the indictment, nor desired 
counsel to plead for him, but only answered to matters of fact: he denied 
all design to raise the people, or to kill Northumberland; or if he had 
talked thus it was in passion, without any intention: and it was ridicu- 
lous to think, that he with a small troop could destroy nine hundred 
gendarmarie. The armed men he had about him were for his own de- 
fence; he had done no mischief to his enemies, though it was once in 
his power to have done it ; and he had surrendered himself without any 
resistance: he desired the witnesses might be brought face to face, and 
objected many things to them, chiefly to Palmer; but this common act 
of justice was denied him, and their depositions were only read. He 
carried himself during the trial with great temper, and all the sharpness 
which the king's counsel expressed in pleading against him did not 
provoke him to any indecent passion. 

When sentence was given his courage sank a little, and he asked the 
three lords, who were his enemies, pardon for his ill designs against 
them, and made suit for his life, and for his wife and children. It was 
generally thought that nothing being found against him but an intention 



FALL OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. 523 

to imprison a privy counsellor, which had never taken effect, one so 
nearly related to the king, would not have been put to death on that 
account : it was therefore necessary to raise in the king a great aversion 
to him. Accordingly, a story was brought to him, as if in the Tower the 
protector had confessed a design to employ means to assassinate these 
lords; and the persons said to have been named for that wicked service 
were all persuaded to affirm it. This being believed by the king, he 
took no care to preserve him, assassination being a crime of so bar- 
barous a nature, that it possessed him with a horror, even of his uncle, 
when he thought him guilty of it: and thus was he given up to his ene- 
mies. Stanhope, Partridge, Arundel, and Vane, were next tried : the 
two first were not much pitied, for they had made an ill use of their in- 
terest in the duke during his greatness: the last two were much lamented. 
Arundel's jury was shut up a whole day and night, and those who were 
for the acquittal yielded to the fury of the rest, only that they might 
save their own lives, and not be starved. Vane had done great service 
in the wars, and carried himself with considerable magnanimity. They 
were all condemned: Partridge and he were hanged, the other two 
were beheaded. 

The lord chancellor had become a secret friend to the duke of 
Somerset, which was thus discovered : he went aside once at council 
and wrote a note giving the duke notice of what was then in agitation 
against him, and, endorsing it only for the duke, sent it to the Tower : 
but his servant, not having particular directions, fancied it was to the 
duke of Norfolk, and carried it to him. He, to make Northumberland 
his friend, forwarded it to him : upon Rich understanding the mistake 
into which his servant had fallen, to prevent the discovery, went imme- 
diately to the king, and pretending some indisposition desired to be 
discharged ; upon which the great seal was taken from him, and put in 
the hands of the bishop of Ely. This was much censured, for all the 
reformers had inveighed severely against the secular employments and 
high places which bishops had held in the church of Rome. Christ 
said, " Who made me a judge?" St. Paul left it as a rule, that " No 
man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life." This 
Saint Cyprian and the other fathers understood as a perpetual prohibi- 
tion of churchmen's meddling with secular matters, and condemned it 
severely. Many canons were made against this in provincial councils, 
and a very full one was decreed at Chalcedon. But as the bishops of 
Rome and Alexandria grew rich and powerful, they established a sort 
of secular principality in the church: and other sees, as they increased 
in wealth affected to imitate them. Charles the Great raised this much 
every where, and gave great territories and privileges to the church; 
upon which bishops and abbots were not only admitted to a share in 
the public counsels, by virtue of their lands, but all the chief offices of 
the state were open to them ; and then ecclesiastical preferments were 
given to courtiers as rewards for their services. By these means the 
clergy became very corrupt, merit and learning being no longer the 
standards by which men were esteemed or promoted : and bishops were 
only considered as a sort of great men, who went in a peculiar habit, 
and on great festivities were obliged to say mass, or perform some other 



524 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

solemnities. They wholly abandoned the souls committed to their care, 
and left the spiritual part of their callings to their vicars and arch- 
deacons, who made no other use of it, but to oppress the inferior clergy 
and the people. 

We now proceed to relate the death of the Protector, as furnished by a 
certain nobleman, who was present at the deed-doing, and wrote the same. 
In the year of our Lord 1552, and the month of January, he was brought 
out of the Tower of London, delivered to the sheriffs of the city, and 
compassed about with a great number of armed men both of the guard 
and others. He was conducted to the scaffold on Tower-hill, where 
changing neither voice nor countenance, but in a manner and with the 
same gesture which he commonly used at home, kneeling upon both his 
knees and lifting up his hands, commended himself unto God. After 
he had ended a few short prayers, standing up again, and turning himself 
toward the east side of the scaffold, nothing at all abashed either with 
the sight of the axe, nor yet of the executioner, nor of present death ; 
but with the same alacrity and cheerfulness of mind and countenance 
as he was accustomed to shew when he heard the causes and supplication 
of others, and especially the poor, he uttered these words to the 
people : — 

" Dearly beloved friends, I am brought hither to suffer death, albeit 
that I never offended against the king either by word or deed, and 
have been always as faithful and true unto this realm as any man. But 
forsomuch as I am by law condemned to die, I do acknowledge myself 
as well as others to be subject thereunto. Wherefore to testify my 
obedience which I owe unto the laws, I am come hither to suffer death ; 
whereunto I willingly offer myself, with most hearty thanks unto God, 
who hath given me this time of repentance, who might through sudden 
death have taken away my life, that neither I should have acknowledged 
him nor myself. Moreover, dearly beloved friends, there is yet some- 
what that I must put you in mind of, as touching the Christian religion; 
which so long as I was in authority, I always diligently set forth and 
furthered to my utmost power. Neither do I repent me of my doings, 
but rejoice therein, seeing that now the state of Christian religion cometh 
most near unto the form and order of the primitive church. Which 
thing I esteem as a great benefit given of God both unto you and me ; 
most heartily exhorting you all, that this which is most purely set forth 
unto you, you will with like thankfulness accept and embrace, and set 
out the same in your living. Which thing if you do not, without doubt 
greater mischief and calamity will follow." 

When he had spoken these words, there was suddenly a terrible noise 
heard; whereupon there came a great fear upon all men. This noise 
was as it had been the noise of some great storm or tempest, which to 
some seemed to be from above ; as if a great deal of gunpowder being 
inclosed in an armory, and having caught fire, had violently broken 
out. But unto some it seemed as though it had been a great multitude 
of horsemen running together or coming upon them. Such a noise then 
was in the ears of all, although they saw nothing. Whereby it hap- 
pened that all the people being amazed without any evident cause, they 
ran away, some into the ditches and puddles, and some into the houses 



EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. 525 

thereabouts; others fell down grovelling unto the ground, with their 
poleaxes and halberts ; and most of them cried out, " Jesus save us, 
Jesus save us!" Those who remained in their places, for fear knew not 
where they were ; and I myself who was there among the rest, being 
also afraid in this hurly-burly, stood still amazed. It happened here, 
as the evangelist wrote of Christ, when as the officers of the high priests 
and pharisees, coming with weapons to take him, being astonished ran 
backwards and fell to the ground. 

In the meantime, whilst these things were thus in doing, the people 
by chance espied one Sir Anthony Brown riding under the scaffold ; 
which was the occasion of a new noise. For when they saw him coming 
they conjectured that which was not true, but which they all sincerely 
wished for, that the king by that messenger had sent his uncle pardon ; 
and therefore with great rejoicing and casting up their caps, they cried 
out, " Pardon, pardon is come, God save the king." Thus this good 
duke, although he was destitute of all man's help, yet saw before his 
departure, in how great love and favour he was with all men. And 
truly I do not think that in so great slaughter of dukes as hath been in 
England within these few years there were so many weeping eyes at one 
time ; and not without cause. For all men saw in his fall the public 
ruin of England, except such as indeed did perceive nothing. Mean- 
time standing in the same place, the duke modestly and with a grave 
countenance made a sign to the people with his hand, that they would 
keep themselves quiet. Which done, and silence obtained, he spake 
unto them in this manner. 

" Dearly beloved friends, there is no such matter here in hand as you 
vainly hope or believe. It seemeth thus good unto Almighty God, whose 
ordinance it is meet and necessary that we all be obedient unto. 
Wherefore I pray you all to be quiet, and to be contented with my 
death, which I am most willing to suffer ; and let us now join in prayer 
unto the Lord for the preservation of the king's majesty, unto whom 
hitherto I have always shewed myself a most faithful and true subject. 
I have always been most diligent about his majesty in his affairs both at 
home and abroad, and no less diligent in seeking the common good of 
the whole realm." At which words all the people cried out, " It is most 
true." The duke on their silence proceeding, said, " Unto whose majesty 
I wish continual health, with all felicity and all prosperous success." 
Whereunto the people again cried out, " Amen." The duke then added 
also, " I do wish unto all his counsellors the grace and favour of 
God, whereby they may rule in all things uprightly with justice. Unto 
whom I exhort you all in the Lord to shew yourselves obedient, as it is 
your bounden duty, under the pain of condemnation, and also most pro- 
fitable for the preservation and safeguard of the king's majesty. 

" Moreover, as heretofore I have had oftentimes affairs with divers 
men, and hard it is to please every man, therefore if there be any who 
hath been offended and injured by me, I most humbly require and ask 
him forgiveness; but especially Almighty God, whom throughout all my 
life I have most grievously offended ; and all others whosoever they be 
that have offended me, I do with my whole heart forgive them. Now 
I once again require you, dearly beloved in the Lord, that you will keep 



526 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

yourselves quiet and still, lest through your tumult you might trouble 
me. For albeit the spirit be willing and ready, the flesh is frail and 
wavering, and through your quietness I shall be much more composed. 
Above all I desire you to bear me witness that I die here in the faith of 
Jesus Christ ; desiring you to help me with your prayers, that I may 
persevere constant in the same unto my end." 

After this, turning himself again, he kneeled down. Then Dr. Cox, 
who was present to counsel and advise him, delivered a certain scroll 
into his hand, wherein was contained a brief confession unto God. 
This being read the duke stood up again without any trouble of mind, 
and first bade the sheriffs farewell, then the lieutenant of the Tower, and 
others, taking them all by the hand which were upon the scaffold with 
him. Then he gave money to the executioner ; which done, he put off 
his gown, and kneeling down again in the straw, untied his shirt strings. 
After that, the executioner coming to him turned down his collar about 
his neck and all other things which hindered him. Then lifting up 
his eyes to heaven and covering his face with his own handkerchief, he 
laid himself down along, shewing no trouble or fear, neither did his 
countenance change. But because his doublet covered his neck, he was 
commanded to rise up and put it off; and then laying himself down 
again upon the block, and calling thrice upon the name of Jesus, say- 
ing, " Lord Jesus, save me," as he was the third time repeating the 
same, even as the name of Jesus was in uttering, in a moment he was 
bereft both of head and life, and slept in the Lord ; being taken away 
from all dangers and evils of this life, and resting in the peace of God : 
in the preferment of whose truth and gospel he always shewed himself 
an excellent instrument and member, and therefore hath received the 
reward of his labour. 

He was a man of extraordinary virtues, of great candour, and eminent 
piety : he was always a promoter of justice, and a patron of the oppressed. 
He was a better soldier than statesman, being too easy and open-hearted 
to be so cautious as such times and such employments required. The 
people saw that all this conspiracy, for which he and the other four 
suffered, was only a forgery : the other accomplices were quickly dis- 
charged, and Palmer, the chief witness, became Northumberland's par- 
ticular confident : and even those indiscreet words which the duke had 
spoken in his warmth, and his gathering armed men about him, was 
imputed to Palmer's artifices, who had put him in fear of his life, and 
thus made him do and say those things for which he lost it. His four 
friends all ended their lives, with the most solemn protestations of inno- 
cence ; and the whole matter was looked on as a contrivance of Nor- 
thumberland's, by which he entirely lost the affections of the people. 
The chief objection to the duke was, his having raised much of his estate 
out of the spoils of bishops' lands, and his palace d out of the ruins of 
some churches ; and to this was added a remark, that he did not claim 
the benefit of the clergy, which would have saved him. Since he had 
so spoiled the church, they imputed it to a particular judgment on him 

A That beautiful building and ornament of the country, Somerset-house, in the Strand, 
London. 



THE COMMON PRAYER-BOOK ESTABLISHED. 527 

that he forgot it ; but in this they were mistaken, for in the act by which 
he was condemned, it was provided that no clergy should purge that 
felony — another proof, if it were wanting, that he was the innocent victim 
of a cruel conspiracy. 

The day after the duke of Somerset's execution, a session of parliament 
was assembled. The first act which passed established the common prayer- 
book, as it was now amended. The bishops were required to proceed by 
the censures of the church against such as used it not: they also au- 
thorised the book of ordinations, and enacted the same penalties against 
offenders, that were in the act for the former book three years before. 
The papists took occasion of the changes now made to say, that the 
new doctrines and ways of worship changed as fast as the fashions. It 
was answered, that it was no wonder if corruptions, which had been 
creeping in for a thousand years, were not all discovered and thrown 
out at once; and since they had been every age making additions of 
new ceremonies, it might be excused if the purging them out was done 
by such easy degrees. The book was not to be received till All-hallows, 
because it was hoped that in the interval the reformation of the eccle- 
siastical laws would have been finished. The following law passed for 
holy-days and fasts — " No days are to be esteemed holy in their own 
nature, but by reason of those holy duties which ought to be done in 
them, for which they were dedicated to the service of God. Days are 
esteemed to be dedicated only to the honour of God, even those in which 
the saints were commemorated. Sundays, and the other holy-days, 
are to be religiously observed, and the bishops are to proceed to censures 
against offenders. The eves before them are to be fasts, and abstinence 
from flesh are enacted both in Lent and on Fridays and Saturdays.'* The 
liberty to tradesmen to work on these days, was abused to a public pro- 
fanation of them, and the stricter clauses in the act were little regarded. 
An act also passed empowering churchwardens to gather collections for 
the poor, and the bishops to proceed against such as refused to contri- 
bute; which, though it was a bill that taxed the people, yet had its rise 
in the house of lords. An act likewise passed for the marriage of the 
clergy. Whereas the former act about it was thought only a permission 
of it, as some other unlawful things were connived at; upon which the 
wives and children of the clergy were reproachfully used, and the word 
of God was not heard with due reverence ; therefore their marriages 
were declared good and valid. The bishopric of Westminster was re- 
united to London, only the collegiate church was still continued. 

The convocation now confirmed the articles of religion which had 
been prepared in the former year, and thus was the reformation of wor- 
ship and doctrine brought to such a degree, that since that time there 
has been very little alteration made. One branch of it was still un- 
finished, and was now under consultation, touching the government of 
the church, and the rules of the ecclesiastical courts. Two acts had 
passed in the former reign, and one in this, empowering a commission 
to revise all the laws of the church, and digest them into a body. King 
Henry had issued the commission, and the persons were named who 
made some progress in it, as appears by some of Cranmer's letters to 
him. In this reign it had been begun several times; but the changes in 



528 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the government had caused it to be laid aside. Thirty-two were found 
to be too many for preparing the first draught, so that eight were ap- 
pointed to make it ready for them: these were Cranmer, Ridley, Petre, 
Martyr, Trahern, Taylor, Lucas, and Gosnold, two bishops, two divines, 
two civilians, and two common lawyers; but it was generally believed 
that Cranmer drew it entirely by himself, while the rest only corrected 
what he designed. Haddon and Cheek were employed to put it in 
Latin ; in which they succeeded so well, and arrived at so true a purity 
in the Roman style* that it is equal to a work of the best ages. The 
work was cast into fifty-one titles; perhaps it was designed to bring it 
near the number of the books into which Justinian digested the Roman 
law. The eight finished it, and offered it to the thirty-two; who divided 
themselves into four classes, every one of which was to offer his correc- 
tions, and when it had passed through them all, it was to be presented 
to the king for his confirmation ; but he died before it was quite finished. 
The principal objects of this bill are well worthy of being known. 
The first title was concerning the catholic faith : it was made capital to 
deny the christian religion. The books of scripture were reckoned up, 
and the apocrypha left out. The four first general councils were re- 
ceived; but both councils and fathers were to be submitted to only as 
they agreed with the scriptures. The second enumerates and condemns 
many heresies, extracted out of the opinions of the church of Rome, 
and the tenets of the anabaptists. The judgment of heresy was to lie 
in the bishop's court, except in exempted places. Persons suspected 
might be required to purge themselves, and those who were convicted, 
were to abjure and do penance; but such as were obstinate were de- 
clared infamous, and not to have the benefit of the law, or of making 
testaments, and so all capital proceedings for heresies were laid aside. 
Blasphemy against God was to be punished as obstinate heresy. Bishops 
were appointed once a year to call all their clergy together to examine 
them concerning their flocks : and itinerant preachers were to be often 
employed for visiting such precincts as might be put under their care. 
All marriages were to be after bans, and to be annulled if not done 
according to the book of common prayer. Corrupters of virgins were 
to marry them; or if that could not be done, to give them the third 
part of their goods, and suffer punishment. Marriages made by force, 
or without consent of parents, were declared null. Polygamy was 
forbid. A clergyman guilty of adultery was to forfeit his goods and 
estate to his wife and children, or to some pious use; and to be banished 
or imprisoned during life: a layman guilty of it was to forfeit the half, 
and be banished or imprisoned during life : wives who were guilty were to 
be punished in the same manner. The innocent party might marry again 
after a divorce. Desertion, or mortal enmity, or the constant perverseness 
of a husband might induce a divorce. Patrons were charged to give pre- 
sentations without making bargains ; to choose the fittest persons, and not 
to make promises till the livings were vacant. The bishops were required 
to use great strictness in the trial of those whom they ordained; all plu- 
ralities and non-residence were condemned, and all who were presented 
were to purge themselves of simony by oath. All superstitious purgations 
were condemned. The communion was to be every Sunday in cathedrals, 



REDUCED CONDITION OF THE CLERGY. 529 

and a sermon to be in the afternoon : such as received the sacrament 
were to give notice to the minister the day before, that he might examine 
them. The catechism was appointed to be explained an hour in the 
afternoon on holy-days. After the evening prayer the poor were to be 
taken care of. Penances were to be enjoined to scandalous persons; 
and the minister was to confer with some of the ancients of the people 
concerning the state of the parish, that admonitions might be applied as 
there was occasion. A rural dean was to be in every precinct to watch 
over the clergy according to the bishop's directions : archdeacons were 
to be over them, and the bishop over all ; who was to have yearly synods, 
and visit every third year. His family was to consist of clergymen, in 
imitation of St. Austin, and other ancient bishops; these he was to train 
up for the service of the church. When bishops became infirm they 
were to have co-adjutors; archbishops were to do the episcopal duties 
in their diocese, and to visit their province. Every synod was to begin 
with a communion, and after that, the ministers were to give an account 
of their parishes, and follow such directions as the bishop should give 
them. A scheme was drawn of excommunication, which was entrusted 
to churchmen for keeping the church pure, and was not to be inflicted 
but for obstinacy in some gross fault. Such as had the king's pardon 
for capital offences were yet liable to church-censures. Then followed 
the office of absolving penitents : they were to come to the church-door 
and crave admittance, and the minister having brought them in, was to 
read a long discourse concerning sin, repentance, and the mercies of 
God. Then the party was to confess his sin, and to ask God and the 
congregation pardon ; upon which the minister was to lay his hands on 
his head, and to pronounce the absolution. Then a thanksgiving was 
to be offered to God at the communion-table for the reclaiming that 
sinner. The other heads of this work relate to the other parts of the 
law of those courts. 

There were at this time remedies under consideration for the great 
misery and poverty of the clergy : but the laity were so much concerned 
to oppose them, that there was no hope of bringing them to any good 
effect, till the king should come to be of age, and endeavour to recover 
again a competent maintenance for them out of the hands of those who 
had devoured their revenues. Heath and Day, the bishops of Worcester 
and Chichester, were this year deprived of their bishoprics, by a court 
of delegates composed all of laymen : but it does not appear for what 
offences they were suspended. The bishoprics of Gloucester and Wor- 
cester were united, and put under Hooper's care; but soon after, the 
former was made an exempted archdeaconry, and he was declared 
bishop only of Worcester. In every see, as it became vacant, the best 
manors were seized by such hungry courtiers as had the interest to pro- 
cure the grant of them. It was thought, that the bishops' sees were so 
enriched, that they could never be made poor enough: and such haste 
was made in spoiling them, that they were reduced to a condition hardly 
possible for a bishop to subsist in them. If what had been thus taken 
from them had been converted to good uses, such as supplying the infe- 
rior clergy, it had been some mitigation of the robbery : but their lands 
12 2 m 



530 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

were taken up by laymen, who thought of making no compensation for 
the spoils. 

This year the reformation had gained more ground in Ireland than 
formerly. Henry VIII. had assumed to himself, by consent of the 
parliament of that kingdom, the title of king of Ireland: the former 
kings of England having only been called lords of it. The popes and 
emperors pretended that such titles could be given only by them : the 
former said, all power in heaven and earth was given to Christ, and by 
consequence to his vicar. The latter, as carrying the title of Roman 
emperor, pretended that as the imperial power anciently bestowed those 
titles, so it devolved on him who retained only the name and shadow of 
that great authority. But princes and states have thought they may 
bring themselves under what titles they please. Though the kings of 
England were well obeyed within the English pale, yet the Irish con- 
tinued barbarous and uncivilized, and were guided entirely by the 
heads of their names or tribes, and were obedient or rebellious as they 
directed them. In Ulster they had a great dependance on Scotland, 
and there were some risings there, during the war with that country, 
which were quieted by giving the leading men pensions, and getting 
them to come and live within the English pale. Monluc, bishop of 
Valence, being then in Scotland, went over thither to raise new com- 
motions; but his efforts had no effect. While he was there his lascivi- 
ousness came to be discovered by an odd accident: a woman of the 
town, brought to him by some English friars, and secretly kept by him, 
searching among his clothes, fell on a small bottle of something very odori- 
ferous, and drank it off; which being discovered by the bishop, put him 
in a most violent passion, for it had been given him as a present by 
Solyman the magnificent when he was ambassador at his court. It was 
called the richest balm of Egypt, and valued at 2000 crowns. His rage 
grew so boisterous that all about him discovered both his passion and 
lewdness at once. The reformation was set up in the English pale, but 
had made small progress among the Irish. This year Basle was sent 
over to labour among them. He was an eager writer, and a learned 
zealous man. Goodaker was sent to be primate of Armagh, and Basle 
was to be bishop of Ossory. Two Irishmen were also promoted with 
them; who undertook to advance the reformation there. The archbishop 
of Dublin intended to have ordained them by the old pontifical, and all 
except Basle were willing it should be so; but he prevailed that it 
should be done according to the new book of ordinations: after that he 
went into his diocese, but found all there in dark popery, and before 
he could make any progress the king's death put an end to his 
designs. 

The world had long been anxiously looking for the result of the 
council of Trent, trusting that it might lead to the establishment of 
order throughout the European countries; which appeared no less to have 
been desired both by princes and bishops in hopes that differences of 
religion would have been composed, and the corruptions of the court 
of Rome reformed by it. This had made the pope very apprehensive 
of it: but such was the cunning of the legates, the number of Italian 
bishops, and the dissensions of the princes, that it had an effect quite 



AN EDICT PASSED IN FAVOUR OF THE PROTESTANTS. 531 

contrary to what all sides expected. The breach in religion became 
past reconciling by the positive decisions they made : the abuses of the 
court of Rome were confirmed by the provisos made in favour of the 
privileges of the apostolic see : and the world was at length so cured of 
their longings for a general council, that none has been since that time 
desired. The history of that council was written with great exactness 
and judgment by father Paul, of Venice, while it was yet fresh in all 
men's memories; and though it discovered the whole secret of the trans- 
actions there, yet none set himself to write against it for forty years; 
then Pallavicini at last undertook it, and upon the credit of many memo- 
rials. In many things he contradicts father Paul ; but in the main of the 
history they both agree, so far that it is manifest things were not fairly 
carried, and that matters were managed by intrigue rather than fair and 
open discussion. 

Prince Maurice declared for the liberty of Germany, and took Augs- 
burgh, and several other towns. The king of France fell upon the em- 
pire with a great force, and by surprise made himself master of Metz 
and Verdun, and thought to have got Strasburgh. Maurice sent his 
demands to the emperor for the landgrave's liberty, and for restoring 
the freedom of the empire : but the emperor being slow in making an- 
swer, he marched on to Inspruck, where he surprised a post, and was 
within two miles of him before he was aware of it, so that the emperor 
was forced to flee, nor stopped till he was safe in Italy. Thus the very 
army and prince which had been chiefly instrumental in the ruin of the 
empire, now again asserted its freedom ; and the emperor's great design 
on Germany was so blasted, that he could never after put any life in it. 
He was forced to discharge his prisoners, and to call in the proscriptions; 
and after some treaty, the edict of Passa was made by which the free 
exercise of the protestant religion was granted to the princes and towns: 
and thus did that storm which had almost overwhelmed the princes 
of that persuasion end, without any other considerable effect beyond 
the translation of the electorial dignity from John to Maurice. The 
emperor's misfortunes increased on him, for against all reason he be- 
sieged Metz in December, and after he had ruined his army in it he 
was forced to raise the siege. He retired into Flanders in such discon- 
tent that for some time he would not admit any to approach him. There 
it was believed he first formed that design, which some years after he 
put in execution, of forsaking the world, and exchanging the pomp of 
a court for the retirement of a monastery. This strange turn in his 
affairs gave a great demonstration of an over-ruling Providence govern- 
ing all human affairs, and of that particular care that God had of the 
reformation, in recovering it when it seemed to be lost, and hopeless of 
recovery in the German states. 

In the year 1553, another visitation took place in England. Visitors 
were sent to examine what plate was in every church, and to leave in 
each only one or two chalices of silver, with linen for the communion- 
table and for surplices; to bring all other things of value to the trea- 
surer of the king's household, and to sell the rest and give it to the 
poor. But from these and numerous other changes, the public atten- 
tion soon became diverted by a rumour of the young king's alarming 



532 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

affliction. His wisdom and vitue were appreciated in all parts of the 
land, and for his own sake e.s well as on account of the reformation, 
the rumour excited deep and general lamentation. 

He had contracted cold by violent exercises, which in January settled 
into so obstinate a cough that all the skill of physicians and the aid of 
medicine proved ineffectual. There was a suspicion taken up and spread 
over all Europe that he was poisoned : but no certain grounds appear 
for justifying it. During this sickness, Ridley preached before him, 
and among other things spoke much on charity, and the duty of men 
of high condition to be eminent in good works. The king was much 
touched with this; and, after sermon, he sent for the bishop, and treated 
him with such respect that he made him sit down covered : he then told 
him what impression his exhortation had made on him, and desired to 
be directed by him how to do his duty in that matter. Ridley took a 
little time to consider of it, and after some consultation with the lord 
mayor and aldermen of London, he brought the king a scheme of se- 
veral foundations: one for the sick and wounded; another for such as 
were wilfully idle: and a third for orphans. Without delay Edward 
endowed St. Bartholomew's hospital for the first, Bridewell for the second, 
and Christ church, near Newgate, for the third; enlarging the grant he 
made the former year for St. Thomas's hospital in Southwark. The 
statutes and warrants relating to these were not finished before the 26th 
of June, though he gave order to make all the haste that was possible : 
and when he set his hand to them he blessed God for prolonging his 
life till he finished his designs concerning them. These houses have, 
by the good government and great charities of the city of London, 
continued to be so useful, and grown to be so well endowed, that they 
may be reckoned among the noblest in Europe. 

The king bore his sickness with great submission to the will of God, 
and seemed concerned in nothing so much as the state that religion 
and the church would be in after his death. The duke of Suffolk had 
three daughters: the eldest was married to the lord Guildford Dudley, 
son to the duke of Northumberland; the second to the earl of Pem- 
broke's eldest son ; and the third to one Keys. The duke of Northum- 
berland married also his two daughters ; one to sir Henry Sydney, and 
the other to the earl of Huntingdon's eldest son. He grew to be so 
much hated by the people, that the jealousy of the king's being 
poisoned was fastened on him. But he regarded these things little, 
and resolved to improve the fears the king was in concerning religion 
to the advantage of lady Jane Grey. Edward was easily persuaded to 
order the judges to put some articles, which he had signed for the suc- 
cession of the crown, in the common form of law. They answered that 
the succession being settled by act of parliament, could not be taken 
away except by the same authority ; yet the king required them to do 
what he commanded them. But the next time they came to the council 
they declared, that it had been made treason to change the succession 
by an act passed in this reign, so that they Could not meddle with it. 
Montague was chief justice, and spoke in the name of the rest. On 
this Northumberland fell into a great passion against him, calling him 
traitor for refusing to obey the king's commands. The judges were not 






DEATH OF KING EDWARD VI. 533 

shaken by his threatenings ; and they were again brought before the 
king, who sharply rebuked them for their delays: but they said that 
all they could do would be of no force without a parliament, yet they 
were required to perform it in the best manner they could. 

At last Montague desired they might first receive pardon for what 
they were to do, which being granted, all the judges, except Gosnold 
and Hale, agreed to the patent, and delivered their opinion that the 
lord chancellor might put the seal to it, and that then it would be good 
in law. The former of these was at last wrought on; so that Hale was 
the only man who stood out to the last: he was a zealous protestant, 
and would not give his opinion against his conscience upon any con- 
sideration whatsoever. The privy counsellors were next required to set 
their hands to it: Cecil, in a relation he wrote of this transaction, says 
that hearing some of the judges declare so positively that it was against 
law, he refused to set his hand to it as a prn y counsellor, but signed it 
only as a witness to the king's subscription. Cranmer stood out long, 
he came not to the council when it was passed, and refused to consent 
to it when he was pressed to it; for he said he would never have a hand 
in disinheriting his late master's daughters. The dying king was at 
last set on him, and by his importunity prevailed with him to do it; 
upon which the seal was put to the patents. The distemper continued 
to increase, so that the physicians despaired of the king's recovery. 
A confident woman undertook his cure, and he was put into her hands; 
but she left him worse than she found him; and this heightened the 
jealousy against the duke of Northumberland, who had introduced her, 
and put the physicians away. At last, to crown his designs, he got the 
king to write to his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, to come and divert him 
in his sickness : and the matter of the exclusion had been carried so se- 
cretly, that they apprehending no danger had begun their journey. 

On the 6th of July the king felt death approaching, and prepared 
himself for it in a most devout manner. He was often heard offering 
up prayers and ejaculations to God. A few moments before he died 
he prayed earnestly that God would take him out of this wretched life, 
and committed his spirit to him; interceding very fervently for his 
subjects, that God would preserve England from popery, and maintain 
his true religion among them. Then turning his face, and seeing who 
was by him, he said unto them, "Are ye so nigh? I thought ye had 
been further off." Dr. Owen said, " We heard you speak to yourself, 
but what you said we know not." He then smiling said, " I was praying 
to God." The last words of his life were these, " I am faint, Lord 
have mercy upon me, and take my spirit." Soon after that he breathed 
out his pious soul to God, his emaciated body resting in Sir Henry 
Sydney's arms. Endeavours were used to conceal his death for some 
days, with design to draw his sisters into the snare before they should 
be aware of it, but that could not be done. 

Thus died Edward VI. in the sixteenth year of his age. He was 
counted the wonder of that time; e he was not only learned in the 

e The preceding year, Cardan the great philosopher of that age passed through England 
■m his return from Scotland to the Continent. lie waited on the youthful king, and was so 
charmed with his great knowledge and rare qualities, that he always spoke of him as the 



534 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tongues, and the liberal sciences, but knew well the state of his king- 
dom. He kept a book in which he had written the characters of all 
the eminent men of the nation; he studied fortification, and understood 
the mint well: he knew the harbours in all his dominions, with the 
depth of water, and way of coming into them. He understood foreign 
affairs so well, that the ambassadors who were sent into England pub- 
lished very extraordinary things of him in the several courts of Europe. 
He had great quickness of apprehension; but being distrustful of his 
memory, he took notes of every thing he heard that was considerable, 
in Greek characters, that those about him might not understand what 
he wrote. 

The following anecdote related of him may serve to shew, that the 
playfulness of youth would sometimes break out amidst the dignity of 
the monarch. He resided much at Greenwich, and being there on 
St. George's day, in the fourth year of his reign, when he was come from 
the sermon into the presence-chamber, there being his uncle the duke 
of Somerset, the duke of Northumberland, with other lords and knights 
of that order, called, "The Order of the Garter," he said to them, 
" My lords, I pray you, what Saint is St. George, that we here so honour 
him?" At which question the lords being all astonished, the lord trea- 
surer gave answer and said, " If it please your majesty, I never read 
in any history of St. George, but only in Legenda aurea, where it is 
thus set down: ' St. George out with his sword, and run the dragon 
through with his spear.'" The king could not a great while speak for 

most excellent character of his age he had ever seen : and after his death, he wrote the 
following account of him. 

" All the graces were in him : he understood many tongues when he was yet but a child ; 
together with the English, he knew both Latin and French; he also understood Greek, 
Italian, and Spanish. Nor was he ignorant of logic, of the principles of natural philosophy, 
or of music. The sweetness of his temper was admirable. His gravity became the ma- 
jesty of a king, and his disposition was suitable to his high degree. These things are not 
spoken rhetorically, and beyond the truth, but are indeed short of it. When I was with 
him, he was in his fifteenth year, in which he spake Latin politely and promptly. He asked 
me what was the subject of my book, De rerum veritate, which I dedicated to him? I 
answered, that in the first chapter I gave the true cause of comets, which had been long 
enquired into, but was never found out before. On his asking the cause, I said it was the 
concourse of the light of wandering stars. He asked how that could be, since the stars 
move in different motions ? How came it that the comets were not dissipated, or did not 
move after them according to their motions 1 To this I answered, ' They do move after 
them, but much quicker than they, by reason of the different aspect; as we see in crystal, 
or when a rainbow rebounds from a wall : for a little change makes a great difference of 
place.' The king said, ' How can that be, where there is no subject to receive that light, 
as the wall is the subject for the rainbow?' To this I answered, That this was as in 
the milky-way, or where many candles were lighted ; the middle place where their shining 
met was white and clear." From this sample it may be imagined what he was. The in- 
genuity and sweetness of his disposition had raised in all good and learned men, the great- 
est expectation of him possible. He began to love the liberal arts before he knew them, 
and to know them that he might use them : and in him there was such an attempt of 
nature, that not only England, but the world hath reason to lament his being so early 
snatched away. How truly was it said of such extraordinary persons, that their lives are 
short, and seldom do they come to be old ! He gave us an essay of virtue, though he did not 
live long to give a pattern of it. When the gravity of a king was needful, he carried himself 
like an old man, and yet he was always affable and gentle, as became his age. These ex- 
traordinary blossoms gave but too good reason to fear, that a fruit which ripened so fast 
could not last long. 



THE REFORMATION DISCOURAGED. 535 

laughing, and at length said, " I pray you, my lord, and what did he 
with his sword the while?" 

His virtues were wonderful : when he was made to believe, that his 
uncle was guilty of conspiring the death of the other counsellors, he 
upon that abandoned him. Barnaby Fitzpatrick was his favourite, and 
when he sent him to travel he often wrote to him, to keep good com- 
pany, to avoid excess and luxury, and to improve himself in those things 
that might render him capable of employment on his return. He was 
afterwards made lord of Upper Ossory in Ireland, by queen Elizabeth, 
and well answered the hopes which this excellent king had of him. 
Edward was very merciful in his nature, which appeared in his unwil- 
lingness to sign the warrant for burning the Maid of Kent. He took 
great care to have his debts well paid, reckoning that a prince who 
breaks his faith and loses his credit, has thrown up that which he can 
never recover, and made himself liable to perpetual distrust and extreme 
contempt. He took special care of the petitions that were given him 
by poor and oppressed people. But his great zeal for religion crowned 
all the rest. It was not a temporary heat about it that excited him, 
but it was a true tenderness of conscience, founded on the love of God 
and his neighbours. 

These extraordinary qualities, set off with great sweetness and affabi- 
lity, made him universally beloved by his people. Some called him 
their Josiah, others Edward the Saint, and others the Phoenix that rose 
out of his mother's ashes. All people concluded, that the sins of Eng- 
land must have been very great, since they provoked God to deprive 
the nation of so signal a blessing, as the rest of his reign would, to all 
appearance, have proved. Bishop Ridley, and the other good men of 
that time, made great lamentations of the vices, which were grown then 
so common, that men had passed all shame in them. Luxury, oppres- 
sion, and a hatred of religion had over-run the higher ranks of people, 
who gave a countenance to the reformation, merely to rob the church ; 
but by that, and their other practices, were become a great scandal to 
so good a work. The inferior classes were so much in the power of the 
priests, who were still, notwithstanding their outward compliance, papists 
in heart, and were so much offended at the spoil they saw made of all 
good endowments, without putting other and more useful ones in their 
room, that they who understood little of religion, laboured under great 
prejudices against every thing that was done in such a manner. And 
these things, as they provoked God highly, so they disposed the 
people much to that sad catastrophe which was experienced in the fol- 
lowing reign. 



BOOK XL 

THE REIGN OF QUEEN MARY. 



SECTION I. 

ACCESSION AND DEPOSITION OF THE LADY JANE GREY — FIRST ENTERING 

OF QUEEN MARY TO THE CROWN ALTERATIONS OF RELIGION, AND OTHER 

PERTURBANCES HAPPENING THE SAME TIME IN ENGLAND. 

The attention of British protestants is now called to a period of church 
history which cannot fail to awaken in their hearts that sympathy for 
their ancestors, which at present lies dormant in too many bosoms. A 
long career of religious prosperity appears to have obliterated from their 
minds the cruel persecutions of their forefathers, who for them bled in 
every vein — for them were consigned to devouring flames in every part 
of their country — preparing and establishing for their descendants, by 
the sacrifice of themselves, genuine liberty of person and of conscience. 
And while we review with gratitude and admiration effects produced by 
such causes, let us learn to appreciate those blessings which, by the 
continued providence of God, we have so long enjoyed. 

It has been asserted by Roman catholics, that all those who suffered 
death during the reign of queen Mary, had been adjudged guilty of 
high treason, in consequence of their having stood up in defence of 
lady Jane Grey's title to the crown. To disprove this, however, is no 
difficult matter, since every one conversant in history must know, that 
those who are tried on the statute of treason are to be hanged or be- 
headed. How can even papists affirm that ever men in England were 
burned for this crime? Some few suffered death in the ordinary way of 
process at common law, for their adherence to lady Jane ; but none of 
those were burned. Why, if traitors, were they taken before the bishops, 
who have no power to judge in criminal cases? Even allowing the 
bishops, as peers, to have had power to judge, yet their own bloody 
statute did not empower them to execute. The proceedings against the 
martyrs are still extant, and they were carried on directly according to 
the forms prescribed by their own statute. There was not one of those 
burned in England ever accused of high-treason, much less were they 
tried at common law. And this should teach the reader to value a 
history of transactions in their own country, particularly of their blessed 
martyrs, in order that they may be able to see through the veil which 
falsehood has cast over the face of truth. It should also be observed, 
that Mary's title to the throne was acknowledged by a very large 
number whom she burned as heretics, and that none of her burnings 
were considered necessary to render her throne and crown secure. 



MARY'S LETTER AND THE COUNCIL'S ANSWER. 537 

What time king Edward, by long sickness, became more feeble and weak, 
the marriage was provided, concluded, and shortly after solemnized in May, 
1553, between the lord Guilford, son of the duke of Northumberland, 
and lady Jane Grey, daughter of the duke of Suffolk, and grand-niece of 
Henry VIII. When king Edward was dead, this lady Jane was established 
in the kingdom by the nobles' consent, and proclaimed queen at London, 
and in other cities where was any great resort. In the meantime, while 
things were working at London, Mary, who had knowledge of her bro- 
ther's death, wrote to the lords of the council, reminding them of her title 
to the crown, and complaining of the preparations made to withstand her. 
" Wherefore, my lords," she concluded, "we require you, and charge you 
and every one of you, that of your allegiance which you owe to God and 
us, and to none other, for our honour and the surety of our person, only 
employ yourselves; and forthwith, upon receipt hereof, cause our right and 
title to the crown and government of this realm to be proclaimed in our 
city of London and other places, as to your wisdom shall seem good, and 
as to this case appertained ; not failing hereof, as our very trust is in you. 
And this letter, signed with our hand, shall be your sufficient warrant in 
this behalf." 

To this letter the lords of the council replied, that after king Edward's 
death the lady Jane was invested with and possessed the just right and 
title to the imperial crown by the ancient laws of the realm, and also by 
the late king's letters patent, sealed with the great seal of England in 
presence of the most part of the nobles, councillors, and judges, with 
divers others grave and sage personages, assenting and subscribing to the 
same ; and that they must therefore, as of most bounden duty and alle- 
giance, assent unto her said grace, and to none other. At the same time 
reminding the lady Mary, that the marriage between her father and the 
lady Katharine being declared null, she was justly made illegitimate and 
uninheritable to the crown. " Wherefore," they said, " we can no less 
do, but, for the quiet both of the realm and you also, advertise you to 
surcease by any pretence to vex and molest any of our sovereign lady 
queen Jane's subjects from their true faith and allegiance due unto her 
grace : assuring you, that if you will for respect show yourself quiet and 
obedient, (as you ought,) you shall find us all and several ready to do you 
any service that we with duty may, and be glad, with your quietness, to 
preserve the common state of this realm, wherein you may be otherwise 
grievous unto us, to yourself, and to them. And thus we bid you most 
heartily well to fare, your ladyship's friends, showing yourself an obedient 
subject. From the Tower of London, in this ninth of July, 1553." 

This letter was signed by Canterbury, Winchester, Ely, Northumberland, 
Bedford, Northampton, Suffolk, Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Riche, 
and twelve other lords of the council. On receiving which the lady Mary 
withdrew into Norfolk and Suffolk, where the duke of Northumberland 
was hated for the service that had been done there under king Edward, in 
subduing the rebels ; and there, gathering to her such aid of the common 
people on every side as she might, kept herself close for a space within 
Framlingham castle. Here she was joined by many who promised her 
their aid, on condition that she would not attempt the alteration of the re- 
ligion established by king Edward, This was readily agreed to by Mary; 



538 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

upon which they asserted her right, and she promised to maintain the 
true religion, and the laws of the land. 

Northumberland's proceeding against the duke of Somerset, and the 
suspicions that lay on him as the author of the late king's untimely 
death, begat a great aversion in the people to him, which disposed them 
to set up queen Mary. She in the mean time was very active. She 
gathered all in the neighbouring counties about her. The men of Suffolk 
were generally for the reformation, and a great body of them came to 
her, and asked if she would promise not to alter the religion established 
in king Edward's days. She assured them she would make no changes; 
but should be content with the private exercise of her own religion. 
Upon this they all vowed to live and die with her. The earl of Sussex, 
and several others, raised forces and proclaimed her queen. When this 
reached the knowledge of the council, they sent the earl of Huntingdon's 
brother to raise men in Buckinghamshire, and meet the forces that should 
be sent from London, at Newmarket. 

The duke of Northumberland was ordered to command the army. 
He was now much distracted in his thoughts; for it was of equal 
importance to keep London and the privy counsellors steady, and 
to conduct the army well: a misfortune in either of these was likely 
to be fatal to him. He was at a loss what to do: not a man of 
spirit who was firm to him could be left behind; and yet it was 
most necessary to disperse the force that was daily growing about 
queen Mary. The lady Jane and the council were removed to the 
Tower, not only for state, but for security ; for here the council were 
upon the matter prisoners. He could do no more, but lay a strict 
charge on the council to be firm to lady Jane's interests. He therefore 
marched out of London with 2000 horse, and 6000 foot, on the 14th of 
July : but no acclamations or wishes of success were to be heard as he 
passed through the streets. The council gave the emperor notice of the 
lady Jane's succession, and complained of the disturbance that was 
raised by Mary, and that his ambassador had officiously meddled in 
their affairs; but the emperor would not receive the letters. Mary's 
party in the mean time continued daily to augment. Hastings went over 
to her with 4000 men out of Buckinghamshire, and she was proclaimed 
queen in many places. At length the privy council began to see their 
danger, and to think how to avoid it. The earl of Arundel hated 
Northumberland. The marquis of Winchester was dexterous in shifting 
sides for his advantage. The earl of Pembroke's son had married the 
lady Jane's sister, which made him think it necessary to redeem the 
danger he was in by a speedy turn. To these many others were joined. 
They pretended it was necessary to give an audience to the foreign am- 
bassadors, who would not have it in the Tower: and the earl of Pem- 
broke's house was chosen, he being least suspected. 

When they got out, they resolved to declare for queen Mary, and rid 
themselves of Northumberland's uneasy yoke, which they knew they 
must bear if he were victorious. They sent for the lord mayor and 
aldermen, and easily gained their concurrence. They then went imme- 
diately to Cheapside, and proclaimed the queen; and from thence they 
went to St. Paul's, where Te deum was sung. They sent next to the 



SUBTILTY OF QUEEN MARY. 539 

Tower, requiring the duke of Suffolk to quit the government of that 
place, and the lady Jane to lay down the title of queen. To this she 
submitted with as much greatness of mind as her father shewed of 
abjectness. They sent also orders to Northumberland to dismiss his 
forces, and to obey Mary as queen; and the earl of Arundel and lord 
Paget were sent to carry these welcome tidings to her. When Nor- 
thumberland heard of the change that was in London, he disbanded his 
forces, went to the market-place at Cambridge, where he then was, and 
proclaimed the queen. The earl of Arundel was sent to apprehend him, 
and when he was brought to him, in the most servile manner he fell at 
his feet to beg his favour. He and three of his sons, and Sir Thomas 
Palmer — his wicked instrument against the duke of Somerset — w T ere all 
sent to the Tower. All people now flocked to implore the queen's 
favour, and Ridley among the rest; but he too was sent to the Tower: 
for she was both offended with him for his sermon, and resolved to put 
Bonner again in the see of London. Some of the judges, and several 
noblemen were also sent to the Tower; among the rest the duke of 
Suffolk, who was three days after set at liberty. He was a weak man, 
and could do little harm, he was consequently chosen as the first 
instance towards whom the queen should express her clemency. 

She came to London on the 3rd of August, and on the way was met 
by her sister, lady Elizabeth, with a thousand horse, whom she had 
raised to come to the queen's assistance. On arriving at the Tower, she 
liberated the duke of Norfolk, the duchess of Somerset, and Gardiner; 
also the lord Courtenay, son to the marquis of Exeter, who had been 
kept there ever since his father's attainder, whom she made earl of 
Devonshire. In this easy manner was Mary I. seated on the throne of 
England. To a disagreeable person and weak mind, she united bigotry, 
superstition, and cruelty. She seems to have inherited more of her 
mother's than her father's qualities. Henry was impatient, rough, and 
ungovernable; but Catherine, while she assumed the character of a 
saint, harboured bitter rancour and hatred against the protestants. It 
was the same with her daughter Mary, as appears from a letter in her 
own hand-writing, now in the British museum. In this letter, which is 
addressed to bishop Gardiner, she declares her fixed intention of burning 
every protestant; and it contains an insinuation, that as soon as circum- 
stances would permit, she would restore back to the church the lands 
that had been taken from the convents. This, however, discovers an 
ignorance, equalled only by her tyranny, for the convents had been 
demolished, except a few of their churches; and the rents were in the 
hands of the first nobility, who, rather than part with them, would have 
overturned the government both in church and state. 

On some occasions Mary had discovered no small degree of subtilty. 
During her father's life, " The king's displeasure at her was such," says 
bishop Burnet, "that neither the duke of Norfolk nor Gardiner durst 
venture to intercede for her." Cranmer was the only man who hazarded 
it, and did it effectually. But after her mother's death, she hearkened 
to other counsels, so that upon Anne Boleyn's fall, she made a full sub- 
mission to her father, as was mentioned before. She did also in many 
letters which she writ both to her father and to Cromwell, " Protest 



540 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

great sorrow for her former stubbornness, and declared, that she put her 
soul in his hand, and that her conscience should be always directed by 
him; and being asked what her opinion was concerning pilgrimages, 
purgatory, and reliques, she answered, that she had no opinion, but 
such as she received from the king, who had her whole heart in his 
keeping, and might imprint upon it in these and in all other matters 
whatever his inestimable virtue, high wisdom, and excellent learning, 
should think convenient for her." So perfectly had she learned the 
style that she knew was most acceptable to her father. 

Her promise to the Suffolk men also shewed the craft of her character, 
which was equalled only by its cruelty. The sword of power being now 
in her hand, she began to employ it against those who had supported 
the title of lady Jane Grey. This devoted victim remained with her 
husband, lord Guildford, almost five months in the Tower, waiting her 
pleasure. The duke of Northumberland had offers of pardon on con- 
dition of renouncing his religion and hearing mass; which he not only 
did, but also exhorted the people to return to the catholic faith. Not- 
withstanding this, within a month after confinement he was condemned 
and beheaded. The papists immediately published and spread abroad 
his recantation; but the duke, in consequence of his crimes arising from 
a sordid ambition, died unpitied; nay, he was insulted on the scaffold 
by those who remembered in what manner he had acted to their beloved 
Somerset. 

Sir Thomas Palmer and Sir John Gates were the next who suffered. 
The former confessed his faith in the reformed religion, and lamented 
that he had not lived more conformably to its precepts. Mary having 
thus begun her reign with the blood of these men, and with hearing 
mass in the Tower, clearly evinced the career in which she intended to 
proceed, and that she should but little regard the promise she had made 
to the Suffolk men. Besides these ill omens, there were other things 
which every day more and more discomfited the people, and which too 
plainly betrayed the queen's aversion to the reformation. Gardiner was 
made lord chancellor and bishop of Winchester. Bonner was advanced 
to the bishopric of London, by displacing Ridley. Day was promoted 
to the see of Durham, by displacing Scory. Tonstal was made bishop 
of Chichester, and Heath bishop of Worcester : Hooper was committed 
to the Fleet; and Vesie was made bishop of Exeter, by removing Miles 
Coverdale. All these innovations greatly alarmed the protestants, and 
afforded equal rejoicings to their enemies. Having thus laid the foun- 
dation of her reign in blood and treachery, Mary removed from the 
Tower to Hampton-court, and caused a parliament to be summoned on 
the 10th of October ensuing. 

We have mentioned Dr. Ridley, bishop of London, among those who 
were removed. He was a learned and pious prelate, who in the time of 
queen Jane, by order of the council, preached a sermon at Paul's Cross, 
declaring his opinion concerning the lady Mary, and enumerating the 
evils that might arise by admitting her to the crown : prophesying, as it 
were, that she would bring in a foreign power to reign over them, and 
subvert the christian religion then happily established. This, with ano- 
ther sermon after things were changed, disconcerted the queen beyond 



TUMULT AT PAUL'S CROSS. 541 

measure. The Sunday following her accession to the throne, Mr. Rogers 
preached, discoursing very learnedly on the gospel for the day. Where- 
upon Mary, perceiving things not to go forward according to her mind, 
consulted with her council how to bring about by other means, what 
by open law she could not well accomplish; and accordingly, by pro- 
clamation, prohibited any man from preaching or reading openly the 
word of God in churches, except by licence, which Gardiner took care 
to give only to such as would conform to his doctrine. The clergy dif- 
fered in opinion how far they were bound to obey this prohibition : some 
thought they might forbear public preaching when they were so re- 
quired, if they made it up by private conferences and instructions : others 
thought, that if this had been only a particular hardship upon a few, 
regard to peace and order should have obliged them to submit to it; 
but since it was general, and done on purpose to extinguish the light 
of the gospel, they ought to go on, and preach at their peril. Of this 
last sort several were put in prison for their disobedience, among others 
Hooper and Coverdale. 

On the 22d of August, the queen declared in council, That though she 
was fixed in her own religion, yet she would not compel others to its 
observance ; but would leave that to the motions of God's Spirit, and 
the labours of good preachers. The day after Bonner went to St. Paul's, 
and Bourne his chaplain preached, and extolled Bonner much, inveigh 
ing against the sufferings he had undergone. He took occasion from 
the gospel of the day to speak largely in justification of Bonner, saying 
that four years ago he had preached from the same text, and in the same 
place, for which he was most cruelly and unjustly cast into that most 
vile dungeon the Marshalsea, where he was confined during the reign of 
king Edward. The sermon provoked his hearers so as to cause them to 
murmur and stir in such a sort, that the mayor and aldermen feared an 
uproar : some cast stones at the preacher, and one hurled a dagger at 
him. In short, the tumult became so violent that Bourne was silenced, 
broke off his discourse, and durst no more appear in that place ; his 
discourse tended much to the dispraise of king Edward, which the 
people could in no wise endure. Mr. Bradford then stood forth, at 
the request of Mr, Bourne's brother, and spoke so mildly and effectually 
to the people, that with a few words quite pacified them. This done, 
he and Mr. Rogers conducted Mr. Bourne home ; for which generous 
conduct they were both, shortly after, rewarded with long imprisonment, 
and at last with fire in Smithfield, under the pretence, that the authority 
they shewed in quelling the tumult was a proof of their being the authors 
of it! 

It has already been intimated that all the pulpits were now put under 
an interdict, till the preachers should obtain a licence from Gardiner: 
and that he resolved to grant licences to none but such as would preach 
as he should direct them. His conduct encouraged the papists generally, 
and in their love of ancient rites and superstitions they began speedily 
to replace their images, and to revive their ceremonies in many of the 
churches. Every thing in fact seemed to threaten a subversion of the 
reformation, and the immediate re-establishment of all the errors and 
enormities of the Romish church. 



542 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



SECTION II. 

THE REPORT OF THE DISPUTATION HAD AND BEGUN IN THE CONVOCATION 
HOUSE AT LONDON, APPOINTED BY THE QUEEN, OCT. 18, 1553- 

On October 18th, Dr. Weston, who had been chosen prolocutor, certified 
to the house, that it was the queen's pleasure the learned men there as- 
sembled should debate of matters of religion, and constitute laws, which 
her grace and the parliament would ratify. " And for that," said he " there 
is a book of late set forth, called the Catechism, bearing the name of this 
honourable synod, and yet put forth without your consents, as I have 
learned ; being a book very pestiferous, and full of heresies ; and likewise 
a book of Common Prayer very abominable," as it pleased him to term 
it. "I thought it therefore best, first to begin with the articles of the 
Catechism, concerning the sacrament of the altar, to confirm the natural 
presence of Christ in the same, and also transubstantiation. Wherefore, it 
shall be lawful, on Friday next, for all men freely to speak their conscience 
in these matters, that doubts may be removed, and they satisfied therein." 

The Friday coming, being the 20th of October, when men had thought 
they should have entered disputations of the questions proposed, the 
prolocutor exhibited two bills to the house : the one for the natural pre- 
sence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, and the other concerning the 
Catechism, denying its being published by the consent of that house, re- 
quiring all them to subscribe to the same, as he himself had done. The 
whole house assented, except the deans of Rochester and Exeter, the arch- 
deacons of Winchester, Hereford, and Buckingham, and one more. 

And whilst the rest were about to subscribe these two articles, John 
Philpot spoke concerning the articles of the Catechism, and asserted that 
it had been composed by the order and authority of the convocation. 
Moreover, he said, as concerning the article of the natural presence in the 
sacrament, that it was against reason and order of learning, and also very 
prejudicial to the truth, that men should be moved to subscribe before the 
matter were thoroughly examined and discussed. But when he saw his 
allegation was to no purpose, he requested the prolocutor that there might 
be an equal number of persons of both sides concerned in this disputation, 
and desired that he would intercede with the lords, that some of those 
that were learned, and setters-forth of the same Catechism, might be 
admitted into the house ; and that Dr. Ridley and Mr. Rogers, with two 
or three more, might be liberated to be present at this disputation, and to 
be associated with them. This request was thought reasonable, and was 
proposed to the bishops, who returned for answer, that it was out of their 
power to call such persons to the house, since some of them were prisoners ; 
but they would petition the council in this behalf, and in case any of them 
were absent that ought to be of the house, they were agreeable to their 
admission. After this, they minding to have entered into disputation, 
there came a gentleman as messenger from the lord great master, signify- 
ing unto the prolocutor, that the lord great master and the earl of Devon- 
shire would be present at the disputations, and therefore he deferred the 
same unto Monday, at one of the clock at afternoon. 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 543 

Upon that day, the prolocutor made a protestation, in the presence of 
many earls, lords, knights, gentlemen, and divers others of the court and 
of the city also, that they of the house had appointed this disputation, not 
to call in question the truth to which they had subscribed, but that those 
gainsayers might be resolved respecting their doubts. 

Then be demanded of Mr. Haddon, whether he would reason against 
the questions proposed, or no. To whom he answered, that he had cer- 
tified him before in writing that he would not, since the request of such 
learned men as were demanded to be assistant with them, would not be 
granted. Mr. Elmar was likewise asked, who made the like answer : 
adding that they had already too much injured the truth by their sub- 
scribing before the subjects were discussed. Mr. Weston, turning to Mr. 
Cheney, or Cheyney, desired to know whether he would propose his 
doubts concerning transubstantiation ; when the latter answered, "I would 
gladly my doubts to be resolved which move me not to believe transubstan- 
tiation. The first is out of St. Paul to the Corinthians, who, speaking of 
the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, called it ofttimes bread, 
after the consecration. The second is out of Origen, who, speaking of 
this sacrament, saith that the material part thereof goeth down to the ex- 
crements. The third is out of Theodoret, who making mention of the 
sacramental bread and wine after the consecration, saith, that they go not 
out of their former substance, form, and shape. These be some of my 
doubts, among many others, wherein I require to be answered." 

Then the prolocutor assigned Dr. Moreman to answer him, who to St. 
Paul answered him thus : " The sacrament is called by him, bread indeed ; 
but it is thus to be understood : that it is the sacrament of bread ; that is, 
the form of bread." Then Mr. Cheney alleged, that Hesychius called the 
sacrament both bread and flesh. " Yea," said Moreman, " Hesychius 
calleth it bread, because it was bread, and not because it is so." And, 
passing over Origen, he came to Theodoret, and said, that men mistook 
his authority by interpreting a general into a special, as Peter Martyr has 
done in the place of Theodoret, interpreting ovola for substance, which is 
a special signification of the word; whereas ovala is a general word, as 
well to accidents as to substance. " And therefore I answer thus unto 
Theodoret : that the sacramental bread and wine do not go out of their 
former substance, form, and shape; that is to say, not out of their acci- 
dental substance and shape." 

After this Mr. Cheney sat down ; and by and by Mr. Elmar rose, de- 
claring that Moreman's answer to Theodoret was not just or sufficient, 
but an illusion and subtle evasion, contrary to Theodoret's meaning," etc. 
After this stood up John Philpot; and then began a further discussion, 
in which Dr. Moreman, the dean of Rochester, and Dr. Watson took 
part. The night coming on, the proculator broke up the disputation for 
that time ; and appointed Philpot to be the first that should begin the dis- 
putation next day, concerning the presence of Christ in the sacrament. 

On Wednesday, October 25th, John Philpot was prepared to enter 
upon the disputation, minding first to have made a certain oration in 
Latin, of the matter of Christ's presence which was then in question ; 
which the prolocutor perceiving, he forbade him to make any declaration 
or oration in Latin, but to deliver his arguments in English. After remind- 



544 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ing him of what he had appointed, and that his arguments were prepared 
in Latin, Philpot added, " You have sore disappointed me, thus suddenly 
to go from your former order : but I will accomplish your commandment, 
leaving mine oration apart ; and I will come to my arguments, which, as 
well as' so sudden a warning can serve, I will make in English. But, be- 
fore I bring forth any argument, I will, in one word, declare what manner 
of presence I disallow in the sacrament, to the intent the hearers may the 
better understand to what end and effect mine arguments shall tend ; not 
to deny utterly the presence of Christ in his sacrament, truly ministered ac- 
cording to his institution ; but only that gross and carnal presence, which 
you of this house have already subscribed unto, to be in the sacrament of 
the altar, contrary to the truth and manifest meaning of the Scriptures : 
That by transubstantiation of the sacramental bread and wine, Christ's 
natural body should, by the virtue of the words pronounced by the priest, 
be contained and included under the forms of bread and wine. This kind of 
presence, imagined by men, I do deny, and against this I will reason." 

But before he could end his speech, he was interrupted by the prolocutor, 
and commanded to descend to his argument. "lam about it," quoth 
Philpot, " if you will let me alone. But first I must needs ask a question 
of my respondent, Dr. Chedsey, concerning a word or two of your 
supposition; that is, of the sacrament of the altar, what he meaneth 
thereby ? Dr. Chedsey answered, that in their supposition they took the 
sacrament of the altar and the sacrament of the mass to be all one. 
" Then," quoth Philpot, " the sacrament of the altar, which ye reckon to 
be all one with the mass, once justly abolished, and now put in full use 
again, is no sacrament, neither is Christ in any wise present in it." This 
he offered to prove before the whole house, the queen and her council, or 
before six of the most learned men of that house of a contrary opinion, 
and refused none. " And if I shall not be able to maintain, by God's 
word, that I have said, and confound those six which shall take upon them 
to withstand me in this point, let me be burned with as many fagots as be 
in London, before the court gates !" This he uttered with great vehe- 
mency of spirit. 

The prolocutor, urged by some that were about him, consented that he 
should be allowed an argument, so that he would be brief therein. " I 
will be as brief," quoth Philpot, "as I may conveniently. And, first, I 
will ground my arguments upon the authority of Scripture, whereon all 
the buildings of our faith ought to be grounded ; and after I shall confirm 
the same by ancient doctors of the church. And I take the occasion of 
my first argument out of Matthew xxviii., of the saying of the angel to 
the three Marys, seeking Christ at the sepulchre, saying, " He is 
risen, he is not here;" and, Luke xxiii., the angel asketh them, " Why 
seek ye the living among the dead ? " Likewise the Scripture testifieth 
that Christ is risen, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand 
of the Father ; all which is spoken of his natural body ; therefore it is not 
on earth included in the sacrament. I will confirm this yet more effectu- 
ally by the saying of Christ in John xvi. : "I came from my Father into 
the world, and now I leave the world and go away to my Father : " the 
which coming and going he meant of his natural body. Therefore we may 
affirm thereby, that it is not now in the world. But I look here to be 






DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 545 

answered with a blind distinction of visibly and invisibly, that he is visibly 
departed in his humanity, but invisibly he remaineth notwithstanding in 
the sacrament. — But I will prove that no such distinction ought to take 
away the force of that argument, by the answer which Christ's disciples 
gave unto him, speaking these words : ' Now thou speakest plainly, and 
utterest forth no proverb;' which words St. Cyril, interpreting, saith, 
1 That Christ spake without any manner of ambiguity and obscure speech.' 
And therefore I conclude hereby thus, that if Christ spake plainly and 
without parable, saying, ' I leave the world now, and go away to my 
Father,' then that obscure, dark, and imperceptible presence of Christ's 
natural body to remain in the sacrament upon earth invisibly, contrary to 
the plain words of Christ, ought not to be allowed ; for nothing can be 
more uncertain, or more parabolical or insensible, than so to say. Here 
now will I attend what you will answer, and so descend to the confirma- 
tion of all that I have said, by ancient writers." 

Then Dr. Chedsey took upon him to answer every point progressively. 
First to the saying of the angel, " Christ is not here;" and " Why seek 
ye the living among the dead?" he answered, that these sayings per- 
tained nothing to the presence of Christ's natural body in the sacra- 
ment, but that they were spoken of Christ's body being in the sepulchre, 
when the three Marys thought him to have been in the grave still. And, 
therefore, the angel said, " Why do ye seek him that liveth among the 
dead?" And to the authority of St. John, where Christ saith, " Now I 
leave the world and go to my Father;" he meant that of his ascension. 
And so likewise did Cyril, interpreting the saying of the disciples, who 
knew that Christ would visibly ascend to heaven ; but that doth not 
exclude the invisible presence of his natural body in the sacrament. 
St. Chrysostom, writing to the people of Antioch, affirms the same, 
comparing Elias and Christ together, and Elias's cloak, and Christ's 
flesh. " When Elias," saith he, "was taken up in the fiery chariot, 
he left his cloak behind him unto his disciple Elisseus. But Christ as- 
cending into heaven, took his flesh with him, and left also his flesh 
behind him." From wdience we may justly conclude, that Christ's flesh 
is visibly ascended into heaven, yet abideth invisibly in the sacrament 
of the altar. 

Philpot replied, " You have not directly answered to the words of the 
angel, ' Christ is risen and is not here;' because you have omitted that 
which was the chief point. For I proceed further, as thus, He is risen, 
ascended, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father: therefore 
he is not remaining on earth. Neither is your explication of Cyril suffi- 
cient. But I will presently return to your interpretation of Cyril, and 
plainly declare it, after I have refuted the authority of Chrysostom, 
which is one of the chief principles that you adduce to support your 
carnal presence in the sacrament; which being well understood, per- 
taineth nothing thereunto." The prolocutor was irritated and started 
with impatience to think that one of the chief pillars on this point should 
be overthrown. He therefore recited the authority in Latin, and after- 
wards turned it into English, calling the attention of all present to 
remark that saying of Chrysostom which he thought invincible on their 
side. " But I will make it appear," said Philpot, " that it serves little 

2 N 



A6 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



for your purpose, for I have two objections to propose ; one drawn from 
Scripture, the other from the very place of Chrysostom himself. 

" First, where he seemeth to say, that Christ ascending took his flesh 
with him, and left his flesh also behind him, truth it is : for we all do con- 
fess and believe that Christ took on him our human nature in the Virgin 
Mary's womb, and through his passion in the same, hath united us to his 
flesh ; and thereby are we become one flesh with him : so that Chrysostom 
might thereby right well say, that Christ, ascending, took his flesh, which 
he received of the Virgin Mary, away with him ; and also left his flesh 
behind him, which are we that be his elect in the world, who are the 
members of Christ, and flesh of his flesh, as very aptly St. Paul to the 
Ephesians, chap, v., doth testify : ' We are flesh of his flesh, and bone of 
his bones.' And if percase any man will reply that he entreateth there of 
the sacrament, so that this interpretation cannot so aptly be applied unto 
him in that place, then will I yet interpret Chrysostom another way by 
himself. For in that place, a few lines before those words which were here 
now lately read, are these words: that Christ, after he ascended into 
heaven, left unto us, endued with his sacraments, his flesh in mysteries — 
that is, sacramen tally. And that mystical flesh Christ leaveth as well to 
his church in the sacrament of baptism, as in the sacramental bread and 
wine. St. Paul doth witness, ' As many of us as are baptized in Christ 
have put upon us Christ;' and thus you may understand that St. Chrysostom 
maketh nothing for your carnal and gross presence in the sacrament." 

The fifth day's debate was opened on Friday, October 27th. The pro- 
locutor began with observing, that the convocation had spent two days 
in disputing about one father, which was Theodoret, and about one 
Greek word, (ovala ;) and now they were assembled to answer all things 
tnat could be objected; therefore, he desired they would shortly pro- 
pound their arguments. Upon this Haddon, dean of Exeter, requested 
leave to oppose Mr. Watson, who, with Morgan and Harpsfield, were 
appointed to answer him. Mr. Haddon then demanded, if any substance 
of bread and wine remained after consecration? To which Watson 
replied by asking another question, namely, whether he thought there 
was a real presence of Christ's body or not? Mr. Haddon said, it was 
a breach of order that one, who was appointed respondent, should be 
opponent; nor should he, whose business was to object, answer. Mr. 
Haddon then proceeded to shew, from the words of Theodoret, that the 
substance of bread and wine remained; for his words are; "The same 
they were before the sanctification, which they are after." Mr. Watson 
said, that Theodoret meant not the same substance, but the same essence. 
On this they were driven again to a discussion of the Greek word above 
mentioned; and Mr. Haddon proved it to mean a substance, both by 
its etymology, and by the words of Theodoret. He then asked Watson, 
when the bread and wine became symbols? Watson answered, "After 
consecration, and not before." Then Mr. Haddon raised out of his 
author the following syllogism : 

" Theodoret saith, that the same thing the bread and wine were before 
they were symbols, the same they still remain, in nature and substance, 
after they are symbols. Bread and wine they were before. Therefore 
bread and wine they are after." 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 547 

Mr. Cheyney addressing himself particularly to Mr. Watson, began 
after this manner. " You said that Mr. Haddon was not fit to dispute, 
because he had not granted the natural and real presence, but you are 
much less fit to answer, because you take away the substance of the 
sacrament." Watson said, that he had subscribed to the real presence, 
and should not go from that; but he would explain what he meant by 
subscribing to the real presence, far otherwise than they supposed. He 
then prosecuted Haddon's argument, proving that the Greek word before 
discussed was a substance, using the same reason that Haddon did : and 
when he had received the same answer that was made to Haddon, he 
told them it was but a poor refuge, when they could not answer, to 
deny the author, and proved the author to be a catholic doctor; that 
being proved, he further confirmed what was said of the nature and 
substance. 

The prolocutor perceiving that Mr. Watson was closely attacked, 
called upon Mr. Morgan to help him out, who said that Theodoret did 
no more than what was justifiable ; for, first he granted the truth, and 
then, for fear of such as were not fully instructed in the faith, he spake 
mystically: he granted the truth, by calling the bread and wine the 
body and blood of Christ; after which he seems to give somewhat to 
the senses and to reason : but that Theodoret was of the same opinion 
with them, will appear from his words that follow, which are the cause 
of what went before; therefore he says, the immortality, &c. whereby 
it appears, that he meant the divine, and not the human nature. 

Watson now said: "Suppose Theodoret be on your side, he is but 
one; and what is one against the consent of the whole church?" Chey- 
ney affirmed, that not only Theodoret was of his opinion, that the sub- 
stance of bread and wine do remain, but many others also, particularly 
J.renseus, who making mention of this sacrament says: " When the cup 
which is mingled with wine, and the bread that is broken, do receive 
the word of God, it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of 
Christ, by which the substance of our flesh is nourished and doth con- 
sist." From whence I infer, that if the thanksgiving doth nourish our 
body, then there is some substance besides Christ's body. To this both 
Watson and Morgan replied, observing, that the words, " by which," 
in that sentence of Irenseus, were to be referred to the next antecedent, 
that is to the body and blood of Christ; and not to the wine which is in 
the cup, and the bread which is broken. Mr. Cheyney said, that it was 
not the body of Christ which nourished our bodies; and granting that 
the flesh of Christ nourisheth to immortality, yet it doth not make for 
their argument, although it might be true ; no more than that answer 
which was made to the allegation out of St. Paul, ' the bread which we 
break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?' with many 
others; whereunto you answered, that bread was not to be taken there 
in its proper signification, that is, not for that it was bread, but for that 
it had been so ; any more than the rod of Aaron was taken for a ser- 
pent, because it had been a serpent." 

After this, Mr. Cheyney brought in Hesychius, and used the same reason 
that he did, of burning of symbols ; and he asked them, What was burnt ? 
Watson said we must not inquire; when Cheyney asked, Whereof came 



548 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

those ashes — not from substance? or can any substance arise from 
accidents? 

Here Mr. Harpsfield was called to the assistance of Watson, and 
began with a fair preamble about the omnipotency of God, and the 
weakness of human reason as to the comprehension and attainment of 
religious matters; observing, that whatsoever we saw, or tasted, it was 
not convenient to trust our senses. He also related a curious legend 
out of St. Cyprian, how a woman saw the sacrament burning in her 
coffer! ''Now that which burned there," said Harpsfield, " burneth 
here, and becometh ashes; but what that was which burnt we cannot 
tell." Mr. Cheyney continued still to force them with this question — 
" What was it that was burnt? it was either the substance of bread, 
or else the substance of the body of Christ— which is too great an ab- 
surdity to grant." At length they answered, it was a miracle. At this 
Mr. Cheyney smiling, said that he would then proceed no further. 

Dr. Weston now asked the company, whether those men had not 
been sufficiently answered? Certain priests said, " Yes;" but the mul- 
titude exclaimed — "No, no!" Dr. Weston answered sharply, that he 
asked not the judgment of the rude multitude, but such as were mem- 
bers of that house. He then demanded of Mr. Haddon and his fellow- 
disputants, whether they would answer them other three days? Haddon, 
Cheyney, and Elmar all replied, " No." Upon w 7 hich the archdeacon 
of Winchester, Mr. Philpot, said they should be answered; and though 
all others refused to answer, yet he would not; but would himself an- 
swer them all in turns. The prolocutor abused him, saying, that he 
should go to Bedlam; to whom the archdeacon seriously answered, that 
he himself was much more suited to the place. 

On the sixth debate, October 30th, the prolocutor, addressing himself 
to Mr. Philpot, demanded whether, in the questions before propounded, 
he would answer their objections? Mr. Philpot said if they would 
answer but one of his arguments sufficiently, he would reply to all the 
objections they could bring. The prolocutor then bid him state his 
argument, and it should be resolutely controverted by some of them. 
Mr. Philpot then proceeded — " On Wednesday last, I was compelled 
to silence before I had prosecuted half my argument, the sum of which 
was, that the human body of Christ had ascended into heaven, and 
gone to the right hand of God the Father; wherefore, after the ima- 
gination of man, it could not be situated upon earth invisibly in the 
sacrament of the altar. My argument is this. One and the self-same 
nature receiveth not any thing that is contrary to itself. But the body 
of Christ is a human nature, distinct from the Deity, and is a proper 
nature of itself. I infer therefore that it cannot receive any thing that is 
contrary to that nature, and that varieth from itself. To be bodily pre- 
sent and to be bodily absent — to be on earth, and to be in heaven — and 
all at one time, are things incompatible with the nature of a human 
body. Therefore, it cannot be said of the human body of Christ, that 
the self-same body is both in heaven and on the earth at one instant, 
either visibly or invisibly." Morgan objected to the first part of the 
argument, which Philpot supported out of Vigilius, an ancient writer. 

Morgan cavilled still, and said it was no scripture, and desired him 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 549 

to prove the same from thence ; upon which Philpot quoted St. Paul, who 
says that " Christ is made like unto us in all points, except sin ; " adding, 
" As one of our bodies cannot receive in itself anything contrary to the 
nature of a body, as to be in St. Paul's Church and in Westminster Abbey 
at one and the same instant ; or to be in London visibly and in Lincoln 
invisibly at one time ; whereof he concluded that the body of Christ might 
not be in more places than one, which is in heaven ; and so consequently 
not to be contained in the sacrament of the altar." To this the prolocutor 
answered that it was not true that Christ was like unto us in all points, as 
Philpot took it, except sin. For that Christ was not conceived by the 
seed of man, as we be. Whereunto Philpot replied, that Christ's concep- 
tion was prophesied before, by the angel, to be supernatural ; but after he 
had received our nature by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin's 
womb, he became in all points like unto us, except sin. 

Morgan again cavilled ; when Philpot said that he was not destitute of 
other Scriptures to confirm his argument, quoting the words of St. Peter : 
" Whom heaven must receive until the consummation of all things," etc ; 
which words were spoken of his humanity. " And if," said he, " heaven 
must hold Christ, then can he not be here on earth, in the sacrament, as 
is pretended." 

After this the prolocutor spake to Philpot, and said, " Lest thou 
shouldest slander the house, and say that we will not suffer you to declare 
your mind, we are content that you shall come into the house as you 
have done before ; so that you be apparelled in a long gown and a tippet, 
like as we be, and that you shall not speak but when I command you." 
"Then" quoth Philpot, " I had rather be absent altogether." 

Thus did they reason, till at length, about the middle of December, 
queen Mary interfered, and sending to Bonner, bishop of London, 
commanded him to dissolve the convocation. Near the same time the 
parliament broke up, having first repealed all such statutes as concerned 
any alteration of religion, and administration of the sacraments, in the 
reign of Edward VI. In this session also the parliament were ac- 
quainted with the queen's intended marriage with Philip, the emperor's 
son. In the mean time, cardinal Pole, having been sent for by Mary, 
was requested by the emperor to stay with him, to the intent, according 
to general opinion and report, that the cardinal's presence in England 
should not be a bar to the marriage between his son and the queen; to 
accomplish which, he sent a most splendid embassy, with full power; 
which had such good success, that, after a few days, the marriage be- 
tween Mary and Philip was settled on the following terms. The go- 
vernment to rest solely with the queen. Her hand alone to give authority 
to every thing. No Spaniard to be capable of any office. No change 
to be made in the law, nor the queen to be required to go out of 
England against her will, nor their issue but by consent of the nobility. 
The queen to have of jointure 60,0001. out of Spain. Their son to 
inherit Burgundy and the Netherlands, as well as England. Their 
daughters to succeed to her crown, and to have such portions from 
Spain as were generally given to king's daughters. The prince to have 
no share in the government after her death. 



550 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



SECTION III. 

WYATT's REBELLION — LADY JANE GREY CONVERSATION WITH FliCKNAM 

LETTERS BEHAVIOUR AT EXECUTION, WITH OTHER MATTERS. 

The year 1554 commenced with persecution. Dr. Crome v/as com- 
mitted to the Fleet, for preaching without license on Christmas-day ; and 
Thomas Wootton, a protestant esquire, on account of his religious profes- 
sion. The publication of the queen's intended marriage was very ill re- 
ceived by the people and several of the nobility ; and soon a rebellion 
arose, whereof sir Thomas Wyatt was one of the chief promoters. He 
said that the queen and council would, by this marriage, bring upon the 
realm slavery and popery. He resided in the county of Kent, and as 
soon as intelligence was received in London of the insurrection there, and 
of the duke of Suffolk having fled into Warwick and Leicestershire, with 
a view of raising forces in those counties, the queen caused them both, 
with the Carews of Devonshire, to be proclaimed traitors. At the same 
time she sent some forces, under the duke of Norfolk, into Kent ; but, on 
reaching Rochester- bridge, he found himself so deserted, that he was 
obliged to return to London. The earl of Huntingdon was sent into 
Warwickshire to apprehend the duke of Suffolk, who, entering the city 
of Coventry before Suffolk, frustrated his designs. In his distress, the duke 
confided in a servant of his, named Underwood, in Astiey-park, who, like a 
false traitor, betrayed him. And so he was brought to the Tower of London. 

Sir Peter Carew, hearing what was done, fled into France ; but the 
others were taken. Wyatt came towards London in the beginning of 
February. The queen, hearing of Wyatt's coming, came into the city to 
the Guildhall, where she made a vehement oration against him. When 
she had concluded, Gardiner, standing by her, with great admiration cried 
to the people, f* Oh, how happy are we, to whom God hath given such a 
wise and learned prince ! " etc. 

On the 3rd of February, lord Cobham was committed to the Tower. 
Wyatt was now 4000 strong, and came to Southwark, but could not force 
the bridge of London : he was informed the city would all rise if he 
should come to their aid ; but he could not find boats for passing into 
Middlesex or Essex, so he was forced to go to the bridge of Kingston. 
On reaching it, he found it cut ; yet his men repaired it, and he reached 
Hyde-park the next morning. Weary and disheartened, his troops were 
reduced to 500, and the queen's forces could have easily dispersed them ; 
yet they let them go forward, that they might be obliged to surrender at 
discretion. He marched through the Strand, and got to Ludgate. Re- 
turning from thence, he was opposed at Temple-bar, and there surrendered 
himself to sir Clement Parson, who brought him to court, with the re- 
mains of his army, after about one hundred had been killed. A great 
number of the captives were hanged ; and Wyatt was beheaded on Tower 
hill, and then quartered. 

It was now resolved to proceed against lady Jane Grey and her hus- 
band. She had lived six months in the hourly meditation of death ; so 
she was not much surprised when the catastrophe arrived. Fecknam, 



LADY JANE GREY'S RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 551 

alias Howtnan, was sent from the queen, two days before her death, to 
commune with her, and to reduce her from the doctrine of Christ to queen 
Mary's religion : the effect of which communication here followeth. 

Fecknam. Madam, I lament your heavy case ; and yet I doubt not but 
that you bear out this sorrow of yours with a constant and patient mind. 

Jane. You are welcome unto me, sir, if your coming be to give Chris- 
tian exhortation. And as for my heavy case, I thank God, I do so little 
lament it, that rather I account the same for a more manifest declaration 
of God's favour towards me, than ever he showed me at any time before. 
Therefore, there is no cause why either you or others which bear me good 
will should lament or be grieved with this my case, being a thing so 
profitable to my soul's health. 

Fecknam. I am here come to you at this present, sent from the queen 
and her council, to instruct you in the true doctrine of the right faith : 
although I have so great confidence in you, that I shall have, I trust, little 
need to travel with you much therein. 

Jane. Forsooth, I heartily thank the queen's highness, who is not un- 
mindful of her humble subject ; and I hope that you will no less do your 
duty therein, truly and faithfully, according to that you were sent for. 

Fecknam. What is then required of a Christian man ? 

Jane. That he should believe in God the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost: three Persons and one God. 

Fecknam. What? Is there nothing else to be required or looked for in 
a Christian, but to believe in him? 

Jane. Yes, we must love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and 
with all our mind ; and our neighbour as ourself. 

Fecknam. Why ? then faith justifieth not, nor saveth not. 

Jane. Yes verily, faith, as St. Paul saith, alone justifieth. 

Fecknam. Why? St. Paul saith, " If I have all faith without love, it is 
nothing." 

Jane. True it is ; for how can I love him whom I trust not ? Or how 
can I trust him whom I love not ? Faith and love go both together, and 
yet love is comprehended in faith. 

Fecknam. How shall we love our neighbour ? 

Jane. To love our neighbour is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, 
to give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we would to ourselves. 

Fecknam. Why ? then it is necessary unto salvation to do good works 
also, and it is not sufficient only to believe. 

Jane. I deny that, and I affirm that faith only saveth ; but it is meet 
for a Christian, in token that he followeth his master Christ, to do good 
works ; yet may we not say that they profit to our salvation. For when 
we have done all, yet we be unprofitable servants, and faith only in 
Christ's blood saveth us. 

Fecknam. How many sacraments are there ? 

Jane. Two — the one the sacrament of baptism, and the other the 
sacrament of the Lord's supper. 

Fecknam. No, there are seven. 

Jane. By what scripture find you that ? 

Fecknam. Well, we will talk of that hereafter. But what is signified 
by your two sacraments ? 



552 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Jane. By the sacrament of baptism, I am washed with water, and re- 
generated by the Spirit ; and that washing is a token to me that I am the 
child of God. The sacrament of the Lord's supper, offered unto me, is a 
sure seal and testimony that I am, by the blood of Christ, which he shed 
for me on the cross, made partaker of the everlasting kingdom. 

Fecknam. Why, what do you receive in that sacrament ? Do you not 
receive the very body and blood of Christ ? 

Jane. No surely, I do not so believe. I think that at the supper I 
neither receive flesh nor blood, but bread and wine; which bread when it 
is broken, and the wine when it is drunken, put me in remembrance how 
that for my sins the body of Christ was broken, and his blood shed on the 
cross ; and with that bread and wine I receive the benefits that come by the 
breaking of his body, and shedding of his blood, for our sins on the cross. 

Fecknam. Why, doth not Christ speak these words, " Take, eat, this 
is my body ? " Require you any plainer words ? Doth he not say, it is 
his body ? 

Jane. I grant, he saith so ; and so he saith, " I am the vine, I am the 
door ; " but he is never the more for that, the door or the vine. Doth not 
St. Paul say, " He calleth things that are not as though they were?" 
God forbid that I should say, that I eat the very natural body and blood 
of Christ : for then either I should pluck away my redemption, or else 
there were two bodies, or two Christs. One body was tormented on the 
cross, and if they did eat another body, then had he two bodies ; or if his 
body were eaten, then was it not broken upon the cross; or if it were 
broken upon the cross, it was not eaten of his disciples. 

Fecknam. Why, is it not as possible that Christ, by his power, could 
make his body both to be eaten and broken, and to be born of a virgin, 
as to walk upon the sea, having a body, and other such like miracles as 
he wrought by his power only ? 

Jane. Yes verily, if God would have done at his supper any miracle, 
he might have done so: but I say, that then he minded no work nor 
miracle, but only to brake his body and shed his blood on the cross for our 
sins. But I pray you to answer me to this one question : Where was 
Christ when he said, " Take, eat, this is my body?" Was he not at the 
table when he said so ? He was at that time alive, and suffered not till 
the next day. What took he, but bread ? what brake he, but bread ? 
and what gave he, but bread ? Look, what he took he brake : and look, 
what he brake he gave : and look, what he gave they did eat : and yet 
all this while he himself was alive, and at supper before his disciples, or 
else they were deceived. 

Fecknam. You ground your faith upon such authors as say and unsay 
both in a breath ; and not upon the church, whom ye ought to credit. 

Jane. No, I ground my faith on God's word, and not upon the church. 
For if the church be a good church, the faith of the church must be tried 
by God's word ; and not God's word by the church, neither yet my faith. 
Shall I believe the church because of antiquity, or shall I give credit to 
the church that taketh away from me the half part of the Lord's Supper, 
and will not let any man receive it in both kinds? which things if they deny 
to us, then deny they to us part of our salvation. And I say, that it is an 
evil church, and not the spouse of Christ, but the spouse of the devil, that 



LADY JANE'S LETTER TO MR. HARDING. 553 

altereth the Lord's supper, and both taketh from it and addeth to it. To 
that church, say I, God will add plagues; and from that church will he 
take their part out of the book of life. Do they learn that of St. Paul, 
when he ministered to the Corinthians in both kinds ? Shall I believe this 
church ? God forbid ! 

Fecknam. That was done for a good intent of the church, to avoid a 
heresy that sprang on it. 

Jane. Why, shall the church alter God's will and ordinance, for good 
intent ? How did king Saul ? The Lord God defend ! 

With these and such like persuasions he would have had her lean to the 
church, but it would not be. There were many more things whereof they 
reasoned, but these were the chiefest. After this, Fecknam took his 
leave, saying that he was sorry for her : " For I am sure," quoth he, 
" that we two shall never meet." 

" True it is," replied lady Jane, openly, " that we shall never meet, 
except God turn your heart ; for I am assured, unless you repent and turn 
to God, you are in an evil case. And I pray God, in the bowels of his 
mercy, to send you his Holy Spirit ; for he hath given you his great gift 
of utterance, if it pleased him also to open the eyes of your heart." 

A letter of the lady Jane to master Harding, late chaplain to the duke 
of Suffolk, her father, and then fallen from the truth of God's most holy 
word : — 

" So oft as I call to mind the dreadful and fearful saying of God, 
' That he which layeth hold upon the plough, and looketh back, is not 
meet for the kingdom of heaven ;' and, on the other side, the comfortable 
words of our Saviour Christ to all those that, forsaking themselves, do 
follow him ; I cannot but marvel at thee, and lament thy case, who 
seemed sometime to be the lively member of Christ, but now the deformed 
imp of the devil; sometime the beautiful temple of God, but now the 
stinking and filthy kennel of Satan ; sometime the unspotted spouse of 
Christ, but now the unshamefaced paramour of antichrist ; sometime my 
faithful brother, but now a stranger and apostate ; sometime a stout 
Christian soldier, but now a cowardly runaway. Yea, when I consider 
these things, I cannot but speak to thee, and cry out upon thee, thou 
seed of Satan, and not of Judah, whom the devil hath deceived, the 
world hath beguiled, and the desire of life subverted, and made thee of a 
Christian an infidel. Wherefore hast thou taken the testament of the Lord 
in thy mouth ? Wherefore hast thou preached the law and the will of God 
to others ? Wherefore hast thou instructed others to be strong in Christ, 
when thou thyself dost now so shamefully shrink, and so horribly abuse the 
testament and law of the Lord ? when thou thyself preachest, not to 
steal, yet most abominably stealest, not from men, but from God, and, 
committing most heinous sacrilege, robbest Christ thy Lord of his right 
members, thy body and soul ; and choosest rather to live miserably with 
shame to the world, than to die, and gloriously with honour reign with 
Christ, in whom even in death is life ? Why dost thou now show thyself 
most weak, when indeed thou oughtest to be most strong? The strength 
of a fort is unknown before the assault, but thou yieldest thy hold before 
any battery be made. O wretched and unhappy man, what art thou but 



554 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

dust and ashes ? And wilt thou resist thy Maker, that fashioned thee and 
framed thee? Wilt thou now forsake Him that called thee from the 
custom-gathering among the Romish antichristians, to be an ambassador 
and messenger of his eternal word ? He that first framed thee, and since 
thy first creation and birth preserved thee, nourished and kept thee, yea, 
and inspired thee with the spirit of knowledge, (I cannot say, of grace,) 
shall he not now possess thee? Darest thou deliver up thyself to another, 
being not thine own, but his ? How canst thou, having knowledge, or 
how darest thou neglect the law of the Lord, and follow the vain tradi- 
tions of men ; and, whereas thou hast been a public professor of his name, 
become now a defacer of his glory? Wilt thou refuse the true God, and 
worship the invention of man, the golden calf, the whore of Babylon, the 
Romish religion, the abominable idol, the most wicked mass? Wilt thou 
torment again, rend and tear the most precious body of our Saviour 
Christ, with thy bodily and fleshly teeth ? Wilt thou take upon thee to 
offer up any sacrifice unto God for our sins, considering that Christ offered 
up himself, as Paul saith, upon the cross, a lively sacrifice once for all ? 
Can neither the punishment of the Israelites — which, for their idolatry, 
they so oft received — nor the terrible threatenings of the prophets, nor 
the curses of God's own mouth, fear thee to honour any other god than 
him ? Dost thou so regard Him that spared not his dear and only Son 
for thee, so diminishing, yea, utterly extinguishing his glory, that thou 
wilt attribute the praise and honour due unto him to the idols, * which 
have mouths and speak not, eyes and see not, ears and hear not ;' which 
shall perish with them that made them? 

****** 
" Last of all, let the lively remembrance of the last day be always be- 
fore your eyes ; remembering the terror that such shall be in at that time, 
with the runagates and fugitives from Christ, which setting more by the 
world than by heaven, more by their life than by Him who gave them life, 
did shrink, yea, did clean fall away, from him that forsook not them : 
and contrariwise, the inestimable joys prepared for them, that fearing no 
peril, nor dreading death, have manfully fought, and victoriously triumphed 
over all power of darkness, over hell, death, and damnation, through 
their most redoubted captain, Christ. — To whom, with the Father and the 
Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise, and glory everlasting. Amen." 

A letter written by the lady Jane in the end of the New Testament in 
Greek, the which she sent unto her sister the lady Katherine, the night 
before she suffered : — 

" I have here sent you, good sister Katherine, a book, which although it be 
not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is more worth than pre- 
cious stones. It is the book, dear sister, of the law of the Lord. It is his 
testament and last will, which he bequeathed unto us wretches ; which 
shall lead you to the path of eternal joy : and, if you with a good mind 
read it, and with an earnest mind do purpose to follow it, it shall bring 
you to an immortal and everlasting life. It shall teach you to live, and 
learn you to die. It shall win you more than you should have gained by 
the possession of your woeful father's lands. For as, if God had pros- 
pered him, you should have inherited his lands ; so, if you apply diligently 



EXECUTION OF LADY JANE GREY. 555 

to this book, seeking* to direct your life after it, you shall be an inheritor 
of such riches, as neither the covetous shall withdraw from you, neither 
thief shall steal, neither yet the moths corrupt. Desire with David, good 
sister, to understand the law of the Lo^d God. Live still to die, that you 
by death may purchase eternal life. And trust not that the tenderness of 
your age shall lengthen your life ; for as soon, if God call, goeth the young 
as the old ; and labour always to learn to die. Defy the world, deny the 
devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord. Be 
penitent for your sins, and yet despair not : be strong in faith, and yet 
presume not ; and desire, with St. Paul, to be dissolved and to be with 
Christ, with whom even in death there is life. Be like the good servant, 
and even at midnight be waking, lest when death cometh and stealeth 
upon you as a thief in the night, you be, with the evil servant, found 
sleeping; and lest, for lack of oil, you be found like the five foolish 
women ; and like him that had not on the wedding garment, and then ye 
be cast out from the marriage. Rejoice in Christ, as I do. Follow the 
steps of your master Christ, and take up your cross ; lay your sins on his 
back, and always embrace him. And as touching my death, rejoice as I 
do, good sister, that I shall be delivered of this corruption, and put on in- 
corruption. For I am assured that I shall, for losing a mortal life, win an 
immortal life, the which I pray God grant you, and send you of his grace 
to live in his fear, and to die in the true Christian faith, from the which, in 
God's name, I exhort you that you never swerve, neither for hope of life, 
nor for fear of death. For if you will deny his truth for to lengthen your 
life, God will deny you, and yet shorten your days. And if you will cleave 
unto him, he will prolong your days, to your comfort and his glory : to 
the which glory God bring me now, and you hereafter, when it pleaseth 
him to call you. Fare you well, good sister, and put your only trust in 
God, who only must help you." 

A prayer made by the lady Jane in the time of her trouble, and also a 
letter to her father, and part of that to Mr. Harding, are here omitted for want 
of space. It remaineth now, coming to the end of this virtuous lady, to 
infer the manner of her execution, with the words and behaviour of her at 
the time of her death. First, when she mounted the scaffold, she said to 
the people standing thereabout, " Good people, I am come hither to die, 
and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact against the queen's 
highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me ; but, touch- 
ing the procurement and desire thereof by me, or on my behalf, I do wash 
my hands thereof in innocency before God, and the face of you, good 
Christian people, this day. — I pray you all, good Christian people, to bear 
me witness that I die a true Christian woman, and that I do look to be 
saved by no other mean, but only by the mercy of God, in the blood of 
his only Son Jesus Christ : and I confess, that when I did know the word 
of God, I neglected the same, and loved myself and the world : therefore 
this punishment is happily and worthily happened unto me for my sins ; 
and yet I thank God, that of his goodness he hath thus given me a time 
and respite to repent. And now, good people, while I am alive, I pray 
you assist me with your prayers." 

And then, kneeling down, she turned her to Fecknam, saying, " Shall 



556 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

I say this psalm?" and he said, "Yea." Then said she the psalm of 
" Miserere mei Deus," in English, in most devout manner throughout to 
the end. Then she stood up, and gave her maiden, Ellen, her gloves and 
handkerchief, and her book to Mr. Bruges. After this, she untied her 
gown, in which the executioner offered to help her ; but she, desiring him 
to let her alone, turned towards her two gentlewomen, who helped her off 
therewith, and also with her frowes, paaft and neckerchief, giving to her 
a fair handkerchief to knit about her eyes. Then the executioner kneeled 
down and asked her forgiveness, which she willingly granted, and said, " i 
pray you dispatch me quickly." Then she kneeled, saying, " Will you 
strike before I lay me down?" The executioner said, "No, madam.'' 
Then tied she the handkerchief about her eyes, and feeling for the block, 
she said, " What shall I do? Where is it?" One of the standers-by 
guiding her thereunto, she laid her head down upon the block, and then 
stretched forth her body, and said, " Lord, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit;" and so finished her life, in the year of our Lord 1554, the 12th 
day of February, about the 17th year of her age. 

Thus was beheaded the lady Jane, and with her also the lord Guilford, 
her husband, one of the duke of Northumberland's sons. Judge Morgan, 
who gave the sentence of condemnation against her, shortly after he had 
condemned her, fell mad, and in his raving cried out continually to have 
the lady Jane taken away from him ; and so ended his life. Upon the 
21st of the same month, Henry duke of Suffolk, the father of lady Jane, 
was also beheaded at the Tower-hill ; and, about the same time, many 
gentlemen and yeomen were condemned for this conspiracy, whereof some 
were executed in London and some in the country. 

On the 24th of the same month of February, 1554, Bonner, bishop of 
London, sent down a commission to all the pastors and curates of his 
diocese, for the taking of the names of such as would not come, the Lent 
following, to auricular confession, and to the receiving at Easter. And on 
the 4th of the next month there was a letter sent from the queen to bishop 
Bonner requiring that all the canons and ecclesiastical laws of Henry the 
Eighth's time should be put in execution. 

Injunctions were now given to the bishops, to execute such ecclesiastical 
laws as had been in force in king Henry's time : that in their courts they 
should proceed in their own names ; that the oath of supremacy should be 
no more exacted ; that none suspected of heresy should be put in orders ; 
and that all married clergymen should separate from their wives. If they 
left their wives, the bishops might put them in some other cure, or reserve 
a pension for them out of their livings. Rules for ordination were 
established on popish principles. The queen gave also a special commis- 
sion to Bonner, Gardiner, Tonstall, Day, and Kitchin, to proceed against 
the archbishop of York, and the bishops of St. David's, Chester, and 
Bristol, and to deprive them of their bishoprics, for having contracted 
marriage, and thereby broken their vows and defiled their function. She 
also authorized them to call before them the bishops of Lincoln, Glou- 
cester, and Hereford, who held their bishoprics only during their good 
behaviour ; and since they had done things contrary to the laws of God, 
and the practice of the universal church, to declare their bishoprics void. 



557 



SECTION IV. 

account of a public disputation which was appointed by the 
queen's special command in a convocation held at st. mary's 
church in oxford. 

In April 1554, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were conveyed as pri- 
soners from the Tower to Windsor; and from thence to Oxford, to dispute 
with the divines and learned men of both the universities, Oxford and 
Cambridge, concerning the presence, substance, and sacrifice of the 
sacrament. The doctors and graduates appointed to dispute against 
them were of Oxford — Dr. Weston, prolocutor, Dr. Tresham, Dr. Cole, 
Dr. Oglethorpe, Dr. Pie, Mr. Harpsfield, and Mr. Fecknam. Of Cam- 
bridge, Dr. Young, vice-chancellor, Dr. Glyn, Dr. Seton, Dr. Watson, 
Dr. Sedgewick, and Dr. Atkinson. The questions of dispute were — 
Whether the natural body of Christ be really in the sacrament, after the 
words spoken by the priest or not ? Whether in the sacrament, after the 
words of consecration, any other substance do remain, than the sub- 
stance of the body and blood of Christ ? and whether in the mass there 
be a sacrifice propitiatory for the sins of the quick and the dead ? 

On the 13th of April the doctors of Cambridge arrived at Oxford, 
and lodged all at the Cross Inn, with one Wakecline, some time a ser- 
vant to bishop Bonner. After the ceremonies of welcome, and after 
consultation concerning the delivery of their letters and instrument of 
grace, they all repaired to Lincoln college to Dr. Weston the prolocutor, 
and to Dr. Tresham the vice-chancellor, to whom they delivered their 
letters, declaring what they had done touching the articles and graces. 
Having concluded on a procession, sermon, and convocation, on the day 
following, and that the doctors of Cambridge should be incorporated 
with the university of Oxford, and the doctors of Oxford with those of 
the university of Cambridge, they returned to their inn. The same day, 
the three prisoners were separated, Dr. Ridley to the house of Mr. Irish, 
Latimer to another house; while Cranmer remained in Bocardo, a prison 
in Oxford. 

The following day the vice-chancellor of Cambridge, with the other 
doctors of that university, again repairing to Lincoln college, found the 
prolocutor above in the chapel, with a company of the house singing 
mass for the dead, and tarried there until the end. Then having con- 
sulted together in the master's room, they all came to the university 
church of St. Mary's, where, after another consultation in a chapel, the 
vice-chancellor of Oxford caused the vice-chancellor of Cambridge, 
and the rest of the doctors of that university, to send for their scarlet 
robes brought from Cambridge. By this time, the regents in the con- 
gregation-house, had granted all the Cambridge doctors their graces, 
to be incorporate there ; and so they went up and were immediately 
admitted, Dr. Oglethorpe presenting them, and the proctor reading the 
statute, and giving them their oaths. 

They now all came into the choir to hold the convocation of the 
university: the mass of the Holy Ghost was solemnly sung before them 



558 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

by the choir-men of Christ's church. First, the cause of the convocation 
was opened in English by the vice-chancellor and prolocutor declaring 
that they were commissioned by the queen, and wherefore they were sent ; 
and caused master Say, the register, openly to read the commission. That 
done, the vice-chancellor read the Cambridge letters openly, and then 
concluded that three notaries, one for the convocation, one for Cambridge, 
and one for Oxford, should testify of their doings. Then they ordered 
the notaries to provide parchment, that the whole assembly might sub- 
scribe to the articles, except those who had subscribed before in the con- 
vocation-house at London and Cambridge. And so the vice-chancellor 
began first ; after him the rest of the Oxford men, as many as could in 
the mass time. 

The mass being done, they went in procession to Christ's church ; and 
there the choir sang a psalm, and after that a collect was read. They then 
departed to Lincoln college, where they dined with the mayor, one alder- 
man, four beadles, and the Cambridge notary. After dinner they all went 
again to St. Mary's church ; where, shortly after, all the commissioners 
arrived, and sat before the altar, to the number of thirty-three persons : 
Dr. Cranmer was then sent for, and shortly after arrived in custody. The 
archbishop paid his respects to them with much humility, standing with 
his staff in his hand, and though he had a stool offered him, refused to sit. 
The articles against him were read, and a copy of them delivered to him ; after 
which he was given in charge to the mayor, who remanded him to prison. 

Dr. Ridley was next brought in, who hearing the articles against him, 
immediately replied that they were all false ; and said farther, that they 
sprang from a bitter and sour root. Then he was asked whether he 
would dispute or not? He answered, that as long as God gave him life, 
he should not only have his heart, but also his mouth and pen to defend 
his truth ; but he required time and books. They said he could not have 
time, but must dispute on Thursday ; and till then he should have books. 
He said it was unreasonable that he might not have his own books and 
time also. Then they gave him the articles, and desired him to write his 
opinion upon them that night ; after which they commanded the mayor to 
take him whence he came. 

Last of all came in Mr. Latimer, with a kerchief and two or three caps 
on his head, his spectacles hanging by a string at his breast, and a staff 
in his hand, and was set in a chair. After his denial of the articles, when 
he had Wednesday appointed for disputation, he alleged age, sickness, 
disuse, and lack of books, saying, that he was almost as meet to dispute 
as to be a captain of Calais : but he would declare his mind either by 
writing or word, and would stand to all they could lay upon him ; com- 
plaining, moreover, that he was permitted to have neither pen nor ink, 
nor yet any book but the New Testament in his hand, which he had read 
over seven times deliberately, and yet could not find the mass in it, 
neither the marrow-bones nor sinews of the same. At this the com- 
missioners were not a little offended ; and Dr. Weston said that he 
would make him grant that it had both marrow-bones and sinews in 
the New Testament. To whom Latimer said again, " That you will 
never do, master Doctor." And so, forthwith, they put him to silence ; so 
that whereas he was desirous to tell what lie meant by those terms, he could 



CRANMER DISPUTING AT OXFORD. 559 

not be suffered. The great press and throng of people were then dis- 
persed, and the convocation adjourned. At nine o'clock on Sunday 
morning, Mr. Harpsfield preached at St. Mary's, where the doctors in 
their robes were placed in due order of precedency. After sermon, they 
all dined at Magdalen college, and supped at Lincoln college, with Dr. 
Weston ; whither Cranmer sent his answer upon the articles in writing. 

On Monday, Dr. Weston, with the residue of the visitors, censors, and 
opponents, repairing to the divinity school, each installed himself in his 
place. Cranmer was brought thither, and set in the answerer's place, 
with the mayor and aldermen by him ; when the prolocutor, apparelled in 
a scarlet gown, after the custom of the university, began the disputation 
with this oration : — 

" You are assembled hither, brethren, this day to confound the detest- 
able heresy of the verity of the body of Christ in the sacrament." At 
these strange words several of the learned men burst out into great 
laughter, as though, in the entrance of the disputation, he had betrayed 
himself and his religion, by terming the opinion of the verity of Christ's 
body in the sacrament a detestable heresy ! The rest of his oration was 
intended to prove, that it was not lawful to call these questions into 
controversy ; for such as doubted of the words of Christ might well be 
thought to doubt both of the truth and power of God. On this Dr. 
Cranmer, desiring leave, answered — " We are assembled to discuss and 
to lay before the world those doubtful points which ye think it unlawful 
to dispute. It is, indeed, no reason that we should dispute of that which 
is determined upon before the truth be tried. But if these questions be 
not called into controversy, surely my answer then is looked for in vain." 

Then Chedsey, the first opponent, began : " Rev. Doctor, these three 
conclusions are put forth unto us at present to dispute upon — In the 
sacrament of the altar, is the natural body of Christ, and also his blood, 
present really under the forms of bread and wine, by virtue of God's 
word pronounced by the priest ? Does there remain any of the former 
substance of bread and wine after the consecration, or any other sub- 
stance but the substance of God and man ? Is the lively sacrifice of 
the church in the mass propitiatory, as well for the quick as the dead ? 
These are the arguments on which our present controversy rests. Now, 
to the end we might not doubt how you take the same, you have already 
given unto us your opinion thereof. I term it your opinion, in that it 
disagreeth from the catholic. Wherefore I thus argue : Your opinion 
differeth from Scripture : ergo, you are deceived." 

Cranmer. I deny the antecedent. 

Chedsey. Christ, when he instituted his last supper, spake to his 
disciples, "Take, eat: this is my body which shall be given for you." But 
his true body was given for us : ergo, his true body is in the sacrament. 

Cranmer. His body is truly present to them that truly receive him ; but 
spiritually. And so it is taken after a spiritual sort ; for when he said, 
" This is my body," it is all one as if he had said, " This is the breaking 
of my body; this is the shedding of my blood. As oft as you shall do 
this, it shall put you in remembrance of the breaking of my body, and 
the shedding of my blood ; that as truly as you receive this sacrament, so 
truly shall you receive the benefit promised by receiving the same worthily." 



560 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Chedsey, Your opinion differeth from the church, which saith, that the 
true body is in the sacrament : ergo, your opinion therein is false. 

Cranmer. I say and agree with the church, that the body of Christ is 
in the sacrament effectually, because the passion of Christ is effectual. 

Chedsey. Christ, when he spake these words, " This is my body," spake 
of the substance, but not of the effect. 

Cranmer. I grant he spake of the substance, and not of the effect after 
a sort : and yet it is most true that the body of Christ is effectually in the 
sacrament. But I deny that he is there truly present in bread, or that 
under the bread is his organical body. 

And because it should be too tedious, Cranmer said, to discourse of the 
whole, he delivered his written opinion to Dr. Weston, with answers to 
the three propositions, requiring that it might be read openly to the 
people ; which the prolocutor promised, but did not. The copy of this 
writing here followeth : — 

" In the assertions of the church and of religion, trifling and newfangled 
novelties of words are to be eschewed, whereof ariseth nothing but con- 
tention ; and we must follow as much as we can the manner of speaking 
of the Scripture. In the first conclusion, if ye understand by this word 
1 really J 're ipsa,' that is, in very deed and effectually; so Christ, by the 
grace and efficacy of his passion, is indeed and truly present to all true 
and holy members. But if ye understand by this word ' really,' ' cor- 
poraliter,' that is, corporeally ; so that by the body of Christ is understood 
a natural body and organical ; so, the first proposition doth vary not only 
from the usual speech and phrase of Scripture, but also is clean contrary 
to the holy word of God and Christian profession : when as both the 
Scripture doth testify by these words, and also the Catholic church hath 
professed from the beginning — Christ to have left the world, and to sit at 
the right hand of the Father till he come to judgment. 

" And likewise I answer to the second question, that is, that it swerveth 
from the accustomed manner and speech of Scripture. The third conclu- 
sion, as it is intricate and wrapped in all doubtful and ambiguous words, 
and differing also much from the true speech of Scripture, so as the words 
thereof seem to import no open sense, is most contumelious against our 
only Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, and a violating of his precious blood, 
which, upon the altar of the cross, is the only sacrifice and oblation for the 
sins of all mankind." 

Chedsey. By this your interpretation which you have made upon the 
first conclusion, this I understand — the body of Christ to be in the sacra- 
ment only by the way of participation : insomuch as we, communicating 
thereof, do participate the grace of Christ ; so that you mean hereby the 
effect thereof. But our conclusion standeth upon the substance, and not 
the efficacy only, which shall appear by the testimony both of Scriptures, 
and of all the fathers a thousand years after Christ. And first let us con- 
sider what is written in Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv., Luke xxii., and 1 Cor. xi. 
Matthew saith, " As they sat at supper, Jesus took bread/' etc. In Mark 
there is the same sense, although not the same words, who also for one 
part of the sacrament speaketh more plainly, saying, "Jesus taking bread," 
etc. After the same sense also writeth Luke, " And when Jesus had taken 
bread," etc. " In the mouth of two or three witnesses," saith the Scrip- 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE.. 561 

ture, " standeth all truth." Here we have three witnesses together, that 
Christ said that to be his body, which was given for many ; and that to 
be his blood, which should be shed for many ; whereby is declared the 
substance, and not only the efficacy thereof. Ergo, it is not true that you 
say, there is not the substance of his body, but the efficacy alone thereof. 

Cran. Thus you gather upon mine answer, as though I did mean of 
the efficacy, and not of the substance of the body ; but I mean of 
them both, as well as of the efficacy as of the substance. And forso- 
much as all things come not readily to memory, to a man that shall 
speak extempore, therefore, for the more ample and fuller answer in this 
matter, this writing here I do exhibit. 

Hereupon Cranmer put forth a lengthened explication, which the prolo- 
cutor said should be read in that place hereafter, and requested them to 
fall to the arguments. 

Ched. The Scriptures in many places do affirm, that Christ gave his 
natural body : Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv., Luke xxii. Ergo, I do conclude 
that the natural body is in the sacrament. 

Cran. To your argument I answer — If you understand by the body 
natural, the organic body, that is, having such proportion and members 
as he had living here, then I answer negatively. Furthermore, as con- 
cerning the evangelists, this I say and grant, that Christ took bread, and 
called it his body. 

Ched. The text of the Scripture maketh against you, for the circum- 
stance thereto annexed doth teach us, not only there to be the body, but 
also teacheth us what manner of body it is, and saith, " The same body 
which shall be given." That thing is here contained, that is given for us. 
But the substance of bread is not given for us. And therefore the sub- 
stance of bread is not here contained. 

Cran. I understand not yet what you mean by this word contained. 
If you mean really, then I deny your major. 

Ched. The major is the text of Scripture. He that denieth the major, 
denieth the Scripture : for the Scripture saith, " This is my body which is 
given for you." 

Cran. I grant, Christ said it was his body which should be given, but 
he said not it was his body which is here contained ; " but the body that 
shall be given for you." As though he should say, " This bread is the 
breaking of my body, and this cup is the shedding of my blood." What 
will ye say then ? Is the bread the breaking of his body, and the cup the 
shedding of his blood really? If you say so, I deny it. 

Ched. If you ask what is the thing therein contained ; because his 
apostles should not doubt what body it was that should be given, he saith, 
" This is my body which shall be given for you, and my blood which shall 
be shed for many." Here is the same substance of the body, which the 
day after was given, and the same blood which was shed. And I urge 
the Scripture, which teacheth that it was no fantastical, no feigned, no 
spiritual body, nor body in faith, but the substance of the body. 

Cran. You must prove that it is contained ; but Christ said not which 
is contained. He gave bread, and called it his body. I halt not in the 
words of the Scripture, but in your word, which is feigned and imagined 
by yourself. 

2 o 



562 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The disputation went on, but only by repeating on both sides what had 
already been said more than once or twice. Mr. Chedsey having at last 
finished his argument, Dr. Oglethorpe, one of the arbitrators, said — " You 
still come in with one evasion or starting hole to flee to. He urgeth the 
Scriptures, saying, that Christ gave his very body. You say, that he gave 
his body in bread. What sort of body is meant? what is the body spoken 
of? the bread is the body." 

Cran. I answer to the question — It is the same body which was born 
of the Virgin, was crucified, ascended ; but tropically, and by a figure. 
And so I say, the bread is the body, as a figurative speech, speaking 
sacramentally, for it is a sacrament of his body. 

Oglethorpe. It is not a likely thing that Christ hath less care for his 
spouse the church, than a wise householder hath for his family in making 
his will or testament. But no householder maketh his testament after 
that sort. 

Cran. Yes ; there are many that do so. For what matter is it, so it 
be understood and perceived ? I say, Christ used figurative speech in no 
place more than in his sacraments, and specially in this of his supper. 

Ogle. No man of purpose doth use tropes in his testament ; for, if he 
do, he deceiveth them that he comprehendeth in his testament : therefore 
Christ useth none here. The good man of the house hath respect that 
his heirs, after his departure, may live in quiet and without wrangling. 
But they cannot be in quiet if he use tropes. Therefore, I say, he useth 
no tropes. 

Cran. I deny your minor, and insist that he may use them. 

Weston, the prolocutor, then said — " Augustine, in his book entitled 
De unitate Ecclesiae, ch. x., hath these words following : — ' What a thing is 
this, I pray you? When the last words of one lying upon his death-bed 
are heard, who is ready to go to his grave, no man saith, that he hath 
made a lie ; and he is not accounted his heir who regardeth not those 
words. How shall we then escape God's wrath, if, either not believing 
or not regarding, we shall reject the last words both of the only Son of 
God, and also of our Lord and Saviour, both ascending into heaven, and 
beholding from thence, who despiseth, who observeth them not, and so 
shall come from thence to judge all men V " 

Thereupon followed a lengthened discussion between Cranmer, Weston, 
and Oglethorpe. After which Cranmer resumed : " And why should we 
doubt to call it the sacrament of the body of Christ, offered upon the cross, 
seeing both Christ and the ancient fathers do so call it? Chrysostom 
himself declareth — ' O miracle ! O the good will of God towards us, 
which sitteth above at the right hand of the Father, and is holden in 
men's hands at the time of sacrifice, and is given to feed upon, to them 
that are desirous of him ! And that is brought to pass by no subtlety or 
craft, but with the open and beholding eyes of all the standers-by.' Thus 
you hear Christ is seen here on earth every day, and is touched ; which 
no man having any judgment will say or think to be spoken without trope 
or figure." 

West. What miracle is it if it be not his body, and if he spake only of 
the sacrament, as though it were his body ? But hear what Chrysostom 
farther saith — " I shew forth that thing on earth unto thee, which is 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 563 

worthy the greatest honour. For like as in the palace of kings, neither 
the walls, nor the sumptuous bed, but the body of the king sitting under 
the cloth of state, and royal seat of majesty, is of all things else the most 
excellent : so is in like manner the King's body in heaven, which is now 
set before us on earth. I show thee neither angels nor archangels, nor the 
heaven of heavens, but the very Lord and Master of all these things. 
Thou perceivest after what sort thou dost not only behold, but touchest ; 
and not only touchest, but eatest that which on the earth is the greatest 
and chiefest thing of all other ; and when thou hast received the same, thou 
goest home : wherefore cleanse thy soul from all uncleanness." Upon this, 

I conclude that the body of Christ is showed us upon the earth. 

Cran. What ! upon the earth ? No man seeth Christ upon the earth : 
he is seen here with the eyes of our mind only, with faith and spirit. 

West. I pray you, what is it that seemeth worthy highest honour on 
earth ? Is it the sacrament, or else the body of Christ ? 

Cran. Chrysostom speaketh of the sacrament; and the body of Christ 
is showed forth in the sacrament. 

West. Ergo, then the sacrament is worthy greatest honour. 

Cran. I deny the argument. 

West. That thing is showed forth, and is now on the earth : " ostenditur 
et est," which is worthy highest honour. But only the body of Christ is 
worthy highest honour : ergo, the body of Christ is now on the earth. 

Cran. I answer, the body of Christ to be on the earth, but so as in the 
sacrament, and as the Holy Ghost is in the water of baptism. 

West. Chrysostom saith, " ostendo," " I show forth," which noteth a 
substance to be present. 

Cran. That is to be understood sacramentally. 

West. He saith, " ostendo in terra," " I show forth on earth," declar- 
ing also the place where. 

Cran. That is to be understood figuratively. Your major and conclu- 
sion are all one. 

Here Weston called upon Cranmer to answer to one part, bidding him 
repeat his words ; which when he essayed to do, such was the uproar in 
the divinity school, that his mild voice could not be heard. And when he 
went about to explain to the people that the prolocutor did not correctly 
English the words of Chrysostom, using for ostenditur in terra, " he is 
showed forth on the earth," est in terra, " he is on the earth ; " whereas 
Chrysostom hath not est, nor any such word implying being on the earth, 
but only of showing, as the grace of the Holy Ghost, in baptismo ostenditur, 

II is showed forth in baptism." And oftentimes as he did inculcate this 
word ostenditur, the prolocutor rudely interrupted him, and, substituting 
noise and insolence for argument, called him unlearned and impudent ; at 
the same time, pointing at him scornfully, urged the people to silence him 
with hissing, clapping of hands, and other species of tumult, which this 
reverend man most patiently and meekly did abide, as one well inured to 
the suffering of such reproaches. And the prolocutor, not yet satisfied 
with this rude and unseemly demeanour, did urge and call upon him to 
answer the argument ; and then he bade the notary to repeat his words. 

From Chrysostom the disputants went to Tertullian, from whom 
Chedsey, who was better acquainted with the fathers than the prolocutor 



564 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

himself, quoted as follows, for the purpose of again raising on their testi- 
mony his favourite and absurd syllogism : " Tertullian, speaking of the 
resurrection of the body, saith, ' Let us consider as concerning the proper 
form of the Christian man, what great prerogative this vain and foul sub- 
stance of ours hath with God. Although it were sufficient to it, that no 
soul could ever get salvation, unless it believe while it is in the flesh ; so 
much the flesh availeth to salvation : by the which flesh it cometh, that 
whereas the soul is so linked unto God, it is the said flesh that causeth 
the soul to be linked : yet the flesh moreover is washed, that the soul may 
be cleansed ; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated ; the 
flesh is signed, that the soul may be defended ; the flesh is shadowed by 
the impositions of hands, that the soul may be illuminated with the Spirit ; 
the flesh doth eat the body and blood of Christ, that the soul may be fed 
of God.' Whereupon I gather this argument — The flesh eateth the body 
of Christ ; therefore the body of Christ is eaten with the mouth." 

To this quotation Cranmer replied, with some interruption from Weston 
and Chedsey, thus — "Tertullian calleth that the flesh which is the sacra- 
ment. For although God works all things in us invisibly, beyond man's 
reach, yet they are so manifest, that they may be seen and perceived of 
every sense. Therefore he setteth forth baptism, unction, and last of all 
the supper of the Lord unto us, which he gave to signify his operation in 
us. The flesh liveth by the bread, but the soul is inwardly fed by Christ. 
— Read that which followeth, and you shall perceive that, by things external, 
an internal operation is understood. Inwardly we eat Christ's body, and 
outwardly we eat the sacrament. So one thing is done outwardly, another 
inwardly. Like, as in baptism, the external element, whereby the body is 
washed, is one ; the internal thing, whereby the soul is cleansed, is another." 

A long discussion then took place between Chedsey, Cranmer, Weston, 
and Tresham. Dr. Young, vice-chancellor of Cambridge, at length strove 
to change the direction of the dispute, by putting certain questions to 
Cranmer relative to the nature of Christ's body, the subordination of sense 
and reason to faith, and the manner in which the words of the Lord Jesus 
were to be understood for the just belief of his doctrines, and the just 
observance of his commands and institutions. 

Young. This disputation is taken in hand that the truth might appear. 
I perceive that I must go another way to work than I had thought. It 
is a common saying, " Against them that deny principles, we must not 
dispute." Therefore that we may agree of the principles, I demand, 
whether there be any other body of Christ, than his instrumental body ? 

Cran. There is no natural body of Christ, but his organical body. 

Young. I demand, whether sense and reason ought to give place to faith? 

Cran. They ought. 

Young. Whether Christ be true in all his works ? And whether, at his 
supper, he minded to do that which he spake or no ? 

Cran. Yea, he is most true, and truth itself. In saying he spake, but 
in saying he made not, but made the sacrament to his disciples. 

Young. A figurative speech is no working thing. But the speech of 
Christ is working : ergo, it is not figurative. 

Cran. I said not, that the words of Christ do work, but Christ himself; 
and he worketh by a figurative speech. 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 565 

West. If a figure work, it maketh of bread the body of Christ. 

Cran. A figurative speech worketh not. 

West. A figurative speech, by your own confession, worketh nothing. 
But the speech of Christ in the supper, as you grant, wrought somewhat : 
ergo, the speech of Christ in the supper was not figurative. 

Cran. I answer, these are mere sophisms. The speech doth not work ; 
but Christ, by the speech, doth work the sacrament. I look for Scrip- 
tures at your hands, for they are the foundation of disputations. — Ambrose 
speaketh of sacraments sacramentally. He calleth the sacraments by the 
names of the things ; for he useth the signs for the thing signified : and 
therefore the bread is not called bread, but his body, for the excellency 
and dignity of the thing signified by it. — The body is nourished both with 
the sacrament, and with the body of Christ : with the sacrament to a 
temporal life ; with the body of Christ to eternal life. 

The discussion was carried on for some time between Cranmer, Young, 
Weston, Pie, Chedsey, and Harpsfield. Cranmer, in his answers, evinced 
the meekness of wisdom, and the ingenuousness and integrity of truth, 
whenever their clamour would allow him to reply, or he considered their 
sophistries and quibbles deserving refutation. Their disordered disputa- 
tion, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in English, continued almost till two 
of the clock. Being at length finished, and the arguments written and 
delivered to the hands of master Say, the prisoner, Dr. Cranmer, was had 
away by the mayor, and the doctors dined together at the University 
college. 

DISPUTATION AT OXFORD BETWEEN DR. SMITH, WITH HIS OTHER 
COLLEAGUES AND DOCTORS, AND BISHOP RIDLEY. 

The next day following, April 12th, was brought forth Dr. Ridley to 
dispute in the divinity school; against whom was set Dr. Smith to be 
principal opponent. This Dr. Smith had often changed his religious 
opinions ; but not from conviction of conscience, as appears from his re- 
cantation, and also from his letter to Cranmer in king Edward's time. 
The rest of his opponents were Drs. Weston, Tresham, Oglethorpe, Glin, 
Seton, Cole, Watson; masters Harpsfield, Ward, Pie, Harding, Curtop, 
and Fecknam : to all of whom he answered very learnedly. Dr. Weston, 
the prolocutor, commenced the disputation, with the following speech : — 

" Good Christian people and brethren, we have begun this day our 
school, by God's good speed I trust ; and are entering into a controversy, 
whereof no question ought to be moved, concerning the verity of the body 
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the eucharist. Christ is true, who said the 
words. The words are true which he spake, yea, truth itself that cannot 
fail. Let us therefore pray unto God to send down upon us his Holy 
Spirit, which is the interpreter of his word ; which may purge away errors, 
and give light that verity may appear. Let us also ask leave and liberty 
of the church to permit the truth received to be called this day in question 
without any prejudice to the same. Your parts thereof shall be to im- 
plore the assistance of Almighty God, to pray for the prosperity of the 
queen's majesty, and to give us quiet and attentive ears. Now go to 
your question." 

Dr. Smith then said — " This day, right learned master Doctor, three 



566 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

questions are propounded, whereof no controversy among Christians 
ought to be moved. They are these — Whether the natural body of 
Christ our Saviour, conceived of the virgin Mary, and offered for man's 
redemption upon the cross, is verily and really in the sacrament by 
virtue of God's word spoken by the priests. Whether in the sacrament 
after the words of consecration, there be any other substance than the 
body and blood of Christ ? Whether in the mass there is the sacrifice 
of Christ propitiatory. Touching these questions, although you have 
publicly declared your judgment on Saturday last; yet I will again de- 
mand your answer on the first question ; upon which I stand here now 
to learn what may be answered." 

Dr. Ridley then addressed the convocation as follows without any 
material interruption : 

" I received of you the other day, right worshipful Mr. Prolocutor, 
and you my reverend masters, commissioners from the queen's majesty 
and her honourable council; three propositions ; whereunto ye com- 
manded me to prepare against this day, what I thought good to answer 
concerning the same. 

" Now whilst I weighed with myself how great a charge of the Lord's 
flock was of late committed unto me, for which I am certain I must once 
render an account to my Lord God (and how soon he only knoweth) and 
that moreover by the commandment of the apostle Peter, I ought to 
be ready always to give a reason of the hope that is in me, with meek- 
ness and reverence, unto every one that shall demand the same : be- 
sides this, considering my duty to the church of Christ, and to your 
worships, being commissioners by public authority ; I determined with 
myself to obey your commandment, and so openly to declare unto you 
my mind touching the aforesaid propositions. And albeit, plainly to 
confess unto you the truth of these things ye now demand of me, I 
have thought otherwise in times past than now I do, yet (I call God to 
record upon my soul, I lie not) I have not altered my judgment, as now 
it is, either by constraint of any man or law, either for the dread of 
any dangers of this world, either for any hope of commodity ; but only 
for the love of the truth revealed unto me by the grace of God (as I am 
undoubtedly persuaded) in his holy word, and in the reading of the 
ancient fathers. 

"These things I do rather recite at this present, because it may happen 
to some of you hereafter, as in times past it hath done to me : I mean, 
if ye think otherwise of the matters propounded in these propositions 
than I now do, God may open them unto you in time to come. But 
howsoever it shall be, I will in a few words do that which I think ye 
all expect I should ; that is, as plainly as 1 can, I will declare my 
judgment herein. Howbeit, of this I would ye were not ignorant, that 
I will not indeed willingly speak in any point against God's word, or 
dissent in any one jot from the same, or from the rules of faith, or the 
christian religion : which rules that same most sacred word of God 
prescribeth to the church of Christ, whereunto I now and for ever 
submit myself and all my doings. And because the matter I have now 
taken in hand is weighty, and ye all well know how unprepared I am 
to handle it accordingly, as well for lack of time, as also of books ; 



DEBATES ON THE HEAL PRESENCE. 567 

therefore here I protest, that I will publicly this day require of you that 
it may be lawful for me concerning all mine answers, explications, and 
confirmations, to add or diminish whatsoever shall seem hereafter more 
convenient and meet for the purpose, through more sound judgment, better 
deliberation, and more exact trial of every particular thing. Having now, 
by the way of preface and protestation, spoken these few words, I will 
come to the answer of the propositions propounded unto me, and so to the 
most brief explication and confirmation of mine answers." 

THE FIRST PROPOSITION. 

In the sacrament of the altar, by the virtue of God's word spoken of 
the priest, the natural body of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, and his 
natural blood, are really present under the forms of bread and wine. 

Ridley. In matters appertaining to God we may not speak accord- 
ing to the sense of man, nor of the world : therefore, this propo- 
sition or conclusion is framed after another manner of phrase, or kind 
of speech, than the scripture useth. Again, it is very obscure and dark, 
by means of sundry words of doubtful signification. And being taken 
in the sense which the schoolmen teach, and at this time the church of 
Rome doth defend, it is false and erroneous, and plainly contrary to the 
doctrine which is according to godliness. How far the diversity and 
newness of the phrase in all this first proposition is from the phrase of 
the holy scripture, and that in every part almost, it is so plain and evi- 
dent to any one who is but meanly exercised in holy writ, that I need 
not now (especially in this company of learned men) spend any time 
therein, except the same shall be required of me hereafter. 

" First, there is a double sense in these words, By virtue of God's word, 
for it is doubtful what word of God this is, whether it be that which is 
read in the evangelists, or in St. Paul, or any other. And if it be that 
which is in the evangelists, or in St. Paul, what that is. If it be in none 
of them, then how it may be known to be God's word, and of such 
virtue that it should be able to work so great a matter. 

" Again, there is a doubt of these words, of the priest, whether no man 
may be called a priest, but he which hath authority to make a pro- 
pitiators sacrifice for the quick and the dead; and how it may be proved 
that this authority was committed of God to any man, but to Christ 
alone. It is likewise doubted after what order the sacrificing priest shall 
be, whether after the order of Aaron, or else after the order of Mel- 
chisedek. For as far as I know, the holy scriptures doth allow no 
more. 

" Moreover, there is ambiguity in this word really, whether it be taken 
as the logicians term it " transcendenter," that is, most generally, and 
so it may signify any manner of thing which belongeth to the body of 
Christ, by any means: after which sort we also grant Christ's body to 
be really in the sacrament of the Lord's supper ; or whether it be taken 
to signify the very same thing, having body, life, and soul, which was 
assumed and taken by the word of God, into the unity of person. In 
which sense, seeing the body of Christ is really in Heaven, because of 
the true manner of his body, it may not be said to be here on the earth. 



663 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

" There is yet a further doubtfulness in these words, under the forms of 
bread and wine, whether the forms be there taken to signify the only acci- 
dental and outward shows of bread and wine ; or therewithal the substantial 
natures thereof, which are to be seen by their qualities, and perceived by 
exterior senses. Now the error and falseness of the proposition, after the 
sense of the Roman church and schoolmen, may hereby appear, in that they 
affirm the bread to be transubstantiated and changed to the flesh assumed 
of the word of God, and that, as they say, by virtue of the word which 
they have devised by a certain number of words, and cannot be found in 
any of the evangelists, or in St. Paul ; and so they gather that Christ's 
body is really contained in the sacrament of the altar. Which position is 
grounded upon the foundation of the transubstantiation ; which foundation 
is monstrous, against reason, and destroyeth the analogy or proportion of 
the sacraments : and therefore this proposition also, which is builded upon 
this rotten foundation, is false, erroneous, and to be counted as a detest- 
able heresy of the sacramentaries. 

" There ought no doctrine to be established in the church of God, which 
dissenteth from the word of God, from the rule of faith, and draweth with 
it many absurdities that cannot be avoided. But this doctrine of the first 
proposition is such : therefore it ought not to be established and main- 
tained in the church of God. 

" The major, or first part of my argument, is plain ; and the minor, or 
second part, is proved thus : — This doctrine maintaineth a real, corporeal, 
and carnal presence of Christ's flesh, assumed and taken of the word, to 
be in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and that not by virtue and grace 
only, but also by the whole essence and substance of the body and flesh of 
Christ. But such a presence disagreeth from God's word, from the ruie 
of faith, and cannot but draw with it many absurdities. Therefore, the 
second part is true. The former part of this argument is manifest, and the 
latter may yet further be confirmed thus : First of all, this presence is con- 
trary to many places of the Holy Scripture. Secondly, it varieth from the 
articles of the faith. Thirdly, it destroyeth and taketh away the institution 
of the Lord's supper. Fourthly, it maketh precious things common to 
profane and ungodly persons ; for it casteth that which is holy unto dogs, 
and pearls unto swine. Fifthly, it forceth men to maintain many monstrous 
miracles, without necessity and authority of God's word. Sixthly, it giveth 
occasion to the heretics who erred concerning the two natures in Christ to 
defend their heresies thereby. Seventhly, it falsifieth the sayings of the 
godly fathers ; it falsifieth also the Catholic faith of the church, which the 
apostles taught, the martyrs confirmed, and the faithful, as one of the 
fathers saith, do retain and keep until this day. Wherefore the second 
part of mine argument is true." 

THE SECOND PROPOSITION. 

After the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread and wine, 
neither any other substance, than the substance of God and man. 

Ridley. The second conclusion is manifestly false, directly against the 
word of God, the nature of the sacrament, and the most evident testimonies 
of the godly fathers ; and it is the rotten foundation of the other two con- 
clusions propounded by you, both of the first, and also of the third. I 






DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 569 

will not therefore now tarry upon this answer, being cortented with that 
which is already added before to the answer of the first proposition. 

" It is very plain by the word of God, that Christ did give bread unto 
his disciples, and called it his body. But the substance cf bread is 
another manner of substance, than is the substance of Christ's body, 
God and man. Therefore the conclusion is false. That which Christ 
took, on which he gave thanks, and which he brake, he gave to his 
disciples, and called his body. But he took bread, gave thanks on 
bread, and brake bread. Therefore the first part is true. And it is 
confirmed with the authorities of the fathers, Irene, Tertullian, Origen, 
Cyprian, Epiphanius, Jerome, Augustine, Theodoret, Cyril, Rabanus, 
and Bede. Whose places I will take upon me to shew most manifest in 
this behalf, if I may be suffered to have my books, as my request is. 

" We may no more believe bread to be transubstantiate into the body 
of Christ, than the wine into his blood. The circumstances of the scrip- 
ture, the analogy and proportion of the sacraments, and the testimony 
of the faithful fathers, ought to rule us in taking the meaning of the 
holy Scripture touching the sacrament : and they most effectually and 
plainly prove a figurative speech in the words of the Lord's supper. There- 
fore, a figurative sense and meaning is specially to be received in these 
words, ' This is my body.' — The circumstances of the Scripture are : ' Do 
this in remembrance of me.' ' As oft as ye shall eat of this bread, and 
drink of this cup, ye shall show forth the Lord's death.' ' Let a man prove 
himself, and so eat of this bread, and drink of this cup.' ' They came to- 
gether to break bread ; and they continued in breaking of bread.' * The 
bread which we break/ etc. ' For we being many, are all one bread,' etc." 

THE THIRD PROPOSITION. 

In the mass is the lively sacrifice of the church, propitiable and avail- 
able for the sins as well of the quick as of the dead. 

Ridley. I answer to this third proposition as I did to the first ; and 
moreover I say, that being taken in such a sense as the words seem to im- 
port, it is not only erroneous, but withal so much to the derogation and 
defacing of the death and passion of Christ, that I judge it may and 
ought most worthily to be counted wicked and blasphemous against the 
most precious blood of our Saviour Christ. 

" Concerning the Romish mass which you use at this day, or the lively 
sacrifice thereof, propitiatory and available for the sins of the quick 
and the dead, the holy scripture has not so much as one syllable. There 
is ambiguity in the name mass, what it signifieth, and whether at this 
day there be any such indeed as the ancient fathers used; seeing that 
now there be neither Catechists nor Penitents to be sent away. And 
then as touching these words, the lively sacrifice of the church, there 
is doubt whether they are to be understood figuratively and sacrament- 
ally, or properly and without any figure; of which manner there was 
but one only sacrifice, and that once offered, namely upon the altar of 
the cross. Moreover, in these words, as well as, it may be doubted 
whether they be spoken in mockery, as men are wont to say in sport, of 
a foolish and ignorant person, that he is apt as well in conditions as in 
knowledge; being apt in neither of them. Finally, there is doubt in 



570 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the word propitiable, whether it signify here that which taketh away sin, 
or that which may be made available for the taking away of sin; that is 
to say, whether it is to be taken in the active, or in the passive sig- 
nification." 

The following is an abridged form of Bishop Ridley's argument on 
the sacrifice of atonement. " No sacrifice ought to be done, but where 
the priest is meet to offer the same. All other priests are unmeet to 
offer propitiatory sacrifices, save only Christ. Therefore, no other priests 
ought to sacrifice for sin, but Christ alone. 

" After that eternal redemption is found and obtained, there needeth 
no more daily offering for the same. But Christ coming an high Priest, 
found and obtained for us eternal redemption. Therefore, there needeth 
now no more daily oblation for the sins of the quick and the dead. All 
remissions of sins cometh only by shedding of blood. In the mass there 
is no shedding of blood. Therefore, in the mass there is no remission 
of sins; and so it followeth also that there is no propitiatory sacrifice. 
In the mass, the passion of Christ is not in verity, but in a mystery re- 
presenting the same. Where Christ suffereth not, there is he not offered 
in verity: for the apostle saith, 'Not that he might offer up himself 
oftentimes — for then must he have suffered oftentimes since the beginning 
of the world.' And again — ' Christ appeared once in the latter end 
of the world, to put sin to flight by the offering up of himself. And 
as it is appointed to all men that they shall once die, and then cometh 
the judgment; even so Christ was once offered, to take away the sins 
of many. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second 
time without sin unto salvation.' Where there is any sacrifice that can 
make the comers thereunto perfect, there ought men to cease from 
offering any more expiatory and propitiatory sacrifices. But in the New 
Testament there is one only sacrifice now already long since offered, 
which is able to make the comers thereto perfect for ever. Therefore, 
in the New Testament they ought to cease from offering any propitiatory 
sacrifices." 

Dr. Smith, the principal opponent of Ridley, now drew that holy 
bishop into a most unprofitable controversy on the real presence. 
Scarcely an idea occurred which has not been more than once before 
the reader already. On which side the truth lay, may be seen from a 
few of Ridley's answers. 

"You import as though I had made a strong argument by Christ's 
going up into heaven. But however my argument is made, you collect 
it not rightly. For it doth not only rest upon his ascension, but upon 
his abiding there also. — Of Christ's real presence there may be a double 
understanding: if you take the real presence of Christ according to the 
real and corporeal substance which he took of the virgin, that presence 
being in heaven, cannot be on the earth also. But if you mean a real 
presence, according to some thing that appertaineth to Christ's body, 
certainly the ascension and abiding in heaven hinder not at all that 
presence. Wherefore Christ's body after that manner is here present to 
us in the Lord's supper; by grace I say, as Epiphanius speaketh it. — I 
do not straightly tie Christ up in heaven, that he may not come into the 
earth at his pleasure. For when he will, he may come down from heaven, 



DISPUTATION WITH RIDLEY. 571 

and be on the earth, as it liketh himself. Howbeit, I do affirm, that it 
is not possible for him to be both in heaven and earth at one time. 

" I do not bind Christ in heaven so straitly. I see you go about to 
beguile me with your equivocations. Such equivocations are to be dis- 
tinguished. If you mean by his sitting in heaven, to reign with his 
Father, he may be both in heaven and also on earth. But if you un- 
derstand his sitting to be after a corporeal manner of sitting, so is he 
always permanent in heaven. For Christ to be corporeal here on earth, 
when corporeally he is resident in heaven, is clearly contrary to the 
holy scriptures, as Austin saith; 'The body of Christ is in heaven, 
but his truth is dispersed in every place.' Yet I do not deny that 
Christ was seen, even here on earth, after he had risen. I account this 
a sound and firm argument to prove the resurrection. 'Whether they 
saw him in heaven or on earth, it maketh no great matter. Both ways 
the argument is of like strength. For whether he were seen in heaven, 
or whether he were seen on earth, either maketh sufficiently for the 
matter. Certain it is, he rose again: for he could not have been seen, 
unless he had risen again. 

" He that found the means for Stephen to behold him in heaven, even 
he could bring to pass well enough, that Paul might hear him out of 
heaven. — I grant he was seen visibly and corporeally : but yet have you 
not proved that he was seen in earth. — Moreover, I say, that Christ was seen 
of men on earth after his ascension it is certain : for he was seen of Stephen ; 
he was seen also of Paul. But whether he descended unto the earth, or 
whether he being in heaven did reveal or manifest himself to Paul, when Paul 
was rapt into the third heaven, I know that some contend about it : and the 
Scripture, as far as I have read or heard, doth not determine it. Wherefore 
we cannot but judge uncertainly of those things which be uncertain." 

Smith. We have Egesippus and Linus against you, which testify that 
Christ appeared corporeally on the earth to Peter after his ascension. 
Peter overcome with the requests and mournings of the people, which 
desired him to get him out of the city, because of Nero's lying in wait for 
him, began without company to convey himself away from thence : and 
when he was come to the gate, he seeth Christ come to meet him, and 
worshipping him, he said, " Master, whither walk you ? " Christ answered, 
"I am come again to be crucified." Linus, writing of the passion of 
Peter, hath the self-same story. St. Ambrose hath the same likewise, and 
also Abdias, scholar to the apostles, who saw Christ before his ascending 
in heaven. With what face therefore dare you affirm it to be a thing un- 
certain, which these men do manifestly witness to have been done? 

Ridley suggested the uncertainty of this account; at the same time 
maintaining that eveu its certainty would not make against him. " I 
account not these men's reports so sure as the canonical scriptures. But 
if at any time Christ had to any man appeared here on the earth after 
his ascension, that doth not disprove my saying. For I go not about to 
tie Christ up in fetters; but that he may be seen upon the earth accord- 
ing to his divine pleasure, whensoever it pleaseth him. But we affirm, 
that it is contrary to the nature of his manhood, and the true manner 
of his body, that he should be together and at one instant both in 
heaven and earth, according to his corporeal substance." 



572 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






Harpsfield now took up the papal cause against Ridley, and endea- 
voured to confound him by means of Chedsey's famous argument with 
Mr. Philpot, respecting the bequest of Elijah's mantle and spirit to his 
venerable successor in office. Of course the authority of Chrysostom 
on this subject was introduced, and the popish disputant thought his 
armour perfect proof, and his victory absolutely certain and secure. It 
is needless to repeat the dialogue, as it contains nothing beyond what 
has already appeared. It may be remarked that the wearisome repetition 
of the same authorities and the same sophistries to ensnare the reformers, 
is a standing proof of the desperate condition to which, both intellectually 
and religiously, the cause of popery was even then reduced. What effect 
such arguments at that time might have had on minds prepared for them 
by superstitious discipline, we are unable to say: certain it is, however, 
that in the judgment of all candid readers in the present day they must 
appear altogether puerile and unworthy even of serious contempt. 

Weston and Cole successively followed Harpsfield in attacking the 
persecuted but patient bishop — who might well have said to either of 
them what the author of "Sacred Classics," in more modern times, said 
to a pert and prating chaplain, who was examining him for ordination 
— " 1 have forgotten more learning than you ever possessed!" Passing 
Over their ridiculous efforts, we come to that of Dr. Glin, who claims 
more serious notice from his having been an old friend of Dr. Ridley. 
The following intercourse took place between them. 

Glin. I see that you evade all scriptures and fathers; I will go to 
work with you after another manner. Jesus Christ hath here his church 
known on earth, of which you were once a child, although now you 
speak contumeliously of the sacraments. 

Rid. This is a grievous reproach, that you call me a shifter -away of 
the scripture, and of the doctors: as touching the sacraments, I never 
yet spake contumeliously of them. I grant that Christ hath here his 
church on earth: but that church did ever receive and acknowledge the 
eucharist to be a sacrament of the body of Christ, yet not the body of 
Christ really, but the body of Christ by grace. 

Glin. Then I ask this question — Hath the catholic church ever, or at 
any time, been idolatrous? 

Rid. The church is the pillar and stay of the truth, that never yet 
hath been idolatrous in respect of the whole: but peradventure in 
respect of some part thereof, which sometimes may be seduced by evil 
pastors, and through ignorance. 

Glin. That church ever hath worshipped the flesh of Christ in the 
eucharist. 

Rid. And I also worship Christ in the sacrament, but not because he 
is included in the sacrament; even as I worship Christ also in the scrip- 
tures, not because he is really included in them. Notwithstanding, I 
say, that the body of Christ is present in the sacrament; but yet sacra- 
mentally and spiritually, according to his grace, giving life; and in that 
respect really, that is, according to his benediction, giving life. Further- 
more, I acknowledge, gladly, the true body of Christ to be in the Lord's 
supper, in such sort as the church of Christ doth acknowledge the same. 
But the true church of Christ doth acknowledge a presence of Christ's 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 573 

body in the Lord's supper to be communicated to the godly by grace, and 
spiritually, as I have often showed, and by a sacramental signification, 
but not by the corporeal presence of the body of his flesh. 

Glin. Augustine against Faustus saith, " Some there were who thought 
us, instead of bread and of the cup, to worship Ceres and Bacchus." 
From this I gather, that there was an adoration of the sacrament among 
the fathers; and Erasmus, in an epistle to the brethren of Low Germany, 
saith, that the worshipping of the sacrament was before Augustine and 
Cyprian. 

Rid. We handle the signs reverently : but we worship the sacrament 
as a sacrament, not as a thing signified by the sacrament. 

Glin. What is the symbol or sacrament ? 

Rid. Bread. 

Glin. Therefore we worship bread. 

Rid. There is a deceit in the word adoramus. We worship the symbols 
when we reverently handle them. We worship Christ wheresoever we 
perceive his benefits : but we understand his benefit to be greatest in the 
sacrament. 

Glin. Think you that Christ hath now his church ? 

Rid. I do so. 

Glin. But all the church adoreth Christ verily and really in the sacrament. 

Rid. You know yourself that the eastern church would not acknowledge 
transubstantiation, as appeareth in the council of Florence. 

Cole. That is false : for in the same they did acknowledge transubstan- 
tiation, although they would not intreat of the matter, for that they had 
not in their commission so to do. — It was not because they did not acknow- 
ledge the same, but because they had no commission so to do. 

Curtop. Reverend sir, I will prove and declare, that the body of Christ 
is truly and really in the eucharist : and whereas the holy fathers, both of 
the west and east church, have written many things and no less manifest 
of the same matter, yet will I bring forth only Chrysostom. The place is 
this : " That which is in the cup, is the same that flowed from the side of 
Christ." But true and pure blood did flow from the side of Christ. 
Therefore, his true and pure blood is in the cup. 

Watson. It is a thing commonly received of all, that the sacraments of 
the new law give grace to them that worthily receive. 

Rid. True it is, that grace is given by the sacrament, but as by an 
instrument. The inward virtue and Christ give the grace through the 
sacrament. 

Wat. What is a sacrament? 

Rid. I remember there be many definitions of a sacrament in Augustine ; 
but I will take that which seemeth most fit to this present purpose. A 
sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace. — The society or conjunction 
with Christ through the Holy Ghost is grace ; and by the sacrament we 
are made the members of the mystical body of Christ, for that by the 
sacrament the part of the body is grafted in the head. 

Wat. But there is difference between the mystical body and natural bod v. 

Rid. There is, I grant you, a difference ; but the head of them both 
is one. 

Wat. The eucharist is a sacrament of the New Testament : therefore 



514 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



it hath a promise of grace. But no promise of grace is made to bread 
and wine : therefore bread and wine are not the sacraments of the New 
Testament. 

Rid. I grant that grace pertaineth to the eucharist, according to this 
saying : " The bread which we break, is it not the communication or 
partaking of the body of Christ V And like as he that eateth, and he 
that drinketh, unworthily of the sacrament of the body and blood of the 
Lord, eateth and drinketh his own damnation; even so he that eateth 
and drinketh worthily, eateth life and drinketh life. I grant also, that 
there is no promise made to bread and wine. But inasmuch as they are 
sanctified, and made the sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord, 
they have a promise of grace annexed unto them; namely, of spiritual 
partaking of the body of Christ to be communicated and given, not to 
the bread and wine, but to them who worthily receive the sacrament. 

Wat. If the substance of bread and wine do remain, then the union 
betwixt Christ and us is promised to them that take bread and wine. 
But that union is not promised to bread and wine, but to the receivers 
of the flesh and blood. " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
blood hath eternal life." Therefore the substance of bread and wine 
remaineth not. 

Rid. The promise undoubtedly is made to the flesh and blood, but 
the same is to be received in the sacrament through faith. Every sacra- 
ment hath grace annexed unto it instrumentally. But there are divers 
understanding of this word " habet," " hath ;" for the sacrament hath not 
grace included in it; but to those that receive it well, it is turned to 
grace. After that manner the water in baptism hath grace promised, and 
by that grace the Holy Spirit is given ; not that grace is included in 
water, but that grace cometh by water. — There is no promise made to 
him that taketh common bread and common wine ; but to him that 
receiveth the sanctified bread of the communion, there is a large promise 
of grace made : neither is the promise given to the symbols, but to the 
thing of the sacrament. But the thing of the sacrament is the flesh and 
blood. — This sacrament hath a promise of grace made to those that receive 
it worthily, because grace is given by it, as by an instrument ; not that 
Christ hath transfused grace into the bread and wine. — There is no pro- 
mise made to them that receive common bread, as it were ; but to those 
that worthily receive the sanctified bread, there is a promise of grace 
made, as Origen doth testify. — The bread which we break, is it not a 
communication of the body of Christ? And we, being many, are one 
bread, one body of Christ. 

Wat. What doth he mean by bread in that place ? 

Rid. The bread of the Lord's table, the communion of the body of Christ. 

Wat. Hearken what Chrysostom saith on this place: "The bread 
which we break," etc. Wherefore did he not say participation ? Because 
he would signify some greater matter, and that he would declare a great 
convenience and conjunction betwixt the same. For we do not commu- 
nicate by participation only and receiving, but also by co-uniting, for 
likewise as that body is co-united to Christ, so also we, by the same 
bread, are conjoined and united to him. 

Rid. Let Chrysostom have his manner of speaking, and his sentence. 



, 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE, 575 

If it be true, I reject it not. But let it not be prejudicial to me to 
name it true bread. 

Wat. "All," saith Chrysostom, "which sit together at one board, do 
communicate together of one true body. What do I call," saith he, 
"this communicating? We are all the self-same body. What doth 
bread signify? The body of Christ. What are they that receive it? 
The body of Christ. For many are but one body." Chrysostom doth 
interpret this place against you. " All we be one bread, and one 
mystical body, which do participate together one bread of Christ." 

Rid. All we are one mystical body, which do communicate of one 
Christ in bread, after the efficacy of regeneration. I speak of the bread 
of the Lord's table. It is one, the church being one, because one bread 
is set forth upon the table : and so of one bread altogether do par- 
ticipate, who communicate at the table of the Lord. All, I say, which 
at one table together have communicated in the mysteries might well so 
do. But the heavenly and celestial bread is likewise one, whereof the 
sacramental bread is a mystery; which being one, all we together do 
participate. I do distribute this word " all ;" for all were wont together to 
communicate of the one bread divided into parts : all, I say, which were 
in one congregation, and which all did communicate together at one table. 

Wat. What ? Do you exclude then from the body of Christ all them 
which did not communicate, being present? 

Fecknam. But Cyprian saith, " Bread which no multitude doth con- 
sume : " which cannot be understood but only of the body of Christ. 

Rid. Also Cyprian in this place did speak of the true body of Christ, 
and not of material bread. 

Feck. Nay, rather he did there speak of the sacrament in that tractation, 
" De Coena Domini," writing upon the supper of the Lord. 

Rid. Truth it is, and I grant he entreateth there of the sacrament : but, 
also, he doth admix something therewithal of the spiritual manducation. 

Smith. When the Lord saith, " This is my body," he useth no tropical 
speech : therefore you are deceived. 

Rid. I deny your antecedent. 

Smith. I bring here Augustine expounding these words, " * Ferebatur 
in manibus suis — He was carried in his own hands.' How may this be 
understood to be done in man ? For no man is carried in his own hands, 
but in the hands of other. How this may be understood of David after 
the letter, we do not find ; of Christ we find it. For Christ was borne in 
his own hands, when he saith, ' This is my body,' for he carried that same 
body in his own hands." Augustine here did not see how this place, after 
the letter, could be understood of David ; because no man can carry him- 
self in his own hands: " Therefore," saith he, " this place is to be under- 
stood of Christ after the letter." For Christ carried himself in his own 
hands in his supper, when he gave the sacrament to his disciples, saying, 
" This is my body." 

Rid. I deny your argument, and I explicate the same. Augustine 
could not find, after his own understanding, how this could be under- 
stood of David after the letter. Augustine goeth here from others in this 
exposition, but I go not from him. But let this exposition of Augus- 
tine be granted to you ; although I know this place of Scripture be 



576 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

otherwise read of other men, after the verity of the Hebrew text, and it 
is also otherwise to be expounded. Yet to grant to you this exposition 
of Augustine, I say yet, notwithstanding, it maketh nothing against my 
assertion : for Christ did bear himself in his own hands, when he gave 
the sacrament of his body to be eaten by his disciples. — If Augustine 
could have found in all the Scripture, that David had carried the sacra- 
ment of his body, then he would never have used that exposition of Christ. 
He verily did bear himself, but in a sacrament : and Augustine afterwards 
added quodam modo, that is, sacramentally. 

Smith. You understand not what Augustine meant when he said " quo- 
dam modo ;" for he meant that he did bear his very true body in that 
supper, not in figure and form of a body, but in form and figure of bread. 

Then Dr. Tresham began to speak, moved (as it seemed to Ridley) 
with great zeal; desiring he might reduce him again to the mother church. 
He was unknown to Ridley, who thought him some good old man ; but 
afterwards smelled a fox under a sheep's clothing. 

Tresham. I bring a place here out of the council of Lateran, the which 
council, representing the universal church, wherein were congregated 
three hundred bishops and seventy metropolitans, besides a great multi- 
tude of others, decreed that bread and wine, by the power of God's word, 
was transubstantiated into the body and blood of the Lord. Therefore 
whosoever saith contrary, cannot be a child of the church, but a heretic. 

Rid. Good sir, I have heard what you have cited out of the council of 
Lateran, and remember that there was a great multitude of bishops and 
metropolitans, as you said : but yet you have not numbered how many 
abbots, priors, and friars were in that council, who were to the number of 
eight hundred." 

Another then came in, whom Ridley knew not, and said, " The universal 
church, both of the Greeks and Latins, of the east and of the west, have 
agreed in the council of Florence uniformly in the doctrine of the sacra- 
ment, that there is the true and real body in the sacrament of the altar." 

Rid. I deny the Greek and the east church to have agreed either in 
the council at Florence, or at any time else, with the Romish church, in 
the doctrine of transubstantiation of bread into the body of Christ. For 
there was nothing in the council of Florence, wherein the Greeks would 
agree with the Romanists ; albeit, hitherto I confess it was left free, for 
every church to use, as they were wont, leavened or unleavened bread. 

Here cried out Dr. Cole, and said, they agreed together concerning 
transubstantiation of bread into the body of Christ. Ridley meekly said 
that could not be. 

Weston. I, with one argument, will throw down to the ground your 
opinion, out of Chrysostom ; and I will teach, not only a figure and a 
sign or grace only, but the very same body, which was here conversant on 
the earth, to be in the eucharist. We worship the selfsame body in the 
eucharist which the wise men did worship in the manger. But that was 
his natural and real body, not spiritual : therefore the real body of Christ 
is in the eucharist. Again, the same Chrysostom saith, " We have not 
here the Lord in the manger, but on the altar. Here a woman holdeth 
him not in her hands, but a priest." 

Rid. We worship the same Lord and Saviour of the world which the wise 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 577 

men worshipped in the manger ; howbeit we do it in a mystery ; and in 
the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and that in spiritual liberty, as saitli 
Augustine, De Doctrind Christiand : not in carnal servitude; that is, we d<? 
not worship servilely the signs for the things ; for that should be, as he 
also saith, the part of a servile infirmity. But we behold with the eyes 01 
faith him present after grace, and spiritually set upon the table ; and we 
worship him which sitteth above and is worshipped of the angels. For 
Christ is always assistant to his mysteries, as Augustine also said. And 
the Divine Majesty, as saith Cyprian, doth never absent itself from the 
divine mysteries ; but this assistance and presence of Christ, as in baptism 
it is wholly spiritual, and by grace, and not by any corporal substance 
of the flesh : even so it is here in the Lord's supper, being rightly and 
according to the word of God duly ministered. 

Weston. That which the woman did hold in her womb, the same thing 
holdeth the priest. 

Rid. I grant the priest holdeth the same thing, but after another man- 
ner. She did hold the natural body ; the priest holdeth the mystery of 
the body. I say that Chrysostom meant it spiritually. 

The prolocutor Weston, now dissolving the disputation, had these words : 
" Here you see the stubborn, the glorious, the crafty, the unconstant mind 
of this man. Here you see this day that the strength of the truth is with- 
out foil. Therefore I beseech you all most earnestly to blow the note, 
(and he began, and they followed,) ' Verity hath the victory !' " 

DISPUTATION HAD AT OXFORD THE 18TH DAY OF APRIL, 1554, BETWEEN 
MASTER HUGH LATIMER, AND MASTER SMITH AND OTHERS. 

After these disputations of bishop Ridley ended, next was brought out 
master Hugh Latimer to dispute ; which disputation began at eight of the 
clock in such form as before, and ended about eleven : but it was most in 
English, for Latimer alleged he was out of use with the Latin, and unfit for 
that place. There replied unto him master Smith of Oriel College ; Dr. 
Cartwright, Harpsfield, and divers others had snatches at him, and gave 
him bitter taunts. He escaped not hissings and scornful laughings, no 
more than they that went before him. He was very faint, and desired 
that he might not long tarry; and he durst not drink for fear of vomiting. 
Latimer was not suffered to read what he had, as he said, painfully written ; 
but it was exhibited up, and the prolocutor read part thereof, and so pro- 
ceeded unto the disputation. 

Weston. Men and brethren ! we are come together this day, by the help 
of God, to vanquish the strength of the arguments, and dispersed opinions 
of adversaries, against the truth of the real presence of the Lord's body in 
the sacrament. And therefore, you father, if you have anything to answer, 
I do admonish you that you answer in short and few words. 

Latimer. I pray you, good master prolocutor, do not exact that of me 
which is not in me. I have not these twenty years much used the Latin. 

Weston. Take your ease, father. 

Lat. I thank you, sir, I am well; let me here protest my faith, for I am 
not able to dispute ; and afterwards do your pleasure with me. The con- 
clusions whereunto I must answer are these : — 
is 2 p 



578 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

"The first is — That in the sacrament of the altar, by the virtue of God's 
word pronounced by the priest, there is really present the natural body 
of Christ, conceived by the virgin Mary, under the kinds of the appear- 
ance of bread and wine ; in like manner his blood. The second is — 
That after consecration there remaineth no substance of bread and wine, 
nor any other substance, but the substance of God and man. The 
third is — That in the mass there is the lively sacrifice of the church, 
which is propitiable, as well for the sins of the quick, as of the dead. 

" Concerning the first conclusion, I think it is set forth with certain 
new-found terms that are obscure, and do not sound according to the 
speech of the scripture. But however I understand it, this I do answer 
plainly, though not without peril, that to the right celebration of 
the Lord's supper, there is no other presence of Christ required than 
a spiritual presence : and this presence is sufficient for a Christian, as 
a presence by which we abide in Christ, and Christ abideth in us, 
to the obtaining of eternal life, if we persevere. And this same presence 
may be called most fitly a real presence ; that is, a presence not feigned, 
but a true and a faithful presence : which thing I here rehearse lest some 
sycophant or scorner should suppose me, with the Anabaptists, to make 
nothing of the sacrament but a naked and bare sign. As for that which 
is feigned of many, concerning their corporal presence, I for my part take 
it but for a papistical invention; therefore think it utterly to be rejected. 
" Concerning the second conclusion, I dare be bold to say, that it hath 
no ground in God's word, but is a thing invented and found out by man, 
and therefore to be taken as false ; and I had almost said, as the mother 
and nurse of the other errors. It were good for my lords and masters 
of the transubstantiation, to take heed lest they conspire with the Nes- 
torians, for I do not see how they can avoid it. 

" The third conclusion, seemeth subtilly to sow sedition against the 
offering which Christ himself offered for us in his own proper person, 
according to those words of St. Paul, " That Christ his own self hath 
made purgation of our sins." And afterwards, "That he might be a 
merciful and faithful high priest concerning those things which are to be 
done with God, for the taking away of our sins." So that the expiation 
of our sins may be thought rather to depend on this, that Christ was an 
offering priest, than that he was offered, were it not that he was offered 
of himself; and therefore it is needless that he should be offered of any 
other. I will speak nothing of the wonderful presumption of man, to 
dare to attempt this thing without a manifest vocation, especially in that 
it tendeth to the overthrowing and making fruitless the cross of Christ ; 
for truly it is no base or mean thing to offer Christ. And, therefore, 
well may a man say to my lords and masters, the offerers — " By what 
authority do ye this? and who gave you this authority? A man cannot 
take any thing, except it be given him from above ; much less then 
ought any man presume to usurp any honour, before he be thereto called. 
Again, " If any man sin," saith St. John, " we have (not a master and 
offerer at home, which can sacrifice for us at mass) an advocate, Jesus 
Christ," which once offered himself long ago; of which offering the efficacy 
and effect is perdurable for ever, so that it is needless to have such offerers. 



DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 579 

" What meaneth Paul when he saith — " They that serve at the altar, 
are partakers of the altar ?" and — " So the Lord hath ordained, that 
they that preach the gospel, shall live of the gospel." Whereas he 
should have said, the Lord hath ordained, that they that sacrifice at 
mass, should live of their sacrificing, that there might be living assigned 
to our sacrificers now, as was before Christ's coming, to the Jewish 
priests. For now they have nothing to allege for their living, as they 
that be preachers have. So that it appeareth that the sacrificing priest- 
hood is changed by God's ordinance into a preaching priesthood; and the 
sacrificing priesthood should cease utterly, saving inasmuch as all Christian 
men are sacrificing priests. The supper of the Lord was instituted to provoke 
us to thanksgiving, for the offering which the Lord himself did offer for us, 
rather than that our offerers should do there as they do. " Feed" 
saith Peter, "as much as ye may the flock of Christ;" but ye 
say, Nay, rather let us sacrifice as much as we may for the flock of 
Christ. If the matter be as men now make it, I can never wonder 
enough, that Peter would or could forget this office of sacrificing, which 
at this day is in such a price and estimation, that to feed is almost no- 
thing with many. If ye cease from feeding the flock, how shall ye be 
taken ? Truly catholic enough. But if you cease from sacrificing and 
massing, how will that be taken ? At the least, I warrant ye shall be 
called heretics. And whence I pray you come these papistical judg- 
ments ? Except, perchance, they think a man feedeth the flock in sacri- 
ficing for them : and then what needeth there any learned pastors ? For 
no man is so foolish but soon he may learn to sacrifice and mass it. 

" Thus I have taken the more pains to write, because I refused to dis- 
pute, in consideration of my debility thereunto : that all men may know 
I have so done not without great pains, having been allowed no man 
to help me. God is my witness that I would as fain obey my sove- 
reign as any in this realm : but in these things I can never do it with an 
upright conscience. However, the Lord God be merciful unto us. 
Amen." 

The prolocutor, on receiving this paper, addressed the venerable 
writer, artfully leading him by a train of familiar questions into an 
argument, the chief parts of which are as follow : 

West. Then refuse you to dispute ? Will you here then subscribe ? 

Lat. No, I pray be good to an old man. You may, if it please 
God, be once old as I am : you may come to this age, and to this 
debility. 

West. You said on Saturday last that you could not find the mass, nor 
the marrow-bones thereof, in your book. What find you then there, in 
your book? 

Lat. A communion ; or two communions. I find no great diversity 
in them ; they are one supper of the Lord. I like the last very well ; 
but I do not well remember wherein they differ. 

West. You call the sacrament the supper of the Lord ; but you are 
deceived in that : for they had done the supper before, and therefore 
the scripture saith, "After they had supped." St. Paul findeth fault 
with the Corinthians, that some of them were drunk at this supper; and 
you know no man can be drunk at our communion. 



580 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 

Lat. The first was called Ccena Judaica, " The Jewish Supper," when 
they eat the paschal lamb together; the other Ccena Dominica, "The 
Lord's Supper." 

Dr. Smith now interposed and said — " Because I perceive that tin's 
charge is laid upon my neck to dispute with you ; to the end that the 
same may go forward after a right manner and order, I will propose three 
questions, so as they are put forth unto me. And first I ask this ques- 
tion of you, although the same indeed ought not to be called in ques- 
tion ; but such is the condition of the church, that it is always vexed of the 
the wicked. I ask, I say, whether Christ's body be really in the sacrament?" 

To this Latimer replied — "I trust I have obtained of master prolocutor, 
that no man shall exact that thing of me which is not in me. And I am 
sorry that this worshipful audience should be deceived of their expectation 
for my sake. I have given up my mind in writing to master prolocutor." 

Smith. Whatsoever ye have given up, shall be registered among the acts. 

Lat. Disputation requireth a good memory; my memory is gone clean, 
and marvellously weakened, and never the better, I think, for the prison. 
I have long sought for the truth in this matter of the sacrament, and have 
not been of this mind more than seven years: and my lord of Canterbury's 
book hath especially confirmed my judgment herein. If I could remember 
all therein contained, I would not fear to answer any man in this matter. 

In answer to a charge that he was once a Lutheran, he said boldly, 
"No, I was a papist : for I never could perceive how Luther could defend 
his opinion without transubstantiation. — I do not take in hand to defend 
Luther's sayings or doings. If he were here, he would defend himself 
well enough. I told you before that I am not meet for disputations. I 
pray you read mine answer, wherein I have declared my faith." 

Tresham. It is written, " Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of 
man, and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you." Which when the 
Capernaites and many of Christ's disciples heard, they said, "This 
is a hard saying," etc. Now that the truth may the better appear, here I 
ask of you, whether Christ, speaking these words, did mean of his flesh to 
be eaten with the mouth, or of the spiritual eating of the same ? 

Lat. Christ meant of the spiritual eating of his flesh, as Augustine saith. 

Tresham. Of what flesh meant Christ? his true flesh, or no ? 

Lat. Of his true flesh, spiritually to be eaten by faith, and not corporally. 

Tresham. Of what flesh mean the Capernaites ? 

Lat. Of his true flesh also ; but to be taken with the mouth. 

Tresham. They, as ye confess, did mean Christ's true flesh to be eaten 
with the mouth. And Christ also, as I shall prove, did speak of the re- 
ceiving of his flesh with the mouth. Therefore they both did understand 
it of the eating of one thing, which is done by the mouth of the body. 

Lat. I say, Christ understood it not of the bodily mouth, but of the 
mouth of the spirit, mind, and heart. 

Tresham. I prove the contrary, that Christ understandeth it of the eat- 
ing with the bodily mouth. For, whereas custom is a good interpreter of 
things, and whereas the acts put in practice by Christ do certainly declare 
those things which he first spake ; Christ's deeds in his supper, where he 
gave his body to be taken with the mouth, together with the custom which 
hath been ever since that time of that eating which is done with the mouth, 






DEBATES ON THE REAL PRESENCE. 581 

doth evidently intimate that Christ did understand his words here cited by 
me, out of John vi., of the eating with the mouth. 

Lat. He gave not his body to be received with the mouth, but he gave 
the sacrament of his body to be received with the mouth ; he gave the 
sacrament to the mouth, his body to the mind. 

After further discussion with Tresham, Seton, Cartwright, and Smith, 
the prolocutor Weston attacked Latimer out of St. Augustine, saying : 

"Augustine, in his Enchiridion, saith, 'We must not deny that the 
souls of the dead are relieved by the devotion of their friends which are 
living, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them.' Where he 
proveth the verity of Christ's body, and praying for the dead. And it is 
affirmed that the same Augustine said mass for his mother." To which the 
venerable man answered — " But that mass was not like yours, which thing 
doth manifestly appear in his writings, which are against it in every place. 
And Augustine is a reasonable man, who requireth to be believed no further 
than he bringeth scripture for his proof, and agreeth w T ith God's word." 

The prolocutor said, " Well, Mr. Latimer, this is our intent, to wish you 
veil, and to exhort you to come to yourself, and remember that without 
Noah's Ark there is no health. What have they been that w T ere the 
beginners of your doctrine? none but a few flying apostates, running 
out of Germany for fear of the fagot. What have they been which 
have set forth the same in this realm ? a sort of light heads, which were 
never constant in any one thing, as it was to be seen in the turning of 
the table, when like a sort of apes, they could not tell which way to turn 
their tails, looking one day west, and another day east ; one that way, and 
another this way. They will be like, they say, to the apostles, they will 
have no churches ! a hovel is good enough for them. They come to the 
communion with no reverence. They get them a tankard, and one saith 
I drink, and I am thankful ; the more joy of thee, saith another. In 
them was it true that Hilary saith, ' We make every year and every month 
a faith.' A runagate Scot took away the adoration or worshipping of 
Christ in the sacrament, by whose procurement that heresy was put 
into the last communion-book; so prevailed that one man's authority at 
that time. You never agreed with the Zurichers, or with the Germans, or 
with the church, or with yourself. Your stubbornness cometh of a vain 
glory, which is to no purpose : for it will do you no good when a fagot is 
in your beard. And we see all, by your own confessions, how little cause 
ye have to be stubborn. The queen's grace is merciful, if ye will turn." 

Latimer. You shall have no hope in me to turn. I pray for the queen 
daily, even from the bottom of my heart, that she may turn from this religion. 

Weston. Here you all see the weakness of heresy against the truth : he 
denieth all truth, and all the old fathers. 

And thus, good reader, thou hast the chief parts of this doctorly disputa- 
tion showed forth unto thee, against these three worthy confessors and 
martyrs of the Lord, wherein thou mayest behold the disordered usage of 
the university-men, the unmannerly manner of the school, the rude tumult 
of the multitude, and the fierceness and interruption of the doctors. And 
what marvel, if the prolocutor, having the law in his own hand, to do what 
he listed, would say for himself, " Vicit Veritas," although he said never a 
true word, nor made ever a true conclusion almost, in all that disputation. 



582 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

On the following Friday, April 20th, the commissioners sat at St. Mary's 
church, as they had done on the Saturday before, when Dr. Weston in 
an imperious manner demanded of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, 
whether or not they would subscribe? He rudely told Cranmer that he 
had been overcome in the late disputation. The latter, in answer, 
charged him and his party with unfairness and blind partiality, urging 
that he had been overcome by noise only ; and that he had no chance 
of success unless he had brawled as loud as they, and that four or five 
of them had frequently attacked him at once. Ridley and Latimer 
were asked what they would do ? they replied that they would stand to 
what they had said : on which they were all called together, and sen- 
tence was read over them, that they were no members of the church : 
and therefore they, with their favourers and patrons, were condemned 
as heretics. And in reading of it — they were asked whether they 
would turn or not; but they bade them read on in the name of God, 
for they were not inclined to turn. So they were all three condemned. 

To this sentence Cranmer first answered — " From this your judgment 
and sentence I appeal to the just judgment of God Almighty, trusting 
to be present with him in heaven, for whose presence in the altar I am 
thus condemned." Ridley followed the archbishop — " Although I be 
r ot of your company, yet doubt I not but my name is written in another 
place, whither this sentence will send us sooner than we should by the 
course of nature have gone." Latimer then said — " I thank God most 
heartily, that he hath prolonged my life to this end, that I may in this 
case glorify God by that kind of death." 

On the ensuing Saturday the papists had a mass, with a general proces- 
sion and great solemnity. Cranmer was caused to behold the procession 
out of the grating of the Bocardo prison ; Ridley from the sheriff's house; 
and Latimer being brought to see it from the bailiff's house thought 
that he should have gone thence to burning, and spake to one Augus- 
tine, a peace-officer, to make a quick fire : but when he came to Carfox, 
the Oxford market-place, where four ways meet, he ran as fast as his 
aged bones would carry him, to one Spencer's shop, and would not 
look towards the vain procession. On the following Monday, Weston 
took his journey up to London, with the letters certificatory from the 
university to the queen, by whom Cranmer directed his letters suppli- 
catory unto the council : which the prolocutor opened by the way, and 
seeing the contents, sent them back again, refusing to carry them. 
Ridley also hearing of the prolocutor's going to London, sent to him 
his letters, which he desired him to carry up to certain bishops in 
London. 

SECTION V. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE PAPISTS AGAINST THE PROTESTANTS. BEHEADING 

OF THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK. — DECLARATION OF MR. BRADFORD AND 

OTHERS. MARRIAGE OF QUEEN MARY WITH PHILIP, PRINCE OF SPAIN. 

EVENTS THAT FOLLOWED THE MARRIAGE. 

Having finished our account of the disputations between the Roman 
catholics and the protestant divines of the reformed religion, of Oxford 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PAPISTS. 583 

we shall now prosecute the historical narration of this tumultuous reign. 
So many things happened in different parts of the realm, that it is diffi- 
cult to preserve due order of time in reciting them, we shall therefore 
return to the month of July, 1553, when the duke of Northumberland 
was brought to London, and the following persons of distinction were 
committed to the Tower with him. The earls of Warwick and of 
Huntingdon; lords Ambrose, Dudley, and Hastings; Sir John and 
Sir Henry Gates, Andrew Dudley, Sir Thomas Palmer, and Dr. Sands, 
chancellor of Cambridge. Of these lord Hastings was the only one 
who, on his complaint, obtained liberation. 

The latter end of the same month several other noblemen and gentle- 
men, together with the bishop of London, and the chief justices of the 
king's bench and the common pleas, were committed either to the con- 
finement of the Tower, or the custody of the sheriff of London. 

Three days after, the queen entered the city, and her first concern 
was to liberate her friends. For this purpose she first proceeded to the 
Tower, where she remained seven days, and then removed to Richmond. 
She gave orders for Dr. Day to be delivered out of the Fleet, and 
Dr. Bonner out of the Marshalsea. The same day Tonstal and Gardiner 
were liberated from the Tower, and Gardiner was received into the 
queen's privy council, and made lord chancellor. The Latin Dirige 
was sung within the Tower by all the king's choristers, the bishop of 
Winchester being chief minister, and the queen and most of the council 
were present. A few days after, the king's remains were brought to 
Westminster and there buried; on which occasion Dr. Day, bishop of 
Chichester, preached. The same day a mass of Requiem was sung 
within the Tower by the bishop of Winchester, who had on his mitre, 
and performed all things as in times past; the queen being present. 

Dr. Bourne preached at Paul's Cross soon after, and commands were 
issued throughout the city, that no apprentices should come to the 
sermon, nor bear any knife or dagger. Other committals to the Tower 
took place, among them Mr. Bradford, Mr. Beacon, and Mr. Vernon. 
The duke of Northumberland, the marquis of Northampton, and the 
earl of Warwick, were arraigned at Westminster, and condemned the 
same day, the duke of Norfolk presiding as high judge. Soon after 
these cases were determined Sir Andrew Dudley, Sir John and Sir 
Henry Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer, were arraigned and condemned, 
the lord marquis of Winchester being high judge. At the same time a 
letter was sent to Sir Henry Tyrel, and to Anthony and Edmund Brown, 
esquires, praying them to commit to ward all such as should contemn 
the queen's order of religion, or keep themselves from church, and 
there to remain until they should be conformable, and to signify their 
names to the council. 

In the course of the month, Dr. Watson, chaplain to the bishop of 
Winchester, preached at St. Paul's Cross, at whose sermon were present 
the marquis of Winchester, the earls of Bedford and Pembroke, the 
lord Rich, and 200 of the guard with their halberds, lest the people 
should have offered to disturb the preacher. Apostacies now began. 
The duke of Northumberland, the marquis of Northampton, Sir Andrew 
Dudley, Sir John Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer, heard mass within 



584 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the Tower, after which they all received the sacrament in one kind only, 
as in popish times. On the same day also the queen set forth a procla- 
mation, signifying to the people that she could not hide any longer the 
religion which she from her infancy had professed, and prohibiting in 
the proclamation all printing and preaching — so adverse are the press 
and the pulpit to error. 

The unhappy noblemen, however, found their apostacy unavailing to 
save their lives. Two days after they had bowed before the idolatrous 
mass, three of them had to bow their wretched heads beneath the axe 
of the executioner. They suffered on Tower-hill; and on the same day 
several others of the nobility heard mass within the Tower, and after- 
wards received the sacrament in one kind ; some of them in sad pre- 
paration for the same fate. It was rumoured that Cranmer had promised 
to say mass after the old manner, and that he even had said it at Can- 
terbury. Upon this, in order to check the evil effects of this artifice of 
his enemies, and to confirm his friends in their opinion of his steadiness, 
he published the following declaration, on Sept. 7, 1553. 

" As the devil, Christ's ancient adversary, is a liar, and the father of 
lies, even so hath he stirred up his servants and members to persecute 
Christ and his true word and religion with lying; which he ceaseth not 
to do most earnestly at this present time. For whereas the prince of 
famous memory, king Henry VIII., seeing the great abuses of the Latin 
mass, reformed some things therein in his life-time; and afterwards our 
late sovereign lord king Edward VI. took the same wholly away, for the 
manifold and great errors and abuses of the same, and restored in the 
place thereof Christ's holy supper, according to his own institution, 
and such as the apostles used in the primitive church. To overthrow 
this the devil now goeth about by lying to restore his Latin satisfactory 
mass, a thing of his own invention and device. And to bring the same 
more easily to pass, some have abused the name of me Thomas, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, reporting abroad, that I have set up the mass at 
Canterbury, and that I offered to say mass at the burial of our late 
sovereign, king Edward VI., and before the queen's highness, at 
St. Paul's church, and I know not where. And although I have 
been well exercised these twenty years to suffer and bear evil reports 
and lies, and have not been much grieved thereat, but have borne 
all things quietly; yet when untrue reports turn to the hindrance of 
God's truth, they are in no wise to be suffered. Wherefore these be 
to signify unto the world, that it was not I that set up the mass at 
Canterbury, but it was a false, flattering, lying and dissembling monk, 
one Dr. Thornton, who caused it to be set there without mine advice or 
counsel, The Lord recompense him in that day! And as for offering 
myself to say mass before the queen's highness, or in any other place, 
I never did it, as her grace well knoweth. But if her grace will give 
me leave, I shall be ready to prove, against all that will say the 
contrary, that all which is contained in the holy communion, set out by 
the most innocent and godly prince king Edward VI. in his high court 
of parliament, is conformable to that order which our Saviour Christ 
did both observe, and command to be observed, and which his apostles 
and the primitive church used many years; whereas the mass in many 



MARY'S CORONATION. 585 

things, not only hath no foundation of Christ, his apostles, nor the 
primitive church, but is manifestly contrary to the same, and containeth 
many horrible abuses in it. And although many do report that Peter 
Martyr is unlearned ; yet if the queen's highness will grant thereunto, 
I, with the said Peter Martyr, and other four or five which I shall 
choose, will, by God's grace, take upon us to defend, not only the 
common prayers of the church, the ministration of the sacraments, and 
other rites and ceremonies, but also all the doctrine and religion set out 
by our sovereign lord king Edward VI. to be more pure, and according 
to God's word, than any other that hath been used in England these 
1000 years: so that God's word may be judge, and that the reasons 
and proofs of both parties may be set out in writing, to the intent, as 
well that all the world may examine and judge thereon, as that no man 
shall start back from his writing. And where they boast of the faith, 
that hath been in the church these 1500 years, we will join with them 
in this point; and that the same doctrine and usage is to be followed, 
which was in the church 1500 years past; and we shall prove, that the 
order of the church, set out at this present in this realm by act of par- 
liament, is the same that was used in the church 1500 years past; and 
so shall they never be able to prove theirs." 

This protest of Cranmer obtained for him an almost immediate com- 
mittal to the Tower. Latimer had been conducted to the same confine- 
ment the previous day. The queen was then at Richmond busied in 
preparing for her coronation. Anxious to know that the foes she most 
dreaded were safe, she came in little more than a week herself to the 
Tower, where she staid a short time to give every necessary direction 
concerning their secure custody and their purposed trial and punishment. 
After two or three days she proceeded from the Tower through the city, 
where many pageants were made to receive her, and thus she was 
triumphantly brought to Whitehall. On the following Sunday she went 
from Whitehall to Westminster Abbey, accompanied with most of the 
nobility of the realm, and all the foreign ambassadors, and the mayor 
of London, with all the aldermen. Out of the Abbey, to receive her, 
were brought three silver crosses, accompanied by about fourscore 
singing men, in very rich and gorgeous copes. Amongst them was the 
dean of Westminster, and divers of the queen's chaplains, all of whom 
bore some ensign in their hands; after them followed ten bishops, all 
mitred, with their crosier staves in their hands. In this order they 
returned from Westminster Hall, before the queen, to the Abbey, where 
she was crowned by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and lord 
chancellor of England. At the time of the coronation, Dr. Day, bishop 
of Chichester, delivered a sermon to the queen and the nobility. It 
was hoped that a general pardon would have been proclaimed within 
the. Abbey at the time of her coronation ; but all the prisoners of the 
Tower and of the Fleet were excepted, and upwards of sixty others. 

The vice-chancellor of Cambridge challenged one Mr. Pierson, who 
still ministered the communion in his own parish, and received strangers 
of other parishes to the same, but would not say mass. Whereupon, 
within two days after, he was discharged from further ministering in his 
cure. The archbishop of York also was sent to the Tower, Oct. 4, 1553. 



586 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

On Sunday, the 15th of October, Laurence Saunders preached at All- 
hallows in Bread Street, where he declared the abomination of the mass, 
with divers other matters, very notably and godly ; whereof more will be 
heard hereafter. But about noon of the same day, he was sent for by the 
bishop of London, and from thence committed to the Marshalsea. 

On Thursday, October 5th, the new parliament met. There had been 
great violence used in many elections, and many false returns were 
made : some who were known to be zealous for the reformation were 
forcibly turned out of the house of commons, which was afterwards 
offered as a ground upon which that parliament, and all acts made in 
it, might have been annulled. There came only two of the reformed 
bishops to the house of lords, the two archbishops and three bishops 
being in prison; two others were turned out, the rest stayed at home, so 
only Taylor and Harley, the bishops of Lincoln and Hereford, attended. 
When mass began to be said, they are reported to have gone out, and 
were never suffered to come to their places again : others say, they 
refused to join in that worship, and were in consequence violently 
thrust out. In the house of commons some of the more forward moved 
that king Edward's laws might be reviewed, but things were not yet 
ripe enough for that. 

On Sunday, Oct. 20, Dr. Weston preached at Paul's Cross. In the 
beginning of his sermon he desired the people to pray for the souls of 
the departed. " You shall pray," said he, " for all them that be de- 
parted, who be neither in heaven nor hell, but in a place not yet 
sufficiently purged to come to heaven, that they may be relieved by 
your devout prayers." He named the Lord's table an oyster-board ; 
said that the catechism in Latin lately published was abominable heresy, 
and likened its defenders to Julian the apostate, and the book to a 
dialogue written by Julian, wherein Christ and Pilate were the speakers; 
with many other things. This sermon Mr. Coverdale learnedly confuted 
in writing, and would have publicly read his refutation had he been 
allowed. 

Soon after these events the vice-chancellor of Cambridge went to 
Clare Hall, and removed Dr. Madew, on account of his being married, 
and placed Mr. Swynbourne in the mastership there, by virtue of the lord 
chancellor's letters. On Oct. 28, the papists in King's College, Cambridge, 
revived their whole service again in the Latin tongue, contrary to the 
law, then not repealed ; but anticipating its repeal very soon after. The 
vice-chancellor sent for the curate of the Round church in Cambridge, 
commanding him not to minister any more in the English tongue, 
saying, he would have one uniform order of service throughout the 
town, and that in Latin, with mass, which was established about the 
middle of November. The archdeacon's official visited Huntington, 
where he charged to imprison all such as disturbed the queen's pro- 
ceedings, in hindering the Latin service, setting up their altars, and 
saying mass or any part thereof: whereby it was easy to see how these 
men meant to proceed, having the law once on their side, who thus 
so readily, against a manifest law, would attempt the punishment of 
any man. 

In December there were two proclamations at London; one for 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PAPISTS. 587 

repealing certain acts made by king Edward, and for setting up the 
mass before the feast of the nativity. The other was, that no man 
should interrupt any of those who would say mass after it became 
established. The parliament continued till the 5th of December. In 
it were dissolved, as well all the statutes made of prsemunire in the time 
of king Henry VIII. as also other laws and statutes concerning religion 
and administration of sacraments, decreed under Edward VI.; while it 
was appointed, that on the eve of St. Thomas ensuing, the old form and 
manner of church-service, used in the last year of king Henry, should 
again be restored. 

About this time a priest of Canterbury said mass on one day, and on 
the following he came into the pulpit, and desired the people to forgive 
him : for he said he had betrayed Christ, not as Judas did, but as Peter 
did, and made a long sermon against the mass. At the beginning of 
the new year, 1554, four ambassadors came into London from the em- 
peror, and were honourably received. Their names were, le compte de 
Egmont, le compte de Lalen, monsieur Corire, le chancelier Nigry. Very 
soon after, there were appointed a great number of new bishops, deans, 
and other church dignitaries; more than were ever made at one time 
since the conquest. They were, Dr. Holyman, bishop of Bristol; 
Dr. Cotes, bishop of West-Chester; Dr. Hopton, bishop of Norwich; 
Dr. Bourne, bishop of Bath ; Dr. White, bishop of Lincoln; Dr. Mores, 
bishop of Rochester; Dr. Morgan, bishop of St. David's; Dr. Poole, 
bishop of St. Asaph ; Dr. Brookes, bishop of Gloucester; Dr. Moreman, 
coadjutor to the bishop of Exeter, and after his decease bishop of Exeter; 
Dr. Glyn, bishop of Bangor; Mr. Fecknam, dean of St. Paul's; Dr. 
Reynolds, dean of Bristol ; with several others. 

The vice-chancellor of Cambridge now called a congregation general, 
wherein amongst other things he shewed, that the queen would have 
there a mass of the Holy Ghost upon the 18th of the following February, 
which was her birth-day. This was accordingly fulfilled on the day 
appointed, and that very solemnly. For opposing this measure Dr. 
Crome was committed to the Fleet, and one Acldington was committed 
to the Tower. The same day, the bishop of Winchester declared openly 
in the court that the treaty of marriage between the queen's majesty and 
the prince of Spain was concluded : and the day following, the mayor, 
the aldermen, and several of the commons, were at the court, and 
there they were commanded by the lord chancellor to prepare the city 
to receive prince Philip of Spain; declaring unto them what a catholic, 
mighty, prudent, and wise prince he was. 1 

1 When the treaty of the queen's marriage came to be known, the house of commons 
was much alarmed at it; and they sent their speaker with twenty of their members, 
with an address to her not to marry a stranger : they were indeed so inflamed, that the 
court judged it necessary to dissolve the parliament. Gardiner, upon this, let the 
emperor know that the jealousies which were taken up on account of the match were such, 
that unless very extraordinary conditions were offered, it would occasion a general rebel- 
lion. He also wrote to him that great sums of money must be sent over, both to gratify the 
nobility, and to enable them to carry the elections to the next parliament in opposition to 
such as would stand against them. As for conditions, it was resolved to grant any that 
should be demanded; for the emperor reckoned that if his son were once married to the 
queen of England, it would be easy for him to govern the councils as he pleastd. 



588 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Several additional arrests were now made : the lord Marquis of Nor- 
thampton was again committed to the Tower, and Sir Edward Warner 
with him. Mr. Justice Hales was committed to the Marshalsea ; and 
Mr. Rogers to Newgate. During several days about this time, the 
Londoners prepared a number of soldiers, by the queen's command, to 
go into Kent against the commons. These were commanded by the 
duke of Norfolk, the earl of Wormwood, Sir Henry Jerningham, Sir 
George Hayward,andten other captains. The soldiers, when they came 
to Rochester bridge, where they should have set upon their enemies, 
most of them left their own captains, and came wholly to the Kentish 
men ; and so the captains returned to the court both void of men and 
victory, leaving behind them six pieces of ordnance and treasure. 

In January, the duke of Suffolk, with his brethren, departed from 
his house at Shene, and went into Leicestershire ; after whom the earl 
of Huntingdon was sent to take him and bring him to London ; and on 
his return proclaimed the duke traitor as he rode. A few days after his 
arrival in the city, he was arraigned at Westminster, and the same day 
condemned to die by his peers ; the earl of Arundel being chief judge. 
The three sons of Lord Cobham, a noble family, every generation of 
which were faithful to the reformed cause, were also arraigned at West- 
minster : the youngest was condemned, whose name was Thomas ; the 
other two came not to the bar. About the same time Lord John Gray 
was arraigned at Westminster, and condemned. Lord Thomas Gray, 
and Sir James Croft, were brought through London to the Tower, with 
a number of horsemen ; and Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was committed 
to the same common receptacle. 

The latter end of this month February, Henry Gray duke of Suffolk, 
was brought forth to the scaffold on Tower Hill, and in his coming thither 
there accompanied him Dr. Weston as his spiritual father, notwithstand- 
ing, as it seemed, against the will of the duke. For when the duke went 
up to the scaffold, Weston, being on the left hand, pressed to go up 
with him ; when he, with his hand, put him down again off the stairs ; 
but Weston taking hold of the duke, forced him down likewise. And 
as they ascended the second time, the duke again put him down. Then 
Weston said, that it was the queen's pleasure he should attend. Where- 
with the duke casting his hands abroad, ascended up the scaffold, and 
paused a long time after. He then said, " Masters, I have offended 
the queen, and her law 7 s, and thereby am justly condemned to die, and 
am willing to die, desiring all men to be obedient, and I pray God that 
this my death may be an example to all men, beseeching you all to bear 
me witness, that I die in the faith of Christ, trusting to be saved by his 
blood only, and by no other sacrifice ; for Christ died for me, and for 
all them that truly repent, and stedfastly trust in him. And I do 
repent, desiring you all to pray to God for me ; and that when you see 
my breath depart from me, you will pray that he may receive my soul." 
And then he desired all men to forgive him. 

Dr. Weston then declared with a loud voice, that the queen's majesty 
had forgiven him. With that several of the standers by said, with 
audible voices, " Such forgiveness God send thee !" The duke then 
kneeled, and said the psalm Miserere mei Deus unto the end, holding 



EXECUTION OF SUFFOLK. 589 

up his hands, and looking up to heaven. And when he had ended 
he said, " Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." Then he 
arose, and delivered his cap and his scarf unto the executioner, who, on 
his knees asked the duke forgiveness. " God forgive thee, and I do," 
said the duke : " and when thou dost thine office, I pray thee do it well, 
and send me out of this world quickly, and God have mercy on thee." 
Then stood there a man who said, " My lord, how shall I do for the 
money that you owe me ?" The duke said, " Alas, good fellow, I pray 
thee trouble me not now, but go thy way to my officers." He then tied 
a handkerchief about his face, kneeled down, and said the Lord's 
prayer, and, " Christ have mercy upon me." After which he laid his 
neck on the block, and the executioner took the axe, and at the first 
blow struck off his head and then held it up to the people. 

The same day about 240 prisoners received pardon, and came through 
the city with halters about their necks. The next day Sir William 
Sentlow, one of the lady Elizabeth's gentlemen, was committed as a 
prisoner to the master of the horse. On the day following Sir John 
Rogers was committed to the Tower. Within a few days after, all such 
priests in the diocese of London as were married were divorced from 
their livings, and commanded to bring their wives within a fortnight, 
that they might be likewise divorced from them ; this was an act of the 
bishop's own power. The next month certain gentlemen of Kent were 
sent into that county to be executed, among whom we find the two 
Mantels, two Knevets, and Bret. When the elder Mantel was under 
the gallows, upon his being turned off the rope broke. Upon this the 
.priests present urged him to recant, and receive the sacrament of the 
altar, promising him the queen's pardon : but this worthy gentleman 
rejected their insidious council, and chose rather to die, than live by 
dishonouring God. 

We now come to the second year of Mary's short and affecting reign. 
As Easter approached, every householder in London was commanded to 
appear before the alderman of his ward, and all were commanded, that 
they, their wives, and servants, should prepare themselves for confession, 
and receive the sacrament at Easter; and that neither they, nor any of 
them should depart out of the city until Easter was past. Additional 
excitement was produced by the lady Elizabeth, the queen's sister, being 
brought to the Tower. At the same time the marquis of Northampton, 
the lord Cobham, and Sir William Cobham, were released from their 
confinement. On Easter-day, in the morning, at St. Pancras in Cheap, 
the crucifix, with the vessel in which the host was kept, were stolen out 
of the sepulchre, before the priest declared the resurrection : so that when, 
after his accustomed manner, he put his hand into the sepulchre, and 
said very devoutly, " He is risen, he is not here," he found his words 
true, for that which he called the body of Christ was not there indeed. 
Whereupon, being half dismayed, the priests consulted among them- 
selves, whom they thought the likeliest to do this; in which consultation 
they remembered one Marsh, who a little before had been dismissed 
from his parsonage because he was married, to whose charge they laid 
it. But when they could not prove it, being brought before the mayor, 
they then charged him to have kept company with his wife, since that 
they were by commandment divorced. Whereunto he answered, that 



590 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

he thought the queen had done him wrong, to take from him both his living 
and his wife : which words were then noted, and taken very grievously, 
and he and his wife were both committed to separate prisons, though he 
was ill and needed her care. 

A ludicrous event distinguished the beginning of April. A cat was 
hanged upon a gallows at the cross in Cheapside, apparelled like a 
priest ready to say mass, with a shaven crown : her two fore-feet were 
tied over her head, with a round paper like a wafer-cake, put between 
them, as though in the act of elevating the host. At this the queen 
and the bishops were very angry ; and the same afternoon there was a 
proclamation issued, that whosoever could bring forth the guilty party, 
should have twenty nobles, which were afterwards increased to twenty 
marks, but none could or would earn them. 

The first occasion of setting up this gallows was well understood. 
After the bishop of Winchester's sermon before the queen, for the speedy 
execution of Wyat's soldiers, there were several gibbets set up in divers 
parts of the city ; two in Cheapside, one at Leadenhall, one at Billings- 
gate, one at St. Magnus' church, one in Smithfield, one in Fleet-street, 
four in Southwark, one at Aldgate, one at Bishopsgate, one at Alders- 
gate, one at Newgate, one at Ludgate, one at St. James's Park corner, 
one at Cripplegate : all which remained for the terror of others, from 
February to June. But at the coming in of the queen's husband they 
were taken down. 

It should have been remarked that when Wyat was brought to the 
scaffold on Tower-hill, he spoke these words concerning the lady Eliza- 
beth, and the earl of Devonshire : " Concerning what I have said of 
others in my examination, to charge any as partakers of my doings, I 
accuse neither my lady Elizabeth's grace, nor my lord of Devonshire. 
I cannot accuse them, neither am I able to say, that to my knowledge 
they knew any thing of the rising." And when Dr. Weston told him, 
that his confession was otherwise before the council, he answered, 
*' That which I said then, I said ; but that which I say now is true." 

Even at this dark and corrupt period the benefit of trial by jury was 
in some instances remarkably seen. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was sus- 
pected to be of the conspiracy with the duke of Suffolk and the rest 
against the queen. But he so learnedly and wisely behaved himself, as 
well in clearing his own case, as also in opening such laws of the realm 
as were then alleged against him, that the jury could not in conscience 
find him guilty; for which the jury being substantial men of the city, 
were each bound in the sum of 500 nobles, to appear before the queen's 
council at a day appointed there to answer such things as should be said 
against them. This conscientious jury appeared accordingly before the 
council in the Star Chamber, upon Wednesday, April the 25th, from 
whence, after certain questioning, they were committed to prison, 
Emanuel Lucas and Mr. Whetstone to the Tower, and the other ten to 
the Fleet. Sir James Croft and Mr. Winter, two friends of Sir Nicholas 
Throgmorton, were imprisoned at the same time, and were soon after 
arraigned. Croft was sentenced, but the other re-committed. Soon 
after William Thomas was arraigned at Guildhall, and condemned ; on 
the following day he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. His accusa- 



THE LADY ELIZABETH IMPRISONED. 591 

tion was, for conspiring the queen's death, of which he was generally 
supposed innocent. This is certain, that he made a godly end, and 
wrote many fruitful exhortations and letters in the prison before his 
death. 

A solemn disputation was now appointed at Cambridge, between Mr. 
Bradford, Mr. Saunders, Air. Rogers, and their protestant friends, and 
the doctors of both universities on the papal side. Whereupon those 
defenders of the truth who were in prison, having notice thereof, not- 
withstanding they were destitute of books, and not ignorant of the pur- 
pose of their adversaries, and how the cause had been prejudged before 
at Oxford ; nevertheless they thought that they ought not refuse the 
offer, if they might be quietly heard ; and therefore wisely pondering the 
matter with themselves, by a public consent, directed out of prison a 
declaration of their mind by writing. Wherein first, as touching the 
disputation, although they knew that they should do no good, because 
all things were pre-determined ; yet they would not refuse to dispute, if 
the disputation might be either before the queen, or before the council, 
or before the parliament, or if they might argue by writing ; for else, if 
the matter were left with the popish doctors in their own schools, they had 
sufficient proof by the experience of Oxford, what little good would be 
done at Cambridge. Consequently, declaring the faith and doctrine of 
their religion, and exhorting the people to submit with all patience and 
humility, either to the will or punishment of the higher powers, they 
appealed from them to be their judges in this behalf, and so ended their 
protestation. This was drawn up by Miles Coverdale, late of Exon, 
and signed on the 18th day of May, 1554, by thirteen reformers, among 
whom were Farrar, Taylor, Bradford, Philpot, Rogers, Saunders, Wigorn, 
Crome, and Glouces. Episcopus, alias John Hooper. 

The lady Elizabeth, sister to the queen, now excited considerable 
attention and anxiety on both sides. On the 19th of May, in this 
year, she was brought to the Tower, and committed to the custody of 
Sir John Williams, afterwards lord Williams of Thame, by whom her 
highness was gently and courteously treated. She afterwards was sent 
to Woodstock, and there committed to the keeping of Sir Henry Beni- 
field, knight of Oxborough, in Norfolk; who, on the contrary, both for- 
getting her estate, and his own duty, as it is reported, shewed himself 
more hard and straight towards her, than either cause was given on her 
part, or reason of his own should have led him. Some such restraint, 
however, was thought necessary on the part of her jealous and vindictive 
sister, especially in the immediate prospect of the Spanish prince, her 
husband, arriving in England. He landed at Southampton July 20th. 
As he placed his foot for the first time on British ground he drew bis 
sword, and carried it a little way naked in his hand. This was interpreted 
as a sign that he intended to rule by the sword ; but his friends ingeni- 
ously said, it imported that he would draw his sword for the defence of 
the nation. The mayor of Southampton brought him the keys of the 
town, which he took from him, and gave them back, without the least 
shew of his being pleased with this expression of respect. Five days 
after, the marriage took place in the cathedral church at Winchester, 
by the bishop of Winchester, in the presence of a great number of noble- 



592 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

men of both realms. At the altar, the emperor's ambassador being' 
present, he openly pronounced that, in consideration of that marriage, 
the emperor had granted and given to his son the kingdom of Naples, 
and other domains and titles. Whereupon the 1st of August following, 
there was a proclamation, that from that time forth the style of all 
manner of writing should be altered, and the following be used through 
the realm: — " Philip and Mary by the grace of God, king and queen of 
England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Ireland, defenders of the faith, 
princes of Spain and Sicily, archduke and duchess of Austria, duke 
and duchess of Milan, Burgundy, and Brabant, count and countess of 
Hapsburg, Flanders, and Tyrol. " 

Of this marriage, as the papists chiefly seemed to be very glad, so 
several of them, after divers studies to shew forth their inward affections, 
made interludes and pageants. Some drew forth genealogies, deriving 
the pedigree of the prince from Edward III., and John of Gaunt. 
Among others, Mr. White, then bishop of Lincoln, who was intoxicated 
with a poet's as well as a patriot's joy at the marriage, made several 
verses, which were answered by the bishop of Norwich and other sober- 
minded writers. In a short time, the king and queen removed from 
Winchester to several other places, and by easy journies came to 
Windsor Castle, where he was installed with the Order of the Garter. A 
remarkable circumstance occurred at this ceremony : a herald took down 
the arms of England at Windsor, and in the place of them would have 
set up the arms of Spain, but he was commanded by certain lords to 
restore the former to their place. 

The peculiar fondness of papists for pageantry of every kind, as well 
as the general spirit of the age, was now manifested in the several pro- 
gresses and processions of the new king and queen, as they were called, 
through some parts of the country and streets of the city. In addition to 
the display of flags and the discharge of cannon, giants were placed in 
conspicuous parts with addresses in their hands ; conduits were built 
and adorned in the gayest manner; images of worthies, as they were 
called, were placed here and there, holding presents and inscriptions. Such 
was the fulsome desire to gratify the prince, that in one place were some 
verses describing the five worthies of the world in five Philips, namely, 
Philip of Macedon, Philip the Emperor, Philip the Bold, Philip the 
Good, and Philip prince of Spain and king of England! In other 
places he was saluted by an image representing Orpheus, and the English 
people likened to savage beasts, following after Orpheus's harp, and 
dancing after king Philip's pipe! 

Bonner, bishop of London, with the pomp of all his prebendaries 
about him, in St. Paul's choir, the cross being laid along upon the 
pavement, and also the doors of the church being shut, proceeded 
to say and sing divers prayers : which done, they anointed the cross 
with oil in divers places, and afterwards crept unto it, and kissed 
it. Then they took the cross and set it in its accustomed place, and 
all the while the whole choir sang Te Deum, which ended, they rang 
the bells, not only for joy, but also for the notable and great fact they 
had done therein. The new prince was present, and after Dr. Harps- 
field had finished his oration in Latin, he set forward through Fleet 
Street, and so came to Whitehall, where he with the queen remained 



BTSHOP BONNER'S VISITATION. 593 

four days, and from thence removed unto Richmond. The pageants 
being over, all the lords had leave to depart into their counties, with 
strait command to bring all their accoutrements and artillery into the 
Tower of London. Now there remained no English lord at court, but 
the bishop of Winchester. 

The king's gravity proved very unacceptable to the English, who love 
a mean between the stiffness of the Spaniards and the gaiety of the 
French. But if they did not like his temper, they were out of measure 
in love with his bounty and wealth : for he brought over a vast treasure 
with him, the greatest part of which was distributed among those, who, 
for his Spanish gold, had sold their country and religion. At his coming 
to London, he procured the pardon of many prisoners, and among others, 
of Holgate, archbishop of York. He also interposed for preserving 
lady Elizabeth, and the earl of Devonshire. Gardiner was much set 
against them, and thought they made but half work so long as she 
lived. The earl of Devonshire, to be freed from all jealousy, went 
beyond the sea, and died a year after in Italy, some said of poison. 
Philip at first took care to preserve the lady Elizabeth on a generous 
account, pitying her innocence, and hoping by so acceptable an act of 
favour to recommend himself to the nation : but interest soon after for- 
tified those good and wise inclinations; for when he lost all hope of 
issue by the queen, he considered that the queen of Scotland, who was 
soon after married to the dauphin, was next in succession after lady 
Elizabeth; so that if she should be put out of the way, the crown 
of Eugland would become an accession to the French crown; and 
therefore he took care to preserve her, and perhaps hoped to have 
wrought so much on her by his good offices, that if her sister should 
die without children, she might be induced to marry him. But this was 
the only grateful thing he did in England. He affected so extravagant 
a state, and was so sullen and silent, that it was not easy for any to 
come within the court ; and access to him was not to be had, without 
demanding it with almost as much formality as ambassadors used when 
they desired an audience: so that a general discontent was quickly 
spread into most places of the kingdom. But Gardiner was well 
pleased, for the conduct of affairs was put entirely in his hands. 

In the month of September, bishop Bonner began his visitation. The 
chief purpose of it was to see whether the old service, with all its rites, 
was again set up ; and to inquire concerning the lives and labours of 
the clergy, of their marriage, and their living chastely; whether they 
were suspected of heresy, or of favouring heretics. Bonner conducted 
himself on this occasion like a madman ; for if either the bells were not 
rung when he came near any church, or if he had not found the sacra- 
ment exposed, he was ready to break out into the foulest language; and 
not content with that, he was accustomed to beat his clergy when he was 
displeased with any thing; for he was naturally cruel and brutal. He 
took care to have those parts of scripture, that had been painted on the 
walls of the churches, to be washed off: and upon this it was said, that 
it was necessary to dash out the scripture, to make way for images, for 
they agreed so ill, that they could not decently stand together. 

Upon the Sunday following the bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor 

2q 



594 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of England, preached at St. Paul's Cross before all the council. The 
gospel whence he made his sermon was from Matthew, chap, xxii., where 
the Pharisees came unto Christ, and among them one asked Christ which 
was the greatest commandment. Christ answered, "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself: in 
these two are comprehended the law and the prophets." After a long 
declaration of these words, speaking much of love and charity, at last 
he had occasion to speak of the true and false teachers: saying, that all 
the preachers almost in king Edward's time, preached nothing but 
voluptuousness, and blasphemous lies, affirming their doctrine to be that 
false doctrine whereof St. James speaketh in his third chapter, that it 
was full of perverse zeal, earthly, full of discord and dissention, that 
the preachers reported nothing truly, and that if a man vowed to-day, 
he might break it to-morrow at his pleasure, with many other things. 
When he spake of the sacrament, he said, that all the church from the 
beginning have confessed Christ's natural body to be in heaven, and 
here to be in the sacrament, and so concluded that matter. He con- 
cluded the discourse by an extravagant piece of flattery on the king 
and queen. 



SECTION VI. 

CARDINAL POLE ARRIVES FROM ROME. — HIS ABSOLUTION. GARDINER'S 

SERMON. NATION RETURNS TO POPERY. FAITHFULNESS OF THE PRO- 
TESTANT LEADERS. DIFFERENCE OF SENTIMENT BETWEEN POLE AND 

GARDINER RESPECTING HERETICS. 

A treaty had commenced between Mary and the pope on her first 
coming to the throne, when the pope's legate at Brussels sent over 
Commendone, to see if he could speak with her, and to persuade her 
to reconcile her kingdom to the apostolic see. The management of the 
matter was left to his discretion, and the legate would not trust this secret 
to Gardiner, nor any of the other bishops. Commendone came over in 
the disguise of a merchant, and by accident met with one of the queen's 
servants, who had lived years beyond sea, and was known to him, and 
by his means procured access to the queen. She assured him of her 
firm resolution to return to the obedience of that see, but charged him 
to manage the matter with great prudence; for if it were too early dis- 
covered, it might disturb her affairs, and obstruct the design. By him 
she wrote both to the pope and to cardinal Pole; and instructed Com- 
mendone, in order to the sending over Pole with a legatine power, 
which accordingly took place. On his arrival, he first addressed the 
king and queen, inviting them to return to the sheepfold of the church. 
The queen felt a strange emotion of joy within her, as he made his 
speech, which her flattering attendants encouraged her to interpret as a 
sign that she should have a son! On this prediction Te Deum was sung 
and bonfires soon blazed around the city. The priests proclaimed that 
another John the Baptist was at hand, who had leaped on the salutation 
of the vicar of Christ! ! Both houses agreed on an address to the king 



CARDINAL POLE'S EMBASSAGE. 595 

and queen, that they would intercede with the legate to reconcile them 
to the see of Rome, and they offered to repeal all the laws they had 
made against the pope's authority, in sign of their repentance. Upon 
this the cardinal came to the parliament, which was held at Whitehall 
on account of her majesty's confinement there by indisposition. She 
sat with the prince under the cloth of state, and the cardinal sitting on 
the right hand, with all the other estates of the parliament being present: 
the bishop of Winchester being lord chancellor, began in this manner. 
" My lords of the upper-house, and you my masters of the nether 
house, here is present the right reverend father in God my lord cardinal 
Pole, come from the apostolic see of Rome, as ambassador to the king 
and queen's majesties, upon one of the weightiest causes that ever hap- 
pened in this realm, and which pertaineth to the glory of God, and your 
universal benefit. The which embassage their majesties' pleasure is to 
be signified unto you all by his own mouth, trusting that you will receive 
and accept it in benevolent and thankful wise as their highnesses have 
done, and that you will give an attentive and inclinable ear unto him." 

The lord chancellor having ended, the cardinal began his oration, declaring 
the causes of his coming, and his desires and requests. In the mean time, 
the court-gate was kept shut until he had made an end of his oration. 

The next day after, the three estates assembled again in the great 
chamber of the court at Westminster; where the king and queen's majesties 
and the cardinal being present, they did exhibit (all kneeling on their 
knees) a supplication to their highnesses; which being read, the king and 
queen delivered the same unto the cardinal, who, perceiving the effects 
thereof to answer his expectation, did receive the same most gladly from 
their majesties: and after he had in a few words given thanks to God, 
and declared what great cause he had to rejoice above all others, that his 
coming from Rome into England had taken such happy success, he, by 
the pope's authority, gave them this absolution : — 

" Our Lord Jesus Christ, who with his most precious blood hath 
redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities, that he might 
purchase unto himself a glorious spouse without spot or wrinkle, and 
whom the Father hath appointed head over all his church, he by his 
mercy absolve you. And we by apostolic authority given unto us by the 
most holy lord pope Julius the third, his vicegerent on earth, do absolve 
and deliver you, and every of you, with the whole realm and dominions 
thereof, from all heresy and schism, and from all and every judgment, 
censures, and pains, for that cause incurred : and also we do restore you 
again unto the unity of our mother the holy church, as in our letters 
more plainly it shall appear: in the name of the Father, of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost." 

This business finished, they all went into the chapel, and there singing- 
re Deum, with great solemnity declared the joy for this reconciliation. 
The report of the cardinal's quick success was with great speed sent 
unto Rome ; as well by the king and cardinal's letters, which hereafter 
follow, as also otherwise. Whereupon the pope caused three processions 
to be made at Rome, and thanks to be given to God, with great joy, for 
the conversion of England to his church ; and therefore praising the 
cardinal's diligence, and the devotion of the king and queen, on 



596 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Christmas eve, by his bulls he set forth a general pardon to all such as 
did truly rejoice in the same. 

On Sunday, December 2nd, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and lord 
chancellor of England, preached at Paul's Cross, at which sermon the 
king and cardinal Pole were present. He took for his text these words 
of the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, " This also we know the 
season, brethren, that we should now awake out of sleep, for now is 
our salvation nearer than when we believed/' From them he shewed 
how the saying of St. Paul was verified upon the Gentiles, who had 
a long time slept in dark ignorance, not knowing God : therefore 
St. Paul, to stir up their heavy dulness, willed them to awake out of 
their long sleep, because their salvation was nearer than when they 
believed. In amplifying this matter, and comparing present times with 
theirs, he took occasion to declare what difference the Jewish sacra- 
ments had from those of the christians, wherein he used these words : — 
" Even as the sacrament of the Jews declared Christ to come, so do 
our sacraments declare him to be already come : but Christ to come, 
and Christ to be come, is not all one. For now that he is come, the 
Jews' sacraments are done away, and ours only remain, which declare 
that he is already come, and is nearer us than he was to the fathers of 
the old law; for they had him but in signs, but we have him in the 
sacrament of the altar, even his very body. Wherefore now also it is 
time that we awake out of our sleep, who have slept, or rather dreamed, 
these twenty years past, as shall more easily appear, by declaring at 
large some of the properties and effects of a sleep or a dream. 

"And first, as men intending to sleep, do separate themselves from 
company, and desire to be alone; even so have we separated ourselves 
from the see apostolic of Rome, and have been alone, unlike any other 
realm in Christendom. Secondly, as in sleep men dream sometimes of 
killing, sometimes of maiming, sometimes of burning or drowning, 
sometimes of such beastliness as I dare not name, but will spare your 
ears; so we have in this our sleep, not only dreamed of beastliness, but 
we have done it indeed. For in this our sleep hath not one brother 
destroyed another? Hath not half our money been wiped away at one 
time? And again, those that would defend their conscience were slain, 
and others also otherwise troubled; besides infinite other things which 
you all know as well as I, whereof I appeal to your own consciences. 
Further, in a man's sleep all his senses are stopped, so that he can 
neither see, smell, nor hear; even so, whereas tl e ceremonies of the 
church were instituted to move and stir up our senses, they being taken 
away, were not our senses stopped, and we fast asleep? Moreover, 
when a man would gladly sleep, he will put out the candle, lest per- 
adventure it may hinder his sleep, and awake him : so of late all such 
writers as did hold any thing with the apostolic see, were condemned 
and forbidden to be read : and images, which were laymen's books, 
were cast down and broken. 

"The sleep hath continued with us these twenty years, and we were 
all that while without a head. For when king Henry did first take 
upon him to be head of the church, it was then no church at all. After 
whose death, king Edward, having over him governors and protectors, 



GARDINER'S POPISH SERMON. 597 

who ruled as they listed, could not be head of the church, but was only 
a shadow or sign of a head, and at length it came to pass, that we had 
no head at all; no, not so much as our two archbishops. For on the 
one side, the queen being a woman could not be head of the church ; 
and on the other side, our two archbishops were both convicted of one 
crime, and so deposed. Thus while we desired to have a supreme head 
among us, it came to pass that we had no head at all. When the tumult 
was in the north, in the time of king Henry VIII., I am sure the king 
was determined to have given over the supremacy again to the pope : 
but the hour was not then come, and therefore it went not forward, lest 
some would have said that he did it for fear. 

" After this, Mr. Knevet and I were sent ambassadors unto the em- 
peror, to desire him that he would be a means between the pope's 
holiness and the king, to bring the king to the obedience of the see of 
Rome, but the time was not yet come: for it might then have been said, 
that it had been done for a civil policy. Again, in the beginning of 
king Edward's reign the matter was moved, but the time was not yet: 
for it would have been said, that the king being but a child, had been 
bought and sold. Neither in the beginning of the queen's reign was the 
hour come : for it would have been said, that it was done in a time of 
weakness. Likewise when the king first came, if it had been done, they 
might have said it had been done by force and violence. But now, 
even now, the hour is come, when nothing can be objected, but that it 
is the mere mercy and providence of God. Now hath the pope's 
holiness sent unto us this most reverend father, cardinal Pole, an am- 
bassador from his side. What to do? not to revenge the injuries done 
by us against his holiness, but to give his benediction to those that 
defamed and persecuted him. 

" And that we may be the more meet to receive the said benediction, 
I shall desire you that we may always acknowledge ourselves offenders 
against his holiness; I do not exclude myself from the number. I will 
* weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice.' And 
I shall desire you, that we may defer the matter no longer, for now the 
hour is come. The king and queen's majesties have already restored 
our holy father the pope to his supremacy : and the three estates 
assembled in the parliament, representing the whole body of the realm, 
have also submitted themselves to his holiness and his successors for 
ever; wherefore let us not any longer stay. And even as St. Paul said 
to the Corinthians, that he was their father, so may the pope say, that 
he is our father: for we received our doctrine first from Rome, therefore 
he may challenge us as his own. We have all cause to rejoice, for his 
holiness hath sent hither and prevented us, before we sought him : such 
care hath he for us. Therefore let us say, ' This is the day which the 
Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.' Rejoice in this 
day, which is of the Lord's working, that such a noble birth is come ; 
yea, such a holy father as my lord cardinal Pole, who can speak unto 
us as unto brethren, and not as strangers. And let us now awake, who 
have so long slept, and in our sleep have done so much mischief to the 
sacraments of Christ, denying the blessed sacrament of the altar, and 
pulling down the altar, which thing Luther himself would not do, but 



598 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

rather reproved them that did it, examining them of their belief in 
Christ." 

The above was the sum of his sermon. He afterwards prayed, first for 
pope Julius III., with all his college of cardinals, the bishop of London, 
with the rest of that order; then for the king and queen, and the 
nobility of this realm; and lastly for the commons of the same, with 
the souls departed lying in the pains of purgatory. A striking proof 
this of the ascendancy of the priesthood in the realm, since intercession 
for that entire order preceded prayer for the senators, nobles, and even 
the sovereign and the royal family. Nay, departed saints must wait 
their turn after the existing priesthood, foreign and domestic, supreme, 
superior, and subordinate, have been blessed with the intercessions of 
the congregation. This ended, the time being late, they began in 
St. Paul's to ring their evening song, whereby the preacher could not 
be well heard, which caused him to make an end of his sermon. 

About this time a messenger was sent from the parliament to the pope, 
to desire him to confirm and establish the sale of abbey and chauntry 
lands : for the lords and the parliament would grant nothing in the 
pope's behalf, before their purchases were fully confirmed. Meanwhile 
the whole convocation, both bishops and others, were sent for to 
Lambeth to the cardinal, who forgave them all their perjurations, 
schisms, and heresies, and they all there kneeled down, and received 
his absolution ; and after an exhortation and gratulation for their 
conversion to the catholic church made by the cardinal, they departed. 

The new year, 1555, commenced with several arrests of protestants 
assembled for devotion. About thirty men and women of the city, 
with Mr. Rose, their minister, were taken as they were in a house in 
Bow church-yard, celebrating the communion, and were the same night 
all committed to prison. Two days after Mr. Rose was brought before the 
bishop of Winchester, the lord chancellor, and the same day committed to 
the Tower, after some communication between the bishop and him. It 
appears that a reference to the queen in his prayers was reported against 
him. He was charged with saying, and some of his congregation with 
repeating, these words — " God turn the heart of queen Mary from 
idolatry, or else shorten her days." There is reason to believe that the 
alternative of shortening her days was added by the accusers. The 
former petition however was enough to endanger their liberty and their 
lives. It was construed treason against her majesty. At the appre- 
hending of Mr. Rose and his companions, word was brought thereof to 
bishop Hooper, being then in the Fleet; whereupon the bishop sent a 
letter of consolation to the said prisoners; enjoining them not to fear 
their adversaries, though he acknowledged the papist's church was more 
bloody and tyrannical, than ever was the sword of the heathens. 

On Tuesday, the 8th of January, nineteen of the lower house of the 
parliament, with the speaker, came to Whitehall to the king, and offered 
him the government of the realm and of the issue, if the queen should 
fail, which was confirmed by act of parliament within ten days after. On 
the 16th of the same month, the parliament was clean dissolved; and on 
the 18th all the council went unto the Tower, and there the same day 
discharged and set at liberty all the prisoners, or most part of them, among 



EXAMINATION OF SEVERAL PROTESTANTS. 599 

whom were the late duke of Northumberland's sons, Ambrose, Robert, 
and Henry, Sir Andrew Dudley, Sir John Rogers, Sir James Crofts, 
Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Sir George Harper, 
Sir Edward Warner, Sir William Sentlow, Sir Gawen Carew, Mr. 
Gibbes, Cuthbert Vaughan, with many others. 

On January 22nd, all the preachers who were in prison, were called 
before the bishop of Winchester, and certain others, at his house in 
St. Mary Overy's. Being asked whether they would convert, and enjoy 
the queen's pardon, or else stand to that they had taught; they all 
answered, that they would stand to that they had taught: they were 
then committed to straiter prison than before, with charge that none 
should speak with them: of whom, one James George, died in prison, 
being there in bonds for religion and righteousness' sake, and as he was 
exempted burial in the popish church-yard, was buried in the fields. 

Cardinal Pole by no means sanctioned severe measures, for when the 
bishops, with the rest of the convocation-house, were before the cardinal 
at Lambeth, he desired them to repair every man where his cure and 
charge lay, exhorting them to treat their flock with all mildness, and to 
endeavour to win the people rather by gentleness, than by extremity 
and rigour, and so let them depart. Some complied; but a large 
portion remained in London further to excite the people of the metro- 
polis in favour of popery. On the anniversary of St. Paul, then a high 
day in the city, there was a general and solemn procession through 
London, to give God thanks for their conversion to the catholic church. 
To set out their glorious pomp there were fourscore and ten crosses, one 
hundred and sixty priests and clerks, who had every one of them copes 
upon their backs, singing loudly. There followed also, for the better 
estimation of the sight, eight bishops; and last of all came Bonner, 
bishop of London, carrying a splendid box containing the host under a 
gorgeous canopy. There were also present the mayor, and aldermen, 
and all the livery of every occupation. Moreover the king also himself, 
and the cardinal, came to St. Paul's church the same day. As the king- 
was entering the church, at the steps going up to the choir, all the 
gentlemen that of late were set at liberty out of the Tower, kneeled 
before him and offered unto him themselves and their services. The 
procession continued till sun set, and after the procession there was 
commandment given to make bonfires at night. Whereupon did rise 
among the people a doubtful talk why all this was done: some saying 
it was that the queen being likely to have a son ; while others thought 
that it was for joy that the realm was joined again to the see of Rome. 

It would appear that Gardiner and his abettors obtained considerable 
influence over the milder views of Pole, so as to induce him to sanction 
their bitter proceedings against some of the more distinguished and 
devoted protestants of the day : for, on Jan. 28, the bishops had com- 
mission from the cardinal to sit upon, and order, according to the laws, 
all such preachers and heretics as were in prison ; and according to 
this commission, the same day the bishop of Winchester, and the other 
bishops, with certain of the council, sat at St. Mary Overy's church, and 
called before them bishop Hooper, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Cardmaker, 
who were brought thither by the sheriffs ; from whence, after communi- 






600 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

cation, they were committed to prison till the next day, but Cardmaker 
submitted himself. The next day Hooper, Rogers, Taylor, and Brad- 
ford, were brought before them, and sentence of excommunication and 
judgment ecclesiastical was pronounced upon bishop Hooper and Mr. 
Rogers, by the bishop of Winchester, who sat as judge in Caiaphas's 
seat, and drove them out of the church, according to their law and order. 
Dr. Taylor and Bradford were re-committed to prison. On the day follow- 
ing Dr. Taylor, Dr. Crome, Mr. Bradford, Mr. Saunders, and Dr. Farrar, 
some time bishop of St. David's, were before the bishops. Dr. Taylor, 
Saunders, and Bradford, were excommunicated ; and sentence being- 
pronounced upon them, they were committed to the sheriffs. Crome 
desired two months respite, which was granted him : and Farrar was 
again committed to prison till another time. All these men shewed 
themselves to be learned, as indeed they were: but what availeth either 
learning, reason, or truth itself, where arbitrary will alone beareth rule? 

After the examination and condemnation of these good men and 
preachers, commissions and inquisitors were sent abroad into all parts of 
the realm : by reason whereof a great number of most godly and true 
christians, especially of Kent, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, were appre- 
hended, brought up to London, cast into prison, and most of them after- 
wards either consumed cruelly by fire, or else through evil handling died 
in prisons, and were buried on the dung-hills or in the fields. 

The parliament being dissolved, the first thing taken into consideration 
was the way to proceed against the heretics. Cardinal Pole had been 
suspected to bear some favour to them, but he took great care to avoid 
all occasions of being any more blamed for that ; and indeed he lived 
in that distrust of all the English, that he opened his thoughts to very 
few: his chief confidents were two Italians who came over with him, 
Priuli and Ormaneto. Secretary Cecil, who in matters of religion com- 
plied with the times, was observed to have more of his favour than any 
other Englishman. Pole was an enemy to all severe proceedings ; he 
had observed that cruelty rather inflamed than cured the distemper of 
heresy ; he thought the better and surer way was to begin an effectual 
reformation of the manners of the clergy, since it was the scandal given 
by their ill conduct and ignorance, that was the chief cause of the 
growth of heresy : so he concluded, that if a primitive discipline should 
be revived, the nation might in time be gained by gentle methods. 
Gardiner, on the other hand, being of an abject and cruel temper himself, 
thought the strict execution of the laws against the Lollards was that to 
which they ought chiefly to trust: if the preachers were made public 
examples, he concluded the people would be easily reclaimed : for he 
pretended that it was visible, if King Henry had executed the act of 
the six articles vigorously, all would have submitted. He confessed a 
reformation of the clergy was a good thing, but all times could not bear 
it. If they should proceed severely against scandalous churchmen, the 
heretics would take advantage that to deframe the church the more, 
and raise a clamour against all clergymen. The queen was for joining 
both these counsels together, and intended to proceed at the same time 
both against scandalous churchmen and incorrigible protestants. 



BOOK XII. 



CONTAINING A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE MURDERING OF GOD'S SAINTS, 

WITH THE PROCESSES AND NAMES OF SUCH GOOD MARTYRS AS 

IN THIS TIME OF QUEEN MARY WERE PUT TO DEATH. 



SECTION I. 

LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF JOHN ROGERS AND LAURENCE SAUNDERS. 

On the 4th of February, 1555, suffered the constant martyr of God, 
master John Rogers, concerning whose life, examinations, and sufferings, 
the following particulars are set forth. 

John Rogers, vicar of St. Sepulchre, and reader at St. Paul's, received 
his education in the university of Cambridge, and at length was chosen 
chaplain to the English factory at Antwerp. There he became ac- 
quainted with Mr. Tindall, whom he assisted in his translation of the 
New Testament, and with Miles Coverdale, who, with several other pro- 
testants, had been driven from England on account of the five articles, 
in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. By conversing with these 
undaunted and pious servants of God, Mr. Rogers became learned in 
the scriptures, and finding, according to these sacred oracles, that 
matrimony was honourable to all, he entered into that state, and went 
with his wife to Wittenburg, in Saxony, where, through indefatigable 
study and application, he in a short time attained such a knowledge of 
the Dutch language as to be capable of taking charge of a christian 
congregation in that part of Europe. After abandoning his popish 
superstitions, this aged minister served his cure faithfully and diligently 
for many years, until it pleased God to dispel the mists of papal dark- 
ness from his native country and restore the glorious light of the pure 
gospel of Christ, by the introduction of his chosen servant Edward VI. 
to the English throne. 

Mr. Rogers then complied with a request to leave his living in Saxonv, 
and come into England to preach the gospel, without any previous con- 
dition, appointment, or establishment whatever: and having laboured 
in the vineyard of his Master for a time with great success, Dr. Ridley, 
then bishop of London, gave him a prebend in his cathedral church of 
St. Paul's : he was afterwards chosen by the dean and chapter one of 
the divinity-lecturers in that church. There he continued till queen 



602 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Mary, soon after her accession, banished the true religion, and restored 
the superstition and idolatry of the church of Rome, with all the horrid 
cruelties of blood-thirsty Antichrist. 

When Mary was in the Tower of London, imbibing Gardiner's per- 
nicious counsels, Mr. Rogers preached at Paul's Cross, confirming those 
doctrines which he and others had taught in king Edward's days, and 
exhorting the people, with peculiar energy, to continue stedfast in the 
same, and to beware of the false tenets that were about to be introduced. 
For this sermon the preacher was summoned before the council, then 
filled with popish and bloody bishops ; before whom he pleaded his own 
cause, in so pious and bold, yet prudent a manner, as to obviate their 
displeasure for that time, and was accordingly dismissed. But after 
Mary's proclamation to prohibit the doctrines of the reformed religion, 
Mr. Rogers, for a contempt of the same, was again summoned before a 
council of bishops, who, after having debated upon the nature of his 
offence, ordered him to keep close prisoner in his own house. There he 
remained a considerable time, till at the instigation of the sanguinary 
Bonner, bishop of London, he was removed to Newgate, and placed 
among common felons. What passed between him and the adversaries 
of Christ, during the time of his imprisonment, is not certainly known; 
but his examinations he left in his own hand- writing; the principal parts 
of which are here given. 

The examination and answer of John Rogers, made to the lord chan- 
cellor Gardiner, and to the rest of the council, Jan. 22nd, 1555 : — 

First, the lord chancellor said unto me thus: " Sir, you have heard the 
state of the realm in which it standeth now." 

Rogers. No, my lord, I have been kept in close prison ; and except 
there have been some general thing said at the table, when I was at dinner 
or supper, I heard nothing; and there have I heard nothing whereupon 
any special thing might be grounded. 

Then said the lord chancellor mockingly, " General things, general 
things ! Ye have heard of my lord cardinal's coming, and that the par- 
liament hath received his blessing, not one resisting it, but one man which 
did speak against it. Such an unity, and such a miracle, hath not been seen. 
And all they, of which there are eight score in one house, have with one 
assent received pardon of their offences, for the schism that we have had 
in England, in refusing the holy father of Rome to be head of the 
catholic church. How say you? are you content to unite yourself to 
the faith of the catholic church with us, in the state in which it is now 
in England ? will you do that?" 

Rog. The catholic church I never did nor will dissent from. 

Gar. Nay, but I speak of the state of the catholic church, in that 
wise in which we stand now in England, having received the pope to be 
supreme head. 

Rog. I know no other head but Christ of his catholic church, neither 
will I acknowledge the bishop of Rome to have any more authority 
than any other bishop hath by the word of God, and by the doctrines of 
the old and pure catholic church, four hundred years after Christ. 

Gar. Why didst thou then acknowledge king Henry VIII. to be su- 
preme head of the church, if Christ be the only head ? 



EXAMINATION OF. MR. ROGERS. 603 

Rog. I never granted him to have any supremacy in spiritual things, 
as are the forgiveness of sins, giving of the Holy Ghost, authority to be 
a judge above the word of God. 

Gar. Yea, if thou hadst said so in his days, thou hadst not been 
alive now. What sayest thou ? make us a direct answer whether thou 
wilt be one of this catholic church or not, with us in that state in which 
we are now? 

Rog. My lord, without fail I cannot believe, that ye yourselves think 
in your hearts that he is supreme head in forgiving of sins, seeing you 
and all the bishops of the realm have now twenty years long preached, 
and some of you also written to the contrary, and the parliament hath 
so long ago condescended unto it. 

Gar. Tush ! that parliament was with great cruelty constrained to 
abolish and put away the supremacy from the bishop of Rome. 

Rog. With cruelty ? why then I perceive that you take a wrong way 
with cruelty to persuade men's consciences. For it should appear by your 
doings now, that the cruelty then used hath not persuaded your consciences. 
How would you then have our consciences persuaded with cruelty ? 

Gar. I talk to thee of no cruelty, but that they were so often and so cruelly 
called upon in that parliament, to let the act go forward ; yea, and even with 
force driven thereunto, whereas in this parliament it was so uniformly received. 

Rog. I will first see it proved by the Scripture. Let me have pen, ink, 
and books, etc., and I shall take upon me more plainly to set out the 
matter, so that the contrary shall be proved to be true; and let any man 
that will, confer with me by writing. 

Gar. Nay, that shall not be permitted thee. Here are two things, 
mercy and justice : if thou refuse the queen's mercy now, then shalt thou 
have justice ministered unto thee. 

Rog. I never offended, nor was disobedient unto her grace, and yet 1 
will not refuse her mercy. But if this shall be denied me to confer by writing 
and to try out the truth, then it is not well, but too far out of the way. 

Gar. If thou wilt not receive the bishop of Rome to be supreme head 
of the catholic church, then thou shalt never have her mercy, thou may est 
be sure. If thou wilt enter into one church with us, tell us that; or else 
thou shalt never have so much proffered thee again as thou hast now. 

Rog. I will find it first in the scripture, and see it tried thereby, be- 
fore I receive him to be supreme head. I find not the bishop of Rome 
in the creed. For the word catholic there signifieth not the Romish 
church : it signifieth the consent of all true teaching churches of all 
times and all ages. But how should the bishop of Rome's church be 
one of them, which teacheth so many doctrines that are plainly and 
directly against the word of God ? Can that bishop be the true head of 
the catholic church, that doth so? That is not possible. 

Gar. Shew me one of them — one ! let me hear one ! 

Rog. The bishop of Rome, and his church, say, read, and sing, all 
that they do in their congregations, in Latin, which is directly and 
plainly against 1 Cor. xiv. To speak with tongues is to speak with a strange 
tongue, as Latin or Greek, etc. ; and so to speak, is not to speak unto men, 
but to God. But ye speak in Latin, which is a strange tongue; where- 
fore ye speak not unto men, but unto yourselves and God only. 



604 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

I was willing to have declared how and after what sort these two 
texts do agree ; as, to wit, " to speak not to man, but unto God," and 
" to speak into the wind;" and so to have gone forward with the proof 
of my matter begun, but here arose a noise and a confusion. And 
here also I would have declared how they ought to proceed in these 
days, and so have come again to my purpose, but it was impossible ; for 
one asked one thing, another said another; so that I was fain to hold 
my peace. And even when I would take hold on my proof, the lord 
chancellor bade to prison with me again. Then sir Richard Southwell 
said to me, " Thou wilt not burn in this gear when it cometh to the pur- 
pose, I know well that." To whom I replied, " Sir, I cannot tell, but I 
trust in my Lord God, yes;" lifting up mine eyes unto heaven. 

Then my lord of Ely told me much of the queen's pleasure and meaning, 
saying that she took them that would not receive the bishop of Rome's 
supremacy to be unworthy to have her mercy, etc. I said I would not 
refuse her mercy, and yet I never offended her in all my life : and that I 
besought her grace, and all their honours, to be good to me, reserving my 
conscience. "A married priest, and have not offended the law!" cried 
they. I said I had not broken the queen's law, nor yet any point of the 
law of the realm therein; for I married where it was lawful. I married 
in Dutchland. And if you had not here in England made an open law 
that priests might have had wives, I would never have come home again; 
for I brought a wife and eight children with me : which ye might be 
sure I would not have done if the laws of the realm had not permitted 
it before. You say to me that there was never a catholic man or country 
who ever yet granted that a priest might have a wife. But I say that 
the catholic church never denied marriage to priests, nor yet to any 
other man." On giving this answer, Rogers was about to leave the cham- 
ber, the sergeant holding him by the arm ready to conduct him back 
to confinement. At his departure, the bishop of Worcester, who had 
before interposed with some trifling questions, taunted him with igno- 
rance of what and where the true catholic church was — a taunt which 
might with much more justice have been addressed to him and his 
coadjutors in this persecuting course. 

A second examination of Mr. Rogers soon after took place, most 
of which is here given in his own words. " Being asked again by the 
lord chancellor what I thought concerning the blessed sacrament; 
whether I believed it to be the very body and blood of our Saviour 
Christ, that was born of the Virgin Mary, and hanged on the cross, 
really and substantially? I answered, 'I have often told you that it 
was a matter in which I was no meddler, and therefore suspected of my 
brethren to be of a contrary opinion. Notwithstanding, even as the 
most part of your doctrine in other points is false, and the defence 
thereof only by force and cruelty; so in this matter I think it to be as 
false as the rest. For I cannot understand the words really and sub- 
stantially, to signify otherwise than corporeally: but corporeally Christ 
is only in heaven, and so cannot Christ be so also in your sacrament. 
My lord you have dealt with me most cruelly, for you have put me in 
prison without law, and kept me there now almost a year and a half: 
for I was almost half a year in my house, where I was obedient to you, 






SECOND EXAMINATION OF ROGERS. 605 

God knoweth, and spoke with no man. And now have I been a full 
year in Newgate, at great costs and charges, having a wife and ten 
children to provide for, and have not received a penny from my livings, 
which was against the law.' To this Gardiner answered that Dr. Ridley, 
who had given them me, was a usurper, and therefore I was the unjust 
possessor of them. I then asked, ' Was the king then an usurper, who 
gave Dr. Ridley the bishopric ?' To which the chancellor replied — Yes ! 
Then he began to set out the wrongs that king Edward had done to the 
bishop of London, and to himself also. ' But yet I do mis-use my 
terms' — he confessed — ' to call the king usurper.' 

" I asked him wherefore he put me in prison. He said, because I 
preached against the queen. I answered that it was not true ; and I 
would be bound to prove it, and to stand to the trial of the law, that 
no man should be able to disprove me, and thereupon would set my life. 
I preached, I confessed, a sermon at the Cross, after the queen came to 
the Tower; but there was nothing said against the queen. He then 
charged me with having read lectures after, against the commandment 
of the council. To this I answered that I never did so, and said, let 
that be proved, and let me die for it. 

" I might and would have added, if I had been suffered to speak, that 
it had been time enough to take away men's livings, and then to have 
imprisoned them after that they had offended the laws, for they are 
good citizens that break not laws, and worthy of praise, and not of pu- 
nishment. But their purpose was to keep men in prison, until they may 
catch them in their laws, and so kill them. I might have declared that I 
most humbly desired to be set at liberty, sending my wife with a supplica- 
tion, while I was yet in my house. 

" I wrote two petitions to him out of Newgate, and sent my wife many 
times to him. Master Gosnold also, who is now departed in the Lord, 
laboured for me, and so did divers others take pains in the matter. These 
things declare my lord chancellor's antichristian charity, which is, that he 
hath and doth seek my blood, and the destruction of my wife and ten children. 

" This is a short sum of the words which were spoken on the 28th of 
January, in the afternoon, after that master Hooper had been the first, 
and master Cardmaker the second, in examination before me. The Lord 
grant us grace to stand together, fighting lawfully in his cause, till we be 
smitten down together, if the Lord's will be so to permit it. Then the 
clock being, as 1 guessed, about four, the lord chancellor said that he and 
the church must yet use charity with me, and gave me respite till to- 
morrow, to see whether I would return to the catholic church again, and 
repent, and they would receive me to mercy. I said that I was never 
out of the true catholic church, nor would be : but into his church would 
I, by the God's grace, never come. 'Well,' quoth he, ' is our church 
false and antichristian?' I answered, 'Yea.' 'And what is the doctrine of 
the sacrament?' ' False,' quoth I; and cast my hands abroad. ' Come 
again to-morrow,' said the chancellor, ' between nine and ten.' ' I am 
ready to come again whensoever you call,' quoth I. And thus was I 
brought up by the sheriffs to the Compter in South wark, master Hooper 
going before me, and a great multitude of people being present, so that 
we had much to do to go in the streets." 



606 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

On the morrow the third examination went on. Mr. Rogers writes — 
" The next day, January 29th, we were sent for in the morning about nine 
o'clock, and by the sheriffs brought from the compter in Southwark to 
St. Mary Overy's. When Mr. Hooper was condemned, as I understood 
afterwards, then sent they for me. My lord chancellor Gardiner said — 
' Rogers, here thou wast yesterday, and we gave thee liberty to remem- 
ber thyself last night, whether thou wouldst come into the holy catholic 
church of Christ again or not. Tell us now what thou hast determined, 
whether thou wilt be repentant and sorry, and wilt return again and 
take mercy?' ' My lord/ quoth I, ' I have remembered myself right 
well, what you yesterday said to me, and desire you to give me leave 
to declare my mind, what I have to say thereunto; and that done I shall 
answer to your demanded question. When I yesterday desired that I 
might be suffered by the scripture and authority of the first, best, and 
purest church, to defend my doctrine by writing, all the doctrine that 
ever I had preached, you answered, that it might not, and ought not to 
be granted me, for I was a private person ; and that the parliament was 
above the authority of all private persons, and therefore the sentence 
thereof might not be found faulty and useless by me, being but a 
private person. Yet, my lord, I am able to show examples, that 
one man hath come into a general council, and after the whole had 
determined and agreed upon an act or article, some one man coming 
in afterwards, hath by the word of God proved so clearly that 
the council had erred in decreeing the said article, that he caused the 
whole council to change and alter their act or article before determined. 
And of these examples I am able to shew two. I can also shew the 
authority of St. Augustine ; that when he disputed with a heretic, he 
would neither himself, nor yet have the heretic to lean on the determina- 
tion of two former councils, of which the one was made for him, and 
the other for the heretic that disputed against him ; but he said that he 
would have the scriptures to be their judge, which were common for 
them both, and not peculiar to either of them.' 

" I could also shew the authority of a learned lawyer, Panormitanus, 
who saith, That unto a simple layman that bringeth the word of God 
with him, there ought more credit to be given, than to a whole council 
gathered together. By these things will I prove that I ought not to be 
denied to speak my mind, and to be heard against a whole parliament, 
bringing the word of God for me, and the authority of the whole church 
400 years after Christ, albeit that every man in the parliament had will- 
ingly and without respect of fear and favour agreed thereunto, which 
thing I doubt not a little of; especially seeing the like had been per- 
mitted in the old church, even in general councils; yea, and that in one 
of the chiefest councils that ever was, unto which neither any acts of 
this parliament, nor yet any of the late general councils of the bishops 
of Rome ought to be compared. For if Henry VIII. were alive, and 
should call a parliament, and begin to determine a thing, then would 
ye all say Amen: yea, and it please your grace, it is meet that it be so 
enacted. 

Here my lord chancellor would suffer me to speak no more; but bade 
me sit down, mockingly, saying, That I was sent for. to be instructed of 



CONDEMNATION OF MR. ROGERS. 607 

them, and yet I would take upon me to be their instructor. To this I 
said — ' My lord, I stand and sit not: shall I not be suffered to speak for 
my life?' ' Shall we suffer thee to tell a tale, and prate?' said he. And 
with that he stood up, and began to face me, after his old arrogant 
proud fashion, for he perceived that I was in a way to have touched him 
somewhat, which he thought to hinder by dashing me out of my tale, 
and so he did : but he had much the like communication with me as he 
had the day before, taunt upon taunt, and check upon check. For in 
that case, being God's cause, I told him he should not make me afraid 
to speak. 

" The lord chancellor on this exclaimed, ' See what a spirit this fellow 
hath, rinding fault at mine accustomed earnestness, and hearty manner 
of speaking!' On which I said — I have a true spirit, agreeing to, and 
obeying the word of God; and would further have said, that I was never 
the worse, but the better, to be earnest in a just and true cause, and in 
my master Christ's matters : but I could not be heard. At length he 
proceeded towards his excommunication and condemnation, after that 
I had told him, that his church of Rome was the church of Antichrist, 
meaning the false doctrine and tyrannical laws, with the maintenance 
thereof by cruel persecutions used by the bishops of the said church. 
To be brief, he read my condemnation before me, particularly mentioning 
therein but two articles : first, that I affirmed the Roman catholic 
church to be the church of Antichrist: and then that I denied the reality 
of their sacrament. He caused me to be degraded and condemned, 
and put into the hands of the laity, and then he gave me over into the 
sheriff's hands, which were much better than his/' 

"After this sentence was read, bishop Gardiner sent Mr. Hooper and 
me to the Clink, there to remain till night ; when it was dark, they 
carried us, Mr. Hooper going before with one sheriff, and I coming 
after with the other, with bills and weapons out of the Clink, and led 
us through the bishop's house, and St. Mary Overy's church yard, and 
so into Southwark, hence over the bridge in procession to Newgate, 
through the city. When the bishop had read the condemnation, I 
petitioned to see and speak to my wife, who was a stranger, and had 
ten children ; but he said she was not my wife. I declared she was, for 
we had been married eighteen years. He still denied it, said I main- 
tained open whoredom, and that I should not see her !" 

While this excellent writer as well as patient sufferer remained in 
prison, he wrote his sentiments in a bold and manly strain, upon the 
evils and abuses brought into the country, and held out to its rulers, the 
vengeance that had fallen, in different ages, upon the enemies of truth. 
The following is a sample — " I am an Englishman born, and, God 
knoweth, do naturally wish well to my country. And I have often 
proved that the things, which I have much feared should come to pass 
have indeed followed. I pray God I may fail of my guessing in this 
behalf. And as touching your rejoicing, as though God had set you 
aloft to punish us by miracle, and to minister justice, if we will not 
receive your holy father's mercy, and thereby do declare your church 
to be true, and ours false; to that I answer thus: God's works are won- 
derful, and are not to be comprehended and perceived by man's wisdom, 



608 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

nor by the wit of the most wise and prudent. — Our enemies sometimes 
cry out that we liken ourselves to prophets and apostles; but I answer 
the charge, that we make not ourselves like unto them, in the singular 
virtues and gifts of God given unto them; as of doing miracles, and 
of many other things. The similitude and likeness of them and us 
consisteth not in all things, but only in this, that is, that we be like 
them in doctrine, and in the suffering of persecution and infamy for 
the same. 

"The apostles were beaten for their boldness, and they rejoiced that 
they suffered for Christ's cause. Ye have also provided rods for us, and 
bloody whips : yet when ye have done that which God's hand and counsel 
hath determined that ye shall do, be it life or death, I trust that God 
will so assist us by his Holy Spirit and grace, that we shall patiently 
suffer it, and praise God for it: and whatsoever become of me and 
others, which now suffer for speaking and professing the truth, yet be 
ye sure, that God's word will prevail and have the upper hand, when 
your bloody laws and wicked decrees, for want of sure foundation, shall 
fall in the dust. — Of what force, I pray you, may a man think these par- 
liaments to be, which scantily can stand a year in strength? or what 
credit is to be given to these law-makers, who are not ashamed to 
establish contrary laws, and to condemn that for evil which before they 
affirmed and decreed to be good ? Truly ye are so ready, contrary to 
all right, to change and turn for the pleasure of man, that at length I 
fear God will use you like changelings, and both turn you forth of his 
kingdom, and out of your own country." 

After that John Rogers had been long and straitly imprisoned, lodged 
in Newgate amongst thieves, often examined, very uncharitably treated, 
and at length unjustly and most cruelly condemned by Gardiner, he was, 
on Feb. 4th, warned suddenly by the keeper's wife of Newgate to prepare 
himself for the fire ; who being found asleep was with great difficulty 
awoke. At length being roused, he was led down first to Bonner 
to be degraded; which done, he craved of him one petition — that he 
might speak a few words with his wife before his burning. But that was 
denied him. " Then," said he, " you declare your charity, what it is." 

Now when the time came that he should be brought out of Newgate 
to Smithfield, the sheriff came to him, and asked if he would revoke his 
abominable doctrines. To whom Mr. Rogers said, " That which I have 
preached I will seal with my blood !" " Then," said the sheriff, " thou 
art a heretic." " That shall be known," said Rogers, " at the day of 
judgment." " Well," quoth the sheriff, " I will never pray for thee." 
" But I will pray for you," replied Rogers; and so was brought the same 
day, which was Monday the 4th of February, towards Smithfield, saying 
the psalm " Miserere" by the way, all the people rejoicing at his con- 
stancy, with great praises and thanks to God for the same. And there, 
in the presence of Rochester, comptroller of the queen's household, sir 
Richard Southwell, both the sheriffs, and many people, the fire was put 
unto him; and when it had taken hold both upon his legs and shoulders, 
he, as one feeling no smart, washed his hands in the flame, as though it 
had been in cold water. After lifting up his hands unto heaven, not re- 
moving the same until such time as the devouring fire had consumed 






PARTICULARS OF LAURENCE SAUNDERS. 609 

them, most mildly this happy martyr yielded up his spirit into the hands of 
his heavenly Father. A little before his burning, his pardon was brought if he 
would have recanted ; but he utterly refused it. He was the first of all the 
blessed martyrs that suffered in the reign of queen Mary ; those which had 
previously suffered having suffered as traitors. His wife and children met him 
by the way as he went towards Smithfield. This sorrowful sight of his own 
flesh and blood could nothing move him ; but he constantly and cheerfully 
took his death with wonderful patience, in defence of the gospel of Christ. 

Next to this faithful and holy man followed the Rev. Laurence 
Saunders, martyred at Coventry the next month. He was a man of 
good parentage. He was placed early at Eton school, whence, at a 
proper age, he was chosen to- go to the King's college, in Cambridge, 
where he continued a scholar three years, and profited in knowledge 
and learning very much for that time ; shortly after he quitted the uni- 
versity, and went to his parents, upon whose advice he consented to 
become a merchant, for that his mother, who was a gentlewoman of 
good estimation, being left a widow, and having a good portion for 
him among his other brethren, thought to set him in the way of wealth; 
and so he, coming up to London, was bound apprentice to Sir William 
Chester, who afterwards chanced to be sheriff of London the same year 
that Saunders was burnt at Coventry. 

It happened that the master, being a good man, and hearing Saunders 
in his secret prayers inwardly to mourn by himself, called him unto him, 
to know the cause of his solitariness and lamentations: when, learning 
him not to fancy that kind of life, and perceiving also his whole purpose 
to be bent to the study of books, and spiritual contemplation, like a 
good and sensible man, wrote to his friends, and giving him his in- 
dentures, set him free. Thus Mr. Saunders being ravished with the love 
of learning, and especially with the reading of God's word, tarried not 
long in the traffic of merchandize, but shortly returned to Cambridge 
again to his study, where he began to add to the knowledge of the 
Latin, the study of the Greek tongue, in which he profited very much 
in a little time; presently after, he joined the study of the Hebrew. 
Then he gave himself wholly to the study of the holy scriptures, to 
furnish himself for the office of a preacher. 

In the beginning of king Edward's reign, when true religion was in- 
troduced, he began to preach, and was so liked by them who then had 
authority, that they had appointed him to read a divinity lecture in the 
college of Fotheringhay, where, by doctrine and life, he edified the 
pious, drew many ignorant to the true knowledge of God, and stopped 
the mouths of adversaries. He married about that time, and in the 
connubial state led a life unblameable before all men. The college of 
Fotheringhay being dissolved, he was appointed a reader in the minster 
at Litchfield: where he so behaved himself in teaching and living, that 
his very adversaries bore testimony as well of his learning as of his 
piety. After a certain space, he departed from Litchfield to a benefice 
in Leicestershire, called Churchlangton, where, he resided and taught 
diligently, and kept a liberal house. From thence he was orderly called 
to take a benefice in the city of London, called Allhallows, in Bread- 
street. Then he was inclined to resign his cure in the country; and 






CIO HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

after be had taken possession of his benefice in London, he departed 
into the country, clearly to discharge himself thereof. 

On Sunday, October 1 5th, in the forenoon, he delivered a sermon in 
his parish, treating on that place which St. Paul writeth to the Corin- 
thians: " I have coupled you to one man, that ye should make your- 
selves chaste virgins unto Christ. But I fear lest it come to pass, that 
as the serpent beguiled Eve, even so your wits should be corrupt from 
the singleness which ye had towards Christ. " He recited the sum of 
that true christian doctrine, through which they were coupled to Christ, 
to receive of him free justification through faith in his blood. The 
papistical doctrine he compared to the serpent's deceiving: and lest 
they should be deceived by it, he made a contrast between the voice of 
God and the voice of the popish serpent; descending to more particular 
declaration therefore, as it were to let them plainly see the difference 
that is between the order of the church service, set forth by king Edward 
in the English tongue, and comparing it with the popish service then 
used in the Latin tongue. 

The first, he said, was good, because it was according to the word of 
God, and the order of the primitive church. The other, he said, was 
evil, and though in that evil be intermingled some good Latin words, 
yet was it but as a little honey or milk mingled with a great deal of 
poison to make them drink up all. In the afternoon he was ready in his 
church to have given another exhortation to his people. But the bishop of 
London interrupted him, by sending an officer for him. This officer charged 
him upon pain of contumacy forthwith to come to the bishop. And thus 
was Saunders brought before Bonner, who laid to his charge treason for 
breaking the queen's proclamation, and heresy and sedition for his sermon. 

After much talk, the bishop willed him to write what he believed of 
transubstantiation. Saunders did so ; and this writing the bishop kept for 
his purpose, as shall appear hereafter. Bonner sent him to the lord, chan- 
cellor, who, being unable to resist his arguments, cried, " Carry away this 
frenzy-fool to prison." Here Saunders continued a whole year and three 
months ; in which space he sent divers letters to divers men : as one to 
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer ; another to his wife, and also to others. 
But of his cause and estate thou shalt now see what Laurence Saunders 
himself did write to the bishop of Winchester, as an answer to certain 
things wherewith he had before charged him : — 

" Touching the cause of my imprisonment, I doubt whether I have 
broken any law or proclamation. In my doctrine I did not, forasmuch 
as at that time it was permitted by the proclamation to use, according 
to our consciences, such service as was then established. My doctrine 
was then agreeable unto my conscience and the same service then used. 
The act which I did (meaning his public teaching of God's word in his 
own parish, called Allhallows in Bread-street, in the city of London) 
was such as being indifferently weighed, sounded to no breaking of the 
proclamation, or at least no wilful breaking of it, forasmuch as I caused 
no bell to be rung, neither occupied I any place in the pulpit, after the 
order of sermons or lectures. But be it that I did break the proclama- 
tion, this long time of continuance in prison may be thought to be 
more than a sufficient punishment for such a fault. 



MR. SAUNDERS' LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 611 

" Touching the charging of me with my religion, I say with St. Paul: 
' I confess, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the 
God of my forefathers, believing all things which are written in the law 
and the prophets, and have hope towards God touching the resurrection 
of the dead. And herein study I to have always a clear conscience 
towards God and towards men.' So that God I call to witness, I have 
a conscience. And this my conscience is not grounded upon vain 
fantasy, but upon the infallible verity of God's word, with the witness- 
ing of his chosen church agreeable unto the same. 

"It is an easy thing for them which take Christ for their true pastor, 
and be the very sheep of his pasture, to discern the voice of their true 
shepherd, from the voice of wolves, hirelings, and strangers: forasmuch 
as Christ saith, ' My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
follow me.' Yea, and thereby they shall have the gift to know the 
right voice of the true shepherd, and so to follow him, and to avoid the 
contrary, as he also saith, ' The sheep follow the shepherd, for they 
know his voice: a stranger they will not follow, but will fly from him, 
for they know not the voice of a stranger.' Such inward inspiration 
doth the Holy Ghost put into the children of God, being indeed taught 
of God, but otherwise unable to understand the true way of their sal- 
vation. And although the wolf, as Christ saith, cometh in sheep's 
clothing, yet by their fruits you shall know them. That the Romish 
religion is ravening and wolfish, is apparent in three principal points. 
It robbeth God of his due and only honour. It taketh away the true 
comfort of conscience, in obscuring, or rather burying, of Christ and 
his office of salvation. It spoileth God of his true worship and ser- 
vice in spirit and truth, appointed in his commandments, and driveth 
men unto that inconvenience, against which Christ with the prophet 
Isaiah doth speak sharply :— ' this people honoureth me with their lips, 
but their hearts are far from me; they worship me in vain, teaching the 
doctrines and precepts of men.' And in another place — ' Ye cast aside 
the commandments of God, to maintain your own traditions.'" 

As a prisoner in Christ's cause, he resigned himself in such sort as to 
forbade his wife to sue for his delivery ; and when others of his friends had 
by suit almost obtained it, he discouraged them, so that they did not follow 
their suit, as may appear by the following letter to his wife : — 

" Grace, mercy, and peace in Christ our Lord, Entirely beloved wife, 
even as unto my own soul and body, so do I daily in my hearty prayer 
wish unto you: for I do daily, twice at least, in this sort remember you. 
And I do not doubt, dear wife, but that both I and you, as we are written 
in the book of life, so we shall together enjoy the same everlastingly, 
through the grace and mercy of God our dear Father, in his Son our 
Lord Jesus Christ. And for this present life, let us wholly appoint 
ourselves to the will of our good God to glorify him either by life or 
by death; and even that same merciful Lord make us worthy to honour 
him either way as pleaseth him, Amen. I am cheerful, I thank my God 
and my Christ, in whom and through whom I shall be able to fight a 
good fight, and finish a good course, and then receive the crown, which 
is laid up in store for me, and all the true soldiers of Christ. Wherefore, 
wife, let us, in the name of our God, fight lustily to overcome the flesh, 



612 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the devil, and the world. What our harness and weapons be in this 
kind of fight, look in the sixth chapter unto the Ephesians, and pray, 
pray, pray. I would that you make no suit for me in any wise. Thank 
you know whom, for her most sweet and comfortable putting me in 
remembrance of my journey whither I am passing. God send us all 
good speed, and a joyful meeting. I have too few such friends to 
further me in that journey, which is indeed the greatest friendship. 
The blessing of God be with you all, Amen. 

"A prisoner in the Lord, L. Saunders." 

The constancy of this faithful servant of Christ, even unto the end, is 
sufficiently manifested and declared by his valiant contest with those 
two powerful enemies, antichrist and death : to neither of these did he 
give place, and finally triumphed over both. When he was in confine- 
ment, an order was sent to the keeper that no person should speak with 
him; but his wife coming to the prison gate with her young child in 
her arms, the keeper, though he durst not, on account of his charge, 
suffer her to come into the prison, yet he took the infant from her, and 
brought him to his father. Mr. Saunders, seeing the child, said, that 
he rejoiced more to have such a boy, than he should if two thousand 
pounds were given him. And to the standers-by, who praised the 
goodliness of the child, he said, "What man,fearing God, would not 
lose his life, rather, than by prolonging it, he should adjudge this boy 
to be a bastard? Yea, if there were no other cause, for which a man 
of my estate should lose his life, yet who would not give it, to vouch 
this child to be legitimate, and our marriage to be lawful and holy?" 

I do, good reader, recite this saying, not only to let thee see what be 
thought of priests' marriage ; but chiefly to let all married couples learn to 
bear in their bosom true affections, unfeignedly mortified to do the natural 
works and offices of married couples, so long as with their doing they may 
keep Christ with a free confessing faith in a conscience unsoiled. 

And now to come to the examination of this good man : after that the 
bishops had kept him one whole year and a quarter in prison, at length 
they called him, as they did the rest of his fellows, openly to be examined. 
Of which first examination the effect and purport thus followeth : 

Praised be our gracious God who preserveth his from evil, and doth give 
them grace to avoid all such offences as might hinder his honour, or hurt 
his church. — Being convented before the queen's most honourable council, 
sundry bishops being present, the lord chancellor began thus to speak : 

Lord Chan. It is not unknown, that you have been a prisoner for such 
abominable heresies and false doctrine as have been sown by you; and 
now it is thought good that mercy be shewed to such as seek for it. 
Wherefore if now you will shew yourself conformable, and come home 
again, mercy is ready. We must say that we have fallen in manner all: 
but now we are risen again, and returned to the catholic church; you 
must rise with us, and come home unto it. Give us forthwith a direct 
answer. 

Saun. My lord, and my lords all, may it please your honours to give 
me leave to answer with deliberation. 

Chan. Leave off your painting and pride of speech: for such is the 



EXAMINATION OF MR. SAUNDERS. 613 

fashion of you all, to please yourselves in your glorious words. Answer 
yes, or no. 

Saun. My lord, it is no time for me now to paint. And as for pride, 
there is no great cause why it should be in me; my learning I confess 
to be but small; and as for riches or worldly wealth, I have none at 
all. Notwithstanding, it standeth me in hand to answer your demand 
circumspectly, considering that one of these two extreme perils is 
likely to fall upon me, namely, the losing of a good conscience or 
the losing of this my body and life. And I tell you truth, I love both 
life and liberty, if I could enjoy them without the hurt of my con- 
science. 

Chan. Conscience! you have none at all, but pride and arrogancy, 
dividing yourself by singularity from the church. 

Saun. The Lord is the knower of all men's consciences. And where 
your lordship layeth to my charge this dividing myself from the church, 
I do assure you that I live in the faith wherein I have been brought up 
since I was fourteen years of age; being taught that the power of the 
bishop of Rome is but usurped, with many other abuses springing 
thereof. Yes, this I have received even at your hands, as a thing 
agreed upon by the catholic church and public authority. 

Chan. But have you received, by consent and authority, all your 
heresies of the blessed sacrament of the altar? 

Saun. My lord, it is less offence to cut off an arm, hand, or joint 
of man, than to cut off the head. For the man may live though he lose 
an arm, hand, or joint; but he cannot without his head. Now you all 
had agreed to cut off the supremacy of the bishop of Rome, whom now 
you will have to be the head of the church again. 

Bonner interposed with a single accusation, by which he hoped to 
render him at once self-confounded. Addressing the chancellor, he ob- 
sequiously said — "And if it please your lordship, I have this man's 
hand-writing against the blessed sacrament." Then turning scornfully 
to Saunders, he asked — " How are you able to answer that?" 

Saun. What I have written, that I have written, and further I will 
not accuse myself. Nothing have you to burden me withal, for break- 
ing of your laws since they were in force. 

Chan. Well, you are obstinate, and refuse liberty. 

Saun. My lord, I may not buy liberty at such a price; but I beseech 
your honours to be means to the queen's majesty for such a pardon for 
us, that we may live and keep our consciences unclogged, and we shall 
live as most obedient subjects. Otherwise, I must say for myself, that 
by God's grace I will abide the utmost extremity that man may do 
against me, rather than act against my conscience. 

Chan. Ah, sirrah, you will live as you like. The Donatists did desire 
to live in singularity; but indeed they were not fit to live on earth: no 
more are you, and that you shall understand within these seven days: 
and therefore away with him. 

Saun. Welcome be it, whatsoever the will of God shall be, either life 
or death. And I tell you truly, I have learned to die. But I exhort 
you to beware of shedding innocent blood. Truly it will cry. The 
Spirit of God rest upon you all. Amen. 



614 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

This examination being ended, the officers led him out of the place, 
and stayed until the rest of his fellow-prisoners were likewise examined, 
that they might have them all together to prison. Mr. Saunders, stand- 
ing among the officers, seeing there a great multitude of people, spoke 
freely, warning them all of that which by their falling from Christ to 
antichrist they deserved; and therefore exhorting them by repentance 
to rise again, and to embrace Christ with stronger faith, to confess him 
to the end, in the defiance of antichrist, sin, death, and the devil: so 
should they retain the Lord's favour and blessing. This faithful pro- 
cedure did not, of course, produce either a diminution of his adversaries' 
cruelty or a delay of his mortal suffering. It rather augmented the one 
and accelerated the other. Almost immediately he was delivered over 
to the secular power, and was brought by the sheriffs of London to the 
compter, a prisoner in his own parish of Bread-street; whereat he re- 
joiced greatly, both because he found there a fellow-prisoner, Mr. Card- 
maker, with whom he had much christian and comfortable discourse; 
and because out of prison, as before out of a pulpit, he might have an 
opportunity of preaching to his parishioners. 

On the fourth day of February, Bonner came to the prison to degrade 
him: which when he had done, Mr. Saunders said to him, " I thank 
God I am none of your church." The day following in the morning, 
the sheriff of London delivered him to certain of the queen's guard, 
which were appointed to carry him to the city of Coventry, there to be 
burned. On his arrival there, a poor shoemaker, who used to serve him, 
came to him, and said, " O my good master, God strengthen and com- 
fort you." " Good shoemaker," replied he, " I desire thee to pray for 
me, for I am the most unfit man for this high office that ever was ap- 
pointed to it : but my gracious God and dear Father is able to make 
me strong enough." The same night he was put into the common gaol 
among other prisoners, where he slept little, but spent the night in 
prayer, and instructing others. 

The next day, being the 8th of February, he was led to the place of 
execution in the park, without the city, clad in an old gown and shirt, 
bare-footed, and oftentimes falling on the ground for prayer. When 
he was come nigh to the place, the officer appointed to see the execution 
done, said to Mr. Saunders, that he was one of them who marred the 
queen's realm with false doctrine and heresy, wherefore he deserved 
death; but yet if he would revoke his heresies, the queen would pardon 
him; if not, yonder fire was prepared for him. To whom Mr. Saunders 
answered, " It is not I, nor my fellow-preachers of God's truth, that 
have hurt the queen's realm; but it is yourself, and such as you are, 
who have always resisted God's holy word; it is you who mar the queen's 
realm. I hold no heresies, but the doctrine of God, the blessed gospel 
of Christ; that hold I, that believe I, that have I taught, and that will 
I never revoke." With that his tormentor cried, " Away with him." 
And away from him went Mr. Saunders, with a cheerful courage, towards 
the fire. He fell to the ground once more and prayed : he rose up again 
and took the stake to which he should be chained in his arms, and kissed 
it, saying, "Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life:" 
and being fastened to the stake, and fire put to him, he sweetly slept in 



EXEMPLARY CONDUCT OF HOOPER. 615 

the Lord. In his life he appeared often prophetic. He had often told 
his friends, that many would suffer, if ever Mary ascended the throne. 

Before we take our final leave of him, one remarkable circumstance 
n reference to an earlier period of his course, merits attention. He was 
acquainted with one Dr. Pendleton, an earnest preacher in king 
Edwards reign. Meeting together in the country, they debated upon 
what they had best do in the dangerous time that Mary's accession had 
brought upon them. Saunders confessed that his spirit was ready, but 
he felt the flesh was at present too weak for much suffering. But 
Pendleton admonished him, and appeared all courage and forwardness 
to face every peril. They both came under the controul of circumstances 
to London, and there, when danger arose, Pendleton shrunk from the 
cross, and Saunders resolutely took it up! "Let him that thinketh to 
stand, take heed lest he fall." 

SECTION II. 

THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OE JOHN HOOPER, EISI10P OF WORCESTER 
AND GLOUCESTER. 

John Hooper, student and graduate in the university of Oxford, 
having made great advances in the study of the sciences, was stirred 
with a fervent desire to the love and knowledge of the scriptures. 
Advancing more and more, by God's grace, in ripeness and spiritual 
understanding, and shewing withal some sparks of his spirit, being then 
about the beginning of the six articles, in the time of king Henry VIII. 
fell quickly into the displeasure and hatred of certain doctors in Oxford, 
who soon discovered their enmity to him, till at length, by the procure- 
ment of Dr. Smith, he was compelled to quit the university. Remov- 
ing from thence, he was retained in the house of Sir Thomas Arundel, 
in the capacity of steward, till Sir Thomas, having intelligence of his 
opinions and religion, which he in no case did favour, and yet exceed- 
ingly favouring the person and character of the man, found the means 
to send him with a message to the bishop of Winchester, writing his 
letter privily to the bishop, by conference of learning to do some good 
unto him, but in any case requiring him to send home his servant to 
him again. The bishop received him courteously; but after long con- 
ference with him, perceiving that neither he could do that good which 
he thought to him, nor that he would take any good at his hand, ac- 
cording to Arundel's request, sent him home again, commending his 
learning and wit, but yet bearing in his breast a secret enmity against 
him. 

Not long after this, as malice is always working mischief, intelli- 
gence was given to Mr. Hooper to provide for himself, for danger was 
arising against him ; whereupon he left Sir Thomas Arundel's house, 
and borrowing a horse of a friend, whose life he had saved, took his 
journey to the sea side to go to France, sending back the horse again 
by one, who indeed did not deliver him to the owner. Mr. Hooper 
being at Paris, remained there not long, but in a short time returned 
into England again, and was retained by Mr. Sentlow, till he was 



616 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

again molested and sought for : when he was compelled under the 
pretence of being captain of a ship going to Ireland, to take to the 
seas, and so escaped through France to the higher parts of Germany ; 
where, commencing acquaintance with learned men, he was by them 
friendly and lovingly entertained, both at Basil and at Zurich : at the 
latter place in particular by Mr. Bullinger. Here he also married, and 
applied very studiously to the study of the Hebrew tongue. 

At length, when God saw it good to end the bloody persecution 
which arose from the six articles, and to give king Edward to reign 
over this realm, with some peace and rest unto the church, amongst 
many other English exiles who then repaired homeward, was Mr, 
Hooper, who thought it his duty to forward the cause of God in his 
native country. Coming to Mr. Bullinger, and other of his acquain- 
tance in Zurich, to give them thanks for their singular kindness towards 
him, his kind host thus addressed him, " Mr. Hooper, although we are 
sorry to part with your company for your own cause, yet much greater 
cause have we to rejoice, both for your sake, and especially for the 
cause of Christ's true religion, that you shall now return out of long 
banishment to your native country, where you may not only enjoy your 
own private liberty, but also the cause and state of Christ's church by 
you may fare the better, as we doubt not but it will. Another cause, 
why we rejoice with you and for you, is this ; that you shall remove not 
only out of exile into liberty, but leave here a barren, sour, and un- 
pleasant country, rude and savage, and shall go into a land flowing 
with milk and honey, replenished with all fertility. But with this our 
rejoicing, one fear and care we have, lest you being absent, and so far 
distant from us, or else coming to such abundance of wealth and felicity, 
in your new welfare and plenty of all things, and in your flourishing 
honours, where you shall come peradventure to be a bishop, and where 
you shall find so many new friends, you will forget us your old acquain- 
tance and well-wishers. If however you shall forget and shake us off, 
yet this persuade yourself, that we will not forget our old friend. And 
if you will please not to forget us, then I pray you let us hear from 
you." 

Mr. Hooper gave Mr. Bullinger and the rest hearty thanks, for 
their singular good-will and undeserved affection, appearing not only 
now, but at all times towards him ; declaring, moreover, that as the 
principal cause of his removing to his country was the matter of reli- 
gion ; so touching the unpleasantness and barrenness of that country o'' 
theirs, there was no cause therein why he could not find in his heart to 
continue his life there, as soon as in any place in the world, and rather 
than in his own native country, if there were nothing else in his con- 
science that moved him to change. And as to the forgetting his old 
friends, although the remembrance of a man's country naturally delights 
him, and he could not deny but God had blessed his country with many 
great advantages ; yet neither the nature of country, nor pleasure of 
advantages, nor newness of friends, should ever induce him to the 
oblivion of such benefactors, to whom he was so entirely bound ; and 
therefore they should be sure from time to time to hear from him. 
But the last news of all I may not be able to write ; " for there," 



KING EDWARD'S LETTER TO HOOPER. 617 

said he, (taking Mr. Bullinger by the hand) " where I shall take most 
pains, there shall you hear of me to be burned to ashes : and that shall 
be news which I shall not be able to write unto you, but you shall hear 
of me from other hands." 

Having thus taken his farewell of Mr. Bullinger, and his friends in 
Zurich, he repaired again into England, in the reign of Edward the 
Sixth; and coming to London, used continually to preach, most times 
twice, and at least once every day. In all his discourses, according to 
his accustomed manner, he corrected sin, and sharply inveighed against 
the iniquity of the world, and corrupt abuses of the church. Nor was 
his example less proper : his life was so pure and good, that no kind of 
slander could fasten any fault upon him. He was of strong body, his 
health whole and sound, his wit very poignant, his invincible patience 
able to sustain whatever adversity could inflict. He was constant of 
judgment, frugal of diet, spare of words, and still more so of time. 
In house-keeping very liberal, and sometimes more free than his living 
would extend unto. 

After he had practised himself in this popular preaching, he was, at 
length, and that not without the great profit of many, called to preach be- 
fore the king, and soon after made bishop of Gloucester by his majesty's 
commands. In that office he continued two years, and behaved himself 
so well, that his very enemies could find no fault in him, except in the 
way in which the foes of Daniel found fault with that holy prophet — 
" concerning the law of his God." After two years he received, in con- 
nection with Gloucester, the bishopric of the neighbouring city of 
Worcester. 

But sinister and unlucky contention concerning the ordering and con- 
secration of bishops, and of their apparel, with other such trifles, began 
to disturb the good beginning of this bishop. For notwithstanding that 
godly reformation of religion that arose in the church of England, 
besides other ceremonies more ambitious than profitable, or tending to 
edification, they used to wear such garments and apparel as the popish 
bishops were wont to do ; first a chymere, and under that a white 
rochet; then a mathematical cap with four angles, indicative of dividing 
the world into four parts. These trifles tending more to superstition 
than otherwise, as he could never abide, so in no wise could he be pfr- 
suaded to wear them. For this cause he made supplication to the 
king, most humbly desiring his highness, either to discharge him of the 
bishopric, or else to dispense with him for such ceremonial orders : which 
petition the king granted immediately, writing to the archbishop in his 
behalf. The king's letter was as follows — " Right reverend father, and 
right trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we, by 
advice of our councils have called and chosen our right well beloved 
Mr. John Hooper, professor of divinity, to be our bishop of Gloucester, 
as well for his great knowledge, deep judgment, and long study in the 
scriptures; as also for his good discretion, ready utterance, and honest 
life ; to the intent that all our loving subjects, which are in his said 
charge and elsewhere, might by his sound and true doctrine learn the 
better their duty towards God, their obedience towards us, and love 
towards their neighbour ; from consecratinc; of whom wc understand 



blS HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

you to stay, because he would have you omit certain rites and ceremonies 
offensive to his conscience, whereby ye think ye should fall under the 
laws — we have thought good, by the advice aforesaid, to dispense and 
discharge you of all manner of dangers, penalties, and forfeitures, you 
shall be liable to run into by omitting any of the same. And these our 
letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge." 

The earl of Warwick seconded this request of his majesty by address- 
ing another letter to the archbishop, begging that he would dispense 
with Mr. Hooper's being burthened by the oath commonly used in the 
consecration of bishops. But these letters availed not : the bishops still 
stood earnestly in defence of the ceremonies, saying, it was but a small 
matter, and that the fault was in the abuse of the things, and not in the 
things themselves : adding, moreover, that Mr. Hooper ought not to be 
so stubborn in so light a matter, and that his wilfulness therein was not 
to be suffered. This being the case, Mr. Hooper at length agreed, that 
sometimes he should in his sermons shew himself apparelled as the other 
bishops were. Accordingly being appointed to preach before the king, 
he appeared in the objectionable habiliments. His upper garment was 
a long scarlet gown down to the foot, and under that a white linen rochet, 
that covered all his shoulders. Upon his head he had a geometrical, that is, a 
four-squared cap. But this private contumely and reproach, in respect of the 
public profit of the church, he suffered patiently. Then also very soon these 
differences vanished amidst the rage of persecution ; and the trifling shades 
of opinion were lost in their unanimity of essential truths ; so that, while 
they were in prison, several affectionate letters passed between them. a 

After this discord, and not a little vexation, about vestures, at length 
Mr. Hooper entering into his diocese, there employed his time, under 
king Edward's reign, with such diligence as may be an example to all 
bishops. So careful was he in his cure, that he left neither pains un- 
taken, nor ways unsought, how to train up the flock of Christ in the 
true word of salvation, continually labouring in the same. Other men 
are commonly wont, for lucre or promotion's sake, to aspire to bishop- 
rics, some hunting for them, and some purchasing them, as men use to 
purchase lordships. To this class of worldly men bishop Hooper was 
quite contrary. He abhorred nothing more than covetousness, labour- 
ing always to save and preserve the souls of his flock. No father in his 
household, no gardener in his garden, nor husbandman in his vineyard, 
was more or better occupied, than he in his diocese amongst his flock, 

a The godly reconciliation of these good men appears by the following extract from bishop 
Ridley's letter to Mr. Hooper : " My dear brother — Forasmuch as I understand by your works, 
which I have yet but superficially seen, that we thoroughly agree and wholly consent together 
in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our religion, against the which 
the world so furiously rageth in these our days, howsoever in time past, in certain bye-matters 
and circumstances of religion, your wisdom and my simplicity (I grant) have a little jarred, each 
of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgment; now, I say, be you assured that 
even with my whole heart, God is my witness, in the bowels of Christ I love you in the truth, 
and for the truth's sake which abideth in us, and as I am persuaded shall by the grace of God 
abide in us for evermore. And because the world, as 1 perceive, brother, ceaseth not to play a 
pageant, and busily conspireth against Christ our Saviour, with all possible force and power 
'exalting high things against the knowledge of God,' let us join hands together in Christ; and, 
if we cannot overthrow, yet to our power, and as much as in us lieth, let us shake those high 
altitudes, not with carnal but with spiritual weapons ; and withal, brother, let us prepare for the 
day of dissolution, by the which, after the short time of this bodily affliction, by the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall triumph together with him in eternal glory." 



EXEMPLARY CONDUCT OF HOOPER. 619 

going about his towns and villages teaching and preaching to the people. 
The time that he had to spare from preaching, he bestowed either in 
hearing public causes, or else in private study, prayer, and in visiting 
schools : with his continual doctrine he adjoined due and discreet cor- 
rection, not so severe to any as to those who, for abundance of riches 
and wealthy state, thought they might do what they pleased. And 
doubtless he spared no kind of people, but was indifferent to all, as well 
rich as poor, to the great shame of many men in these days ; whereof 
we see so many addicted to the pleasing of the great and rich, that in 
the mean time they have no regard to the meaner sort whom Christ 
hath bought as dearly as the other. 

In his personal and private character how virtuous and good he was, 
may be conceived and known evidently by this, that as he was hated by 
none but the evil, the worst of them could not reprove his life in any par- 
ticular. At home, in his domestic concerns, he exhibited an example of a 
worthy prelate's life : bestowing the most part of his care upon the public 
flock and congregation of Christ, for which also he spent his blood ; 
yet there was nothing wanting in him to bring up his own children in 
learning and good manners : insomuch that it is difficult to say, whether 
he deserved more praise for his fatherly usage at home, or his public 
conduct abroad. Every where he kept religion in one uniform doctrine 
and integrity : so that if you entered into the bishop's palace, you would 
suppose yourselves to have entered into some church or temple. In every 
corner there was the beauty of virtue, good example, honest conversation, 
and reading of the holy scriptures. There was not to be seen in his house 
any courtly rioting or idleness ; no pomp, no dishonest word, no swear- 
ing, could there be heard. As to the revenues of his bishoprics, if 
any thing surmounted thereof, he saved nothing, but bestowed it in 
hospitality. Twice I was, as I remember, in his house in Worcester, where, 
in his common hall, I saw a table spread with good store of meat, and beset 
full of beggars and poor folk ; and I asking his servants what this meant, 
they told me that every day their lord and master's manner was, to have to 
dinner a certain number of poor folk of the said city by course, who were 
served by four at a mess, with hot and wholesome meats ; and, when they 
were served, then he himself sat down to dinner, and not before. After this 
sort and manner master Hooper executed the office of a most careful and 
vigilant pastor, by the space of two years and more, so long as the state of 
religion in king Edward's time safely flourished. And would God that all 
other bishops would use the like diligence and care in their function ! 

After this, in the reign of queen Mary, religion being subverted and 
changed, this good bishop was one of the first who was sent for by a 
pursuivant to London. Two reasons were assigned for this step. 
The first, that he might answer to Dr. Heath, then re-appointed bishop 
of that diocese, who was deprived thereof in king Edward's days, 
why he continued in an office to which he had no right? And 
next to render an account to Bonner, bishop of London, because 
he had in king Edward's time been one of his accusers. Now 
although he was not ignorant of the evils that should happen to- 
wards him, being admonished by certain of his friends to get away, and 
shift for himself, yet he would not prevent them, but remained, saying, 



620 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

''Once did I flee, and take me to my feet; but now, because I am 
called to this place and vocation, I am thoroughly persuaded to remain, 
and to live and die with my sheep." On reaching London, before he 
could see Heath or Bonner, he was intercepted, and commanded to 
appear before the queen and her council, to answer certain bonds and 
obligations, wherein he was said to be bound unto her. When he 
met the council, Gardiner received him very opprobriously, railing at 
him, and accusing him of his religion. He freely and boldly answered, 
and cleared himself. But he was, notwithstanding, commanded to ward, 
and it was declared unto him at his departure, that the cause of his impri- 
sonment was only for certain sums of money, for which he was indebted 
to the queen, and not for religion. This, how false and untrue it was, 
shall in its place more plainly appear. Here it is enough to remark 
that at a second summons, such was the noise, that he could not be 
permitted to plead his cause, but was deprived of his bishoprics. 

Before we detail the examinations of Hooper, it will be proper to let 
him relate the cruel captivity he endured for eighteen months in the 
Fleet prison. "The first of September, 1553, 1 was committed unto the 
Fleet, from Richmond, to have the liberty of the prison ; and within 
six days after I paid five pounds sterling to the warden for fees for my 
liberty ; who immediately upon payment thereof, complained unto the 
bishop of Winchester, upon which I was committed to close prison 
a quarter of a year in the Tower-chamber of the Fleet, and used ex- 
tremely ill. By the means of a good gentlewoman, I had liberty to 
come down to dinner and supper, but was not suffered to speak with 
any of my friends ; but as soon as dinner and supper were done, 
to repair to my chamber again. Notwithstanding, whilst I came down 
thus to dinner and supper, the warden and his wife picked quarrels with 
me, and complained untruly of me to their great friend the bishop of 
Winchester. 

"After a quarter of a year, Babington the warden, and his wife, fell 
out with me respecting the wicked mass: and thereupon the warden 
resorted to the bishop of Winchester, and obtained to put me into the 
wards, where I have continued a long time, having nothing appointed 
to me for my bed, but a little pad of straw and a rotten covering, with 
a tick and a few feathers therein, the chamber being vile and stinking, 
until by God's means good people sent me bedding to lie on. On one 
side of the prison is the sink and filth of the house, and on the other 
the town ditch, so that the stench of the house hath infected me with 
sundry diseases. During this time I have been sick, and the doors, bars, 
hasps, and chains being all closed upon me, I have mourned, called, 
and cried for help; but the warden when he hath known me many times 
ready to die, and when the poor men of the wards have called to help 
me, hath commanded the doors to be kept fast, and charged that none ' 
of his men should come at me, saying, ' Let him alone, it were a good 
riddance of him.' And he did this Oct. 18, 1553, as many can witness. 

" I paid always like a baron to the said warden, as well in fees, as for 
my board, which was twenty shillings a week, besides my man's table, 
until I was wrongfully deprived of my bishoprics; and since that time, 
I have paid him as the best gentleman doth in his house ; yet hath he 



SEVERE TREATMENT OF HOOPER. 621 

used me worse, and more vilely, than the veriest slave that ever came 
to the common side of the prison. He hath also imprisoned my man, 
William Downton, and stripped him of his clothes to search for letters, 
and could find none, but a little remembrance of good people's names 
who had given me their alms to relieve me in prison ; and to undo them 
also, the warden delivered the same bill unto Gardiner, God's enemy 
and mine. 

" I have suffered imprisonment almost eighteen months, my goods, liv- 
ings, friends, and comfort taken from me; the queen owing me, by just 
account, fourscore pounds or more. She hath put me in prison, and 
giveth nothing to keep me, neither is there suffered any one to come at 
me, whereby I might have relief. I am by a wicked man and woman 
cruelly treated, so that I see no remedy, saving God's help, but I shall 
be cast away in prison before I come to judgment. But 1 commit my 
just cause to God, whose will be done, whether it be by life or death." 

The first examination of bishop Hooper was before five bishops as com- 
missioners — of London, Durham, Winchester, Chichester, and LandafF. 
On his entering their presence, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord 
chancellor asked whether he was married. To this the good man smil- 
ingly answered, " Yes, my lord, and will not be unmarried till death 
unmarry me. And this is not enough to deprive me, except you do it 
against the law." The subject of marriage was no more talked of 
then for some time : but all began to make great outcries, and laughed, 
and used such gestures as were unseemly for the place, and for 
such a matter. Day, bishop of Chichester, called Hooper a hypo- 
crite, with vehement voice, and scornful countenance. Tonstal, bishop 
of Durham, called him beast; so did Smith, one of the clerks of 
the council, and several others that stood by. At length the bishop of 
Winchester said, that all men might live chaste who would, and brought 
in this text. — " There are those that have become eunuchs for the king- 
dom of heaven." 

To this Hooper said, the text proved not that all men could live 
chaste, but such to whom it was given ; and read the verse before 
it. But again there was a clamour and cry, mocking and scorn- 
ing, calling him beast, and exclaiming that the text could not be ex- 
amined. Then Hooper said, that it appeared by the old canons, that 
marriage was not forbidden unto priests, and then named the decrees. 
But the bishop of Winchester sent for another part, namely, the Clemen- 
tines, or the Extravagants, and perversely, against all reason, determined 
that he should have no other, until he was judged by these. Then began 
such a noise, tumult, and speaking together of a great many who favoured 
not the cause, that nothing was done or spoken orderly or charitably. 
Afterwards, judge Morgan began to rail at Hooper a long time, with 
many opprobrious and foul words relative to his proceedings at Gloucester, 
in punishing of men, and said there was never such a tyrant as he was. 
After that the bishop of Chichester said, that the council of Ancyra, which 
was before the council of Nice, was against the marriage of priests. 

To this Hooper said, my lord of Chichester knoweth, that the great 
council of Nice, by the means of one Paphnutius, decreed, That no 



622 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

minister should be separated from his wife. Again such clamours and 
cries were used, that the council of Nice was not attended to. After 
alternate clamour and silence, and much illiberal speech, Tonstal, bishop 
of Durham, asked him whether he believed the corporeal presence of 
the sacrament. He said plainly, that there was none such, neither did 
he believe any such thing. The offended bishop would then have read 
out of a book; but there was such a noise and confused talk on every 
side, that he did not proceed. Then the bishop of Winchester asked, 
What authority had moved him to deny the corporeal presence ? He 
said, the authority of God's word, and alleged this text, " Whom 
heaven must hold until the latter day." But the bishop of Winchester 
would have made that text to serve nothing for his purpose, and said, he 
might be in heaven, and in the sacrament also. Then Hooper would 
have opened the text, but all who stood about the bishop prevented his 
speaking with clamours and cries, so that he was not permitted to say 
any more against Gardiner. Whereupon they bade the notaries write, 
that he was married, and said that he would not go from his wife ; and 
that he believed not the corporeal presence in the sacrament, for which 
he was worthy to be deprived of his bishopric. 

The next examination of Hooper took place at Winchester house, 
rather more privately than the former, no doubt to prevent much of the 
noise made on that occasion. On the 22nd of January, 1555, Babington, 
the warden of the Fleet, was commanded to bring him before Gardiner 
and some other bishops to Winchester house, in. St. Mary Overy's: 
where the latter moved Hooper earnestly to forsake the evil and corrupt 
doctrine preached in the days of king Edward, to return to the unity 
of the catholic church, and to acknowledge the pope's holiness to be 
head of the same church, according to the determination of the whole 
parliament : promising, likewise, that as they with other their brethren, 
had received the pope's blessing, and the queen's mercy, even so mercy 
was ready to be shewed to him and others, if he would arise with them, 
and condescend to the pope's holiness. 

Master Hooper answered, that forasmuch as the pope taught doctrine 
altogether contrary to the doctrine of Christ, he was not worthy to be 
accounted as a member of Christ's church, much less to be head thereof; 
wherefore he would in no wise condescend to any such usurped jurisdic- 
tion. Neither esteemed he the church, whereof they call him head, to be 
the catholic church of Christ ; for the church only heareth the voice of 
her spouse Christ, and flieth the strangers. " Howbeit," saith he, " if in 
any point to me unknown I have offended the queen's majesty, I shall 
most humbly submit myself to her mercy, if mercy may be had with safety 
of conscience, and without the displeasure of God." Answer was made, 
that the queen would show no mercy to the pope's enemies. Whereupon 
Babington was commanded to carry him to the Fleet again. He did so, 
and shifted him from his former chamber into another, near unto the 
warden's own chamber, where he remained six days ; and, in the mean 
time, his former chamber was searched by Dr. Martin and others, for 
writings and books which master Hooper was thought to have made, 
but none were found. 



CONDEMNATION OF HOOPER AND ROGERS. 623 

One more examination, or rather effort to make Hooper recant, oc- 
curred at the same place, and before the same crafty and cruel inquisitors, 
Jan. 28th, the bishop of Winchester, and other commissioners, again sat 
in judgment at St. Mary Overy's, where Hooper appeared before them 
in the afternoon, and after much reasoning and disputation, was com- 
manded aside, till Mr. Rogers, who was then come, had been examined. 
Examinations ended, the sheriffs were commanded, about four o'clock, to 
carry them to the compter in Southwark, there to remain till the follow- 
ing day at nine o'clock, to see whether they would relent and come 
home again to the catholic church. Hooper went before with one of 
the sheriffs, and Mr. Rogers came after with the other; and being out of 
the church door, Hooper looked back and stayed a little till Mr. Rogers 
drew near, unto whom he said, "Come, brother Rogers, must we two 
take this matter first in hand, and begin to fry these fagots?" "Yes, 
sir," said Mr. Rogers, "by God's grace." "Doubt not," said Hooper, 
" but God will give strength." So going forwards, there was such a 
press of people in the streets, who rejoiced at their constancy, that 
they had much ado to pass. 

By the way the sheriff said to master Hooper, " I wonder that ye were 
so hasty and quick with my lord chancellor, and did use no more patience." 
He answered, " Master sheriff, I was nothing at all impatient, although 
I was earnest in my Master's cause, and it standeth me so in hand, for 
it goeth upon life and death ; not the life and death of this world only, 
but also of the world to come." Then they were committed to the 
keeper of the compter, and appointed to different chambers, with com- 
mand that they should not be suffered to speak one with another, nei- 
ther was any other permitted to come to them that night. 

Upon the day following, January 29th, at the hour appointed, they 
were brought up again by the sheriffs before Gardiner and the commis- 
sioners in the church, where they were the day before. And after long 
and earnest talk, when they perceived that Hooper would by no means 
condescend unto them, they condemned him to be degraded, and read 
unto him his condemnation. That done, Mr. Rogers was brought before 
them, and treated in like manner; and both were delivered to the secular 
power, the two sheriffs of London, who were ordered to carry them to 
the Clink, a prison not far from the bishop of Winchester's house, and 
there to remain till night. When it became dark, Hooper was led by 
one of the sheriffs, with many bills and weapons, through the bishop of 
Winchester's house, and over London-bridge through the city to 
Newgate, and by the way some of the Serjeants were sent before, to put 
out the coster-mongers' candles, who used to sit with lights in the streets; 
either fearing, that the people would have made some attempt to have 
taken him away from them by force, if they had seen him go to that 
prison ; or else, being burdened with an evil conscience, they thought 
darkness to be a most fit season for such a business. But notwithstand- 
ing this device, the people having some fore-knowledge of his coming, 
many of them came forth to their doors with lights, and saluted him, 
praising God for his constancy in the true doctrine which he had taught 
them, and desiring God to strengthen him in the same to the end. The 



624 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

bishop required the people to make their earnest prayers to God for 
him; and so went through Cheapside to the place appointed, and was 
delivered as close prisoner to the keeper of Newgate, where he remained 
six days, nobody being permitted to come to him, saving his keepers, 
and such as should be appointed thereto. 

During this time, Bonner, bishop of London, and others at his ap- 
pointment, as Fecknam, Chedsey, and Harpsfield, resorted several times 
unto him, to try if by any means they could persuade him to relent, 
and become a member of their church. All the ways they could devise, 
they attempted. For, besides the disputations and allegation of testi- 
monies of the scriptures, and of ancient writers wrested to a wrong 
sense, according to their accustomed manner, they used also all out- 
ward gentleness and significations of friendship, with many great pro- 
mises of worldly wealth; not omitting, at the same time, most grievous 
threatenings, if with gentleness they could not prevail; but they found 
him always the same man, steadfast and immoveable. When they per- 
ceived that they could by no means reclaim him to their purpose, with 
such persuasions and offers as they used for his conversion, then went 
they by false rumours and reports of recantations to bring him, and 
the doctrine of Christ which he professed, in discredit with the people. 
This being spread abroad, and believed by some of the weaker sort. 
Hooper was greatly grieved thereat, that the people should give credit 
to such false rumours, having so simple a ground. Hence he was con- 
strained to address the following letter to his fellow protestants. 

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all them who unfeign- 
edly look for the coming of our Saviour Christ. Dear brethren and 
sisters in the Lord, and my fellow-prisoners for the cause of God's gos- 
pel, I do much rejoice and give thanks unto God for your constancy 
and perseverance in affliction, unto whom I wish continuance unto the 
end. And as I do rejoice in your faith and constancy in afflictions that 
be in prison; even so do I mourn and lament to hear of our dear 
brethren that yet have not felt such dangers for God's truth, as we have 
and do feel, and are daily like to suffer more, yea, the very extreme and vile 
death of the fire : yet such is the report abroad, as I am credibly informed, 
that I, John Hooper, a condemned man for the cause of Christ, should 
now after sentence of death, a prisoner in Newgate, and looking daily 
for execution, recant and abjure that which heretofore I have preached. 
And that talk ariseth from this, that the bishop of London, and his 
chaplains resort unto me. Doubtless, if our brethren were as godly as 
I could wish them, they would think, that in case I did refuse to talk 
with him, they might have just occasion to say, that I was unlearned, 
and durst not speak with learned men, or else proud, and disdained to 
speak with them. Therefore to avoid just suspicion of both, I have, 
and do daily speak with them when they come, not doubting but they 
report that I am neither proud nor unlearned. And I would wish all 
men to do as I do in this point. For I fear not their arguments, nei- 
ther is death terrible unto me, praying you to make true report of 



HOOPER'S REMOVAL TO GLOUCESTER. 625 

the same, as occasion shall serve; and that I am more confirmed in the 
truth which I have heretofore preached, by their coming. 

"Therefore, you that may send to the weak brethren, pray them 
that they trouble me not with such reports of recantations as they do. 
For I have hitherto left all things of the world, and suffered great pains 
and imprisonment, and I thank God I am as ready to suffer death as a 
mortal man can be. It were better for them to pray for us, than to 
credit or report such rumours that are untoie. We have enemies enough 
of such as know not God truly ; but yet the false report of weak brethren 
is a double cross. I wish you eternal salvation in Jesus Christ, and also 
require your continual prayers, that he which hath begun in us may con- 
tinue it to the end. I have taught the truth with my tongue, and with my 
pen heretofore; and hereafter shortly shall confirm the same, by God's grace, 
with my blood. Forth of Newgate, Feb. 2, 1555. Your brother in Christ, 

John Hooper." 

Upon Monday following, Bonner, bishop of London, came to Newgate, 
and there degraded bishop Hooper. The same Monday at night, his 
keeper grave Hooper a hint that he should be sent unto Gloucester 
to suffer death, whereat he rejoiced very much, lifting up his eyes and 
hands to heaven, and praising God that he saw it good to send him 
among the people over whom he was pastor, there to confirm with his 
death the truth which he had before taught them: not doubting but the 
Lord would give him strength to perform the same to his glory : and 
immediately he sent to his servant's house for his boots, spurs, and 
cloak, that he might be in readiness to ride when he should be 
called. 

The day following, about four o'clock in the morning, the keeper 
with others came and searched him, and the bed whereon he lay, to see 
if he had written any thing; after which, he was led by the sheriffs of 
London, and their officers, from Newgate to a place appointed, not far 
from St. Dunstan's church in Fleet-street, where six of the queen's 
guard were appointed to receive him to conduct him to Gloucester, 
there to be delivered unto the sheriff, who with the lord Chandos, 
Mr. Wicks, and other commissioners, were appointed to see execution 
done: which guard brought him to the Angel, where he brake his fast 
with them, eating his meat at that time more liberally than he had 
a good while before. About break of day he leaped cheerfully on 
horseback, having a hood upon his head, under his hat, that he should 
not be known, and so took his journey joyfully towards Gloucester; 
and by the way the guard inquired of him, where he was accustomed 
to bait or lodge, but always carried him to another inn than the one 
he named. 

On the Thursday following he came to Cirencester, fifteen miles from 
Gloucester, and there dined at a woman's house who had always hated 
the truth, and spoken all the evil she could of him. This woman, per- 
ceiving the cause of his coming, shewed him all the friendship she 
could, and lamented his case with tears, confessing that she before had 
often reported, that if he were put to the trial, he would not stand to 
his doctrine. After dinner he resumed his journey, and came to Glou- 
cester about five o'clock. At a mile without the town much people 

2 s 



626 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

assembled, who cried and lamented his state; insomuch, that one of the 
guard rode post into the town, to require aid of the mayor and sheriffs, 
fearing lest he should have been taken from them. Accordingly, the 
officers and their retinue repaired to the gate with weapons, and com- 
manded the people to keep their houses; but there was none that gave 
any signification of violence. He was lodged at one Ingram's house 
in Gloucester; and that night, as he had done all the way, he eat his 
meat quietly, and slept soundly, as it was reported by the guard and 
others. After his first sleep, he continued in prayer until morning, 
and all the day, except a little time at his meals, and when conversing 
with such as the guard permitted to speak to him, he spent in prayer. 

Sir Anthony Kingston, formerly Hooper's good friend, was appointed 
by the queen's letters to attend at his execution. As soon as he saw the 
bishop he burst into tears. Hooper did not know him at first; the 
knight therefore addressing him, said, " Why, my lord, do not you know 
me — an old friend of yours, Anthony Kingston?" "Yes," answered 
Hooper, " Sir Anthony Kingston; I do know you well, and am glad to 
see you in health, and praise God for the same." " But I am sorry to 
see you, my lord, in this case," replied Kingston, " for as I understand 
you are come hither to die. But alas! consider that life is sweet, and 
death is bitter. Therefore seeing life may be had, desire to live; for 
life hereafter may do good." " Indeed, it is true, Sir Anthony, I am 
come hither to end this life, and to suffer death here, because I will 
not gainsay the truth that I have heretofore taught amongst you in this 
diocese, and elsewhere; and I thank you for your friendly counsel, although 
it be not as I could wish. True it is that death is bitter, and life is sweet ; 
but the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet." 
After these, and many other words, they took leave of each other, 
Kingston with bitter tears, Hooper with tears also trickling down his 
cheeks. At his departure the bishop told him, that all the trouble he 
had sustained in prison, had not caused him to utter so much sorrow. 
Then the bishop was committed by the guard into the custody of the 
sheriffs of Gloucester. These men, named Jenkins and Bond, with the 
mayor and aldermen, repaired to his lodging, and at the first meeting 
saluted him, and took him by the hand. He was not insensible to their 
apparent kindness, nor unaware of their resolution, notwithstanding, to 
execute the law as it now stood. His remarkable and exemplary address 
to them merits particular attention. 

" I give most hearty thanks to you, and to the rest of your brethren, 
that you have vouchsafed to take me a prisoner and a condemned man, 
by the hand; whereby, to my rejoicing, it is very apparent that your 
old love and friendship towards me is not altogether extinguished : and 
I trust also that all the things I have taught you in times past, are not 
utterly forgotten, when I was your bishop and pastor. For which most 
true and sincere doctrine, because I will not now account it falsehood 
and heresy, as many other men do, I am sent hither, you know, by the 
queen's commands, to die, and am come where I taught it, to confirm it 
with my blood. And now, master sheriffs, I understand by these good 
men, and my good friends, at whose hands I have found as much favour 
and gentleness on the road hither, as a prisoner could reasonably require, 



HOOPER'S CONDUCT BEFORE EXECUTION. 627 

for which I most heartily thank them, that I am committed to your cus- 
tody, as unto those that must see me brought to-morrow to the place 
of execution. My request to you shall be only, that there may be a 
quick fire, shortly to make an end ; and in the mean time I will be as 
obedient to you as yourselves could wish. If you think I do amiss in 
any thing, hold up your finger and I have done. For I am not come 
hither as one forced or compelled to die ; for it is well known, I might 
have had my life with worldly gain ; but as one willing to offer and give 
my life for the truth, rather than consent to the wicked religion of the 
bishop of Rome, received and set forth by the magistrates in Eng- 
land to God's high displeasure and dishonour ; and I trust, by God's 
grace, to-morrow to die a faithful subject to God, and a true obedient 
subject to the queen." 

These words bishop Hooper used to the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, 
whereat many mourned and lamented. Notwithstanding, the two sheriffs 
went aside to consult, and were determined to have lodged him in the 
common gaol of the town, called Northgate, if the guard had not made 
earnest intercession for him ; who declared at large how quietly, mildly, 
and patiently, he had behaved on the w T ay ; adding thereto, that any 
child might keep him w r ell enough, and that they themselves would rather 
take pains to watch with him, than that he should be sent to the common 
prison. It was therefore determined that he should still remain in 
Robert Ingram's house; and the sheriffs, the sergeants, and other officers 
agreed to watch with him that night themselves. His desire was, that 
he might go to bed betime, saying, that he had many things to re- 
member : accordingly he went at five o'clock, and slept one sleep 
soundly, then spent the rest of the night in prayer. After he had got 
up in the morning, he desired that no man should be suffered to come 
into the chamber, that he might be solitary till the hour of execution. 

About eight o'clock came Sir John Bridges, lord Chandos, with a 
great band of men, Sir Anthony Kingston, Sir Edmund Bridges, and 
other commissioners appointed to see the execution. At nine, Hooper 
prepared himself to be in readiness, the time being now at hand. 
Immediately he was brought down from his chamber, by the sheriffs, 
who were accompanied with bills and other weapons. When he saw 
the multitude of weapons, he said to the sheriffs, " I am no traitor, 
neither needed you to have made such a business to bring me to the 
place where I must suffer ; for if you had suffered me, I would have gone 
alone to the stake, and troubled none of you." Afterwards looking 
upon the multitude of people who were assembled, being by estimation 
about 7000, he spake unto those who were about him, saying, "Alas! 
why are these people assembled and come together? Peradventure they 
think to hear something of me now, as they have in times past : but 
alas ! speech is prohibited me. Notwithstanding the cause of my death 
is well known unto them. When I was appointed here to be their pastor, 
I preached unto them true and sincere doctrine, and that out of the 
word of God ; and because I will not now account the same to be heresy 
and untruth, this kind of death is prepared for me." Having said this, 
he went forward, led between the two sheriffs, in a gown of his host's, 
his hat upon his head, and a staff in his hand to rest himself upon ; for 



628 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the pain of the sciatica, which he had taken in prison, caused him some- 
what to halt. All the way, being strictly charged not to speak, he could 
not be perceived once to open his mouth ; but beholding the people, 
who mourned bitterly for him, he would sometimes lift up his eyes to- 
wards heaven, and look very cheerfully upon such as he knew ; and he 
was never known, during the time of his being amongst them, to look 
with so happy and ruddy a countenance as he did then. 

When he came to the place where he should die, he smilingly beheld 
the stake, which was near to the great elm-tree over against the college 
of priests, where he had been wont to preach. The place round about 
the houses, and the boughs of the trees, were filled with spectators : 
and in the chamber over the gate stood the priests of the college. Then he 
kneeled down (forasmuch as he could not be suffered to speak unto the 
people) to prayer, and beckoned six or seven times unto one whom he 
well knew, that he might hear his prayer, and report faithfully the same. 
When this person came to the bishop he poured tears upon his shoulders 
and in his bosom, and continued his prayer for half an hour : which 
prayer was drawn from the whole creed. While at his prayer a box was 
brought and laid before him upon a stool, with his pardon from the 
queen if he would recant. At the sight of this he cried, " If you love 
my soul, away with it." The box being taken away, the lord Chandos 
said, " Seeing there is no remedy, dispatch him quickly." Hooper 
replied, " Good, my lord ; I trust your lordship will give me leave to 
make an end of my prayers." 

When he had risen from his last devotions in this world, he prepared 
himself for the stake, and put off his host's gown, and delivered it to 
the sheriffs, requiring them to see it restored unto the owner, and put off 
the rest of his apparel, unto his doublet and hose, wherein he would 
have burned. But the sheriffs would not permit that, unto whose plea- 
sure he very obediently submitted himself ; and his doublet, hose, and 
waistcoat were taken off. Thus being in his shirt, he took a point 
from his hose himself, and trussed his shirt between his legs, where he 
had a pound of gunpowder in a bladder, and under each arm the like 
quantity delivered him by the guard. So desiring the people to say the 
Lord's Prayer with him, and to pray for him, he went up to the stake; 
when he was at it, three irons made to bind him thereto were brought : 
one for his neck, another for his middle, and the third for his legs. 
But he refusing them, said, " You have no need thus to trouble your- 
selves. I doubt not God will give me strength sufficient to abide the 
extremity of the fire without bands : notwithstanding, suspecting the 
frailty and weakness of the flesh, but having assured confidence in God's 
strength, I am content you do as you shall think good." 

Then the hoop of iron prepared for his middle was brought, which 
being somewhat too short, he shrank and pressed in his body with his 
hand, until it fastened : but when they offered to have bound his neck 
and legs with the other hoops, he refused them, saying, " I am well 
assured I shall not trouble you." Being now ready he looked around on 
all the people, of whom he might be well seen, for he was both tall, and 
stood also upon a high stool, and beheld that in every corner there was 
nothing to be seen but weeping and sorrowful people. Then lifting up 



LINES ON HOOPER'S MARTYRDOM. 629 

his eyes and hands to heaven he prayed in silence. By and by, he that 
was appointed to make the fire came to him and asked him forgiveness. 

He asked why he should forgive him, saying that he never knew any 
offence he had committed against him. " O, sir," said the man, " I 
am appointed to make the fire." " Therein," said Mr. Hooper, " thou 
dost nothing to offend me : God forgive thee thy sins, and do thine office, 
1 pray thee." Then the reeds were cast up, and he receiving two bundles 
of them in his own hands embraced them, and putting one of them 
under each arm, showed with his hand how the rest should be bestowed, 
and pointed to the place where any were wanting. 

Command was now given that the fire should be kindled. But be- 
cause there were not fewer green fagots than two horses could carry, 
it did not kindle speedily, but was some time before it took the reeds 
upon the fagots. At length it burned about him ; but the wind having 
full strength in that place, and it being a lowering cold morning, it 
blew the flame from him, so that he was in a manner little more than 
touched by the fire. Endeavours were then made to increase the flame, 
and then the bladders of gunpowder exploded ; but did him little good, 
being so placed, and the wind having such power. In this fire he 
prayed with a loud voice, " Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me ! Lord 
Jesus, have mercy upon me ! Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !" And these 
were the last words he was heard to utter. Yet he struck his breast 
with his hands, until by the renewing of the fire his strength was gone, 
and his hand stuck fast in striking the iron upon his breast. So imme- 
diately, bowing forwards, he yielded up his spirit. Thus lingering were 
his last sufferings. He was nearly three quarters of an hour or more 
in the fire, as a lamb, patiently bearing the extremity thereof, neither 
moving forwards, backwards, nor to any side ; but he died as quietly 
as a child in his bed ; and he now reigneth as a blessed martyr in the 
joys of heaven, prepared for the faithful in Christ before the founda- 
tion of the world ; for whose constancy all christians are bound to 
praise God. 



A POEM, BY CONRADE GESNER, ON THE MARTYRDOM OF DR. JOHN 
HOOPER, BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER AND WORCESTER. 

Hooper, unvanquish'd by Rome's cruelties, 

Confessing Christ in his last moments, dies : 

Whilst flames his body rack, his soul doth fly, 

Inflam'd with faith, to immortality ! 

His constancy on earth has rais'd his name, 

And gave him entrance at the gates of fame, 

Which neither storms, nor the cold north-wind's blast, 

Nor all-devouring time shall ever waste : 

For he whom God protects shall sure attain 

That happiness, which worldlings seek in vain. 

Example take by him, you who profess 

Christ's holy doctrines ; ne'er the world caress 

In hopes of riches ; or if fortune frown 

With inauspicious looks, be not cast down ; 

For man ne'er saw, nor can his heart conceive, 

What God bestows on them that righteous live. 



630 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



This good bishop and servant of God whose life and martyrdom is now 
declared, being in prison, wrote divers books and treatises, to the number 
of twenty-four. Also divers letters most fruitful and worthy to be read, es- 
pecially in these dangerous times, of those who seek to serve and follow the 
Lord through all the storms of this evil world, as by the perusal of the fol- 
lowing to his godly wife Anne Hooper, you shall better understand. 

" Dearly beloved and godly wife, 

" Our Saviour Jesus Christ in St. Matthew's gospel said to his disciples, 
that it was necessary scandals should come ; and that they could not be 
avoided, he perceived as well by the condition of those that should 
perish and be lost for ever, as also by their affliction they should be 
saved. For he saw the greatest part of the people would contemn and 
neglect whatsoever true doctrine should be shewn unto them, or else 
receive and use it as they thought good to serve their pleasures, without 
any profit to their souls, not caring whether they lived as they were com- 
manded by God's word or not ; but would think it sufficient to be 
counted to have the name of a christian, with such works and fruits of 
its profession as their fathers and elders, after their custom and manner, 
esteem and take to be good fruits and faithful works, without trying 
them by the word of God. These men by the just judgment of God, be 
delivered unto the craft and subtlety of the devil, that they may be kept 
by one scandalous stumbling-block or other never to come unto Christ, 
who came to save those that were lost ; as you may see how God deli- 
vereth wicked men up unto their own lusts, to do one mischief after 
another, careless of coming into a reprobate mind, that forgetteth itself, 
and cannot know what is expedient to be done, or to be left undone, 
because they close their eyes, and will not see the light of God's word 
offered unto them : and being thus blinded, they prefer their own 
vanities before the truth of God's word. Where such corrupt minds, 
be, there are also corrupt notions of God's honour : so that the mind 
taketh falsehood for truth, superstitions for true religion, death for life, 
damnation for salvation, hell for heaven, and persecution of Christ's 
members for God's service and honour. And as such persons voluntarily 
reject the word of God ; so God most justly delivereth them up to 
blindness of mind and hardness of heart, that they cannot understand, 
nor yet consent to any thing that God would have preached, and set forth 
to his glory, after his own will and word ; but they hate it mortally, and of 
all things most detest God's holy word. As the devil hath entered into 
their hearts, that they cannot or will not come to Christ, to be instructed 
by his holy word : even so can they not abide any other person to be a 
christian, and to lead his life after the word of God; but hate him, per- 
secute him, rob him, imprison him, yea and kill him, if God suffer it. 
And so much are these wicked men blinded, that they regard no law, 
whether it be the law of God or man, but persecute such as never 
offended, yea, do evil to those that have prayed daily for them, and 
wish them God's grace. 

" In their blind fury they have no respect to nature. For brother per- 
secuted brother, and father the son : most dear friends in devilish slander 



HOOPER'S LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 631 

and offence become most mortal enemies. And no marvel ; for when 
they have chosen sundry masters, the one the devil, the other God, the 
one shall agree with the former and the other with the latter. For this 
cause Christ said, it is expedient and necessary that scandals should 
come, and many may be advised to keep the babes of Christ from the 
heavenly Father. But Christ saith, Woe be unto him by whom the of- 
fence cometh. Yet is there no remedy, man being of such corruption 
and hatred towards God, but that the evil shall be deceived, and perse- 
cute the good ; and the good shall understand the truth, and suffer per- 
secution for it unto the w r orld's end. For ' as he that was born after 
the flesh, persecuted in times past him that was born after the spirit, 
even so it is now.' Therefore as we live in this life amongst so many 
perils and dangers, we must be well assured by God's word how to bear 
them, and how patiently to take them as they be sent to us from God. 
We must also assure ourselves, that there is no other remedy for chris- 
tians in the time of trouble, than Christ himself hath appointed us. 
In St. Luke he giveth us this commandment, ' Ye shall possess your 
lives in peace.' In which words he giveth us both commandment what 
to do, and also great comfort and consolation in all troubles. 

" That the spirit of man may feel these consolations, the Giver of 
them, the heavenly Father, must be prayed unto for the merits of Christ's 
passion : for it is not the nature of man that can be contented, until it 
be regenerated and possessed with God's Spirit, to bear patiently the 
troubles of the mind or of the body. When the mind and heart of a 
man seeth on every side sorrow and heaviness, and the worldly eye 
beholdeth nothing but such things as be troubles and wholly bent to rob 
the poor of what he hath, and also to take from him his life ; except 
we weigh these brittle and uncertain treasures with the riches of the 
life to come; and this life of the body, with the life in Christ's blood; and 
so for the love and certainty of the heavenly joys contemn all things 
present, doubtless we shall never be able to bear the loss of goods, life, 
or any other thing of this world. 

"Therefore St. Paul giveth a godly and necessary lesson to all in this 
short and transitory life, and therein sheweth how a man may best bear 
the iniquities and troubles of this world. ' If ye be risen again with 
Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right 
hand of God the Father.' Wherefore, the christian's faith must be 
always upon the resurrection of Christ when he is in trouble ; and in 
that glorious resurrection he shall not only see continual and perpetual 
joy and consolation ; but also victory and triumph over all persecution, 
trouble, sin, death, hell, the devil, and other tyrants and persecutors of 
Christ, and of Christ's people, the tears and weeping of the faithful 
dried up, their wounds healed, their bodies made immortal in joy, their 
souls for ever praising the Lord, in conjunction and society everlasting 
with the blessed company of God's elect in perpetual felicity. But the 
words of St. Paul in that place, if they be not marked, shall do little 
profit to the reader or hearer, and give him no peace at all in this im- 
patient and cruel world. 

"When a man hath, by seeking the word of God, found out what the 
things above be, then must he, saith Paul, ' set his affections' on them. And 



632 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

this commandment is more hard than the other. For men's knowledge 
many time seeth the best, and knoweth that there is a life to come, 
better than this life present, yet they set not their affections upon it : 
they more affect and love indeed a trifle of nothing in this that pleaseth 
their hearts, than the treasure of treasures in heaven, which their own judg- 
ment saith is better than all worldly things. Wherefore we must " set our 
affections on the things that be above ;" that is to say, when any thing 
worse than heaven upon the earth offereth itself to be ours, if we will 
give our good wills to it, and love it in our hearts, then ought we to see 
by the judgment of God's word, whether we may have the world with- 
out offence of God, and such things as be for this worldly life without 
his displeasure. If we cannot, St. Paul's commandment must take place 
— ' Set your affections on things that are above.' If the riches of this 
world may not be gotten nor kept by God's law, neither our lives be 
continued without the denial of his honour, we must set our affections 
upon the riches and life that are above, and not upon things that are on 
the earth. Therefore this second commandment of St. Paul requireth, 
that our minds judge heavenly things to be better than things upon the 
earth, and the life to come better than the life present : so we should 
choose them before the other, and prefer them, and have such affection 
to the best, that in no case we set the worst before it, as the most part 
of the world doth and hath done, for they acknowledge the best and 
prove it, and yet follow the worst. 

" But these things, my godly wife, require rather thought, meditation, 
and prayer, than words or talk. They are easy to be spoken of, but not 
so easy to be used and practised. Wherefore seeing they be God's 
gifts, and yet they may become our privileges, we must seek them at our 
heavenly Father's hand, who seeth, and is privy how poor and wretched 
we be, and how naked, how spoiled, and destitute of all his blessed gifts 
we be by reason of sin. He did command, therefore, his disciples, when 
he shewed them that they should take patiently the state of this present 
life full of troubles and persecution, to pray that they might well escape 
those troubles that were to come, and be able to stand before the Son of 
man. When you find yourself too much oppressed — as every one shall 
be sometimes with the fear of God's judgment — use the 77th psalm that 
beginneth, " I will cry unto God with my voice, and he shall hearken 
unto me." In which psalm is both godly doctrine and great consola- 
tion unto the man or woman that is in anguish of mind. 

" Use also in such trouble the 88th psalm, wherein is contained the 
prayer of one that was brought to extreme anguish and misery, and 
being vexed with adversaries and persecutions, saw nothing but death 
and hell. Yet although he felt in himself, that he had not only man, 
but also God angry towards him : yet he by prayer humbly resorted 
unto God. Remember also that none of us must murmur against God, 
but always say his judgments are right and just, and rejoice that it 
pleaseth him by troubles to use us as he used heretofore such as he most 
loved in this world. " Be glad, and rejoice, for your reward is great in 
heaven." His promises shall by his grace, work both consolation and 
patience in afflicted christians. And when our Saviour Christ hath 
willed men in trouble to be content and patient, because God in the end 



HOOPER'S LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 633 

of trouble, in Christ hath ordained eternal consolation ; he useth also to 
take from us all shame and rebuke, and make it an honour to suffer for 
Christ, because the wicked world doth curse and abhor such poor trou- 
bled christians. Wherefore Christ placeth all his honourably, and saith, 
' Even so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.' We 
must therefore patiently suffer, and willingly attend upon God's doings, 
although they seem clean contrary, after our judgment, to our wealth 
and salvation : as Abraham did, when bid to offer his son Isaac, in 
whom God promised the blessing and multiplying of his seed. 

" And judge things indifferently, my good wife, the troubles be not yet 
generally, as they were in our good fathers' time, soon after the death 
and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ, whereof he spake in St. 
Matthew. From which place you and I have taken many times great 
consolation, and especially of the latter part of the chapter, wherein is 
contained the last day and end of all troubles both for you and me, 
and for all such as love the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment. 
Remember, therefore, that place, and mark it again, and you shall in 
this time see this great consolation, and also learn much patience. 
Were there ever such troubles as Christ threatened upon Jerusalem ? 
Was there since the beginning of the world such affliction ? Who were 
then best at ease ? The apostles that suffered in body persecution, and 
gathered of it ease and quietness in the promises of God. And no 
marvel, for Christ saith, " Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at 
hand ;" that is, your eternal rest approacheth and draweth near. The 
world is stark blind, and more foolish than foolishness itself, and so are 
the people of this world : for when God saith, trouble shall come, they 
will have ease. And when God saith, be merry and rejoice in trouble, 
we lament and mourn, as though we were to be cast-away. But this 
our flesh (which is never merry with virtue, nor sorry with vice : never 
laugheth with grace, nor ever weepeth with sin) holdeth fast with the 
world, and letteth God slip. But, my dearly beloved wife, you know 
how to perceive and to beware of the vanity, and crafts of the devil 
well enough in Christ. And that you may the better have patience 
in the Spirit of God, read again the 24th of St. Matthew, and 
mark what difference is between the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
the destruction of the whole world, and you shall see, that then 
there were alive many offenders to repent : but at the latter day 
there shall be absolute judgment and sentence, never to be revoked, 
of eternal life and eternal death upon all men : and yet towards 
the end of the world we have not so much extremity as they had 
then, but even as we are able to bear. So doth the merciful Father 
lay upon us now imprisonment, and I suppose for my part shortly death ; 
now spoil of goods, loss of friends, and the greatest loss of all, the 
knowledge of God's word. His holy will be done. I wish in Christ 
Jesus our only Mediator and Saviour, your constancy and consolation, 
that you may live for ever and ever, whereof in Christ I doubt not ; 
to whom, for his most blessed and painful passion, I commit you, 
Amen. " 

October 13, a.d. 1553. 



634 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

While in prison, Hooper received a letter from his learned and 
pious friend Henry Bullinger, of Zurich. It was well worthy of its au- 
thor and of the spirit of a saint. He exhorted him to bear with firmness 
that awful task to which the Lord had appointed to him, and to look 
beyond his troubles to the crown that awaited him. a One more incident 
amongst other memorable things worthy to be remembered in the history 
of Hooper, is not to be forgotten : it happened a little after the beginning 
of his imprisonment. 

A friar came from France to England with great vaunt, asking who 
was the greatest heretic in England, thinking no doubt to do some great 
act upon him. To whom answer was made, that Dr. Hooper had then 
the greatest name to be the chiefest ringleader, who was then in the 
Fleet. The friar coming to him, asked why he was committed to prison? 
He said for debt. " Nay," said he, " it was for heresy;" which when 
Hooper had denied, " "What sayest thou," quoth he, " to hoc est corpus 
meumV > Hooper, being partly moved at the sudden question, desired 
that he might ask of him another, which was this, " what remains after 
the consecration in the sacrament, any bread or no?" " No bread at 
all," said the friar. "And when you break it, what do you break — 
whether bread or the body?" said Hooper. " No bread," said the friar; 
"but the body only." " If ye do so," said Hooper, "you do great 
injury, not only to the body of Christ, but also to the scriptures, 
which say, Ye shall not break of him one bone." With that the friar 
having nothing to answer, recoiled back, and with circles and crosses 
began to use exorcism as though Hooper had bewitched him ! 

SECTION III. 

THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR, WHO SUFFERED 
FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD, UNDER THE TYRANNY OF THE ROMAN 
BISHOPS, THE 9ni DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1555. 

The town of Hadley was one of the first that received the word of God 
in all England, at the preaching of Thomas Bilney ; by whose industry the 
gospel of Christ had such gracious success, and took such root there, that 
a great number became exceedingly learned in the holy Scriptures, as well 
women as men. Of this parish Dr. Rowland Taylor was vicar, being 
doctor both in the civil and canon laws, and a right perfect divine. In 
addition to eminent learning, his known attachment to the pure prin- 

a " Go forwards," he wrote, " constantly to confess Christ, and to defy Antichrist, being 
mindful of this most holy and most true saying of our Lord Jesus Christ : ' He that overcometh 
shall possess all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.' The first death is soon 
overcome, although a man must burn for the Lord's sake : for they say well that do affirm this 
our fire to be scarcely a shadow of that which is prepared for unbelievers, and them that fall 
from the truth. Moreover, the Lord granteth unto us, that we may easily overcome by his 
power the first death, the which he himself did taste and overcome ; promising withal such joys 
as never shall have end, unspeakable, and passing all understanding, the which we shall possess 
so soon as ever we do depart hence. — Therefore, seeing you have such a large promise, be strong 
in the Lord, fight a good fight, be faithful to the Lord unto the end. I and all my household, 
•with my sons-in-law and kinsmen, are in good health in the Lord. They do all salute you, and 
pray for your constancy ; being sorrowful for you and the rest of the prisoners. If there be any 
thing wherein I may do any pleasure to your wife and children, they shall have me wholly at 
commandment. The Lord Jesus preserve and deliver you from all evil, with all them that call 
upon his name. Farewell, and farewell eternally. You know the hand, II. B." 



ALTERCATION BETWEEN DR. TAYLOR AND FOSTER. 635 

ciples of Christianity recommended him to the favour and friendship of 
Cranmer, with whom he lived, till through his interest he obtained the 
vicarage of Hadley. This charge he attended with the utmost diligence, 
recommending and enforcing the doctrines of the gospel, not only by 
his judicious discourses from the pulpit, but also by the whole tenor of 
his life and conversation. 

Dr. Taylor continued promoting the interest of the great Redeemer, 
and the souls of mankind, both by his preaching and example during 
the reign of king Edward; but on his demise, and on the succession of 
Mary to the throne, he could not escape the cloud that burst on the 
protestant community. Two of his parishioners, Foster an attorney, 
and Clark a tradesman, out of blind zeal, resolved that mass should be 
celebrated in all its superstitious forms, in the parish church at Hadley, 
on the Monday before Easter. They had even caused an altar to be 
built in the chancel for that purpose, which being pulled down by the 
protestant inhabitants, they erected another, and prevailed with the 
minister of an adjacent parish to celebrate mass in the passion-week. 
Taylor being employed in his study, was alarmed by the ringing of 
bells at an unusual time, and went to the church to inquire the cause. 
He found the great doors fast, but lifting up the latch of the chancel 
door, he entered, and was surprised to see a priest in his habit pre- 
pared to celebrate mass, and guarded by a party of men under arms, 
to prevent interruption 

Being vicar of the parish, he demanded of the priest the cause of such 
proceeding without his knowledge or consent; and how he dared pro- 
fane the temple of God with abominable idolatries. Foster, the lawyer, 
insolently replied — " Thou traitor, how darest thou to intercept the exe- 
cution of the queen's orders?" but the doctor undauntedly denied the 
charge of traitor, and asserted his mission as a minister of Christ, and 
delegation to that part of his flock, commanding the priest as a wolf 
in sheep's clothing to depart, nor infect the pure church of God with 
popish idolatry. A violent altercation then ensued, between Foster and 
Dr. Taylor, the former asserting the queen's prerogative, and the other 
the authority of the canon-law, which commanded that no mass be said, 
but at a consecrated altar. Meanwhile the priest, intimidated by the 
intrepid behaviour of the protestant minister, would have departed 
without saying mass, but Clark said to him, " Fear not, you have a 
super altare;" which is a consecrated stone, commonly about a foot 
square, which the popish priests carry instead of an altar, when they 
say mass in gentlemen's houses. Clark then ordered him to proceed 
in his present duty. They then forced the doctor out of the church, 
celebrated mass, and immediately informed the bishop of Winchester of 
his behaviour, who summoned him to appear and answer the complaints 
alleged against him. 

Dr. Taylor upon receipt of the summons cheerfully prepared to obey 
the same: and on some of his friends advising him to fly beyond sea, in 
order to avoid the cruelty of his inveterate enemies, he told them that 
he was determined to go to the bishop; and he accordingly repaired to 
London and waited on him. As soon as Gardiner saw him, according 
to his common custom he reviled him, calling him knave, traitoi, 



636 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

heretic, with many other villanous reproaches, which Taylor, having 
patiently heard for some time, at last answered thus without fear or 
impropriety — " My lord, I am neither traitor nor heretic, but a true 
subject, and a faithful christian, and am come according to your com- 
mandment, to know the cause of your lordship's sending for me." 

"Art thou come, thou villain?" said the violent Gardiner; "how 
darest thou look me in the face for shame ? Knowest thou not who I 
am?" " Yes," said Dr. Taylor, " I know who you are, Dr. Stephen 
Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and lord chancellor, and yet but a 
mortal man. But if I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear 
you not God, the Lord of us all? How dare you for shame look any 
christian in the face, seeing you have forsaken the truth, denied our 
Saviour Christ and his word, and done contrary to your own oath and 
writing? With what countenance will you appear before the judgment 
seat of Christ, and answer to your oath made first unto king Henry, 
and afterwards unto Edward, his son?" 

The bishop answered, "That was Herod's oath, unlawful; and there- 
fore worthy to be broken: I have done well in breaking it; and I thank 
God I am come home again to our mother, the catholic church of Rome, 
and so I would thou shouldest do. Our holy father the pope hath dis- 
charged me of it." Then said Dr. Taylor, " But you shall not be so dis- 
charged before Christ, who doubtless will require it at your hands, as a 
lawful oath made to our liege and sovereign lord the king, from whose 
obedience no man can quit you, neither the pope nor any of his." " I see," 
quoth the bishop, " thou art an arrogant knave and a very fool." " My 
lord," said Dr. Taylor, " I am a Christian man ; and you know that ' he 
that saith to his brother, Raca, is in danger of a council : and he that saith, 
Thou fool, is in danger of hell fire.'" The bishop answered, ''Ye are 
false and liars, all the sort of you." " Nay," quoth Dr. Taylor, "we are 
true men, and know that it is written, ' The mouth that lieth, slayeth the 
soul.' And therefore we abide by God's word, which ye deny and forsake." 

"Thou hast resisted the queen's proceedings," said Gardiner, "and would 
not suffer the parson of Aldham, (a very virtuous and devout priest,) to say 
mass in Hadley." Dr. Taylor answered, " My lord, I am parson of Hadley ; 
and it is against all right, conscience, and laws, that any man should come 
into my charge, and presume to infect the flock committed unto me with 
the venom of the popish idolatrous mass." With that the bishop waxed 
very angry, and said, " Thou art a blasphemous heretic indeed, that blas- 
phemest the blessed sacrament, (and put off his cap,) and speakest against 
the holy mass, which is made a sacrifice for the quick and the dead." 
Dr. Taylor answered, " Nay, I blaspheme not the blessed sacrament which 
Christ instituted, but I reverence it as a Christian man ought to do ; and 
confess that Christ ordained the holy communion in the remembrance of 
his death and passion. — Christ gave himself to die for our redemption upon 
the cross, whose body there offered was the propitiatory sacrifice, full, per- 
fect, and sufficient unto salvation for all them that believe in him. And this 
sacrifice did our Saviour Christ offer in his own person himself once for all, 
neither can any priest any more offer him, nor we need any more sacrifice." 

Then the bishop called his men, and said, " Have this fellow to the King's 
Bench, and charge that he be straitly kept." Then Taylor knelt, and held 



DEGRADATION OF DR. TAYLOR. 637 

up both his hands and said, " Good Lord, I thank thee! and from the 
tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his detestable errors, idolatries, 
and abominations, good Lord deliver us ! and God be praised for good 
king Edward." They carried him to prison to the King's Bench, where 
he was confined almost two years. Of course Gardiner's command for 
strict confinement was obeyed. These several particulars are mentioned 
in a letter that Dr. Taylor wrote to a friend of his, thanking God for 
his grace, at the same time that he had confessed his truth, and was 
found worthy for truth to suffer prison and bonds, beseeching his friends 
to pray for him, that he might persevere constant unto the end. 

In January, 1555, Dr. Taylor, Mr. Bradford, and Mr. Saunders, were 
again called to appear before the bishops of Winchester, Norwich, 
London, Salisbury, and Durham, and being again charged with heresy 
and schism, a determinate answer was required, whether they would 
submit themselves to the Roman bishop, and abjure their errors, or hear 
their condemnation. Dr. Taylor and his fellows answered stoutly and 
boldly, that they would not depart from the truth which they had 
preached in king Edward's days, neither would they submit to the 
Romish Antichrist ; but they thanked God for so great mercy, that he 
would call them to be worthy to suffer for his word. When the bishops 
saw them so boldly, constantly, and unmovably fixed in the truth, they 
read the sentence of death upon them, which when they heard they most 
joyfully gave God thanks, and stoutly said unto the bishops, " We 
doubt not, but God the righteous judge will require our blood at your 
hands ; and the proudest of you all shall repent this receiving again of 
Antichrist, and your tyranny that ye now show against the flock of 
Christ." 

When Dr. Taylor had lain in the Compter in the Poultry about a week, 
on Feb. 4, 1555, bishop Bonner, with others, came to degrade him, bringing 
with them such ornaments as do appertain to their massing-mummery. He 
called for Taylor to be brought unto him; the bishop being then in the 
chamber where the keeper of the Compter and his wife lay. Dr. Taylor 
was accordingly brought down from the chamber to Bonner. " I wish 
you would remember yourself, and turn to your holy mother church, so 
may you do well enough, and I will sue for your pardon," said Bonner. 
Dr. Taylor answered — " I wish that you and your fellows would turn to 
Christ. As for me, I will not turn to antichrist." Said the bishop, " I 
am come to degrade you : wherefore put on these vestures." Dr. Taylor 
said resolutely, " I will not." " Wilt thou not? I shall make thee, ere I 
go," replied Bonner. " You shall not, by the grace of God," said 
Taylor. Again Bonner charged him upon his obedience to do it, but 
he would not. Upon this he ordered another to put them upon his 
back; and being thoroughly furnished therewith, he set his hands to his 
side, walking up and down, and said — " How say you, my lord, am not 
I a goodly fool? How say you, my masters, if I were in Cheapside, 
should I not have boys to laugh at these apish toys and trumpery?" At 
this Bonner was so enraged, that he would have given Dr. Taylor a 
stroke on the breast with his crosier-staff, when his chaplain said — ■" My 
lord, strike him not, for he will certainly strike again." The bishop 



638 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

then laid his curse upon him, but struck him not. Dr. Taylor said, 
" Though you curse me, yet God doth bless me." 

The night after his degradation, his wife, his son, and his servant, 
came to him, and were, by the keepers, permitted to sup with him : at 
their coming, they kneeled down and prayed. After supper, walking 
up and down, he gave God thanks for his grace that had so called him, 
and given him strength to abide by his holy word ; and turning to his 
son he said — " My dear son, Almighty God bless thee, and give thee 
his Holy Spirit, to be a true servant of Christ, to learn his word, and 
constantly to stand by his truth all thy life long : and see that thou fear 
God always. Flee from all sin and wicked living: be virtuous, serve 
God with daily prayer, and apply to the holy book. In any wise see 
that thou be obedient to thy mother, love her and serve her; be ruled 
by her now in thy youth, and follow her good counsel in all things. 
Beware of the lewd company of young men that fear not God, but who 
follow their lusts and vain appetites. Fly from whoredom, and hate all 
filthy living, remembering that I, thy father, die in the defence of holy 
marriage. Another day, when God shall bless thee, love and cherish 
the poor people, and count that thy chief riches is to be rich in alms ; 
and when thy mother is waxed old, forsake her not ; but provide for 
her to thy power, and see that she lack nothing : for so will God bless 
thee, and give thee long life upon earth and prosperity, which I pray 
God to grant thee." And then turning to his wife, he said — 
"My dear wife, continue stedfast in the fear and love of God: keep 
yourself undefined from popish idolatries and superstition. I have been 
unto you a faithful yoke-fellow, and so have you to me, for which I pray 
God to reward you, and doubt not but he will reward it. Now the time 
is come that I shall be taken from you, and you discharged of the wed- 
lock bond towards me : therefore I will give you the counsel which I 
think most expedient for you. You are yet a child-bearing woman, and 
therefore it will be most convenient for you to marry." 

On the following morning the sheriff of London with his officers, 
came by two o'clock, and brought him forth, and without any light led 
him to the Woolpack, an inn without Aldgate. Mrs. Taylor, suspecting 
that her husband would that night be carried away, watched all night 
in St. Botolph's church porch, without Aldgate, having with her two 
children, the one named Elizabeth, an orphan, whom the doctor had 
adopted at three years old; the other named Mary, his own daughter. 
When the sheriff and his company came against St. Botolph's church, 
the grateful little Elizabeth cried — "O my dear father! mother, mother, 
here is my father led away!" "Rowland," said his wife, " where art 
thou?" for it was so dark a morning, that the one could not see the 
other. " Dear wife, I am here," said the doctor, and stopped. The 
sheriff's men would have forced him on; but the sheriff said — " Stay a 
little, I pray you, and let him speak to his wife." 

She then came to him, when he took his daughter Mary in his arms, 
while he, his wife, and Elizabeth, kneeled down and said the Lord's 
prayer. At which sight the sheriff wept much, as did several others of 
the company. The prayer finished, Taylor rose up and kissed his wife, 






DR. TAYLOR'S MEETING WITH HIS WIFE. 639 

and pressing her hand, he said — " Farewell, my dear wife; be of good 
comfort, for I am quiet in my conscience. God shall stir up a father 
for my children." And then he kissed his daughter Mary, and said, " God 
bless thee, and make thee his servant:" and kissing Elizabeth r he said, 
God bless thee. I pray you all, stand strong and stedfast unto Christ and 
his word, and beware of idolatry." Then said his wife unto him, " God 
be with thee, my dear Rowland: I will, with God's grace, meet thee at 
Hadley." 

He was then led on, while his wife followed him. As soon as he 
came to the Woolpack, he was put into a chamber, wherein he was kept 
with four yeomen of the guard, and the sheriff's men. As soon as he 
entered the chamber, he fell on his knees, and gave himself wholly to 
prayer. The sheriff then seeing Mrs. Taylor there, would in no case 
grant her to speak any more with her husband, but gently desired her 
to go to his house, and use it as her own, promising her, that she should 
lack nothing, and sending two officers to conduct her thither. Not- 
withstanding this, she desired to go to her mother's, whither the officers 
led her, and charged her mother to keep her there till they came again. 
Meanwhile the journey to Hadley was delayed. Dr. Taylor was con- 
fined at the Woolpack by the sheriff and his company, till eleven 
o'clock, by which time the sheriff of Essex was ready to receive him; 
when they sat him on horseback within the inn, the gates being shut. 

On coming out of the gates his servant John Hull stood at the rails 
with young Taylor. When the doctor saw them, he called them saying 
— " Come hither, my son Thomas." John Hull lifted the child up, and 
set him on the horse before his father; who then put off his hat, and 
said to the people — " Good people, this is mine own son, begotten in 
lawful matrimony : and God be blessed for lawful matrimony." Then 
he lifted up his eyes towards heaven and prayed for his child, placing 
his hat upon his head. After blessing him, he delivered him to his 
faithful servant, whom he took by the hand and said — " Farewell, John 
Hull, the most faithful servant ever man had." After this they rode 
forth, the sheriff of Essex, and four yeomen of the guard, and the sheriff's 
men leading them. 

When they were come almost to Brentwood, one Arthur Faysie, a man 
of Hadley, who formerly had been Dr. Taylor's servant, met with them, 
and he, supposing him to have been at liberty, said — " Master, I am 
glad to see you again at liberty," and took him by the hand. " Sir," 
returned the sheriff, "he is a prisoner; what hast thou to do with him?" 
" I cry your mercy," said Arthur, " I knew not so much, and I thought 
it no offence to talk to a true man." The sheriff was very angry with 
this, and threatened to carry Arthur with him to prison ; notwithstanding 
he bid him get quickly away. And so they rode forth to Brentwood, 
where they caused to be made for Dr. Taylor a close hood. This they 
did, that no man should know him, nor he to speak to any man ; which 
practice they used also with others. 

All the way, Dr. Taylor was joyful and merry, as one that accounted 
himself going to a most pleasant banquet or bridal. He spake many 
notable things to the sheriff and yeomen of the guard that conducted him, 
and often moved them to weep through his much earnest calling upon 



640 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

them to repent, and turn to the true religion. Of these yeomen of the 
guard three used him very tenderly, but the fourth, named Holmes, 
treated him most unkindly. The party supped and slept at Chelmsford. 
At supper the sheriff earnestly besought him to return to the popish 
religion, thinking with fair words to persuade him, and said — " Good 
Doctor, we are sorry for you, considering the loss of such a man as 
you. You would do much better to revoke your opinions, and return 
to the catholic church of Rome, acknowledge the pope's holiness to be 
the supreme head of the church, and reconcile yourselves to him. You 
may do well yet if you will : doubt not but you shall find favour at the 
queen's hands. I and all these your friends will be suitors for your 
pardon; this council I give you, Doctor, of a good heart and will to- 
wards you : and therefore I drink to you." In this joined all the rest. 

When the cup was handed to him, he staid a little, as one studying 
what answer he might give. At last he said — " Mr. Sheriff, and my 
masters all, I heartily thank you for your good will ; I have attended 
to your words, and marked well your counsels. And to be plain with 
you, I find that I have been deceived myself, and am like to deceive 
a great many of Hadley of their expectation." With that word they 
all rejoiced. "Yes, Doctor," said the sheriff, "God's blessing on 
your heart; hold you there still. It is the most comfortable word we 
have heard you speak yet." The cheerful man then explained himself, 
" I will tell you how I have been deceived, and, as I think, I shall 
deceive a great many. I am, as you see, a man of a very large body, 
which I thought should have been buried in Hadley church-yard, had I 
died as I hoped I should have done ; but herein I was deceived ; and 
there are a great number of worms in Hadley church yard, which would 
have had merry feeding upon me ; but now I know we shall be deceived, 
both I and they ; for this carcass must be burned to ashes, and they 
shall lose their feast." When the sheriff and his company heard him say 
so, they were amazed, and looking one on another, marvelled at his con- 
stant mind, that thus without fear he could speak of the torment and 
death now prepared for him. 

At Chelmsford he was delivered to the sheriff of Suffolk, and by him 
conducted to Hadley. On their arrival at Lavenham, the sheriff staid 
there two days ; and thither came to him a great number of gentlemen 
and justices, who were appointed to aid him. These endeavoured very 
much to reduce the Doctor to the Romish religion, promising him his 
pardon, which they said they had for him. They also promised him 
great promotions, even a bishopric if he would take it: but all their 
labour and flattery were in vain. 

When they came to Hadley, and were passing the bridge, there waited 
a poor man with five children ; who when they saw Dr. Taylor, fell 
down upon their knees, and holding up their hands, cried with a loud 
voice — " O dear father and good shepherd ! God help and succour thee 
as thou hast many a time succoured us !" Such witness had the ser- 
vant of God of his virtuous and charitable life. The streets of Hadley 
were crowded with men and women of the town and country, who waited 
to see him ; and in beholding him led to death, with weeping eyes and 
lamenting voices they cried one to another— " Ah, good Lord! there 



BURNING OF DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR. 641 

goeth our good shepherd from us, who so faithfully hath taught us, so 
fatherly hath cared for us, aud so godly hath governed us ! Good Lord, 
strengthen and comfort him." Arriving over against the alms-houses, which 
he well knew, he cast money to the poor people, that remained out of what 
had been given him in the time of his imprisonment. His living of Hadley 
they took from him at his first going to prison, so that he was sustained 
by the charitable alms of good people that visited him. 

At the last, coming to Aldham-common, and seeing a great multitude, 
he asked, " What place is this, and what meaneth it that so much people 
are gathered hither?" It was answered, " It is Aldham-common, the place 
where you must suffer ; and the people are come to behold you." Then 
said he, "Thanked be God, I am even at home;" and so alighted from 
his horse ; and with both his hands rent the hood from his head. When the 
people saw him, they cried, " God save thee, good Dr. Taylor ! Jesus 
Christ strengthen thee and help thee; the Holy Ghost comfort thee :" with 
such other like godly wishes. Then desired Dr. Taylor license of the 
sheriff to speak ; but he denied it him. Perceiving that he could not be 
suffered to speak, he sat down, and seeing one named Soyce, he called 
him, and said — " Soyce, I pray thee come and pull off my boots, and 
take them for thy labour : thou hast long looked for them, now take 
them." Then he rose up and put off his clothes unto his shirt, and 
gave them away. Which done, he said with a loud voice — " Good 
people, I have taught you nothing but God's holy word, and those les- 
sons that I have taken out of God's blessed book, the Holy Bible: and 
I am come hither this day, to seal it with my blood." 

On hearing his voice, the yeoman of the guard who had used him cruelly 
all the way, gave him a great stroke upon the head and said — " Is that 
keeping thy promise, thou heretic?" Then seeing they would not permit 
him to speak, he kneeled down and prayed, and a poor woman who was 
among the people stepped in and prayed with him : they endeavoured 
to thrust her away, and threatened to tread her down with their 
horses : notwithstanding this she would not remove, but abode and 
prayed with him. When he had finished his devotions, he went to 
the stake and kissed it, and set himself into a pitch barrel, which 
they had brought for him to stand in, and thus stood with his 
back upright against the stake, with his hands folded together, and 
his eyes towards heaven, and continually prayed. Then they bound 
a chain around him, and the sheriff called Richard Donningham, a 
butcher, and commanded him to setup the fagots; but the man refused, 
and said — " I am lame, sir, and not able to lift a fagot." The sheriff* 
on this threatened to send him to prison ; still he would not do it. The 
sheriff then compelled several worthless fellows of the multitude to set 
up the fagots and make the fire, which they most diligently did : and 
one of them cruelly cast a fagot at the martyr, which struck him on 
the face, and the blood ran down. He meekly said — " O friend, I 
have suffering enough, what needed that?" 

Sir John Shelton standing by, as Dr. Taylor was speaking, and say- 
ing the psalm Miserere in English, struck him on the lips — " You knave," 
he said, "speak Latin, or I will make thee." At last they kindled 
the fire ; when the martyr, holding up his hands, called upon God, and 

2 T 



642 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

said, " Merciful Father of heaven, for Jesus Christ my Saviour's sake, 
receive my soul into thy hands." He then remained still without either 
crying or moving, with his hands folded together, till Soyce with an hal- 
berd struck him on the head so violently, that his brains fell out, and 
the dead corpse fell down into the fire. Thus rendered he his soul 
into the hands of his merciful Father, and to his most dear and certain 
Saviour Jesus Christ, whom he most entirely loved, faithfully and 
earnestly preached, obediently followed in living, and constantly glorified 
in death. 

These severities were very hateful to the nation. It was observed 
that in king Edward's time, those that opposed the laws were only 
turned out of their benefices, and some few of them were imprisoned ; 
but now men were put in prison on trifling pretences, and kept .there till 
laws were made, by which they were condemned merely for their opinions, 
when they had acted nothing contrary to law. One piece of cruelty was 
remarkable — when the council sent away those who were to be burnt in 
the country, they threatened to cut out their tongues if they would not 
promise to make no speeches to the people ; to which they, to avoid 
that butchery, consented. Those who loved the reformation were now 
possessed with great aversion to the popish party, and the body of the 
nation now detested this cruelty, and began to hate king Philip for it. 
Gardiner and the other counsellors had openly said, that the queen set 
them on to it, so that the blame of it was laid on the king, the sourness 
of whose temper, together with his bigotry in matters of religion, made 
it seem reasonable. He finding that this was likely to raise such pre- 
judices against him as might probably spoil his design of making himself 
master of England, took care to vindicate himself. Accordingly his con- 
fessor, Alphonsus, a Franciscan, preached a sermon at court against 
taking people's lives for opinions in religion ; and inveighed against the 
bishops for doing it; thus the blame of it was turned back on them, and 
this made them stop for some weeks ; but at last they resolved rather to 
bear it avowedly, than not advance in their favourite career of blood ! 

At this time a petition was printed beyond sea, by which the reformers 
addressed themselves to the queen : they set before her the danger of 
being carried by a blind zeal to destroy the members of Christ, as St. 
Paul had done before his conversion : they reminded her of Cranmer's 
interposing to preserve her life in her father's time : they cited many 
passages out of the books of Gardiner, Bonner, and Tonstal, by which 
she might see that they were not actuated by true principles of conscience, 
but were turned as their fears or interests led them. They shewed her 
how contrary persecution was to the spirit of the gospel ; that Christians 
tolerated Jews ; and that Turks, notwithstanding the barbarity of their 
tempers, and the cruelty of their religion, yet tolerated Christians. 
They reminded her, that the first law for burning in England was 
made by Henry the IV. as a reward to the bishops who had helped him 
to depose Richard the II. and so to mount the throne. They repre- 
sented to her, that God had trusted her with the sword, which she ought 
to employ for the protection of her people, and not to abandon them to 
the cruelty of wolves. The petition also appealed to the nobility and 
the rest of the nation, on the dangers of a Spanish yoke, and a bloody 



CRUELTIES OF BONNER. 643 

inquisition set before them. Upon this the popish authors wrote several 
books in justification of those proceedings. They observed that the 
Jews were commanded to put blasphemers to death ; and said, the 
heretics blasphemed the body of Christ, and called it only a piece of 
bread. Various other pleas were set up, and the nation had bitter 
experience in the coming years of the vigilance and industry with 
which they were acted upon. 



SECTION IV. 

AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL PROTESTANTS, WHO WERE PERSECUTED, TOR- 
MENTED, AND MOST OF THEM BURNED, UNDER THE TYRANNY OF 
BONNER, BISHOP OF LONDON. 

Stephen Gardiner, having condemned and burned several great and 
learned men, presumed that these examples would deter all in future 
from opposing the popish religion : but in this he found himself deceived, 
for within eight or nine days after sentence had passed against bishop 
Hooper and others, six other christians were brought to be examined for 
the same cause. Gardiner seeing this, became discouraged, and from 
that day meddled no more in such kind of condemnations ; but referred 
the whole of this cruel business to the more sanguinary Bonner, bishop 
of London ; who called before him in his consistory at St. Paul's (the lord 
mayor and several aldermen sitting with him) the six persons, upon the 
8th of February, and on the next day read the sentence of condemna- 
tion upon them. But as their death did not take, place till the next 
month, we will defer the account till we come to the time of their suf- 
fering, and proceed with other incidents of this bloody reign. What 
occasioned their execution to be delayed even a month, cannot with 
certainty be declared ; conjecture, however, reasonably ascribes it to 
the lenient sermon of Alphonsus, the king's confessor : for, added to 
the discourse already mentioned, he preached other sermons of the same 
kind, in which he pleaded the cause of reasoning to convert heretics, 
rather than burning to destroy them. 

Dr. Robert Farrar, bishop of St. David's, was about this time appre- 
hended, and sent to his diocese, where, as we shall soon perceive, he 
suffered the usual cruel death. Some trifling disturbances in London 
were made a pretext for arresting and imprisoning other protestants. 

The lord chancellor caused the image of Thomas a. Becket to be set up 
over the Mercers' chapel door, in Cheapside,in the form and shape of a 
bishop, with mitre and cross, but within two days after its erection, its 
head was taken off; whereupon arose great trouble, and many were 
suspected : among whom one Mr. John Barnes, mercer, dwelling over 
against the chapel, was vehemently by the lord chancellor charged as 
the offender, and the rather as he was a professor of the truth. Where- 
fore he and three of his servants were committed to prison : and at his 
delivery, although nothing could be proved against him, he was bound 
in a great sum of money, as well to build it up again so often as it 
should be broke down, as also to watch and keep the same. Therefore 



644 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the image was again set up; but in a few days the head was again 
broken off; which offence was so heinously taken, that the next day, 
there was a proclamation that whoever would discover the perpetrator, 
should not only have his pardon, but also one hundred crowns of gold, 
with hearty thanks. But it was never known who did it. 

Queen Mary at length, after long delay, made full answer to the king 
of Denmark, who had written two letters to her in the behalf of Mr. 
Coverdale, for his deliverance, who at that time went under sureties, and 
was in great danger, had he not been rescued by the suit and letters of 
the Danish monarch. An intimation was set forth in February 1555, in the. 
name of bishop Bonner, wherein was contained a general monition, and 
strict charge given to every man and woman within his diocese, to pre- 
pare themselves against the approaching Lent, to receive the glad tidings 
of peace and reconciliation sent from pope Julius III. by Pole his car- 
dinal and legate. 

Judge Hales, of Kent, was now brought before the lord chancellor, 
and examined respecting his having resisted the ceremony of the mass, 
or rather for having acted according to his duty as a justice, and as 
the law then stood, when several Romish priests had been indicted and 
brought before him. Not giving satisfactory answers to the chancellor, 
he was committed to prison. "While there he was waited upon by 
Dr. Day and judge Portman, who by some means so worked upon his 
mind that he was filled with despair; and after in vain attempting to 
destroy himself by a penknife, he found means of drowning himself in 
a shallow river. This unhappy gentleman had, at the death of king 
Edward, stood firmly in defence of Mary's claim and title to the crown. 
But this service was found insufficient to protect him from the perse- 
cuting rage of the Roman catholic bishops and priests. 

Mention was made before of six prisoners brought before Bonner the 8th 
of February, whose names were Tomkins, Pygot, Knight, Haukes, Law- 
rence, and Hunter. Thomas Tomkins, a weaver by occupation, and an 
honest Christian, dwelling in Shoreditch, was kept in prison six months, 
and treated with the utmost cruelty. Bonner's rage was so great against 
him that he beat him about the face, and plucked off a piece of his beard 
with his own hands : yet was Tomkins so endued with God's mighty 
Spirit, and so constantly planted in the perfect knowledge of God's truth, 
that by no means could he be removed therefrom. Whereupon the bishop, 
being greatly vexed, devised another practice not so strange as cruel, fur- 
ther to try his constancy. So being at his palace at Fulham, and having 
with him Dr. Chedsey, masters Harpsfield, Pembleton, Willerton, and 
others standing by, he called for Tomkins; who coming before the bishop, 
and standing as he was wont in defence of his faith, Bonner fell from 
beating to burning. For, having a taper or wax candle of three or four 
wicks standing upon the table, he took Tomkins by the fingers, and held 
his hand directly over the flame, supposing that by the smart and pain of 
the fire being terrified, he would leave off the defence of his doctrine which 
he had received. Tomkins, thinking that he was there presently to die, 
began to commend himself unto the Lord, saying, " O Lord, into thy hands 
I commend my spirit," etc. His hand being in burning, Tomkins afterwards 
reported to one James Hinse, that his spirit was so rapt that he felt no 



FIRST EXAMINATION OF TOMKINS. 645 

pain. In the burning he never shrunk, till the veins shrunk, and the 
sinews burst, and the water spurted in Mr. Harpsfield's face: insomuch 
that he, moved with pity, desired the bishop to stay, saying, that he had 
tried him enough. 

When he had been half a year in prison, he was brought with several 
others before bishop Bonner in his consistory, to be examined. Against 
him first was brought forth a certain bill or schedule subscribed with 
his own hand, the fifth day of the same month, containing these words 
following — "Thomas Tomkins of Shoreditch, and of the diocese of 
London, hath believed and doth believe, that in the sacrament of the 
altar, under the forms of bread and wine, there is not the very body 
and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ in substance, but only a token 
and remembrance thereof, the very body and blood of Christ being only 
in heaven and no where else. By me, Thomas Tomkins." 

On this being read he was asked, whether he did acknowledge the 
same subscription to be of his own hand. He granted it so to be. The 
bishop then went about to persuade him with fair words, rather than 
with good reasons, to relinquish his opinions, and to return to the unity 
of the catholic church, promising if he would do so to remit all that 
was past. But he constantly refused. When the bishop saw he could 
not convince him, he brought forth and read to him another writing, 
containing articles and interrogatories, whereunto he should come the 
next day and answer: in the mean time he should deliberate with him- 
self what to do : and then either to revoke and reclaim himself, or else 
in the afternoon of the same day to come again and have justice ad- 
ministered unto him. The copy of the articles is as follows. 

" Thou dost believe, that in the sacrament of the altar, under the forms 
of bread and wine, there is not by the omnipotent power of Almighty 
God, and his holy word, really, truly, and in very deed, the very true 
and natural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as touching the sub- 
stance thereof, which was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, 
and hanged upon the cross, suffering death there for the life of the 
world. 

" Thou dost believe, that after the consecration of the bread and wine 
prepared for the use of the sacrament of the altar, there doth remain 
the substance of material bread and material wine, not changed noi 
altered in substance by the power of Almighty God, but remaining as 
it did before. 

"Thou dost believe, that it is an untrue doctrine, and a false belief, 
to think or say, that in the sacrament of the altar there is, after conse- 
cration of the bread and wine, the substance of Christ's natural body 
and blood, by the omnipotent power of Almighty God, and his holy 
word. 

" Thou dost believe that thy parents, kinsfolks, friends, and acquaint- 
ance, and also thy godfathers and godmothers, and all people did err, 
and were deceived, if they did believe, that in the sacrament of the 
altar there was, after consecration, the body and blood of Christ, 
and that there did not remain the substance of material bread and 
wine." 

To these several articles Tomkins declared his free and full consent; 



646 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM 

acknowledging after each ; that what he was charged with believing he 
did believe. 

The next day, Tomkins was again brought before the bishop and his 
assistants, where the articles were again propounded unto him : where- 
unto he answered in substance as he had done before, avowing at the 
same time his belief in the scriptures, and his persuasion that popery 
was opposed to them. After this answer he also subscribed his name 
to what he had declared. Whereupon, the bishop drawing out of his 
bosom another confession subscribed with Tomkins' hand, and also the 
article that was the first day objected against him, caused the same to 
be openly read, and then willed him to revoke and deny his opinions, 
which he utterly refused to do : therefore he was commanded to appear 
before the bishops again in the same place at two in the afternoon. 
Agreeably with this mandate, being brought before the bloody tribunal 
of bishops, and pressed to recant his errors and return to the mother- 
church ; he maintained his fidelity, nor would swerve in the least from 
the articles he had signed. Having therefore declared him an obstinate 
and damnable heretic, they delivered him up to the secular power, and 
he was burned in Smithfield, March 6th, 1555, triumphing in the midst 
of the flames, and adding to the noble company of martyrs, who had 
preceded him through the path of the fiery trial to the realms of im- 
mortal glory. 

The second of this noble band of intrepid saints was an apprentice 
of only nineteen years of age. His name was William Hunter. He 
had been trained to the doctrine of the reformation from his earliest 
youth, being descended from religious parents, who carefully instructed 
him in the principles of true religion. 

When queen Mary succeeded to the crown, orders were issued to the 
priests of every parish, to summon all their parishioners to receive the 
communion at mass, the Easter after her accession; and Hunter, re- 
fusing to obey the summons, was threatened to be brought before the 
bishop. His master, fearful of incurring ecclesiastical censure, desired 
him to leave him for a time; upon which he quitted his service, went 
down to Brentwood, and resided with his father about six weeks. One 
day, finding the chapel open, he entered and began to read in the 
English bible, which lay upon the desk, but was severely reprimanded 
by an officer of the bishop's court, who said to him — " William, why 
meddlest thou with the bible? Understandest thou what thou readest? 
Canst thou expound scripture?" He replied — " I presume not to ex- 
pound scripture; but finding the bible here, I read for my comfort and 
edification." 

The officer then informed a neighbouring priest of the liberty the 
young man had taken in reading the bible; the priest therefore severely 
chid him, saying — " Sirrah, who gave thee leave to read the bible and 
expound it?" To this fierce rebuke he answered as he had done to the 
officer; and on the priest's telling him, that it became him not to meddle 
with the scriptures, he frankly declared his resolution to read them as 
long as he lived, as well as reproved the vicar for discouraging persons 
from that practice, which the scripture so strongly enjoined. On this 
the priest upbraided him as a heretic: he denied the charge, and being 



EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM HUNTER. 64? 

asked his opinion concerning 1 the corporeal presence in the sacrament 
of the altar, he replied, that he esteemed the bread and wine but as 
figures, and looked upon the sacrament as an institution in remembrance 
of the death and sufferings of oar blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
He was then openly declared a heretic, for not believing in the sacra- 
ment of the altar, and the vicar threatened to complain of him to the 
bishop. 

A neighbouring justice, named Brown, having heard that he main- 
tained heretical principles, sent for his father and enquired of him 
concerning his son; the old man assured him that he had left him, that 
he knew not whither he was gone: and on the justice threatening to 
imprison him, he said with tears in his eyes — " Would you have me seek 
out my son to be burned?" The old man, however, was obliged to seek 
him; and by accident meeting him, with tears said, that it was by 
command of the justice who threatened to imprison him. The son, to 
prevent his father incurring danger, said that he was ready to ac- 
company him home; on which they returned together. The following 
day, he was taken and kept in the stocks four and twenty hours ; and 
then brought before the justice, who called for a bible, and turning to 
the sixth chapter of St. John, desired his opinion of the meaning of it, 
as it related to the sacrament of the altar. He fearlessly gave the same 
explanation as he had done to the priest, persisting in his denial of the 
corporeal presence: the justice upbraided him with damnable heresy, 
and wrote to the bishop of London, to whom this valiant young martyr 
was soon conducted. 

After Bonner had read the letter, he caused William to be brought 
into a chamber, where he began to reason with him in this manner — " I 
understand, William Hunter, by Mr. Brown's letter, that you have had 
communication with the vicar of Welde, about the blessed sacrament of 
the altar, and that you could not agree; whereupon Mr. Brown sent for 
you to bring you to the catholic faith, from which, he saith, you have 
departed. Howbeit, if you will be ruled by me, you shall have no harm 
for any thing said or done in this matter." To this William answered — 
"lam not fallen from the catholic faith of Christ, I am sure; but do 
believe it, and confess it with all my heart." 

Said the bishop — " How sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the 
altar? Wilt thou not recant thy saying before Mr. Brown, that Christ's 
body is not in the sacrament of the altar, the same that was born of the 
Virgin Mary?" No way daunted, William said — "My lord, I under- 
stand that Mr. Brown hath certified you of the talk which he and I had 
together, and thereby you know what I said to him, which I will not 
recant by God's help." Then said the bishop, " I think thou art 
ashamed to bear a fagot, and recant openly ; but if thou wilt recant 
privately, I will promise that thou shalt not be put to open shame : even 
speak the word here now between me and thee, and I will promise it 
shall go no further, and thou shalt go home again without any hurt." 
To this cunning, William replied — " My lord, if you let me alone, and 
leave me to my conscience, I will go to my father and dwell with him, 
or else with my master again, and if nobody disquiet nor trouble m\ 
conscience, I will keep my conscience to myself." 



648 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Then said the bishop, " I am content, so that thou wilt go to the church, 
and receive, and be shriven ; and so continue a good catholic Christian." 
" No," quoth William, " I will not do so for all the good in the world." 
" Then," quoth the bishop, " if you will not do so, I will make you sure 
enough, I warrant you." " Well," replied William, " you can do no more 
than God will permit you." " Wilt thou not recant by any means ?" said 
the bishop. " No," quoth William, " never while I live, God willing ! " 

Then the bishop commanded his men to put William in the stocks in 
his gatehouse, where he sat two days and two nights, only with a crust of 
bread and a cup of water. At the two days' end the bishop came, and 
finding the crust and the water still by him, said to his men, "Take him 
out of the stocks, and let him break his fast with you." After breakfast, 
Bonner sent for William, and demanded whether he would recant or no. 
But he made answer, how that he would never recant as concerning his 
faith in Christ. Then the bishop said that he was no Christian ; but he 
denied the faith in which he was baptized. But William answered, "I 
was baptized in the faith of the Holy Trinity, which I will not go from, 
God assisting me with his grace." Then the bishop sent him to the con- 
vict prison, and commanded the keeper to lay irons upon him, as many as 
he could bear; and moreover asked him how old he was. William said 
that he was nineteen years old. " Well," said the bishop, " you will be 
burned ere you be twenty years old, if you will not yield yourself better 
than you have done yet." William answered, " God strengthen me in his 
truth." And then he parted, the bishop allowing him a halfpenny a day 
to live on, in bread or drink. Thus he continued in prison three quarters 
of a year : in the which time he was before the bishop five times, besides 
when he was condemned in the consistory in St. Paul's, the 9th day of 
February ; at the which his brother, Robert Hunter, (who continued with 
his brother William till his death, and sent the true report unto us,) was 
present, and heard the bishop condemn him and the five others. 

At one time the bishop, calling for Hunter, asked him if he would recant, 
saying, " If thou wilt yet recant, I will make thee a freeman in the city, 
and give thee forty pounds in good money to set up thine occupation 
withal ; or I will make thee steward of my house, and set thee in office ; for I 
like thee well, thou hast wit enough, and I will prefer thee if thou recant." 
But William answered, " I thank you for your great offers : notwithstand- 
ing, my lord, if you cannot persuade my conscience with Scriptures, I 
cannot find in my heart to turn from God for the love of the world ; for 
I count all things worldly, but loss and dung, in respect of the love of 
Christ." Then said the bishop, " If thou diest in this mind, thou art con- 
demned for ever." William answered, " God judgeth righteously, and 
justifieth them whom man condemneth unjustly." 

Then the bishop departed, and William and the other prisoners returned 
to Newgate. About a month after, Hunter was sent to Brentwood, on 
the Saturday before the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary that followed 
on the Monday after ; he therefore remained till the Tuesday, because they 
would not put him to death then, for the holiness of the day. In the 
mean time William's father and mother came to him, and desired heartily 
of God that he might continue as he had begun : and his mother said to 
him, that she was glad that ever she bare such a child, who could find in 



MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM HUNTER. 649 

his heart to lose his life for Christ's sake. To this he replied — "For the 
little pain I shall suffer, which will soon be at an end, Christ hath 
promised me, mother, a crown of joy ; should not you be glad of that?" 
With that his mother kneeled down, saying — " I pray God strengthen 
thee, my son, to the end : yea, I think thee as well bestowed as any 
child I ever bore." His father, suppressing his tears, then said — k< I was 
afraid of nothing but that my son would have been killed in the prison 
by hunger and cold;" a result, however, which the good parent had 
prevented as well as apprehended, for he was at the expence of the very 
best food and clothing he could send him, which the son gratefully 
acknowledged. 

He continued at the Swan inn, Brentwood, whither resorted many 
people to see him: and many of William's acquaintance came to him, 
and reasoned with him, and he with them, exhorting them to come away 
from the abomination of popish superstition and idolatry. The short 
time before his martyrdom was thus usefully passed. On Monday night, 
William dreamed that he was at the place where the stake was pitched, 
at which he should be burned : he also thought that he met with his 
father, and that there was a priest at the stake who wanted him to 
recant; to whom he said — "Away, false prophet!" and exhorted the 
people to beware of him, and such as he was : all which came to pass. 
In the morning he was commanded by the sheriff to prepare for his fate. 
At the same time, the sheriff's son came to him, and embraced him, 
saying — " William, be not afraid of these men with bows and weapons 
prepared to bring you to the place where you shall be burned." " I 
thank God I am not afraid," replied the undaunted youth, " for I 
have reckoned what it will cost me already." Then the sheriff's son 
could speak no more to him for weeping. 

Hunter then took up his gown, and went forward cheerfully, the 
sheriff's servant taking him by one arm, and his brother by the other; 
and going along he met with his father according to his dream, who said 
to him weeping — " God be with thee, son William." " God be with 
you, good father," said he, " and be of good comfort; for I hope we 
shall meet again, when we shall be joyful." He then went to the place 
where the stake stood, even according to his dream; where all things 
not being ready, he kneeled and read the 51st Psalm, till he came to 
these words — " The sacrifice of God is a contrite spirit, a contrite and a 
broken heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." As one was attempting 
to dispute the translation of the words, the sheriff brought a letter from 
the queen, and said — " If thou wilt recant, thou shalt live; if not, thou 
shalt be burned." " I will not recant, God willing," answered the noble 
youth: on which he rose up and went to the stake, and stood upright 
against it. Addressing the justice, he said — " Mr. Brown, now you 
have that which you sought, and I pray God it be not laid to your 
charge in the last day; howbeit I forgive you. If God forgive you, I 
shall not require my blood at your hands." 

He then prayed — " Son of God, shine upon me!" and immediately 
the sun in the element shone out of a dark cloud so full in his face, that 
he was constrained to look another way; whereat the people wondered, 
because it was much obscured before. He then took up a fagot of 



650 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

broom, and embraced it. The priest which he had dreamed of now came 
to his brother Robert, with a popish book to carry to William, that he 
might recant ; which book his brother would not meddle with. Then 
William, seeing the priest, and perceiving how he would have showed him 
the book, said, " Away, thou false prophet! Beware of them, good 
people, and come away from their abominations, lest ye be partakers of 
their plagues." " Then," quoth the priest, " look how thou burnest here, 
so shalt thou burn in hell." William answered, " Thou liest, thou false 
prophet ! Away, thou false prophet, away ! " Then was there a gentle- 
man who said, " I pray God have mercy upon his soul." The people 
said, " Amen, Amen ! " Immediately after, the fire was made. Then 
William cast his psalter to his brother, who said, u William ! think on 
the holy passion of Christ, and be not afraid of death." And William 
answered, " I am not afraid." Then lift he up his hands to heaven, and 
said, " Lord, Lord, Lord, receive my spirit;" and, casting down his head 
again into the smothering smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth, seal- 
ing it with his blood to the praise of God. 

Mention has already been made of six persons who were examined and 
condemned by bishop Bonner, of the which two were burned as ye have 
heard, viz., Tomkins on the 16th of March, and Hunter on the 26th of the 
same month. Three others, to wit, William Pygot and Stephen Knight 
suffered upon the 28th of March, and John Laurence on the following day. 
At their examinations it was first demanded of them what their opinion 
was of the sacrament of the altar. Whereunto they severally answered 
and also subscribed, that in the sacrament of the altar, under the forms of 
bread and wine, there is not the very substance of the body and blood of 
our Saviour Jesus Christ, but a special partaking of the body and blood of 
Christ ; the very body and blood of Christ being only in heaven, and 
nowhere else. This reply thus made, the bishop caused certain articles to 
be read unto them, tending to the same effect as did the articles before of 
Tomkins, and their answers were very similar. The present examination 
ended, they were commanded to appear again the next day, being the 9th 
of February, at eight o'clock in the morning, and in the meanwhile to be- 
think themselves what they would do. 

The next day, before their open appearance, Bonner sent for Pygot and 
Knight into his great chamber in his palace, where he persuaded with them 
to recant, and deny their former profession. They answered that they 
could not in their consciences abjure their opinions, whereunto they had 
subscribed. The bishop also had certain talk with John Laurence only, 
who answered that he was a priest, and was consecrated and made a priest 
about eighteen years past ; that he was some time a black friar professed ; 
as also that he was assured unto a maid, whom he intended to have 
married. And being again demanded his opinion upon the sacrament, he 
said that it was a remembrance of Christ's body, and that many have been 
deceived in believing the true body of Christ to be in the sacrament of the 
altar ; and that all such as do not believe as he doth, do err. Being all 
three brought openly into the consistory, the same articles were propounded 
unto them as unto Thomas Tomkins, and thereto they also subscribed 
these words, " I do so believe." After many fair words and threatenings, 
they were all of them commanded to appear again in the afternoon. 



PYGOT, KNIGHT, AND LAURENCE MARTYRED. 651 

At that hour they returned thither, and there after the accustomed 
manner were exhorted to recant and revoke their doctrine, and receive the 
faith. To the which they constantly answered that they would not, but 
would stick to that faith that they had declared and subscribed unto ; for 
that they did believe that it was no error which they believed, but that the 
contrary thereof was very heresy. When the bishop saw that neither his 
flatterings nor his threatenings would prevail, he gave them severally their 
judgments. And because John Laurence had been one of their anointed 
priests, he was by the bishop there solemnly degraded. Their sentence of 
condemnation and this degradation ended, they were committed unto the 
custody of the sheriffs of London, who sent them unto Newgate, where 
they remained with joy together, until they were carried into Essex : and 
there, on the 28th day of March, the said William Pygot was burned at 
Braintree; and Stephen Knight at Maldon, who at the stake, kneeling- 
upon the ground, said this prayer which here followeth, the spirit of which 
the reader should mark, and compare with the prayer of the papists at the 
sacrifice of the mass : — 

" O Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love I leave willingly this life, and 
desire rather the bitter death of thy cross, with the loss of all earthly 
things, than to abide the blasphemy of thy most holy name, or to obey 
men in breaking thy holy commandment: thou seest, O Lord, that 
where I might live in worldly wealth to worship a false God, and honour 
thine enemy, I choose rather the torment of the body, and the loss of 
this life, and have counted all things but vile dust and dung, that I 
might win thee; which death is dearer unto me than thousands of gold 
and silver. Such love, O Lord, hast thou laid up in my breast, that I 
hunger for thee, as the wounded deer desireth the pasture. Send thy 
holy comforter, O Lord, to aid, comfort, and strengthen this weak piece 
of earth, which is empty of all strength in itself. Thou rememberest, 

Lord, that I am but dust, and able to do nothing that is good; there- 
fore, O Lord, as of thine accustomed goodness and love thou hast in- 
vited me to this banquet, and accounted me worthy to drink of thine 
own cup amongst thine elect; even so give me strength, O Lord, against 
this raging element, which as to my sight is most irksome and terrible, 
so to my mind it may at thy commandment be sweet and pleasant; that 
by the strength of thy Holy Spirit, I may pass through the rage of this 
fire into thy bosom, according to thy promise, for this mortal receive an 
immortal life, and for this corruptible put on incorruption. Accept 
this burnt offering, O Lord, not for the sacrifice, but for thy dear Son's 
sake my Saviour, for whose testimony I offer it with all my heart and 
with all my soul. O heavenly Father, forgive me my sins, as I forgive 
all the world. O sweet Son of God my Saviour, spread thy wings over 
me. O blessed and Holy Ghost, through whose merciful inspiration I 
am come hither, conduct me into everlasting life. Lord, into thy hands 

1 commend my spirit. Amen." 

The next day Mr. Laurence was taken to Colchester. The irons he 
had worn in prison had so injured his limbs, and his body was so re- 
duced by want of food, that he was taken to the fire in a chair, and so 
sitting, was in his constant faith consumed. An incident worthy of 
remark occurred at his martyrdom: several young children came about 



652 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the fire, and cried, as well as they could speak, " Lord, strengthen thy 
servant, and keep thy promise: strengthen thy servant, according to 
thy promise." God answered their prayer, for Mr. Laurence died as 
firmly and calmly as any one could wish to breathe his last. 

Thomas Causton, of Thundersby in Essex, and Thomas Higbed, of 
Horndon on the Hill, were zealous and religious in the true service of God. 
As they could not dissemble with the Lord, nor flatter with the world, 
so in this age of darkness and idolatry, they could not long lie hid from 
such a number of adversaries; but at length were perceived, and dis- 
covered to Bonner, by whose command they were committed to the 
officers of Colchester, to be safely kept, together with a servant of 
Causton, who was not inferior to his master in true piety. 

Bonner perceiving these gentlemen to be of good estate, and of great 
estimation in their county, lest any tumult should thereby arise, went 
himself, accompanied by Mr. Fecknam and several others, thinking to 
reclaim them; so that great labour and diligence was taken therein, as 
well by terrors and threatenings, as by great promises and all fair 
means, to reduce them again to the unity of the mother church. Finding, 
however, after all that nothing could prevail, and that they remained 
steady in their doctrine, setting out also their confession in writing, the 
bishop departed thence, and carried them both with him to London, and 
with them certain other prisoners, who about the same time were appre- 
hended in those parts. They were brought to open examination at the 
consistory in St. Paul's, February 17th, 1555, where they were demanded 
as well by Bonner, as also by the bishop of Bath and others, whether 
they would recant their errors and perverse doctrine, and come to the 
unity of the popish church. On their refusing, the bishop ordered 
them to appear again next day ; when he read several articles, and gave 
them respite until the following day to answer to the same, till which 
time they were again committed. 

The articles being given them in writing, a week was assigned them 
to give up and exhibit their answers to them. Accordingly on the 1st 
of March, being brought before the bishop in the consistory, they there 
exhibited their answers to the articles, in which they declared the true 
faith. Then the bishop, reading their former articles and answers to the 
same, asked them if they would recant; which when they denied, they 
were again dismissed, and commanded to appear in another week. On 
the 8th of March, therefore, Mr. Causton was first called to be' re-ex- 
amined before the bishop and others in his palace, and there had read 
unto him his aforesaid articles with his answers. The bishop again ex- 
horted and persuaded him to recant, but he answered — " No, I will not 
abjure. You said that the bishops who were lately burned were heretics, 
but I pray God make me such a heretic as they were." 

The bishop then leaving Mr. Causton, called for Mr. Higbed, using 
with him the like persuasions that he did with the other; but he answered, 
" I will not abjure; for I have been of this mind and opinion that I am 
now these sixteen years : and do what ye can, ye shall do no more than 
God will permit you to do; and with what measure you measure us, 
look for the same again at God's hands." Then Fecknam asked his 
opinion in the sacrament of the altar. To whom he answered, " I do not 



BURNING OF CAUSTON AND HIGBED. 653 

believe that Christ is in the sacrament as ye will have him, which is of 
man's making." Both their answers thus severally made, they were again 
commanded to depart for that time, and to appear the next day in the 
consistory at St. Paul's, between one and three in the afternoon. 

At which day and hour, being the 9th of March, they were both brought 
thither. The bishop caused Causton's articles and answers first to be 
read openly, and after persuaded with him to recant and abjure his 
heretical opinions, and to come home now, at the last, to their mother 
the catholic church, and save himself. But Causton answered again, 
" No, I will not abjure; for I came not hither for that purpose:" and 
therewithal he did exhibit in writing unto the bishop (as well in his own 
name, as also in Thomas Higbed's name) a confession of their faith, to 
the which they would stand. He required leave to read the same, which 
after great suit was obtained ; and he read it openly in the hearing of the 
people. When he had thus delivered their confession, the bishop, still 
persisting sometimes in fair promises, sometimes threatening to pronounce 
judgment, asked them if they would stand to this their confession and 
other answers. To whom Causton said, " We will stand to our answers 
written with our own hands, and to our belief therein contained. After 
which answer the bishop began to pronounce sentence against him. Then 
Causton said that it was much rashness, and without all love and mercy, 
to give judgment without answering to their confession by the truth of 
God's word, to which they submitted themselves most willingly. "And 
therefore," he said, "because I cannot have justice at your hand, but that 
ye will thus rashly condemn me, I do appeal from you to my lord cardinal." 

Then Dr. Smith said that he would answer their confession. But the 
bishop (not suffering him to speak) willed Harpsfield to say his mind, for 
the stay of the people; who, taking their confession in his hand, neither 
touched nor answered one sentence thereof. After this, Bonner pro- 
nounced sentence, first against the said Thomas Causton, and then calling 
Thomas Higbed, caused his articles and answers likewise to be read. 
Then the bishop asked him again, Whether he would turn from his error, 
and come to the unity of their church? To whom he said, "No; I 
would ye should recant — for I am in the truth, and you in error." Where- 
upon Bonner gave judgment on him as he had done upon Causton. 

When all this was thus ended, they were both delivered to the sheriffs, 
and so by them sent to Newgate, where they remained fourteen days, 
praised be God, not so much in afflictions as in consolations. These 
fourteen days expired, they were on the 23rd of March fetched from 
Newgate at four o'clock in the morning, and so led through the city to 
Aldgate, where they were delivered unto the sheriff of Essex. Being 
bound fast in a cart, they were brought to their appointed places of 
burning; that is to say, Thomas Higbed to Horndon on the Hill, and 
Thomas Causton to Raleigh, (both in the county of Essex,) where they 
did most constantly, on the 26th day of March, seal their faith with the 
shedding of their blood by most cruel fire, to the glory of God, and great 
rejoicing of the godly. At the burning of Higbed, justice Brown and 
divers gentlemen in the shire were also present, for fear belike lest he 
should be taken from them. And thus much concerning the apprehen- 
sion, examination, and burning of these two godly martyrs of God. 



654 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Of those who sealed the truth of Christ with their blood at this period 
no one merits distinct mention more than Dr. Farrar, the venerable 
bishop of St. David's. This excellent and learned prelate had been pro- 
moted to his bishopric by the lord protector, in the reign of Edward ; 
but after the fall of his patron, he also had fallen into disgrace, through 
the malice of several enemies, among whom was George Constantine, 
his own servant. Articles, to the number of fifty-six, were preferred 
against him, in which he was charged with many negligences and con- 
tumacies of church government. These he answered and denied. But 
so many and so bitter were his enemies, that they prevailed, and he was 
in consequence detained in prison till the death of king Edward, and the 
coming in of queen Mary and popish religion, whereby a new trouble rose 
upon him, being now accused and examined not for any matter of prae- 
munire, but for his faith and doctrine. Whereupon he was called before 
the bishop of Winchester, with master Hooper, master Rogers, master 
Bradford, master Saunders, and others, on the 4th day of February. 
On the which day he should also with them have been condemned ; 
but because leisure or list did not so well then serve the bishop, his con- 
demnation was deferred, and he sent to prison again, where he continued 
till the 14th day of the said month of February. What his examinations 
and answers were, before the said bishop of Winchester, so much as re- 
mained and came to our hands I have here annexed in manner as followeth. 

At his first coining and kneeling before the lord chancellor Gardiner, 
bishop of Winchester, the bishop of Durham, and the bishop of Worcester, 
who sat at the table ; and master Rochester, master Southwell, master 
Bourne, and others, standing at the table's end, the lord chancellor first 
addressed him in such questions as these: ''Now, sir, have you heard how 
the world goeth here? What say you? do you not know things abroad, 
notwithstanding you are a prisoner ? Have you not heard of the coming 
in of the lord cardinal ? 

Farrar. I know not my lord cardinal ; but 1 heard that a cardinal was 
come in : but I did not believe it, and I believe it not yet. 

Winchester. The queen's majesty and the parliament have restored re- 
ligion into the same state it was in at the beginning of the reign of king 
Henry VIII. Ye are in the queen's debt; and her majesty will be good 
unto you, if you will return to the catholic church. 

Farrar. In what state I am concerning my debts to her majesty, in the 
court of exchequer, my lord treasurer knoweth : and the last time that I 
was before your honour, and the first time also, I showed you that I had 
made an oath never to consent nor agree that the bishop of Rome should 
have any power or jurisdiction within this realm : and further I need not 
rehearse to your lordship ; you know it well enough. 

Bourne. You were once abjured for heresy in Oxford. 

Farrar. That was I not : it is not true. 

Bourne. You went from St. David's to Scotland. 

Farrar. That did I never : but I went from York into Scotland. 

Bourne. You carried books out of Oxford to the archbishop of York. 

Farrar. That I did not; but I carried old books from St. Oswald's. 

Bourne. You supplanted your master. 

Farrar. That did I never in my life ; but did shield and save my master 



EXAMINATIONS OF BISHOP FARRAR. 655 

from danger ; and that I obtained of king Henry VIII., for my true ser- 
vice, I thank God there-for. 

" My lord," said master Bourne to my lord chancellor, " he hath an ill 
name in Wales as ever had any." 

Farrar. That is not so : whosoever saith so, they shall never be able to 
prove it. 

Bourne. He hath deceived the queen in divers sums of money. 
Farrar. That is utterly untrue : I never deceived king or queen of one 
penny in my life ; and you shall never be able to prove that you say. 
Winchester. Thou art a false knave. 

Then Farrar stood up unbidden, (for all that while he kneeled,) and 
said, " No, my lord, I am a true man ; I thank God for it ! I was born 
under king Henry VII.; I served king Henry VIII. and king Edward VI. 
truly ; and have served the queen's majesty that now is, truly, with my 
poor heart and word : more I could not do ; and I was never false, nor 
shall be, by the grace of God. 

Winchester. How sayest thou ? wilt thou be reformable ? 
Farrar. My lord, if it like your honour, I have made an oath to God, 
and to king Henry VIII., and also to king Edward, and in that to the 
queen's majesty, the which I can never break while I live, to die for it. 
Winchester. You made a profession to live without a wife ? 
Farrar. No, my lord, if it like your honour; that did I never. I made 
a profession to live chaste — not without a wife. 

Winchester . Well, you are a froward knave : we will have no more to 
do with you, seeing that you will not come; we will be short with you, 
and that you shall know within this seven-night. 

Farrar. I am as it pleaseth your honour to call me; but I cannot break 
my oath, which your lordship yourself made before me, and gave in exam- 
ple, the which confirmed my conscience. Then I can never break that oath 
whilst I live, to die for it. 

Durham. Well ! he standeth upon his oath : call another. 
My lord chancellor then did ring a little bell ; and master Farrar said, 
" I pray God to save the king and queen's majesties long to continue in 
honour to God's glory and their comforts, and the comfort of the whole 
realm ; and I pray God save all your honours :" and so he departed. 

After this examination bishop Farrar remained in prison uncon- 
demned, till the 14th day of February, and then was sent down into 
Wales, there to receive sentence of condemnation. Upon the 26th 
of February, in the church of Carmarthen, being brought by Griffith 
Leyson, esq. sheriff of the county of Carmarthen, he was there per- 
sonally presented before the new bishop of St. David's and Constan- 
tine the public notary : who did there and then discharge the said 
sheriff, and receive him into their own custody, further committing him 
to the keeping of Owen Jones; and thereupon declared unto Dr. Farrar 
the great mercy and clemency that the king and queen's highness' plea- 
sure was to be offered unto him, which they there did offer ; that if he 
would submit himself to the laws of the realm, and conform himself to 
the unity of the catholic church, he should be received and pardoned. 
Seeing that Dr. Farrar give no answer to the premises, the bishop minis- 
tered unto him these articles following — 



656 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Whether he believed the marriage of priests lawful by the laws of 
God, and his holy church, or not? and whether he believed that in the 
blessed sacrament of the altar, after the words of consecration duly pro- 
nounced by the priest, the very body and blood of Christ is really and 
substantially contained, without the substance of bread and wine? Upon 
the bishop requiring Dr. Farrarto answer upon his allegiance, the latter, 
doubting the bishop's authority said, he would answer when he saw a 
lawful commission, and would make no further answer at that time. 
Whereupon the bishop, taking no advantage upon the answer, committed 
him to prison until a new monition ; in the mean time to deliberate with 
himself for his further answer to the premises. 

It has been intimated that a new bishop was placed at St. David's : 
this was one Henry Morgan, a furious papist, who now became the chief 
judge of his persecuted predecessor. This Morgan, sitting as judge, 
ministered unto bishop Farrar certain articles and interrogatories in 
writing ; which being openly read unto him a second time, Farrar still 
refused to answer, till he might see his lawful commission and authority. 
Whereupon Morgan pronounced him as contumax, and for the punish- 
ment of this his contumacy to be counted pro confesso, and so did pro- 
nounce him in writing. This done, he committed him to the custody of 
Owen Jones, until the 4th of March, then to be brought again into 
the same place, between one and two. 

The day and place appointed, the bishop appeared again before his 
haughty successor, submitted himself as ready to answer to the arti- 
cles and positions above mentioned, gently required a copy of the 
articles, and a competent term to be assigned unto him, to answer for 
himself. This being granted, and the Thursday next being assigned 
to him between one and three to answer precisely and fully, he was com- 
mitted again to custody. On the appointed day he again appeared and 
exhibited a bill in writing, containing in it his answer to the articles 
objected and ministered unto him before. Then Morgan offered him 
again the articles in this brief form: That he willed him being a priest 
to renounce matrimony — to grant the natural presence of Christ in the 
sacrament, under the forms of bread and wine — to confess and allow 
that the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead — 
that general councils lawfully congregated never did, and never can 
err — that men are not justified before God by faith only, but that hope 
and charity are also necessarily required to justification — and that the 
catholic church only hath authority to expound scriptures and to define 
controversies of religion, and to ordain things appertaining to public 
discipline. 

To these articles he still refused to subscribe, affirming that they were 
invented by man, and pertain nothing to the catholic faith. After this 
Morgan delivered unto him the copy of the articles, assigning him 
Monday following, to answer and subscribe to them either affirmatively 
or negatively. The day came, and he exhibited in a written paper his 
mind and answer to the articles, adding these words, tenens se de 
a>quitate et justitia esse episcopum Menevensem. The bishop assigned 
the next Wednesday, in the forenoon, to hear his final and definitive 
sentence. On that day, Morgan demanded of him whether he would 



ACCOUNT OF RAWLINS WHITE. 657 

renounce and recant his heresies, schisms, and errors, which hitherto he 
had maintained, and if he would subscribe to the catholic articles 
otherwise than he had done before. 

Upon this Farrar did exhibit a certain schedule written in English, 
and remaining in the acts, appealing from the bishop, as from an incom- 
petent judge, to cardinal Pole and other the highest authorities. This, 
however, did not avail him. Morgan proceeding in his rage, pronounced 
the definitive sentence against him : by which sentence he pronounced 
him as a heretic excommunicate, and to be given up forthwith to the 
secular power, namely to the sheriff of the town of Carmarthen, Mr. 
Leyson. After which his degradation followed of course. 

Thus was this godly bishop condemned and degraded, and committed 
to the secular power, and not long after was brought to execution in 
the town of Carmarthen, where in the market-place on the south side 
of the cross, on the 30th of March, being Saturday before Passion- 
Sunday, he most constantly sustained the torments of the fire. Among 
the incidents of this martyrdom worthy of mention is the following ; 
one Richard Jones, a young gentleman, and son of a knight, coming 
to Dr. Farrar a little before his death, seemed to lament the painfulness 
of what he had to suffer : unto whom the bishop answered, that if he 
saw him once to stir in the pains of his burning, he should then give no 
credit to his doctrine. And as he said, so he performed ; for so patiently 
he stood, that he never moved, till one Richard Gravell, with a staff, 
struck him down, that he fell amidst the flames, and expired, or rather 
rose to heaven to live for ever. 

Among more private persons who suffered at this period was Rawlins 
White, by occupation a fisherman, in the town of Cardiff. With respect 
to his religion at first, it cannot otherwise be known, than that he 
was a great partaker of the superstition and idolatry which prevailed in 
the reign of Henry VIII. But after God of his mercy had raised up 
the light of his gospel, through the government of king Edward VI. 
White began partly to dislike that which before he had embraced, and 
to have some good opinion of that which before by the iniquity of the 
times had been concealed from him ; and happily impressed with the 
importance of truth, he began to be a diligent hearer, and a great 
searcher of the word of God. 

Because the good man was unlearned, and withal very simple, he 
knew no ready way how he might satisfy his great desire. At length he 
took the following remedy to supply his necessity: he had a little boy, 
his own son, whom he sent to school to learn to read English. Now 
after the child could read indifferently well, his father every night after 
supper would have him read part of the holy scripture, and now and 
then of some other good book. In this kind of virtuous exercise the 
good man had such delight, that as it seemed, he rather practised 
himself in the study of the scripture, than in the trade or science which 
before-time he had used : so that within a few years in the time of king 
Edward, through the help of his little son, and through much conference 
besides, he so profited and went so forward, that he was able not only to 
resolve himself touching his own former blindness and ignorance, but 

2 u 



658 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

also to admonish and instruct others; and therefore when occasion 
served, he would go from one place to another teaching the truth. 

He had thus continued in his new profession about five years, when 
king Edward died, upon whose decease queen Mary succeeded, and 
with her came persecution ; the extremity and force whereof at last so 
pursued this good man, that he looked every hour to go to prison ; 
whereupon many who had received comfort by his instructions, began 
to persuade him to shift for himself, and dispose of his goods by some 
reasonable order to the use of his wife and children. Fearless, how- 
ever, White continued in his good purposes, till at last he was taken by 
the officers of his town, as a man suspected of heresy, upon which 
apprehension he was convened before the bishop of Landaff, then at his 
house near Chepstow: by whom, after divers combats and conflicts with 
him and his chaplains, he was committed to Chepstow prison. Thence 
he was removed to the castle of Cardiff, where he continued a whole 
year; during which time Mr. Dane, who furnished this account, resorted 
to him very often, with money and other relief from Mrs. Dane, his 
mother, who was a great favourer of those that were in affliction in 
those days, and others of his friends, which he received with great 
praises to God. 

At the expiration of a year, the bishop of Landaff caused him to be 
brought from the castle of Cardiff unto his own house near Chepstow; 
and while he continued there, the bishop endeavoured by various means 
to reduce him to conformity. When he found his threatenings and 
promises ineffectual, the bishop desired him to advise and determine 
with himself; for he must either recant his opinions, or else suffer the 
rigour of the law; and thereupon gave him a day of determination. 
This day being come, the bishop with his chaplains went into his chapel, 
with a great number of the neighbours who had the curiosity to see their 
proceedings. Being placed in order, White was brought before them. 
The bishop began by making a long discourse, declaring that the cause 
of his being sent for was that he was well known to hold heretical 
opinions, and that by his instructions many were led into blind error. 
In the end, he exhorted him to consider his own state wherein he stood, 
at the same time offering favour if he recanted. At the close of the 
bishop's address, Rawlins boldly said — " My lord, I thank God I am a 
christian man, and I hold no opinions contrary to the word of God; 
and if I do, I desire to be reformed out of the word of God, as a 
christian ought to be." The bishop then told him plainly, that he must 
proceed against him by the law, and condemn him as a heretic. — 
"Proceed by your law, in God's name" — said the fearless Rawlins; 
" but for a heretic you shall never condemn me while the world 
stands!" This intrepid answer somewhat startled and confounded the 
bishop, who, after a moment's silence turned to some about him and 
said — " Before we proceed any further with him, let us pray to God 
that he would send some spark of grace upon him, and it may so 
chance, that God through our prayers will here turn his heart." Ac- 
cordingly having prayed, the bishop asked — " Now, Rawlins, wilt thou 
revoke thy opinions or not?" The man of truth replied — " Surely, my 
lord, Rawlins you left me, Rawlins you find me, and by God's grace 



MARTYRDOM OF RAWLINS WHITE. 659 

Rawlins I will continue." When the bishop perceived that his artifice 
took no effect, he with sharp words reproved him, and forthwith was 
ready to read the sentence; but upon some advice given to him by his 
chaplains, he thought it best first to have a mass, thinking that by so 
doing some wonderful change would be wrought in his prisoner's mind. 
During the mass Rawlins betook himself to prayer in a secret place, 
until the priest came to the sacring, as they term it, which is a principal 
part of the idolatry. When Rawlins heard the sacring-bell ring, he rose 
out of his place, came to the choir door, and there standing awhile, 
turned himself to the people, speaking these words — " Good people, if 
there be any brethren amongst you, or at least if there be but one 
brother amongst you, the same one bear witness at the day of judgment, 
that I bow not to this idol" — meaning the host that the priest held over 
his head. 

Mass being ended, Rawlins was called again, when the bishop re- 
peated his persuasions; but the blessed man continued so stedfast in 
his profession, that the prelate found his discourse altogether in vain. 
Whereupon he caused the definitive sentence to be read. This being 
ended, Rawlins was dismissed, and from thence he was carried again to 
Cardiff, there to be put into the prison of the town, a very dark, 
loathsome, and vile dungeon. Having continued a prisoner there some 
time, about three weeks before the day on which he suffered, the officers 
of the town who had the charge of his execution, wished to burn him to 
be the sooner rid of him, although they had not a writ of execution 
awarded as by the law they should have : but by the advice of the 
recorder of the town, they sent to London for the writ, upon the receipt 
whereof they hastened the execution. On the night before his death 
Rawlins was engaged in preparing himself by devotion; and on finding 
his end so near, he sent to his wife, and desired her by the messenger, 
that in any wise she should make ready and send unto him his wedding 
garment, meaning the vest in which he was to be martyred. This 
request, or rather commandment, his wife with grief of heart performed, 
and early in the morning sent it to him. 

The hour of his execution being come, the martyr was brought out of 
prison, having on his wedding garment, and an old russet-coat which he 
was wont to wear. Thus being equipped, he was accompanied or rather 
guarded with a great number of bills and weapons. When he beheld 
this, he said, " Alas! what meaneth it? By God's grace I will not run 
away: with all my heart and mind I give God most hearty thanks that 
he hath made me worthy to abide all this for his holy name's sake." 
Arriving at a place where his poor wife and children stood weeping and 
making great lamentation, the sudden sight of them so pierced his 
heart, that the tears trickled down his face. But soon after, as though 
he were ashamed of this infirmity of his flesh, he began to be as it 
were altogether angry with himself: insomuch, that striking his breast 
with his hand, he said, "Ah, flesh, hinderest thou me so? Well, I 
tell thee, do what thou canst, thou shalt not, by God's grace, have the 
victory." 

By this time he approached the stake ready set up, with some wood 
as prepared for the fire; which when he beheld, he set forward very 



660 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

boldly : but in going towards the stake, he fell upon his knees and 
kissed the ground; and in rising again, a little earth sticking on his 
face, he said, " Earth unto earth, and dust unto dust; thou art my 
mother, and unto thee I shall return." Then he went on, and cheer- 
fully set his back close to the stake. A smith came with a great chain 
of iron, whom when he saw, he cast up his hand, and with a loud voice 
gave God great thanks. When the smith had fastened him to the stake, 
the officers began to lay on more wood, with a little straw and reeds: 
wherein the good man was no less occupied than the best ; for as far as 
he could reach his hands, he would pluck the straw and reeds, and lay 
it about him in places most convenient for his speedy death. 

When all things were ready, directly over against the stake, in the 
face of the martyr, there was a standing erected, to which ascended a 
priest, addressing himself to the people, which were many in number, 
because it was market-day. Rawlins perceived him, and considered 
the cause of his coming; but paid little attention to him. Then went 
the priest forward in his sermon, wherein he spake of many things 
touching the authority of the church of Rome. At last, he came to the 
sacrament of the altar, when he began to inveigh against Rawlins's 
opinions: in which harangue he cited the common place of scripture. 
When Rawlins heard that he strove not only to preach and teach false 
doctrine, but also to confirm it by scripture, he suddenly started up, 
and beckoned his hands to the people, saying twice, " Come hither, 
good people, and hear not a false prophet preaching." And then said 
unto the preacher, "Ah! thou wicked hypocrite, dost thou presume to 
prove thy false doctrine by Scripture ? a Look in the text what followeth : 
did not Christ say, ' Do this in remembrance of me !' " 

Then some that stood by cried out, " Put fire, set to fire !" which being 
set to, the straw and reed cast up both a great and sudden flame : in the 
which flame this good and blessed man bathed his hands until the sinews 
shrunk, and the fat dropped away; saving that once he did, as it were, 
wipe his face with one of them. All this while he cried with a loud voice, 
" O Lord, receive my soul! O Lord, receive my spirit!" until he could 
not open his mouth. At the last, the extremity of the fire was so vehement 
against his legs, that they were consumed almost before the rest of his 
body was burned, which made the whole body fall over the chain into the 
fire sooner that it would have done. Thus died this godly and old man 
(for he was upwards of sixty years of age) for the testimony of God's truth, 
being now rewarded, no doubt, with the crown of everlasting life. 

a Upon the Shrove-Sunday in this year, 1555, a certain priest named Nightingale, parson of 
Crundal near Canterbury, preached a sermon on the words of St. John, "He that saith he 
hath no sin is a liar, and the truth is not in him." And so upon the same he declared all such 
articles as were set forth by the pope's authority, and by commandment of the bishops; saying 
moreover, "Now, masters and neighbours, rejoice and be merry, for the prodigal son is come 
home. For 1 know that the most part of you be as 1 am, for I know your hearts well enough. 
And I shall tell you what hath happened in this week past : I was before my lord cardinal Pole's 
grace, and he hath made me as free from sin as I was at the font-stone : and on Thursday last 
being before him, he hath appointed me to notify the same unto you, and I will tell you what it 
is." — And after reading the pope's bull of pardon that was sent into England, he added that he 
believed that by the virtue of that bull he was as clean from sin as the night he was born. Im- 
mediately upon the same he fell suddenly down out of the pulpit, and never more stirred hand 
nor foot. This was testified by Robert Austen of Cartham, who both heard and saw the same, 
and was witnessed also by the whole country round about. 



661 



SECTION V. 

THE ABBEY LANDS RESTORED — DEATH OF POPE JULIUS EXAMINATIONS 

AND BURNING OF GEORGE MARSH AT CHESTER. 

On the 19th of February, the bishop of Ely and the lord Montacute, with 
seven score horse, were sent as ambassadors from the king and queen unto 
Rome ; and on the 28th day of March the queen summoned four of her 
privy council, touching the restoring again of abbey lands ; declaring that 
they were taken away from the church by unlawful means, and that her 
conscience would not suffer her to detain them. "Therefore," she said, 
" I here expressly refuse either to claim or to retain the said lands for 
mine ; but with all my heart, freely and willingly, without all paction or 
condition, here, and before God, I do surrender and relinquish the said 
lands and possessions, or inheritances whatsoever, and do renounce the 
same with this mind and purpose, that order and disposition thereof may 
be taken, as shall seem best liking to our most holy lord the pope, or else 
his legate the lord cardinal, to the honour of God, and wealth of this our 
realm." This intimation coming to the cardinal's hand, he despatched a 
copy thereof to the pope, who not long after set forth a bull of excommu- 
nication against all who kept any of the church or abbey lands ; by virtue 
of which bull he also excommunicated all such princes, bishops, noblemen, 
justices, and others, who refused to put the same in execution. Albeit 
neither Winchester nor any of the pope's clergy would greatly stir in this 
matter, perceiving the nobility to be too strong for them, and therefore 
were contented to stay while time might better serve their purpose. 

About the latter end of March pope Julius died ; and upon command- 
ment from the king and queen, on Wednesday in Easter week there were 
hearses set up, and dirges sung for the said Julius in divers places, although 
this pope had led a very unholy life. At which time it chanced a woman 
to come into St. Magnus' church, in London, and there seeing a hearse 
and other preparations, asked what it meant. Another, who stood by, said 
that it was for the pope, and that she must pray for him. " Nay," quoth 
she, "that I will not, for he needeth not my prayers : and seeing he could 
forgive us all our sins, I am sure he is clean himself; therefore I need not 
to pray for him." She w T as heard speak these words of certain that stood 
by, who after awhile carried her unto the cage at London bridge, and bade 
her cool herself there. 

George Marsh was born in the parish of Deane, in the county of Lan- 
caster, and having received a good education, his parents brought him 
up in the habits of trade and industry. About the 25th year of his 
age, he married a young woman of the country ; with whom he con- 
tinued living upon a farm, having several children. His wife dying, he 
having formed a proper establishment for his children, went into the 
university of Cambridge, where he studied, and much increased in 
learning, and was a minister of God's holy word and sacraments, and 
was for awhile curate to the Rev. Laurence Saunders. In this situation 
he continued for a time, earnestly setting forth the true religion, to the 
weakening of false doctrine, by his godly readings and sermons, as 
well there and in the parish of Deane, as elsewhere in Lancashire. 



G62 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

But such a zealous protestant could hardly be safe. At length he was 
apprehended, and kept close prisoner in Chester, by the bishop of that 
see, about the space of four months, not being permitted to have the 
relief and comfort of his friends; but charge being given unto the 
porter, to mark who they were that asked for him, and to signify their 
names to the bishop, as the particular description of his story, testified 
and recorded with his own pen, more evidently will shew. 

" On the Monday before Palm Sunday, which was the 12th of March, 
it was told me at my mother's house, that Roger Wrinstone, with other 
of Mr. Barton's servants, made diligent search for me in Bolton; and 
when they perceived that I was not there, they gave strict charge to 
Robert Ward and Robert Marsh to find and bring me to Mr. Barton 
the day following, with orders that I should be brought before the earl 
of Derby to be examined in matters of religion. On knowing this, my 
mother and other friends advised me to fly, and avoid the peril, as I in- 
tended at first to have done. To their counsel my weak flesh would gladly 
have consented, but my spirit did not fully agree; thinking and saying 
to myself, that if I fled away, it would be said, that I did not only fly 
the country, and my nearest and dearest friends, but much rather from 
Christ's holy word, according as these years past I had with my heart, 
or at least with my outward living, professed, and with my word and 
mouth taught, according to the small talent given me of the Lord. 
Being thus with their counsel and advice, and the thoughts and coun- 
sels of my own mind, drawn as it were divers ways, I went from my 
mother's house, saying, I would come again in the evening. 

" In the mean time I ceased not by earnest prayer to seek counsel of 
God, the giver of all good gifts, and of my friends, whose pious judg- 
ments and knowledge I much trusted to. After this I met with one 
of my friends on Deane-moor, about sun-set, and after we had con- 
sulted together, not without hearty prayer, we departed. Not fully de- 
termining what to do, but taking my leave of my friend, I said I doubted 
not but God would give me such wisdom and counsel, as should be most 
to his honour and glory, the profit of my neighbours and brethren in 
the world, and to the obtaining my eternal salvation by Christ in heaven. 
I then returned without fear to my mother's house, where several of 
Mr. Barton's servants had been seeking me; and when they could not 
find me they strictly charged my brother and William Marsh to seek 
me that night, and bring me to Smethehills the next day. They being 
so charged, were gone to seek me in Adderton, or elsewhere. Thus in- 
tending before to have been all night with my mother, but now consi- 
dering that my tarrying there would disquiet her, I departed, and went 
beyond Deane church, and stayed all night with an old friend. 

" At my first awaking, a person came to me from a friend, with letters, 
who said that their advice was that I should in no wise fly, but abide 
and boldly confess the faith of Jesus Christ. At these words I was so 
confirmed and established in my conscience, that from henceforth I 
consulted no more whether it were better to fly or to remain ; but was 
determined that I would not fly, but go to Mr. Barton, and there 
present myself, and patiently bear such cross as it should please God 
to lay upon my shoulders. Rising therefore early the next morning, 
after I had said the English litany with other prayers, kneeling by my 



EXAMINATION OF MR. MARSH. 663 

friend's bed-side, I prepared myself to go toward Sniethehills; and on 
my way I went into the houses of several relations and friends, desiring 
them to pray for me, and have me commended to all my friends, and 
to comfort my mother, and be good to my little children; for I supposed 
they would see my face no more. I then took leave of them, not 
without tears shed on both sides, and came to Smethehills abcut nine 
o'clock, when I presented myself to Mr. Barton; who shewed me a 
letter from the earl of Derby, wherein he was commanded to send me 
with others to Latham ; where he told me I was to be brought the next 
day by ten o'clock, before the earl or his council. 

" We accordingly went to my mother's, where praying, I took my 
leave of her, the wife of Richard Marsh, and both their households, 
they and I both weeping. I then went towards Latham, lay all night 
within a mile and a half of it, and the next day we came to it betimes, 
and remained there till four o'clock in the afternoon. Then was I called 
before my lord and his council. After a little while my lord turned 
towards me and asked what w r as my name. I answered, Marsh. He 
then asked me whether I was one of those who sowed dissention amongst 
the people: which I denied, desiring to know my accusers, and what 
could be laid against me. This, however, I could not learn. 

" He next asked me whether I was a priest? I said, no. What had 
been my living? I answered, I was a minister, served a cure, and kept 
a school. Then said he to his council, 'This is a wonderful thing: be- 
fore he said he was no priest, and now he confesseth himself to be one.' 
I answered, ' By the laws now used in this realm I am none.' They 
then demanded who had given me orders, or whether I had taken any. 
I answered, I received orders of the bishops of London and Lincoln. 
Then said they, 'Those are of the new heretics:' and asked me what 
acquaintance I had with them I answered, I never saw them but when 
I received orders. 

" They desired to know how long I had been curate, and whether I 
had ministered with a good conscience. I answered I had been curate 
but one year, and had ministered with a good conscience, I thanked 
God; and if the laws of the realm would have suffered me, I would 
have ministered still; and if they at any time hereafter would suffer me 
to minister after that sort, I would minister again. Then they asked 
me what my belief was. 

" I answered, I believed in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, according as the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
teach, and according to the four symbols or creeds, namely, the creed 
commonly called the Apostle's, the creed of the council of Nice, of 
Athanasius, and of Austin and Ambrose. I said I believed that who- 
ever, according to Christ's institution, received the holy sacrament of 
Christ's body and blood, did eat and drink Christ's body, and with all 
the benefits of his death and resurrection, to their eternal salvation; 
for Christ is ever present with his sacrament. When they asked me 
whether the bread and wine, by virtue of the words pronounced by the 
priest, were changed into the flesh and blood of Christ, and that the 
sacrament was the very body of Christ ? I made answer, I knew no 
farther than I had said. 

" After many other question?, which I avoided as well as I could, re- 



664 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

membering the saying of St. Paul, ' Foolish and unlearned questions 
avoid, knowing they gender strife;' my lord commanded me to come 
to the board, when he gave me pen and ink, and commanded me to 
write my answers to the questions of the sacrament. Accordingly I 
wrote as I had answered before. Being much offended, he commanded 
me to write a more direct answer. I then took the pen and wrote that 
further I knew not. On this he said, I should be put to death like a 
traitor, with other like words; but sometimes giving me fair words, if I 
would turn and be conformable as others were. In the end, after much 
ado, he commanded me to ward, in a cold, windy, stone-house, where 
was little room: there I lay without any bed, saving a few canvass tent 
clothes, and so continued till Palm-Sunday, occupying myself as well 
as I could in meditation, prayer, and study; for no man was suffered 
to come to me but my keeper twice a-day, when he brought me meat 
and drink. 

" On Palm-Sunday after dinner, I was again sent for to my lord 
and his council, amongst whom were Sir John Biron, and the vicar of 
Prescot. After I had communed apart with the vicar of Prescot a 
good while concerning the sacrament, he returned with me to my lord 
and his council, telling them that the answer which I had made before, 
and still made, was sufficient for a beginner, and as one who did not 
profess a perfect knowledge in the matter, until such times as I had 
learned further. Wherewith the earl was very well pleased, saying, he 
doubted not but by the means and help of the vicar of Prescot I should 
be conformable in other things; and after many fair words he com- 
manded I should have a bed, with fire, and liberty to go amongst his 
servants, on condition I would do no harm with my communication with 
them. Thus, after so much conference, I departed, much more troubled 
in my mind than before, because I had not with more boldness confessed 
Christ, but in such sort as mine adversaries thought they should prevail 
against me ; whereat I was much grieved : for hitherto I went about as 
much as in me lay, to rid myself out of their hands, if by any means, with- 
out open denying of Christ and his word, that could be done. This con- 
sidered, I cried more earnestly unto God by prayer, desiring him to 
strengthen me with his Holy Spirit, with boldness to confess him. 

" A day or two after I was sent for to the vicar of Prescot and the parson 
of Grappenhall ; where our most communication was concerning the mass : 
and he asked what offended me in it. I answered, the whole did offend 
me, because it was in a strange language, whereby the people were not 
edified, contrary to St. Paul's doctrine, 1 Cor. xiv.; and because of the 
manifold and intolerable abuses contained therein, contrary to Christ's 
priesthood and sacrifice. Then they asked me in what place thereof: and 
I named certain places; which places they went about with gentle and far- 
sought interpretations to mitigate, saying, those places were understood far 
otherwise than the words did purport, or than I did take them. Then they 
caused a mass-book to be sent for, and showed me where, in some places 
of the mass, was written, "sacrificium laudis." Whereto I answered, that 
it followed not therefore that in all places it signified a sacrifice or oblation 
of praise or thanksgiving; and although it did, yet was it not a sacrifice 
of praise or thanksgiving to be offered for the sins of the people ; for that 
did Christ, by his own passion, once offer on the cross." 



FURTHER EXAMINATION OF MR. MARSH. 665 

After this, Mr. Marsh was sent to Lancaster castle; and being brought 
with other prisoners to the sessions, he was made to hold up his hand 
with the malefactors; when the earl of Derby had the following con- 
versation with him, which, like the preceding statements, are given to 
us partly in his own expressive and unaffected language. 

" I told his lordship, that I had not dwelt in the country these three or 
four years past, and came home but lately to visit my mother, children, 
and other friends, and that I meant to have departed out of the country 
before Easter, and to have gone out of the realm. Wherefore I trusted, 
seeing nothing could be laid against me, wherein I had offended against 
the laws, that his lordship would not with captious questions examine 
me, to bring my body into danger of death, to the great discomfort of 
my mother. On the earl asking me into what land I would have gone? 
I answered, I would have gone either into Germany, or else into 
Denmark. He said to his council, that in Denmark they used such 
heresy as they have done in England : but as for Germany the emperor 
had destroyed it. 

" I then said that I trusted, as his lordship had been of the honour- 
able council of the late king Edward, consenting and agreeing to acts 
concerning faith towards God and religion, under great pain, would 
not so soon after consent to put poor men to shameful deaths for be- 
lieving what he had then professed. To this he answered that he, with 
the lord Windsor, lord Dacres, and others, did not consent to those acts, 
and that their refusal would be seen as long as the parliament-house 
stood. He then rehearsed the misfortune of the dukes of Northumber- 
land and Suffolk, with others, because they favoured not the true reli- 
gion; and again the prosperity of the queen's highness, because she 
favoured the true religion ; thereby gathering the one to be good, and 
of God, and the other to be wicked, and of the devil; and said that 
the duke of Northumberland confessed so plainly." 

And thus you have heard the whole trouble which George Marsh sus- 
tained both at Latham and also at Lancaster. While at Latham it was 
falsely reported that he had consented, and agreed in all things with the 
earl and his council; and while at Lancaster many came to talk with him, 
giving him such counsel as Peter gave Christ : but he answered that he 
could not follow their counsel, but that by God's grace he would live and 
die with a pure conscience, and as hitherto he had believed and professed. 

Within a few days after, the said Marsh was removed from Lancaster ; 
and coming to Chester, was sent for by Dr. Cotes, then bishop, to appear 
before him in his hall, nobody being present but they twain. Then he 
asked him certain questions concerning the sacrament, and Marsh made 
such answers as seemed to content the bishop, saving that he utterly denied 
transubstantiation, and allowed not the abuse of the mass, nor that the lay 
people should receive under one kind only, contrary to Christ's institution ; 
in which points the bishop went about to persuade him, howbeit, (God be 
thanked,) all in vain. Much other talk he had with him, to move him to 
submit himself to the universal church of Rome ; and when he could not 
prevail he sent him to prison again. And after, being there, came to him 
divers times one Massie, a fatherly old man, one Wrench the schoolmaster, 
one Hensham the bishop's chaplain, and the archdeacon, with many more ; 
who, with much philosophy, worldly wisdom, and deceitful vanity, after the 



666 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tradition of men, but not after Christ, endeavoured to persuade him to 
submit himself to the church of Rome, to acknowledge the pope 
as its head, and to interpret the scripture no otherwise than that 
church did. 

To these Mr. Marsh answered, that he did acknowledge and believe 
one only catholic and apostolic church, without which there is no sal- 
vation; and that this church is but one, because it ever hath confessed 
and shall confess and believe one only God, and one only Messiah, and 
in him only trust for salvation: which church also is ruled and led by 
one Spirit, one word, and one faith; and that this church is universal 
and catholic, because it ever hath been since the world's beginning, is, 
and shall endure to the world's end, and comprehending within it all 
nations, kindreds, and languages, degrees, states, and conditions of 
men : and that this church is built only upon the foundations of the 
prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, 
and not upon the Romish laws and decrees, whose head the bishop of 
Rome was. And where they said the church did stand in ordinary suc- 
cession of bishops, being ruled by general councils, holy fathers, and 
the laws of the holy church, and so had continued for the space of 
fifteen hundred years and more; he replied, that the holy church, which 
is the body of Christ, and therefore most worthy to be called holy, was 
before any succession of bishops, general councils or Romish decrees : 
neither was it bound to any time or place, ordinary succession, or tra- 
ditions of fathers ; nor had it any supremacy over empires and king- 
doms; but it was a poor simple flock, dispersed abroad, as sheep without 
a shepherd in the midst of wolves; or as a family of orphans and father- 
less children : and that this church was led and ruled by the word of 
Christ, he being the supreme head of this church, and assisting suc- 
couring, and defending it from all assaults, errors and persecutions, 
wherewith it is ever encompassed about. He also shewed by plain 
evidence, by the flood of Noah, the destruction of Sodom, the Israelites 
departing out of Egypt, the parable of the sower, of the king's son's 
marriage, of the great supper, and other plain sentences of scripture, 
that this church was of no estimation, and little in comparison with the 
church of hypocrites, and wicked worldlings. 

After the bishop of Chester had taken pleasure in punishing his prisoner, 
and often reviling him, giving taunts and odious names of heretic, etc., he 
caused him to be brought forth into a chapel in the cathedral church, called 
Our Lady Chapel, before him the said bishop, at two o'clock in the after- 
noon ; when were also present the mayor of the city, Dr. Wall and other 
priests assisting him, George Wensloe, chancellor, and one John Chetham, 
registrar. Then they caused George Marsh to take an oath to answer truly 
unto such articles as should be objected against him. Upon which oath 
taken, the chancellor laid unto his charge, that he had preached and openly 
published most heretically and blasphemously, within the parishes of Dean, 
Eccles, Bolton, Bury, and many other parishes within the bishop's diocese, 
in the months of January and February last preceding, directly against the 
pope's authority, and catholic church of Rome, the blessed mass, the 
sacrament of the altar, and many other articles. Unto all which in 
sum he answered, that he neither heretically nor blasphemously preached 
or spake against any of the said articles ; but simply and truly, as occa- 



EXAMINATION OF MR. MARSH. 667 

sion served, and as it were thereunto forced in conscience, maintained 
the truth respecting the same articles, as he said all now present did 
likewise acknowledge in the time of king Edward VI. 

Then they examined him severally of every article, and bade him 
answer yes, or no, without equivocation ; for they were come to examine, 
and not to dispute at that present. He accordingly answered them every 
article very modestly, agreeably to the doctrine by public authority 
received, and taught in this realm at the death of king Edward ; which 
answers were every one written by the registrar, to the uttermost that could 
make against him. This ended, he was returned to his prison again. 

Within three weeks after this, in the said chapel, and in like sort as be- 
fore, the bishop and others before named, there being assembled, the said 
George Marsh was brought before them. Then the chancellor, by way of 
an oration, declared unto the people present, that the bishop had done 
what he could in showing his charitable disposition towards the said Marsh, 
but that all that he could do would not help ; so that he was now deter- 
mined, if the said Marsh would not relent and abjure, to pronounce sen- 
tence definitive against him. Wherefore he bade the said George Marsh 
to be now well advised what he would do, for it stood upon his life ; and 
if he would not at that present forsake his heretical opinions, it would (after 
the sentence given) be too late, though he might never so gladly desire it. 

Then the chancellor read all his answers that he made at his former ex- 
amination ; and at every one he asked, whether he would stick to the 
same, or no ? To the which he answered again, " Yea, yea." Here also 
others took occasion to ask him (for that he denied the bishop of Rome's 
authority in England) whether Linus, Anacletus, and Clement, that were 
bishops of Rome, were not good men, and he answered, " Yes, and divers 
others. But," said he " they claimed no more authority in England than 
the bishop of Canterbury doth at Rome ; and I strive not with the place, 
neither speak I against the person of the bishop, but against his doctrine ; 
which in most points is repugnant to the doctrine of Christ." " Thou art an 
arrogant fellow indeed then," said the bishop. " In what article is the doc- 
trine of the church of Rome repugnant to the doctrine of Christ?" 

To whom George Marsh said, " O my lord, I pray you judge not so of me, 
I stand now upon the point of life and death : and a man in my case 
hath no cause to be arrogant, neither am I, God is my record. And 
as concerning the disagreement of the doctrine, among many other 
things, the church of Rome erreth in the sacrament. For Christ in the 
institution thereof did as well deliver the cup as the bread, saying, 
" Drink ye all of this," and St. Mark reporteth that they did drink of 
it. In like manner St. Paul delivered it unto the Corinthians. In the 
same sort also it was used in the primitive church for the space of many 
hundred years. Now the church of Rome doth take away one part of 
the sacrament from the laity. Wherefore if I could be persuaded in 
my conscience by God's word that it were well done, I could gladly 
yield in this point." Then said the bishop, "There is no disputing 
with a heretic." Therefore, when all his answers were ready, he asked 
him whether he would stand to the same, or else forsake them, and come 
unto the catholic church? to which Mr. Marsh answered, that he held 
no heretical opinion, but utterly abhorred all kind of heresy, although 



668 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

they did so slander him. And he desired all to bear him witness, that 
in all articles of religion he held no other opinion than was by law 
established, and publicly taught in England at the death of Edward VI; 
and in the same pure religion and doctrine he would, by God's grace, 
stand, live, and die. 

The bishop of Chester then took a writing out of his bosom, and 
began to read the sentence of condemnation ; but when he had pro- 
ceeded half through it, the chancellor called him, and said, " Good my 
lord, stay, stay! for if you read any further it will be too late to call it 
again." The bishop accordingly stopped, when several priests, and 
many of the ignorant people, called upon Mr. Marsh, with many earnest 
words, to recant. They bade him kneel down and pray, and they would 
pray for him : so they kneeled down, and he desired them to pray 
for him, and he would pray for them. When this was over the 
bishop again asked him, whether he would not have the queen's mercy 
in time? he answered, he gladly desired the same, and loved her 
grace as faithfully as any of them ; but yet he durst not deny his 
Saviour Christ, lest he lose his mercy everlasting, and so win everlasting 
death. 

The bishop then proceeded with the sentence for about five or six 
lines, when again the chancellor with flattering words and smiling 
countenance stopped him and said, " Yet, good my lord, once again 
stay, for if that word be spoken, all is past, no relenting will then 
serve." Then turning to Mr. Marsh, he asked, " How sayest thou ? 
wilt thou recant?" Many of the priests and people again exhorted him 
to recant and save his life. To whom he answered, " I would as fain 
live as you, if in so doing I should not deny my master Christ; but 
then he would deny me before his Father in heaven. 

The bishop then read his sentence unto the end, and afterwards 
said unto him, " Now I will no more pray for thee, than I will for a 
dog." Mr. Marsh answered, that notwithstanding, he would pray for 
his lordship. He was then delivered to the sheriffs of the city ; when 
his late keeper finding he should lose him, said with tears, " Farewell, 
good George ;" which caused the officers to carry him to a prison at 
the north gate, where he was very strictly kept until he went to his 
death, during which time he had little comfort or relief of any creature. 
For being in the dungeon or dark prison, none that would do him 
good could speak with him, or at least durst attempt it, for fear of ac- 
cusation; and some of the citizens who loved him for the gospel's sake, 
although they were never acquainted with him, would sometimes in the 
evening call to him and ask him how he did. He would answer them 
most cheerfully, that he did well, and thanked God highly that he 
would vouchsafe of his mercy to appoint him to be a witness of his 
truth, and to suffer for the same, wherein he did most rejoice ; beseech- 
ing that he would give him grace not to faint under the cross, but 
patiently bear the same to his glory, and to the comfort of his church. 

The day of his martyrdom being come, the sheriffs of the city, with 
their officers, went to the Northgate, and thence brought him forth, 
with a lock upon his feet. As he came on the way towards the place 
of execution, some proffered him money, and looked that he should 



ME. MARSH'S LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS. 669 

have gone with a little purse in his hand, in order to gather money to 
give unto a priest to say masses for him after his death : but Mr. Marsh 
said, he would not be troubled to receive money, but desired some good 
man to take it if the people were disposed to give any, and give it to 
the prisoners or the poor. He went all the way reading intently, and 
many said, " This man goeth not unto his death as a thief, or as one 
that deserveth to die." On coming to the place of execution without 
the city, a deputy chamberlain of Chester shewed Mr. Marsh a writing 
under a great seal, saying, that it was a pardon for him if he would 
recant. He answered, Forasmuch as it tended to pluck him from God, 
he would not receive it upon that condition. 

He now began to address the people, shewing the cause of his death, 
and would have exhorted them to be faithful unto Christ : but one of 
the sheriffs told him there must be no sermoning now. He then kneeling 
down prayed earnestly, and was then chained to the post, having a 
number of fagots under him, and a barrel with pitch and tar in it, over 
his head. The fire being unskilfully made, and the wind driving it to 
and fro, he suffered great extremity in his death, which notwithstanding 
he bore very patiently. When the spectators supposed he had been 
dead, suddenly he spread abroad his arms, saying, " Father of heaven, 
have mercy upon me," and so yielded his spirit into the hands of the 
Lord. Upon this, many of the people said he was a martyr, and died 
marvellously patient ; which caused the bishop shortly after to make 
a sermon in the cathedral church, and therein to affirm, that the said 
Marsh was a heretic, burnt as such, and was then a fire-brand in hell. 

Besides his examinations, this good man, George Marsh, wrote divers 
and sundry letters out of prison, addressed to the faithful in Christ Jesus. 
That concerning his examinations here followeth, as also an extract from 
one sent to certain friends in Manchester. 

" Here you have, dearly beloved friends in Christ, the chief articles 
of christian doctrine briefly touched, which heretofore I have believed, 
professed, and taught, and as yet do believe, profess, and teach, and am 
surely purposed, by God's grace, to continue in the same until the last day. 
I want both time and opportunity to write out at large the probations, 
causes, parts, effects, and errors of these articles, which whoso desireth to 
know, let them read over the common places of those pious and learned 
men, Philip Melancthon and Erasmus Sarcerus, whose judgment in these 
matters of religion I do chiefly follow. The Lord give us understanding 
in all things, and deliver us out of the mouth of the lion, and from all 
evil doing, and keep us unto his everlasting and heavenly kingdom. 

"Though Satan be suffered as wheat to sift us for a time, yet our faith 
faileth not through Christ's aid, but that we are at all times able to 
confirm the faith of our weak brethren, and always ready to give an 
answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us, 
with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that whereas they 
back-bite us as evil doers, they may be ashamed, when they falsely 
accuse our good conversation in Christ. I thought myself of late 
years well settled with my loving and faithful wife and children, and also 
well quieted in the peaceable possession of that pleasant Euphrates ; but 



670 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the Lord, who worketh all things for the best to them that love him, 
would not there leave me, but did take my dear and beloved wife from 
me ; whose death was a painful cross to flesh and blood. 

"Also I thought myself of late well placed under my most loving 
and gentle Mr. Laurence Saunders, in the cure of Langdon. But the 
Lord of his great mercy would not suffer me long there to continue, 
though for the time I was in his vineyard I was not an idle workman. 
But he hath provided me to taste of a far other cup ; for by violence 
hath he driven me out of that pleasing Babylon, that I should not 
taste too much of her wanton pleasures, but with his most dearly beloved 
disciples to have my inward rejoicing in the cross of his Son Jesus Christ; 
the glory of whose church, I see it well, standeth not in the harmonious 
sound of bells and organs, nor yet in the glittering of mitres and copes, 
neither in the shining of gilt images and lights, but in continual labour 
and daily affliction for his name's sake. 

"Take heed and beware of the leaven of the scribes and of the 
sadducees; I mean the erroneous doctrine of the papists which with 
their glosses deprave the scriptures. The apostle Peter doth teach us, 
' There shall be false teachers amongst us, which privily shall bring in 
damnable heresies and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by 
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of ; and through covetousness 
they shall with feigned words make merchandise of us.' Christ also ear- 
nestly warneth us, to ' Beware of false prophets, which come to us in 
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits 
you shall know them.' The fruits of the prophets are their doctrine ; 
and here we are taught, that we should try the preachers that come 
under colour to set forth true religion unto us, according to the saying 
of St. Paul, ' Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.'" 

Of the letter to his Manchester friends we can give only an extract ; 
one, however, of great force as well as truth and beauty. " Beloved 
in Christ, let us not faint because of affliction, wherewith God trieth 
all that are sealed to life everlasting ; for the only way into the kingdom 
of God is through much tribulation. For the kingdom of heaven is 
like unto a city built and set upon a broad field, and full of all good 
things ; but the entrance thereof is narrow, like as it were a burning 
flame on one hand and deep water on the other ; and as it were one 
straight path between them, so narrow that one person only can pass at 
a time. If this city were now given to an heir, and he never went 
through the perilous way, how could he receive his inheritance? Where- 
fore, seeing we are in this narrow way, which leadeth to the most joyful 
city of everlasting life, let us not halt or turn back afraid of the danger; 
but follow Christ and be fearful of nothing, no not even of death itself, 
for this must lead to our journey's end, and ooen to us the gate of ever- 
lasting life." 



671 



SECTION VI. 

EXAMINATION AND MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM FLOWER, JOHN CARDMAKER, 
JOHN WARNE, JOHN SIMSON, AND JOHN ARDELEY. 

William Flower, (otherwise named Branch,) was born at Snailwell, 
in Cambridgeshire, at which place he went to school some years, 
and thence to the abbey of Ely ; where, after he had remained a 
while, he became a professed monk, according to the order and rule of 
the house, wearing the usual habit, and observing the regulations until 
the age of twenty-one years; before which he had been a priest and 
celebrated mass. By reason of a visitation, and certain injunctions by 
the authority of Henry the VIII. he forsook the house, and casting from 
him the monk's habit and religion, took upon him the habit of a secular 
priest, returned to Snailwell, and there celebrated mass, and taught 
children for about half a year. 

He then went into Suffolk, where he served as a secular priest about 
a quarter of a year ; from thence he went to Stoniland, where he acted 
in the same capacity until the coming out of the six articles : when he 
departed and went into Gloucestershire, where after he had abode awhile, 
according to God's holy ordinance, he took a wife, with whom he ever 
after faithfully and honestly continued ; and after his marriage, he 
tarried in Tewkesbury about two years, and from thence he went to 
Bursley, where he remained three quarters of a year, and practised 
physic and chirurgery. From thence he removed into Northamptonshire, 
where he assisted a gentleman in teaching children to read and write. 
At length he came to London ; after that, being desirous to see his 
country, he returned to Snailwell, thence to Braintree, then to Coggle- 
shall, where he also taught children. Coming to Lambeth, near London, 
he hired a house, where he and his wife dwelt together. Being at 
home upon Easter-Sunday, about ten or eleven o'clock in the forenoon 
of the same day, he came over the water to St. Margaret's church at 
Westminster ; when seeing a priest, named John Cheltam, administer- 
ing the sacrament of the altar to the people, he was so provoked ant! 
inflamed, that he struck and wounded him upon the head, and also 
upon the arm and hand, the priest having at the same time in his hand a 
chalice, with certain consecrated hosts therein. For this he was imme- 
diately examined before bishop Bonner, and confessed he had done 
wrong, submitting himself willingly to punishment, whenever it should 
come. Howbeit touching his belief in the sacrament, and the popish 
ministration, he neither would nor did submit himself. 

Being apprehended and laid in the Gatehouse at Westminster, having 
as many irons as he could bear, he was summoned again before bishop 
Bonner, April 19th, 1555, when the bishop, after he had sworn him upon 
a book, ministered articles and interrogatories to him. Previous to this 
the following conversation took place between Mr. Flower and Mr. 
Robert Smith, a fellow prisoner. 

Smith. Friend, as I understand that you profess the gospel, and that 



672 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

you have done so a long season, I am bold to come unto you, and 
in the way of communication to demand and learn a truth at your own 
mouth, of certain things by you committed, to the astonishment not only 
of me, but of others that also profess the truth. 

Flower. I praise God for his great goodness in shewing me the light 
of his holy word ; and I give you hearty thanks for your visitation, in- 
tending by God's grace to declare all the truth that you shall demand 
lawfully of me, in all things. 

Smith. Then I desire you to shew me the truth of your deed, com- 
mitted on John Cheltam, priest, in the church, as near as you can, that 
I may hear from your own mouth how it was. 

Flower. I came from my house at Lambeth over the water, and en- 
tering into St. Margaret's church, and there seeing the people falling 
down before a most detestable idol, being moved with extreme zeal for 
God, whom I saw before my face dishonoured, I drew forth my hanger, 
and struck the priest which ministered the same unto them ; whereupon 
I was immediately apprehended. 

Smith. Did you not know the person that you struck, or were you not 
zealous upon him for any evil will or hatred between you at any time ? 

Flower. No, verily, I never to my knowledge saw the person before, 
neither had evil will or malice ; for if he had not had it, another should, 
if I had at any time come where the like occasion had been ministered, 
if God had permitted me to do it. 

Smith. Do you think that thing to be well done, and after the rule of 
the gospel? 

Flower. I confess all flesh to be subject to the power of Almighty 
God, whom he maketh his ministers to do his will and pleasure ; as for 
example, Moses, Aaron, Phineas, Joshua, Zimri, Jehu, Judith, Mattathias, 
with many others, not only changing decrees, but also planting examples 
of zeal to his honour, against all order and respect of flesh and blood. 
For, as St. Paul saith, " His works are past finding out." By his Spirit 
I have also given my flesh at this present unto such order, as it shall 
please the good will of God to appoint in death, which before the act 
committed I looked for. 

Smith. Think you it is convenient for me, or any other, to do the like 
by your example ? 

Flower. No verily, neither do I know whether I could do it again : 
for I was up very early at St. Paul's church upon Christ's day in the 
morning, to have done it in my jealousy : but when I came there, I was 
no more able to do it, than now to undo that which is done ; and yet 
now being compelled by the Spirit, not only to come over the water, 
and to enter the church, but being also in mind fully content to die for 
the Lord, I gave over my flesh willingly, without all fear, I praise 
God. Wherefore I cannot learn you to do the like ; first, because 
I know not what is in you ; secondly, because the rules of the gospel 
command us to suffer with patience all wrongs and injuries. Yet never- 
theless, if he make you worthy that hath made me zealous, you shall 
not be letted, judged, nor condemned ; for he doth in his people his 
unspeakable works in all ages, which no man can comprehend. 1 
humbly beseech you to judge the best of the Spirit, and condemn not 



ARTICLES EXHIBITED AGAINST MR. FLOWER. 673 

God's doings: fori cannot express with my mouth the great mercies 
that God hath shewed me in this thing, which I repent not. 

Smith. Are you not assured to have death ministered unto you for the 
act, and even with extremity? 

Flower. I did, before the deed committed, adjudge my body to die 
for the same : whereupon I carried about me, in writing, my opinion of 
the holy scriptures ; that if it had pleased God to have given them leave 
to have killed my body in the church, they might in the said writing 
have seen my hope, which I praise God, is laid up safe within my breast 
notwithstanding any death that may be ministered upon my body in this 
world ; being ascertained of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, and being most heartily sorry for all my offences committed in 
this flesh, and trusting shortly, through his mercy, to cease from the 
same. 

Smith. I need not examine or commune with you of the hope that 
you have any further : for I perceive, God be praised, you are in good 
state, and therefore I beseech God, for his mercies, to spread his wings 
over you, that as for his love you have been zealous, even to the loss of 
this life, so he may give you his Holy Spirit to conduct you out of this 
world into a better life, which I think will be shortly. 

Flower. I hunger for the same, dear friend, being fully ascertained 
that they can kill but the body, which I am assured shall receive life 
again everlasting, and see no more death ; entirely desiring you and all 
that fear the Lord, to pray with me to Almighty God, to perform the 
same in me shortly. 

On the next examination before Bonner, Mr. Flower had the following 
articles exhibited against him. 

" That thou being of lawful age and discretion, at the least seventeen 
years old, wast a professed monk in the late abbey of Ely, wherein after 
thy profession thou remainedst until the age of twenty-one years, using 
all the mean-time the habit and religion of the same house, and wast 
reputed and taken notoriously for such a person. 

" That thou wast ordained and made priest, according to the laudable 
custom of the catholic church, and afterwards thou didst execute and 
minister as a priest, and wast commonly reputed, named, and taken for 
a priest. 

"That after the premises, thou, forgetting God, thy conscience, 
honesty, and the laudable order of the catholic church, didst, contrary 
to thy profession and vow, take as thy wife, one woman, commonly 
called Alice Pulton, in the parish of Tewksbury, with whom thou hadst 
mutual cohabitation, as man and wife, and had by her two children. 

"That thou being a religious man and a priest, didst, contrary to the 
order of the ecclesiastical laws, take upon thee to practise in divers 
places within the diocese of London, physic and chirurgery, when thou 
wast not admitted, expert, nor learned. 

" That upon Easter day last, within the church of St. Margaret's, at 
Westminster, thou didst maliciously, outrageously, and violently pull 
out thy wood knife or hanger. And whereas the priest and minister 
there, called John Cheltam, was executing his cure and charge, especially 
in doing his service, and administering the sacrament of the altar to 

15 o „ 



674 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

communicants, then didst thou wickedly and abominably smite with thy 
said weapon the said priest, first upon the head, and afterwards upon his 
hands and other parts of his body, drawing blood abundantly from him, 
he then holding the said sacrament in his hand, and giving no occasion 
why thou shouldst so hurt him, the people being grievously offended 
therewith, and the said church polluted thereby, so that the inhabitants 
were compelled to repair to another church to communicate, and receive 
the said sacrament. 

"That by reason of the premises, thou wast and art by the eccle- 
siastical laws of the church, amongst other penalties, excommunicated 
and accursed in very deed, and not to be accompanied withal, neither 
in the church nor elsewhere, but in special cases. 

" That thou, concerning the truth of Christ's natural body and blood 
in the sacrament of the altar, hast been for the space of one or more 
years, and yet art at this present of this opinion, that in the sacrament 
of the altar, after the words of consecration, there is not really, truly, 
and in very deed contained under the form of bread the very true and 
natural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

" That thou for the hatred and disdain that thou hadst and didst bear 
against the said sacrament, and against the said priest administering the 
same, didst smite, and hurt him in manner before declared. 

" That thou art also, by order of the ecclesiastical laws of the church, 
to be reputed, taken, and adjudged a very heretic, and to be punished 
by and with the pains due for heresy, by reason of the said heresy and 
damnable opinion. 

"That all the premises be true, manifest, notorious, and famous, and 
that upon the same, and every part thereof, there was and is within the 
said parish of St. Margaret's, and other places thereabouts, a public 
voice and fame." 

It is unnecessary minutely to detail the answers of Mr. Flower to 
these charges. To the greater part of them, as an honest man he 
pleaded guilty, and as a faithful christian he gloried in the plea, and 
was ready to say — " If this be to be vile I will be more vile still." He 
denied, however, having at any time been a monk in his heart, declaring 
that wearing the habit had offended his conscience. On the main point 
— his violently assailing the priest at the altar — he answered with 
caution, or rather with silence, declining to explain his conduct or its 
motives; evidently under the conviction, on the one hand that he had 
acted from a divine impulse, and on the other that such an assertion 
before a papal court would only have been turned into an occasion of 
profane scoffing. 

After the deposition of certain witnesses were taken, the bishop asked 
him, if he knew any cause why sentence should not be read, and he be 
pronounced a heretic. Mr. Flower answered, " I have nothing at all 
to say, for I have already said unto you all that I have to say; and what 
I have said, I will not go from : therefore do what you will." The bishop 
then proceeded to the sentence, condemning and excommunicating him 
for a heretic ; and after, pronounced him to be degraded, and then 
committed him to the secular power. Upon the 24th day of April he 
was brought to the place of martyrdom, which was in St. Margaret's 



PARTICULARS OF JOHN CARDMAKER. 675 

churchyard at Westminster, where the fact was committed. There one 
Mr. Cholmley came to him, desiring him to recant his heresy, whereby he 
might do good to the people; or else he would be damned. Flower an- 
swered, " Sir, I beseech you, for God's sake, be contented ; for what I 
have said, I have said : and I have been of this faith from the beginning ; 
and I trust to the living God he will give me his Holy Spirit so to continue 
to the end." Then he desired all the world to forgive him whom he had 
offended, as he forgave all the world. This done, his right hand being 
held up against the stake was struck off; and then fire was set unto him. 
While burning therein, he cried with a loud voice, " O the Son of God, 
have mercy upon me ! O the Son of God, receive my soul !" three times ; 
when his speech was taken from him. Thus endured this constant witness 
for God the extremity of the fire, being therein cruelly handled by reason 
of there not being fagots sufficient to burn him, so that they were fain to 
strike him down into the fire ; where he lying along upon the ground, his 
nether part was consumed in the fire, while his upper part was clean with- 
out the fire, his tongue in all men's sight still moving in his mouth. 

May 3rd, 1555, a letter was sent to George Colt and Thomas Daniel, 
to search for and apprehend John Bernard and John Walsh, who used 
to repair to Sudbury, and carrying about with them the bones of Pygot 
who was burned, shewed them to the people, and persuaded them to be 
constant in his religion; and upon examination to commit them to 
further ordering, according to the laws. The same day Stephen Appes 
was committed to the Little Ease in the Tower, there to remain two or 
three days till further examination. 

On the 30th of May suffered together, in Smithfield, John Cardmaker, 
alias sir John Taylor, prebendary of the church of Wells; and John Warne, 
upholsterer, of St. John's, Walbrook. Cardmaker was an observant friar 
before the dissolution of the abbeys. He afterwards married, and in Edward's 
time was appointed a reader in St. Paul's, where the papists were so 
enraged against him for his doctrine's sake, that while he was reading 
they cut and mangled his gown with their knives. Mr. Cardmaker being 
apprehended in the beginning of queen Mary's reign, with Mr. Barlow, 
bishop of Bath, was brought to London and put in the Fleet prison, 
king Edward's laws being yet in force. But after the sitting of that 
parliament, the pope was again admitted as supreme head of the English 
church, and the bishops had also gotten power and authority, officially 
to exercise their tyranny : Barlow and Cardmaker were therefore brought 
before the bishop of Winchester, and others appointed by commission, 
to examine the faith of such as were then prisoners: and as he had done 
unto others before, so now he did to them — offered the queen's mercy, if 
they would agree to be conformable to the papal church. Such were 
their answers to this, that the chancellor with his fellow commissioners 
mistook them for papists. Barlow was led again to the Fleet, from whence 
he was afterwards delivered, and did by exile constantly bear witness to the 
truth of Christ's gospel. Cardmaker was conveyed to the Compter in Bread 
street, the bishop of London publishing that he should shortly be delivered, 
after that he had subscribed to transubstantiation and certain other articles. 

Some of the articles objected by Bonner against Cardmaker were, that 
in times past he did profess the rule of St. Francis, and vowed to keep 



676 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to that rule; that he did re- 
ceive all the orders of the church then used; that after the said profession 
and orders, he took to wife a widow, and with her lived in wedlock, break- 
ing thereby his vow and order, and also the ordinance of the church ; that 
Christ, at his last supper, taking bread into his hands, blessing it, breaking 
it, giving it to his apostles, and saying, "Take, eat : this is my body," did 
institute a sacrament there, willing that his body really and truly should be 
contained in the said sacrament — no substance of bread and wine there 
remaining, but only the accidents thereof. 

To these articles Cardmaker replied, that while under age he did profess 
the said order and religion, but that he was absolved therefrom by king 
Henry VIII. ; that he had received all the orders of the church ; that by 
marriage he brake no vow, being set at liberty by the laws of the realm, 
and also by the laws and ordinances of the English church. To the last 
article he answered, that he doth believe that it is true; that is to say, that 
Christ, taking bread at his last supper into his hands, blessing it, breaking 
it, giving it to his disciples, and saying, "Take, eat: this is my body," 
did institute a sacrament there. And to the other part of this article, viz. 
that his body really and truly should be contained in the said sacrament, 
no substance of bread and wine there remaining, but only the accidents 
thereof — he answereth, that he doth not believe the same to be true. 

Cardmaker, calling to mind the cavillings of the papists, and thinking he 
had not fully answered the last article, did the next day add the following : 
" Whereas in my answers to your articles I deny the presence of Christ 
m the sacrament, I mean not his sacramental presence, for that I 
confess; but my denial is of his carnal presence in the same. But yet 
further, because this word is oftentimes taken by the holy fathers, not 
only for bread and wine, but also for the whole administration and 
receiving of the same according to Christ's institution ; so I say, that 
Christ is present spiritually too, and in all them who worthily receive 
the sacrament; so that my denial is still of the real, carnal, and cor- 
poreal presence in the sacrament, and not of the sacramental nor 
spiritual presence. This I have thought good to add to my former 
answer, because no man should misunderstand it." 

Mr. John Warne, a respectable tradesman of London, was the next 
selected for trial before this iniquitous court. Some little variety dis- 
tinguished the articles alleged against this individual, as the following 
sample will shew. 

"Thou hast said, that about a twelvemonth ago and more, a rough 
spaniel of thine was shorn on the head, and had a crown like a priest 
made on the same, thou didst laugh at it, and like it, though thou didst 
it not thyself, nor knewest who did it. 

" Thou neither this Lent last past, nor at any time since the queen's 
majesty's reign, hast come into the church, or heard mass, or been con- 
fessed, or received the sacrament of the altar; and hast said that thou 
art not sorry that thou hast so done, but that thou art glad, because 
thou hast not therewith defiled thy conscience. 

"Thou wast in time past here in the city of London, accused of heresy 
against the sacrament of the altar, according to the order of the laws of 
this realm of England in the time of king Henry VIII. and when 



MARTYRDOM OF WARNE AND CARDMAKER. 677 

alderman Barnes was then sheriff, and the Thursday after Anne Askew 
was burnt in Smithfield ; and thereupon thou wast sent a prisoner to 
Newgate, to whom Edmund, bishop of London, did repair with his 
cnaplains, to instruct thee in the true faith of Christ, touching the said 
sacrament of the altar, and to bring thee from thy error, which was, that 
in the sacrament of the altar there is not the body of Christ, nor any 
corporeal presence of Christ's body and blood, under the forms of 
bread and wine; but that in the said sacrament there is only material 
bread and wine, without any substance of Christ's body and blood at 
all : and because thou wouldst not leave and forsake thy said heresy 
therein, but would persist obstinately therein, thou wert, according to 
the said laws, condemned to be burnt; and thereupon suit being made 
for thee to the king and others in the court, thou hadst a pardon of 
king Henry VIII. and thereby didst save thy life. Nevertheless in thy 
heart and conscience thou didst both then, and also afore believe no 
otherwise than at this present thou dost believe ; that in the sacrament 
of the altar there is neither the very true body or blood of Christ, nor 
any other substance but the substance of material bread and wine; and 
to receive the said material bread and wine, and to break it, and to 
distribute it among the people, only is the true receiving of Christ's 
body, and no otherwise. In which thine opinion thou hast ever hitherto 
since continued, and so dost continue at this present, thou confessing all 
this to be true, and in witness thereof subscribing thy name thereunto." 

Mr. Warne being examined upon the above articles on the 23rd of 
May, answered for the same, confessing the articles and contents thereof 
to be true, according as they were objected in every part, subscribing 
also the same with his hand. Such strength and fortitude God's Holy 
Spirit wrought in him, to stand firmly and confidently to the defence of 
the sincere doctrine of his Son. 

The bishop, however, exhorted him with many persuasions to leave 
his heresies, and return to the bosom of his mother the holy church, 
and commanded him to appear again the next day. On being brought 
up, he answered as before, and was again earnestly exhorted by the 
bishop to recant. He answered, that he would not depart from his 
received profession, unless he were thoroughly persuaded by the holy 
scriptures. Upon which he was ordered to come again the following 
day, at one in the afternoon ; when the bishop examined him again upon 
all his former articles objected, to which he still constantly adhered, with 
this further answer — " I am persuaded that I am in the right opinion, 
and I see no cause to recant; for all the filthiness and idolatry is in 
the church of Rome." 

The bishop seeing that notwithstanding all his fair promises and ter- 
rible threatenings he could not prevail, pronounced the definitive sen- 
tence of condemnation against him, and charged the sheriffs of London 
with him, under whose custody he remained in Newgate until the 30th 
of May. Which day being appointed for execution, he, with John 
Cardmaker, were brought by the sheriffs to the place where they should 
suffer; and being come to the stake, first the sheriffs called Mr. Card- 
maker aside, and talked with him secretly, during which time Mr. Warne 
having prayed, was chained to the stake, and had wood and reeds set 



673 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

about him. The people had before heard a rumour that Mr. Cardmaker 
would recant, and were greatly afflicted, thinking indeed that he would 
now recant at the burning of Mr. Warne. At length Mr. Cardmaker 
left the sheriffs, came towards the stake, and kneeled down and made 
a long prayer in silence to himself. His prayer ended, he rose, and 
advanced with a bold courage to the stake, and kissed it: then taking 
Mr. Warne by the hand, he heartily comforted him, and cheerfully 
gave himself to be bound. The people seeing this so suddenly done, 
contrary to their fearful expectation, as men delivered out of a great 
doubt, cried out for joy, saying — " God be praised, the Lord strengthen 
thee, Cardmaker, the Lord Jesus receive thy spirit." And this continued 
while the executioner put fire to them, and both passed through the 
flame to the blessed rest and peace among God's holy saints and martyrs, 
to enjoy the crown of triumph and victory prepared for the soldiers of 
Christ Jesus in his kingdom. 

John Simson and John Ardeley were brought before the same court, 
and condemned for the same cause and on the same day with Cardmaker 
and Warne, namely the 25th of May. It would appear strange that 
so strict a search and so severe a proceeding were taken in reference to 
four individuals of no distinction in society. The surprise, however, 
may be dismissed on finding that on the preceding day Bonner had 
received a letter from their majesties at Hampton-court relative to the 
further persecution of the protestants, which acted as a stimulus upon 
the cruelty and craft of this sanguinary man, and was, doubtless, a 
means of hastening the condemnation, as well as multiplying the number 
of the martyrs. The letter is remarkable as a proof of the cruel dis- 
position of Philip and Mary, and of the sophistry with which they could 
proceed to gratify them. 

" Right reverend father in God, right trusty and well beloved, we 
greet you well. And whereas of late we addressed our letters to the 
justice of peace within every of the counties of this our realm, whereby 
amongst other instructions given them for the good order and quiet 
government of the country round about them, they are willed to have 
a special regard unto such disordered persons as do lean to any erroneous 
and heretical opinions, refusing to shew themselves conformable to the 
catholic religion of Christ's church; wherein if they cannot by good 
admonitions and fair means reform them, they are willed to deliver them 
to the ordinary, to be by him charitably travelled withal, and removed 
from their naughty opinions, or else, if they continue obstinate, to be 
ordered according to the laws provided in that behalf: understanding 
now, to our no little marvel, that divers of the said disorderly persons, 
being by the justices of the peace, for their contempt and obstinacy, 
brought to the ordinaries to be used as aforesaid, are either refused to be 
received at their hands, or if they be received, are neither so travelled 
with as christian charity requireth, nor yet proceeded withal according 
to the order of justice, but are suffered to continue in their errors, to 
the dishonour of Almighty God, and dangerous example of others; like 
as we find this matter very strange, so we have thought convenient both 
to signify our knowledge, and therewith also to admonish you to have 
in this behalf such regard henceforth to the office of a good pastor and 



EXAMINATION OF SIMSON AND ARDELEY. 679 

bishop, as when any such offenders shall be by the said officers or jus- 
tices of the peace brought unto you, you use your good wisdom and 
discretion in procuring to remove them from their errors, if it may be, 
or else in proceeding against them according to the order of the laws ; 
so as through your good furtherance, both God's glory may be better 
advanced, and the common-wealth more quietly governed. Given under 
our signet at our manor of Hampton-court, the 24th of May, the first 
and second years of our reign." 

The first article against Simson and Ardeley was of the most sweeping 
kind; that they had not believed, and did not believe, that there is on 
earth one catholic and universal whole church, which doth hold all the 
faith and religion of Christ, and all the necessary articles and sacra- 
ments. Secondly, that they had not believed, nor did believe, that they 
were necessarily bounden, under the pain of damnation, to give full 
faith and credence unto the said catholic and universal church, and to 
the religion of the same, in all necessary points of the said faith and 
religion, without wavering or doubting in the said faith or religion, or 
in any part thereof. Thirdly, that they had not believed that that faith 
and religion which both the church of Rome and all other churches in 
Europe do believe and teach, is agreeing with the said catholic and universal 
church and the faith and religion of Christ ; but contrariwise, that that 
faith and religion which the church of Rome and all the other churches 
aforesaid have believed, and do now believe, is false, and ought in no wise to 
be believed and kept of any Christian man. The four other articles alleged 
that they would not acknowledge the corporeal presence in the eucharist, 
or the sacrifice of the mass ; and that they condemned as superfluous, 
vain, and unprofitable, auricular confession, and all the ceremonies and 
services of the church, saying that services in a foreign tongue were 
unlawful and naught. 

The answers of John Simson, and also of John Ardeley, to the foresaid 
articles, taken out of the bishops' own registers : — 

To the first they believe, that here on earth there is one catholic and 
universal holy church, which doth hold and believe as is contained in the 
first article ; and that this church is dispersed and scattered abroad 
throughout the whole world. To the second, they believe that they are 
bound to give faith and credence unto it, as is contained in the second 
article. To the third, as concerning the faith and religion of the church 
of Rome, of Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland, and other churches 
in Europe, they have nothing to do with that faith and religion : but as 
concerning the faith and religion of England, that if the said church of 
England be ruled and governed by the Word of Life, then the church of 
England hath the faith and religion of the catholic church, and not other- 
wise ; and do say also, that if the church of England were ruled by the 
Word of Life, it would not go about to condemn us and others of this 
heresy. To the fourth they answer, that in the sacrament of the altar 
there is very bread and very wine, not altered or changed in substance in 
any wise ; and that he that receiveth the said bread and wine, doth 
spiritually and by faith only receive the body and blood of Christ ; but 
not the very natural body and blood of Christ in substance under the forms 
of bread and wine. To the fifth they say they have answered in answering 



680 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to the said fourth article. To the sixth they say they believe that the 
mass is of the pope, and not of Christ; and therefore it is not good, nor 
having in it any goodness, saving the " Gloria in excelsis," the epistle and 
gospel, the creed and the Lord's prayer ; and for this cause they have not, 
nor will they come and hear mass. 

To the seventh, John Ardeley answered that he believeth the same to be 
true ; but John Simson doth answer, that he is not fully resolved with 
himself what answer to make thereunto, and further saith that as touching 
the common and daily service said and used in the church, he saith that 
he never said that the service in the church ought to be said but in the 
English tongue ; nor yet he never said, that if it be otherwise said and 
used than in English, it is unlawful and naught. 

These articles being to them objected, and their answers made unto the 
same, the bishop, according to the mode of his consistory court, respited 
them to the afternoon. At which time the bishop repeating again the 
said articles unto them, and beginning with John Ardeley, urged and 
solicited him to recant. But he constantly standing to his religion an- 
swered — " My lord, neither you, nor any of your religion, are of the 
catholic church; for you are of a false faith: and I doubt not but ye 
shall be deceived at length, bear as good a face as ye can. Ye will 
shed the innocent blood, and ye have killed many, and yet go about 
to kill more. And if every hair of my head were a man, I would suffer 
death in the opinion and faith that I am now in." These, with many 
other words, he spake. Then the bishop yet demanded if he would 
relinquish his erroneous opinions, and be reduced again to the unity 
of the church. He answered, " No! God foreshield that I should so do, 
for then I should lose my soul." 

After this, the bishop asking John Ardeley if he knew any cause why 
he should not have sentence condemnatory against him, read the con- 
demnation, as he also did against John Simson, standing likewise in the 
same cause and constancy with John Ardeley. So were they both com- 
mitted to the secular power, that is, to the hands of the sheriffs, on the 
25th day of May, 1555, to be conveyed to the place where they should be 
executed. Being thus delivered to the sheriffs, they were shortly after 
sent down from London to Essex, where they were both put to death 
about the 10th of June. John Simson suffered at Rochford ; and John 
Ardeley, on the same day, at Rayleigh, finished his martyrdom most quietly 
in the quarrel of Christ's gospel. 

Furthermore it is not unworthy to be noted of all men, and known to 
all posterity, concerning the examinations of Ardeley and his company, 
how that they, on being brought before the commissioners, were by them 
greatly charged with stubbornness and vain glory. Unto whom they 
answered in defence of their own simplicity, that they were content willingly 
to yield to the queen all their goods and lands, so that they might be 
suffered to live under her, in keeping their conscience free from all idolatry 
and popery. Yet this would not be granted, although they had offered 
all to their heart's blood ; so greedy and so thirsty be these persecutors of 
Christian blood. The Lord give them repentance, if it be his will, and 
keep from them the just reward of such cruel dealing ! Amen. 



681 



SECTION VII. 

CONTAINING THE EXAMINATION AND MARTYRDOM OF MR. THOMAS HAUKES 
AND MR. THOMAS WATTS J WITH SOME OTHER INCIDENTS OF THE PERIOD. 

While Gardiner and Bonner thirsted for the blood of living reformers, 
cardinal Pole, possessed of somewhat less cruelty but even greater super- 
stition, directed his attention to every means of degrading the remains of 
those who were dead. By his order, the bones of Martin Bucer and 
Paulus Phagius, who had been nearly two years in their graves, were 
taken up and burned to ashes at Cambridge. And because he would 
shew some token of his diligence in this degrading work in both univer- 
sities, he caused the remains of the wife of Peter Martyr, who had been 
buried in St. Mary's church-yard, to be dug up and cast on a dunghill! 

Nor was the cardinal contented with thus treating the relics of dis- 
tinguished persons; where the least public profession of the reformed 
opinions had appeared, he was anxious to follow it up with this dis- 
graceful treatment of what remained of those who made it. Thus, 
because one Tooly, who had robbed a Spaniard and was executed for 
the crime at Charing-cross, read from a reformed book under the 
gallows, and spoke against the papal church before he suffered, he 
became an object of the cardinal's vengeance, who instigated the 
authorities to disturb the slumber of this unhappy man in his igno- 
minious grave, and to burn the corpse of him whom they had omitted to 
consume before. To be sure he had been a sinner against the Romish 
church of no small degree; for not only had he robbed a countryman 
of king Philip, as he was called; but at his execution for the crime had 
said that, as he and his fellows had stolen through covetousness, so the 
bishop of Rome sold his masses and trentals from the same motives. 

Mention has already been made of six men brought before bishop 
Bonner upon the 8th day of February, of which number was Thomas 
Haukes, who was condemned likewise with the other five on the 9th day 
of the foresaid month, though his execution was prolonged till the 10th of 
June following. As touching his education and order of life, first he was 
of the county of Essex, born of an honest stock, in calling and profession 
a courtier, brought up daintily from his childhood, and like a gentleman. 
He was a man of great comeliness and stature, well endued with excellent 
qualities; but his gentle behaviour towards others, and his fervent study and 
singrular love unto true religion and godliness, did surmount all the rest. 

Haukes following the fashion of the court, as he grew in years, entered 
into service with the lord of Oxford, with whom he remained a good 
space, being esteemed and loved by all the household, so long as 
Edward VI. lived. But he dying, all things began to go backward, 
religion to decay, true piety not only to wax cold, but also to be in 
danger every where, and chiefly in the houses of the great. Haukes 
misliking the state of things, and forsaking the nobleman's house, 
departed thence to his own home, where he might more freely give 
himself to God, and use his own conscience. Meanwhile he had born 
unto him a son, whose baptism was deferred to the third week, because 



682 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

he would not suffer him to be baptized after the papal manner. Tin's 
his adversaries would not suffer, but laid hands upon him, brought him 
to the earl of Oxford, there to be reasoned with as not sound in religion, 
but seeming to contemn the sacraments of the church. 

The earl, either intending not to trouble himself in such matters, or 
else seeing himself not able to contend with him in such points of 
religion, sent him up to London with a messenger and the following 
letter to the bishop of London — " Most reverend father in God, be it 
known unto you that I have sent you Thomas Haukes of the county of 
Essex, who hath a child that hath remained unchristened more than 
three weeks; who being upon the same examined hath denied to have 
it baptized, as it is now used in the church, whereupon I have sent him 
to your good lordship, to use as you think best by your good discretion." 
Thus willing to clear his own hands, he put him in the hands of Bonner, 
bishop of London, who began to communicate with Mr. Haukes, first 
asking, what should move him to leave his child unchristened so long? 
To this he answered — " Because we are bound to do nothing contrary 
to the word of God. His institution I do not deny; but I deny all 
things invented and devised by man: your oil, your cream, your salt, 
your spittle, your candle, and your conjuring of water." Then the 
dialogue thus went on. 

Bonner. Will you deny that which the whole world and your fore- 
fathers have been contented withal ? 

Haukes. "What my fathers and all the world have done, I have nothing 
to do with : but what God hath commanded me to do, to that stand I. 

Bonner. The catholic church hath taught it. 

Haukes. What is the catholic church? 

Bonner. It is the faithful congregation, wheresoever it be dispersed 
throughout the whole world. 

Haukes. Who is the head thereof? 

Bonner. Christ is the head thereof. 

Haukes. Are we taught in Christ, or in the church now? 

Bonner. Have you not read in the fourteenth of St. John where he 
said, He would send his comforter which should teach you all things? 

Haukes. I grant you it is so, that he would send his comforter, but to 
what end? Forsooth to this end, that he should lead you into all truth 
and verity, and that is not to teach a new doctrine. 

Bonner. Ah, sir, you are a right scripture man; for you will have 
nothing but the scripture. There are a great number of your country- 
men of your opinion. 

Mr. Haukes himself informs us that at this point of the dialogue the 
bishop sent for a preacher of Essex of the name of Baget. He knew 
and respected Mr. Haukes, and yet the bishop hoped to have influence 
enough over him to induce him to impeach his friend. At first he could 
not succeed ; but after a little private conversation with Baget the con- 
versation was thus resumed — 

Bonner. How say you now unto baptism? Say whether it be to be 
frequented and used in the church, as it is now, or not? 

Baget. Forsooth, my lord, I say it is good. 

Bonner. Befool your heart, could you not have said so before? You 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN EONNER AND HAUKES. 683 

have wounded this man's conscience. How say you now, sir, this man 
is turned and converted? 

Haukes. I build not my faith upon this man, neither upon you, but 
upon Christ Jesus only, who, as St. Paul saith, is the founder and 
author of all men's faith. 

Bonner. I perceive you are a stubborn fellow ; I must, therefore, go 
to work another way with you, to win you. 

Haukes. Whatsoever you do, I am ready to suffer it; .for I am in 
your hands to abide it. 

Bonner. Well, you are so; come on your ways, you shall go m, and 
I will use you christian-like : you shall have meat and drink, such as I 
have in my house : but in any wise talk not. 

Haukes. I purpose to talk nothing but the word of God and truth. 

Bonner. I will have no heresy talked of in my house. 

Haukes. Why, is the truth become heresy? God hath commanded 
that we should have none other talk in our houses, in our beds, at our 
meat, and by the way, but all truth. 

Bonner. If you will have my favour be ruled by my counsel. 

Haukes. Then I trust you will grant me my request. 

Bonner. What is that? 

Haukes. That your doctors and servants give me no occasion : for if 
they do, I will surely utter my conscience. 

Upon this the bishop commanded his men to take in Baget, that 
Haukes and he might not have an opportunity to talk together. And 
so thus they departed and went to dinner, dining at the steward's table 
After dinner, the bishop's chaplains and his men began to talk with 
Mr. Haukes; and in the company there was one Darbyshire, principal 
of Broadgates, in Oxford, and the bishop's kinsman, who said that 
Haukes was too curious: " for ye will have," said he, "nothing but 
your little pretty God's book." 

"And is not that sufficient for my salvation?" Haukes enquired. 
" Yes," said he, " it is sufficient for our salvation, but not for our 
instruction." At the time that they thus reasoned, Bonner came in; and 
after reproving Haukes for talking, they all went into his orchard again, 
when the bishop resumed the dialogue. 

Bonner. Would not ye be contented that your child should be 
christened after the book that was set out by king Edward? 

Haukes. Yes, with a good will : it is what I desire. 

Bonner. I thought so : ye would have the same thing. The principal 
is in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and in the 
necessity it may serve. Will ye be content to tarry here, and your 
child shall be baptized, and you shall not know of it, so that you will 
agree to it? 

Haukes. If I would so have done, I needed not to have come to you: 
for I had the same counsel given before. 

Bonner. You seem to be a lusty young man; you will not give your 
head for the washing; you will stand in the defence of it for the honour 
of your country. Do ye think that the queen and I cannot command it 
to be done in spite of your teeth? 



684 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Haukes. What the queen and you can do I will not stand in it: but 
ye get my consent never the sooner. 

Bonner. Well, you are a stubborn young man; I perceive I must 
work another way with you. 

Haukes. Ye are in the hands of God, and so am I. 

Bonner. Whatsoever you think, I will not have you speak such words 
unto me. 

They departed until even-song time: and ere even-song was begun, 
my lord called Haukes into the chapel, and said — " Haukes, thou art a 
proper young man, and God hath done his part unto thee; I would be 
glad to do thee good. Thou knowest that I am thy pastor, and one that 
should answer for thee. If I would not teach thee well I should answer 
for thy soul." 

Haukes. That I have said, I will stand to it, God willing: there is no 
way to remove it. 

Bonner. Nay, nay, Haukes, thou shalt not be so wilful. Remember 
Christ bade two go into his vineyard; the one said he would, and went 
not; the other said he would not, and went. Do thou likewise, and I 
will talk friendly with thee; how sayest thou? It is in the sixth of 
St. John — "I am the bread of life, and the bread that I will give is my 
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And whosoever eateth 
my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life. My flesh is 
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he that eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." Do ye 
believe this? 

Haukes. Yea, I must needs believe the scriptures. 

Bonner. Why, then I trust that you be sound in the blessed sa- 
crament. 

Haukes. I beseech your lordship to feel my conscience no farther 
than in that which I was accused in unto you. 

Bonner. Well, well, let us go unto even-song. Why will you not 
tarry even-song? 

Haukes. Because I have no edifying thereby, for I understand no Latin. 

Bonner. Why, you may pray by yourself. What books have you ? 

Haukes. I have the New Testament, the book of Solomon, and Psalter. 

Bonner. Then I pray you tarry here, and pray you on your Psalter. 

Haukes. I will not pray in this place, nor in any such. 

Then said one, " Let him go, my lord." So Bonner went to even-song ; 
and within an hour after sent for Haukes into his chamber. 

Bonner. You know of the talk that was between you and me, as 
concerning the sacrament. You would not have your conscience sought 
any farther, than in that you were accused of. 

Haukes. I thought you would not be both mine accuser and judge. 

Bonner. Well, you shall answer me to the sacrament of the altar, the 
sacrament of baptism, the sacrament of penance, and the sacrament of 
matrimony. 

Haukes. There are none of these, but I dare speak my conscience in 
them. 

Bonner. The sacrament of the altar you seem to be sound in. 

Haukes. In the sacrament of the altar? Why, sir, I do not know it. 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN HARPSFIELU AND HAUKES. 685 

Bonner. Well, we will make you to know it, and believe in it too, 
before we have done with you. 

Haukes. No, that shall ye never do. What God thinketh meet to be 
done, that shall ye do, and more ye shall not do. 

Bonner. Do you not believe that there remaineth in the blessed sacra- 
ment of the altar, after the words of consecration be spoken, no more 
bread, but the very body and blood of Christ? Why, did not Christ 
say, " Take, eat, this is my body?" 

Haukes. Christ said so: but therefore it followeth not that the sacra- 
ment of the altar is so as you teach, neither did Christ ever teach it so 
to be. 

Bonner. Why, the catholic church taught it so, and they were of 
Christ's church. 

Haukes. How prove you it? The apostles never taught it so. Neither 
St. Peter nor St. Paul ever taught it, nor instituted it so. 

Bonner. Ah, sir, you will have no more than the scripture teacheth, 
but even as Christ hath left it bare. 

Haukes. He that teacheth me any otherwise, I will not believe him. 

Bonner. Why, then you must eat a lamb, if you will have but Christ's 
institution only. 

Haukes. Nay, that is not so, for before Christ instituted the sacra- 
ment, that ceremony ceased, and then began the sacrament. Except 
you teach me by the word of God, I never will credit you, nor believe you. 

And thus they concluded. The next day the bishop went to London, 
for Fecknam was made dean that day. Upon the Monday morning, very 
early, the bishop called for Haukes, having with him Harpsfield, archdeacon 
of London, to whom he said, " This is the man which I told you of, who 
would not have his child christened, nor will have any ceremonies." 

Archdeacon. Christ use-d ceremonies. Did he not take clay from the 
ground, and took spittle, and made the blind man to see? 

Haukes. That I well know; but Christ never used it in baptism. If 
ye will needs have it, put it to the use that Christ put it unto. 

Archdeacon. Admit your child die unchristened, what a heavy case 
you stand in ! Marry, then are you damned, and your child both. Do 
you not know that your child is born in original sin ? and how is original 
sin washed away ? 

Haukes. By true faith and belief in Christ Jesus. 

Archdeacon. How can your child, being an infant, believe? 

Haukes. The deliverance of it from sin standeth in the faith of his 
parents. " The unbelieving man is sanctified by the believing woman, 
and the unbelieving woman is sanctified by the believing man, or else 
were your children unclean, but now are they holy." 

Bonner. Recant, recant: do you not know that Christ said, " Except 
ye be baptised, ye cannot be saved?" 

Haukes. I say as St. Peter saith, " Not the washing of water purgeth 
the filthiness of the flesh, but a good conscience consenting unto God." 

Bonner. Let us make an end here. How say you to the mass? 

Haukes. I say it is detestable, abominable, and unprofitable. 

Bonner. What, nothing profitable in it? What say you to the epistle 
and gospel ? 



686 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Haukes. It is good if it be used as Christ left it to be used. 

Bonner. How say you to the Confiteor? 

Haukes. I say it is abominable and detestable, yea, and a blasphemy 
against God, and his son Jesus Christ, to call upon any, to trust to any, 
or to pray to any, save only Christ Jesus. 

Archdeacon. What books have you ? 

Haukes. The New Testament, Solomon's books, and the psalter. 

Archdeacon. Will you read any other books? 

Haukes. Yes, Latimer's books, my lord of Canterbury's book, 
Bradford's sermons, and Ridley's books. 

Bonner. Away, away, he will have no books but such as maintain his 
heresies ! 

The next day came an old bishop, who had a pearl in his eye, and he 
brought with him unto my lord a dish of apples, and a bottle of wine. 
For he had lost his living because he had a wife. Then the bishop 
called Mr. Haukes again into the orchard, and said to the old bishop, 
" This young man hath a child, and will not have it christened." 

Haukes. I deny not baptism. 

Bonner. Thou art a fool; thou canst not tell what thou wouldst have. 

Haukes. A bishop must be blameless, sober, discreet, no brawler, nor 
given to anger. 

Bonner. Thou judgest me to be angry : no, by my faith I am not. 

With that he struck himself upon the breast. Then the old bishop 
said to Mr. Haukes, " Alas, good young man, you must be taught by 
the church, and by your elders, and do as your forefathers have done 
before you." 

Bonner. No, no, he will have nothing but the scriptures, and God 
knows, he doth not understand them. He will have no ceremonies in 
the church, no not one: what say you to holy water? The scriptures 
allow it? We prove it in the book of Kings, where Elisha threw salt 
into the water. 

Haukes. You say truth, that it is written in the Kings, the children 
of the prophets came to Elisha, saying — " The dwelling of the city is 
pleasant, but the waters be corrupted." This was the cause that Elisha 
threw salt into the water, and it became sweet and good : and so when 
our waters be corrupted, if you can, by putting in salt, make them sweet, 
clear, and wholesome, we will the better believe your ceremonies. 

Bonner. How say you to holy bread? Have you not read where 
Christ fed five thousand men with five loaves and two small fishes. 

Haukes. Will ye make that holy bread? There Christ dealt fish with 
his holy bread. He did not this miracle, or other, because we should 
do the like miracle, but because we should believe and credit his doc- 
trine thereby. 

Thus closed the dialogue with the bishop for the present. Mr. Haukes 
now went to dinner, and, if a humble and holy consciousness of attach- 
ment to the word of God amidst personal danger could impart appetite 
for the food of this life, his meal must have been a source of real en- 
joyment. After dinner he was called into the hall again, when his 
lordship desired the old bishop to take him into his chamber, to see if 
he could convert him. So he took him, and sat himself down in a chair, 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN CHEDSEY AND HAUKES. 687 

and said — "I would to God I could do you some good: you are a 
young man, and I would not wish you to go too far, but learn of your 
elders to bear somewhat." To this Haukes answered — " I will bear 
nothing that is contrary to the word of God." 

Next day, Fecknam came and said, "Are you he that will have no cere- 
monies? You will not have your child christened but in Englisii, and 
you will have no ceremonies." To this Haukes replied — " Whatsoever 
the scripture commandeth to be done, I refuse not." 

A short conversation then followed between Haukes and Fecknam 
concerning the real presence and the true interpretation of the words 
of Christ — "This is my body." The usual arguments on both sides 
were repeated. At length Fecknam said — "I perceive you hang and build 
on them that be at Oxford ; I mean Latimer, Cranmer, and Ridley. 

Haukes. I build my faith upon no man, and that shall ye well know : 
for if those men, and as many more as they be, should recant and deny that 
they have said and done, yet will I stand to it ; and by this shall ye know 
that I build my faith upon no man. 

Bonner. If any of those recant, what will ye say to it ? 

Haukes. When they recant, I will make you an answer. 

Bonner. Then thou wilt say as thou dost now for all that? 

Haukes. Yes indeed will I, and that, trust to it, by God's grace. 

Bonner. I dare say Cranmer would recant, so that he might have his living. 

And so the bishop and Fecknam departed from Haukes with great laugh- 
ing, and he went again to the porter's lodge. The next day came Dr. Chedsey 
to the bishop ; and then was Haukes called into the garden again. After 
some talk, Chedsey inquired, " What say ye to the church of Rome?" 

Haukes. I say it is a church composed of vicious cardinals, priests, 
monks, and friars, which I will never credit nor believe. 

Chedsey. What say you to the bishop of Rome? 

Haukes. From him and all his detestable enormities, good Lord de- 
liver us. 

Bonner. He will by no means come within my chapel, nor hear mass: 
for neither the mass nor the sacrament of the altar can he abide, nei- 
ther will he have any service but in English. 

Chedsey. Christ never spake in English. 

Haukes. Neither did he ever speak in Latin, but always in such a 
tongue as the people might be edified thereby. And St. Paul saith that 
tongues profit us nothing. He maketh a similitude between the pipe 
and the harp, and except it be understood what the trumpet meaneth, 
who can prepare himself to the battle? So if I hear a tongue that I 
do not understand, what profit have I thereby? no more than he hath 
by the trumpet, that knoweth not what it meaneth. 

Chedsey. If you understand St. Paul's saying, he speaketh it under 
a prophecy — " If one prophesy to you in tongues." 

Haukes. St. Paul maketh a distinction between prophecying and 
tongues, saying — " If any man speak with tongues, let it be two or three 
at the most, and let another interpret it. But if there be no interpreter, 
let them keep silence in the congregation, and let himself pray unto 
God : and then let the prophets speak two or three, and that by course, 
and let the others judge: and if any revelation be made to him that 



688 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

sitteth by, let the first hold his peace:" so that it seemeth that St. Paul 
maketh a distinction between tongues and prophesying. 

Chedsey. Hath any man preached other than Christ's doctrine unto you ? 

Haukes. Yea ; I have been taught, since I came here, praying to saints 
and to our Lady, trusting in the mass, holy bread, holy water, and idols. 

Chedsey. He that teaches you so, teacheth not amiss. 

Haukes. Cursed be he that teacheth me so! for I will not trust him, 
nor believe him. 

The next day Dr. Chedsey preached in the bishop's chapel, and did 
not begin his sermon until the service was done : and then came the 
porter for Haukes, and said — " My lord would have you come to the 
sermon;" and so he went to the chapel and stood without the door, and 
when Bonner commanded him in, Haukes refused and answered, " I 
will come no nearer," and so stood at the door. 

Then Dr. Chedsey put the stole about his neck, and carried the holy 
water unto the bishop, who blessed him, and sprinkled him with holy 
water, and so he went to his sermon. His text was the sixteenth of 
St. Matthew — " Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? Peter 
said, Some say that thou art Elias, some that thou art John the Baptist, 
some say thou art one of the prophets. But whom say ye that I am? 
Then said Peter, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God." Then he 
left the text there, and said," * Whose sins soever ye bind, are bound: ' 
which authority is left to the heads of the church, as my lord here is 
one, and so unto all the rest that be underneath him. But the church 
hath been much kicked at since the beginning: yet kick the heretics, 
spurn the heretics ever so much, the church doth stand and flourish." 
Then he went straightway to the sacrament, and said his mind on it, 
exalting it above heaven, as most of them do, and so returned to this 
place again, saying, " Whose sins ye do remit, are remitted and for- 
given :" and so he applied it to the bishops and priests to forgive sins, 
and said, " All that be of the church will come and receive the same." 
And this he attempted to prove by St. John saying, that Christ came 
to raise Lazarus, who, when he was risen, was bound in bands: then 
said Christ to them that were in authority, " Go ye and loose him, let 
him go." And this was the effect of his sermon, applying all to the 
bishops, that they have the same authority that Christ spake of to his 
apostles. 

The several parties separated after this sermon for dinner. After 
dinner Mr. Haukes was called into the chapel, where were several of 
the queen's servants, and other strangers whom he did not know. The 
conversation was thus resumed — 

Bonner. Haukes, how like you the sermon? What, are you not 
edified thereby? It was made only because of you. 

Haukes. Why, then I am sorry that you had no more heretics here, 
as you call them : I am sorry that you have bestowed so much labour 
on one, and that the labour was so little regarded by him. 

Bonner. Well, I will leave you here, for I have business; I pray 
my friends to talk with him, for if you could do him good, I would 
be glad. 

This the bishop spake to Ihe queen's men, who said unto Haukes, 



EXAMINATION OF THOMAS HAUKES. 689 

" Alas! what mean you to trouble yourself about such matters against 
the queen's proceedings?" 

Haukes. This matter have I answered before them in authority: 
and unless I see you have a further commission, I will answer you 
nothing at all. 

The bishop had borne with answers equally firm and decisive as this; 
but the servants were more haughty than their lord, and instantly re- 
sented what they affected to consider an insult. They loudly exclaimed 
as with one heart and voice, " Fagots! burn him! hang him! to prison 
with him! it is pity he liveth! lay irons upon him!" and with a great 
noise they spake these words. In the midst of all their rage he departed 
from them to the porter's lodge again. The next day the bishop called 
him into his chamber, and said, " You have been with me a great while, 
and you are never the better, but worse and worse: and therefore I 
will delay the time no longer, but send you to Newgate. Come on 
your ways, you shall see what I have written." Then did he shew 
certain articles, and this is the substance of them — whether the catholic 
church doth teach and believe, that Christ's real presence doth remain in 
the sacrament or no, after the words of consecration, according to these 
words of St. Paul; " Is not the bread which we break the partaking of 
the body of Christ, and the cup which we bless, the partaking of the 
blood of Christ?" which, if it were not so, St. Paul would never have 
said it. 

Haukes. What your church doth understand I cannot tell : but I am 
sure that the holy catholic church doth never so take it, nor believe it. 

Bonner. Whether doth the catholic church teach and believe the 
baptism that now is used in the church, or no? 

Haukes. I answered to it as I did to the other question before. 

Again the opponents separated for the night. The next morning, 
which was the first of July, the bishop called Haukes from the porter's 
lodge, commanding him to make himself ready to go to prison, and to 
take such things with him as he had of his own. Then he wrote his 
warrant to the keeper of the Gate-house at Westminster, and delivered 
it to Harpsfield, who, with his own man and one of the bishop's, brought 
him to prison, and delivered the warrant to the keeper, which ran as 
follows — " I will and command you, that you receive him who cometh 
named in this warrant, and that he be kept as a safe prisoner, and that 
no man speak with him, and that you deliver him to no man, except it 
be to the council, or to a justice; for he is a sacramentary, and one that 
speaketh against baptism, a seditious man, a perilous man to be abroad 
in these perilous days." 

There he remained thirteen days, when the bishop sent two of his 
men unto him, saying, " My lord would be glad to know how you do." 
He answered them, "I do like a poor prisoner." They said, " My 
lord would know whether you be the same man that you were when 
you departed." He said, " I am no changeling." They said, " My 
lord would be glad that you should do well." He said, " U my lord 
will do me any good, I pray you desire him to suffer my friends to come 
to me." They said they would speak for him, but he heard no more 
of them. In fact he remained in close confinement, neglected by his 



690 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

enemies, insulted by those who had the charge of him, and denied the 
society and advice of his friends, for nearly two months, during which 
it afterwards appeared that Bonner was devising every crafty method to 
prepare him, either for a public recantation or a dreadful death; or 
perhaps for both, and for the one as the immediate precursor of the 
other. 

His second examination took place on the 3rd of September, imme- 
diately after a sermon by Gardiner at St. Paul's Cross. In answer to a 
question from Bonner whether he would attend and hear the discourse, 
Mr. Haukes said — "Yes, my lord, I pray you let me go; and that 
which is good I will receive, and the rest I will leave behind me." 

Bonner soon perceived that the sermon, though prepared and preached 
by one who was bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor at the same 
time, produced no effect in the mind of his steadfast prisoner, except 
rendering him more steadfast in the true faith. He therefore retired to 
prepare a paper that Haukes would be required to sign ; meanwhile he 
left the latter to be reviled and taunted by some of his menials. Among 
these was one Smith, who was an apostate from the reformed church, and 
appears to have been retained by Bonner as a fit instrument of his evil 
designs against the reformers. Mr. Haukes observes of him in his 
journal — " As I stood there, Dr. Smith came unto me, who once re- 
canted, as it appeared in print, saying, he would be glad to talk 
brotherly with me. I asked him what he was? Then said they that 
stood by, he is Dr. Smith. Then said I, Are you he that did recant? 
And he said, It was no recantation, but a declaration." To this 
Mr. Haukes answered with a smile, " You were best to term it well for 
your own honesty : but to be short with you, I will know whether you 
will recant any more or not before I talk with you, credit you, or 
believe you ! and so I departed from him to the other side of the 
chamber." 

It would be trifling with the reader's patience to record the conversa- 
tions which Mr. Haukes was compelled to hold with other individuals 
even of a meaner stamp: it may be remarked, however, that he per- 
fectly confounded every one of them — being constrained to exercise his 
talent for satire, and to answer the fools according to their folly. At 
length the bishop, having finished his paper, came to Mr. Haukes and 
laid it before him to sign — first reading the following portion of it—" I 
Thomas Haukes do hereby confess and declare before my said ordinary, 
Edmund, bishop of London, that the mass is abominable and detestable, 
and full of all superstition, and also as concerning the sacrament of the 
body and blood of Christ, commonly called the sacrament of the altar, 
that Christ is in no part thereof, but only in heaven : this I have be- 
lieved, and this I do believe." At this point Mr. Haukes said, " Stop 
there, my lord: what I have believed, what have you to do withal? but 
what I do believe, to that stand I and will." Altering the paper ac- 
cordingly, the bishop went farther with his writing, and said, " I Thomas 
Haukes have talked with my said ordinary, and with certain good, godly, 
and learned men ; notwithstanding I stand still in mine opinion." 

Here Mr. Haukes was constrained to protest — " Shall I grant you to 
be good, godly, and learned men, and yet allow myself to stand in a 



CONDEMNATION OF THOMAS HAUKES. 691 

contrary opinion ? No, I will not grant you to be good, godly, and 
learned men." 

Bonner. Ye will grant that ye have talked with us : the other I will put 
out for your pleasure. 

Then said all his doctors, " If your lordship be ruled by him, he will 
cause you to put out all together." And then he read more : " Here unto 
this bill have I set my hand," and then he offered Haukes the bill and his 
pen, and bade him set his hand to it. 

Haukes. Ye get not my hand to anything of your making or devising. 

Bonner. Wilt not thou set to thy hand ? It shall be to thy shame for 
the denying of it. 

And then he called all his doctors, and said he would have every man's 
hand to it that was in the chamber. And so he had all their hands to it, 
and said, " He that will not set his hand to it, I would he were hanged ;" 
and so said all his chaplains and doctors with a great noise. Then the 
bishop thrust Haukes on the breast with great anger, saying he would be 
even with him, and with all such proud knaves in Essex. 

Haukes. Ye shall do no more than God shall give you leave. 

Bonner. This gear shall not go unpunished — trust to it. 

Haukes. As for your cursings, railings, and blasphemings, I care not for 
them : for I know the moths and worms shall eat you, as they eat cloth, etc. 

Bonner. I will be even with you when time shall come. 

Haukes. You may in your malice destroy a man ; but, when you have 
done, ye cannot do so much as make a finger ; and ye are meetly even 
with some of us already. 

Then Bonner took the bill, and read it again ; and when he saw that he 
could not have his hand to it, then he would have had him to take it into 
his hand, and to give it to him again. 

Haukes. What needeth that ceremony ? Neither shall it come into my 
hand, heart, or mind. — Then the bishop wrapt it up, put it in his bosom, 
and in great anger went his way, and called for his horse ; for the same 
day he rode in visitation into Essex. 

After all these private conferences, persuasions, and long debatings had 
with Thomas Haukes in the bishop's house, the bishop, seeing no hope to 
win him to his wicked ways, was fully set to proceed openly against him 
after the ordinary course of his popish law. Whereupon Thomas Haukes, 
shortly after, was cited with the rest of his other fellows above specified, 
to wit, Thomas Tomkins, Stephen Knight, William Pygot, John Lawrence, 
and William Hunter, to appear in the bishop's consistory, the 8th day of 
February, 1555. Upon which appearance was laid against him, in like 
order as to the others, first the bill of his confession, written with Bonner's 
hand, to the which bill ye heard before how this blessed servant of God 
denied to subscribe. After which bill of confession being read, and he 
constantly standing to the said confession, the bishop then assigned him, 
with the other five, the day following to appear before him again, to give 
a resolute answer what they would stick unto. 

Being exhorted the next day by the bishop to return again to the bosom 
of the mother church, he .answered, " No, my lord, that will I not; for if 
I had a hundred bodies, I would suffer them all to be torn in pieces, rather 
than I will abjure and recant." Whereupon Bonner, at the last, read the 



692 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

sentence of death upon him ; and so was he condemned the same day with 
the residue of his fellows, which was the 9th of February. Nevertheless 
his execution was prolonged, and he remained in prison till the 10th day 
of June. Then was he committed to the hands and charge of the lord 
Rich, who, being assisted with power sufficient of the worshipful ot the 
shire, had the foresaid Thomas Haukes down into Essex, with six other 
fellow-prisoners, whose stories hereafter follow, there to suffer martyrdom ; 
Haukes at Coggleshall, the others severally in other several places. 

By the way, Thomas Haukes used great exhortation to his friends ; 
and whensoever opportunity served to talk with them, he would familiarly 
admonish them. When the day and hour of his execution arrived, being 
led to the place appointed for the slaughter, he there mildly and patiently 
prepared himself for the fire, having a strait chain cast about his middle, 
with a multitude of people on every side, unto whom he spake many 
things. At length, after his fervent prayers first made and poured out 
unto God, the fire was set unto him ; in the which when he had continued 
long, and when his speech was taken away by violence of the flame, his 
skin also drawn together, and his fingers consumed, so that now all men 
thought that he had certainly been gone, suddenly this blessed servant of 
God (being mindful of a promise secretly made unto his friends) reached 
up his hands burning on a light fire over his head to the living God, and 
with great rejoicing, as it seemed, struck or clapped them three times 
together : and so the blessed martyr of Christ, straightway sinking down 
into the fire, gave up his spirit, June 10, 1555. 

Thomas Watts, of Billericay in Essex, and of the diocese of London, 
was by his occupation a linen draper. Before he was apprehended he 
disposed of his stock in trade, giving much of his cloth to the poor ; and 
being in daily expectation of his enemies' virulence, he set his affairs in order, 
for the sake of his wife and children. On the 26th of April he was 
apprehended and brought before the lord Rich and other commis- 
sioners at Chelmsford, and there being accused for not coming to the 
church, was upon the same examined before the lord Rich, Sir Anthony 
Brown, Edmund Tyrel, and several other magistrates of the county. 
When Mr. Watts first came before the justices at the sessions at 
Chelmsford, lord Rich thus addressed him, "Watts, you be brought 
hither, as I understand, because of disobedience to the king and queen's 
laws. You will not come to the church, you will not hear mass; but 
have your conventicles a sort of you in corners, contrary to the king 
and queen's proceedings." 

To this Mr. Watts answered, " My lord, if I have offended a law, I 
am subject to the law." Then justice Brown said to him, " Watts, J 
pray thee tell me who has been thy schoolmaster to teach thee this 
religion, or where didst thou first learn it?" " Forsooth," said Watts, 
" even of you, sir, you taught it me, and none more than you. For in 
king Edward's days in open sessions you spake against the religion now 
used, no preacher more. You then said the mass was abominable, and 
all their trumpery besides, wishing and earnestly exhorting that none 
should believe therein, and that our belief should be only in Christ: 
and you then said, that whosoever should bring in any strange nation 
to rule here, it were treason, and not to be suffered." 



EXAMINATION OF THOMAS WATTS. 693 

Then said Brown to my lord Rich, " He belies me, my lord. What a 
knave is this! he will soon belie me behind my back, when he doth it 
before my face." And my lord Rich said again, " I dare say he doth so." 
In conclusion, the commissioners being weary of him, or else not willing 
to meddle further in such high matters, sent him up to the bishop of 
London, with their letter withal, importing the cause of his sending up. 

On Thursday, the 2nd of May, Thomas Watts was accordingly brought 
before the bishop of London ; and there being examined, upon his words 
had before the lord Rich and others, as is contained in their letters, he did 
earnestly affirm the same to be true. Whereupon the bishop objected, 
and examined him upon these articles following. (1) That he was of 
Billericay, and so of the jurisdiction of the bishop of London. (2) That 
he believed not in the sacraments of the church of Rome. (3) That he 
believeth, and also hath taught others, that the substance of material bread 
and wine doth remain in the sacrament after the consecration. (4) That 
he believeth that the very true presence of Christ's body and blood, in 
substance, is not in the sacrament, but only in heaven, and nowhere else. 
(5) That he believeth that the mass now used in the church of Rome is 
full of idolatry, abomination, and wickedness, and that Christ did never 
institute it. (6) That he believeth auricular confession to be not necessary, 
but superfluous. (7) That he believeth that Luther, Wickliffe, Dr. Barnes, 
and all others that have holden against the sacrament, and suffered death 
by fire for the maintenance of the said opinion, were good men, and faithful 
servants and martyrs of Christ in so believing and dying. (8) That he 
hath and doth believe that to fast, pray, or to do alms-deeds, is a thing 
utterly unprofitable. (9) That coming unto the open court at the sessions, 
he there said openly, that all that is now used and done in the church is 
abominable, heretical, schismatical, and altogether naught. (10) That he 
the said Thomas, by reason of the premises, was and is a manifest and 
open heretic ; and for the same is to be declared accursed ; and being 
obstinate and incorrigible, is to be delivered to the secular power, there to 
be punished as a heretic. (11) That he, besides all these offences, had 
believed and deliberately spoken, that the church of Rome, in her rites, 
ceremonies, sacraments, constitutions, and traditions, is the synagogue of 
Satan. (12) That the premises and every part thereof be true, notorious, 
manifest, and openly spoken and talked of. — To these articles the said 
Thomas Watts answered : The first he confessed to be true. To the second, 
that he believed in all the sacraments according to Christ's institution, but 
not according to the bishop of Rome's church. To the third, that he hath 
and doth believe that Christ's body is in heaven, and nowhere else ; and 
further, that he will never believe that Christ's body is in the sacrament. 
To the fourth, that he believed the same to be true. To the fifth, that he 
believed that the mass is abominable, and would not go from that belief. 
To the sixth, that the priest could not absolve him of his sins, though he 
allowed it to be good to ask counsel at the priest's mouth. To the seventh, 
that he knew not what the opinions of the said persons were. To the 
eighth, he denied having thus spoken ; but said that fasting, prayers, and 
almsdeeds, be works of a lively faith. To the ninth, that he did thus 
speak, and desired God that he might die in that faith and belief, wherein 
he now is. To the tenth, that he will submit himself to the order of the 



694 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

law; and further said, that he trusteth that with God he shall be blessed , 
although with men he be accursed. To the eleventh, that he believed the 
bishop of Rome to be a mortal enemy to Christ and his church. To the 
twelfth, that all which before he confessed to be true, is true ; and all that 
he hath denied to be true, he denieth again to be true, and believeth the 
same to be according to such things as he hath confessed. 

Thus having answered the articles, the bishop commanded Mr. Watts 
to appear again in the same place at three o'clock in the afternoon ; 
when, after many persuasions to cause him to recant, he ordered him to 
depart, and come again on Saturday at eight o'clock in the morning. 
The bishop being then absent, Harpsfield, the archdeacon, represented 
him, and earnestly exhorted Watts to deny his opinions. But he being 
still resolute, as one whose house was built upon a rock, Harpsfield 
ordered him to appear there again upon Friday, the 10th day of the 
same month. Upon which day the bishop sent for him privately into 
his chamber; but finding all persuasion in vain, he was again dismissed 
until the 17th of May, and then commanded to appear in the consistory; 
when being condemned he was delivered to the sheriffs of London, by 
whom he was sent to Newgate, where he remained until the 9th of June 
when he was carried to Chelmsford, to an inn, where, as he and his 
fellow sufferers were eating, they prayed together both before and after 
their meal. When this was over, Mr. Watts retired, and prayed private- 
ly, and afterwards came to him his wife and six children, when having 
exhorted them to remain steadfast in the faith, he bade them farewell. 

Being brought to the stake, he kissed it, after which he thus addressed 
lord Rich: "My lord, beware, beware, for you do against your own 
conscience herein, and without you repent, the Lord will avenge it ; for 
you are the cause of my death." 

Mention was made before, in the story of Thomas Haukes, of six 
prisoners which were sent down with him to Essex ; of which six, three 
were sent to be burned, and three to recant and do penance. Their names 
were, Thomas Osmond, fuller ; William Bamford, weaver ; Nicholas 
Chamberlain, weaver ; Thomas Osborne, fuller ; Thomas Brodehill, 
weaver ; Richard Web, weaver ; being all of the town of Coggleshall. 
The articles objected against Osmond, Bamford, and Chamberlain were 
similar to those of Watts and others, and their answers equally firm and 
decided. After these had been propounded and answered, they were dis- 
missed till the afternoon ; at which time the bishop and his assistants, by 
fair and flattering speeches, tried to make them recant and revoke their 
opinions. They, notwithstanding, remained firm, and therefore were sent 
away again until the next day ; in the afternoon of which the bishop con- 
demned them as heretics, and so delivered them to the sheriffs, in whose 
custody they remained until they were delivered to the sheriff of Essex, 
and by him executed : Chamberlain at Colchester, on the 14th of June ; 
Thomas Osmond at Manningtree, and William Bamford at Harwich on 
the day following. 

Long persuasion had been in England with great expectation, for the 
space of half a year or more, that the queen was conceived with child. 
This report was made by the queen's physicians, and others nigh about the 
court ; so that divers were punished for saying the contrary. Command- 



■-m 



MARY'S SUPPOSED PREGNANCY. 69.5 

ment was given, that in all churches supplication and prayer should be 
made for the queen's safe delivery; as may appear by provision made 
before in act of parliament for the child. Such was the public excite- 
ment that about Whitsuntide, the time that this young prince should 
come into the world, a rumour was blown in London of the prosperous 
deliverance of the queen, and the birth of a son! Then the bells were 
rung-, bonfires and processions made, not only in London, and in most 
other parts of the realm, but also in Antwerp guns were shot off upon 
the river by the English ships, and the mariners thereof rewarded with 
a hundred pistolets, or Italian crowns, by the lady regent, who was 
the queen of Hungary. Yea, divers preachers, after procession and 
Te Deum, took upon them to describe the proportion of the child, how 
fair, how beautiful, and great a prince it was, as the like had not been 
seen! 

It is said that a simple man, dwelling within four miles of Berwick, 
who never had been before half way to London, cried out concerning 
the bonfires made for the supposed child — " Here is a joyful triumph, 
but at length all will not prove worth a mess of pottage;" as indeed it 
came to pass: for in the end it proved quite contrary, and the joy and 
expectations of men were much deceived. One thing of mine own hearing 
and seeing I cannot pass over unwitnessed : There came to me, whom I 
did both hear and see, one Isabel Malt, a woman dwelling in Aldersgate- 
street, in Horn-alley, who before witness made this declaration : that she 
being delivered of a man-child upon the 11th of June, 1555, there came 
to her the lord North, and another lord to her unknown, dwelling then 
about Old Fish-street, demanding of her if she would part with her child, 
and would swear that she never knew nor had any such child ; which, if 
she would, her son (they said) should be well provided for, she should take 
no care for it ; with many fair offers if she would part with her child : but 
she in no wise would let go her son, who at the writing hereof being alive, 
and called Timothy Malt, was of the age of thirteen years and upward. 

Among many other great preparations made for the queen's deliverance 
of child, there was a cradle very sumptuously and gorgeously trimmed, 
upon which these lines were written both in Latin and English : 

The child which thou to Mary, O Lord of Might ! hast sen<2, 
To England's joy, in health preserve ! — keep, and defend ! 

About this time there came over a certain English book, warning 
Englishmen of the Spaniards, and disclosing certain close practices for re- 
covery of abbey-lands, which book was called, "A Warning for England." 
By the occasion of this book, upon the 13th day of this month came out 
a certain proclamation, in the name of the king and queen, repealing and 
disannulling all manner of books written or printed, whatsoever should touch 
any thing to the impairing of the pope's dignity ; whereby not only much 
godly edification was hindered, but also great peril grew among the people. 

Now as these papists have in this present proclamation condemned these 
books above recited ; so I desire thee to give thy censure upon their books, 
by them allowed, and upon the matter in them contained, and mark well 
what good stuff it is. And to begin with the Primer in English for children, 
after the use of Salisbury, called "Our Lady's Matins;" let us repeat and 



696 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

survey some part thereof, beginning with the first lesson of our Lady in 
these words : — 

" Holy Mary, mother most pure of virgins all, 
Mother and daughter of the King Celestial, 
So comfort us in our desolation, 
That by thy prayer and special mediation 
We enjoy the reward of thy heavenly reign," etc. 

Confer this with the Scriptures, good reader, and judge uprightly, 
whether this doctrine be tolerable in the church or not. It folio weth 
more in the second lesson : — 

"Holy Mary, of all godly the godliest, 
Pray for us, of all holy the holiest; 
That He our prayers accept may in good wise 
Which of thee was born, and reigneth above the skies," etc. 

The Versicle. — " Pray for the people, entreat for the clergy, make 
intercession for the devout woman-kind ; let all feel thy help, that worthily 
solemnize thy memorial," etc. 

" Holy Mother of God, make thy petition, 
That we may deserve Christ's promission," etc. 

And in the anthem after Bened ictus, thus it followeth : — " We beseech 
thee of thy pity to have us in remembrance, and to make means for us 
unto Christ, that we, being supported by thy help, may deserve to attain 
the kingdom of heaven ! " 

Item. — " Holy Mother, succour the miserable, comfort the weak-spirited, 
give courage to the desperate, pray for the people, make intercession for 
the clergy, and be a means for the devout woman-kind," etc. 

Another blasphemy in the said Primer : — " Hail Queen ! mother of 
mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope ! Unto thee do we cry and sigh, 
weeping and wailing. Come off, therefore, our patroness ; cast upon us 
thy pitiful eyes ; and after this our banishment, shew to us the blessed 
fruit of thy womb. O Gate of glory, be for us a reconciliation unto the 
Father and the Son. From the wretched their faults expel : remove the 
spots of sins unclean," etc. 

And thus much of this catholic primer, called our Lady's Matins. 
Whereunto, if it were not tedious for the reader, we would also adjoin our 
Lady's Psalter, to the intent that all indifferent readers, as they have seen 
what books these catholic fathers have condemned and do condemn for 
heretical ; so they may also see and judge what books on the other side 
they approve as lawful and catholic. And forasmuch as it is not known 
peradventure to all men what our Lady's Psalter is, or what it meaneth, 
here therefore we will first produce the name of the author, who was 
Bonaventure, a seraphical doctor, bishop also and cardinal, canonized 
moreover by pope Sixtus IV., anno 1482, for a saint in the calendar, who, 
to show himself a devout servant to his Lady, hath taken every Psalm of 
David, (which peculiarly refer to Almighty God,) and hath in divers of the 
said psalms and verses put out the name of the Lord, and hath placed in 
the name of our Lady. This being done, it is now called our Lady's 
Psalter, used to be sung and said in the praise and service of our Lady. 
A brief taste whereof, for example's sake, (for, to show all, it were too 
long,) here followeth: "Blessed is the man which understandeth thy 



EXTRACTS FROM OUR LADY'S PSALTER. 697 

name, O Virgin Mary; thy grace shall comfort his soul. Thou shalt 
bring forth in him the most plentiful fruit of justice, being refreshed as 
it were with fountains of water. All women thou passest in the beauty 
of thy body, all angels and archangels in the excellency of thy holiness. 
Thy mercy and thy grace are magnified every where. 

" Why do our enemies fret and imagine vain things against us? Let 
thy right hand defend us, O mother of God, terribly confounding and 
destroying them as with a sword. Come unto her, all ye that labour and 
are troubled, and she will give rest unto your souls. Come unto her in 
your temptations, and her loving countenance shall stablish and comfort 
you. Bless her with all your heart ; for the earth is full of her mercy. 

" Why are they so many, O Lady, that trouble me? In thy fury thou 
shalt persecute and destroy them. Loose the bonds of our impiety, and 
take away the burden of our sins. Have mercy upon me, O Lady, and 
heal my infirmity. Take away my sorrow and the anguish of my heart. 
Deliver me not into the hands of mine enemies, and in the day of my 
death comfort my soul. Bring me unto the haven of salvation, and 
restore my spirit unto my Maker and Creator. 

"When I called to thee, thou heardest me, O my Lady, and out of 
thy high throne thou didst vouchsafe to think upon me. From the roar- 
ing of them that prepare themselves to devour me, and out of the hands 
of such as seek after my life, thy grace shall deliver me : because thy 
mercy and thy pity are great towards all them that call upon thy holy 
name. Blessed be thou, O Lady, for ever, and thy majesty for ever 
and ever. Glorify her, all nations of the earth. 

"Hear my words, O Lady, turn our mourning into gladness, and 
our trouble into rejoicing. Let our enemies fall before our feet, and 
with thy power dash their heads in pieces. O Lady, suffer me not to be 
rebuked in God's anger, nor to be chastened in his heavy displeasure. 
From the gate and deep pit of hell, with thy holy prayers deliver us. 
Let the everlasting gates be opened, that we may shew forth thy mar- 
vellous works for ever. Because the dead, nor they that be in hell, 
shall not praise thee, O Lady, but they which shall obtain by thy grace 
life everlasting. 

" O my Lady, in thee will I put my trust; deliver me from mine ene- 
mies. Stop the mouth of the lion, and bind the lips of the persecutors. 
Make no tarrying, for thy name's sake, to show thy mercy upon me. 
Let the brightness of thy countenance shine upon us, that our conscience 
may be saved before the Most Highest. If the enemy do persecute my 
soul, O Lady ; help me that he destroy me not. I will give thanks to 
thee, O Lady, with my whole heart, and will shew forth among the 
nations thy praise and glory. They shall find grace through thee, the 
finder out of grace and salvation. The humble and penitent groan for 
pardon and forgiveness ; heal thou the sores of their heart. 

" In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust. Seek her even from your 
youth, and she shall glorify you. Her mercy take from us the multitude 
of our sins, and give unto us plenteousness of merits. Save me, O 
mother of love, and fountain of mercy. Thou thyself alone hast gone 
about the compass of the earth, to help them that call upon thee. How 
long dost thou forget me, O Lady, and dost not deliver me in the day 



693 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of my trouble? How long shall mine enemy triumph over me ? With 
thy mighty power destroy him. We magnify thee the finder and the 
author of grace, by whom the world is repaired. 

" Preserve me, O Lady, for in thee have I put my trust. Blessed 
be thy breasts, which with thy deifying milk did nourish the Saviour. 
I will love thee, O Lady of heaven and earth ; I will call upon thy 
name among the nations. Confess yourselves unto her, ye that are 
troubled in heart, and she shall strengthen you against your enemies. 
O all ye cloisterers honour her, for she is your helper and special ad- 
vocate. Be thou our refreshing and rest, for thou art the marvellous 
foundation of all religion. 

" Hear us, O Lady, in the day of trouble. Cast us not away in the time 
of our death, but succour our soul when it forsaketh the body. Send 
an angel to meet it, that it may be defended from the enemies. In 
torments and pain let it feel thy comfort, and grant to it a place among 
the elect of God." 

Moreover, in the Rosary or Garland of our Lady, compiled by the said 
St. Bonaventure, these words are to be read as followeth : — 

" O Mediatrix between God and man, the Lord hath worthily magnified 
thee, that thou only shouldst conceive his Son. Wherefore, O good Mary 
our mediatrix, mother of grace, and mother of mercy," etc. — " Therefore, 
O our Empress and Lady most bountiful, by the authority of a mother 
command, command (I say) thy well-beloved Son." — "O the Advocate 
of the miserable, the eyes of thy servants be directed to thee," etc. To 
these I might also adjoin the horrible and most blasphemous words of the 
said Bonaventure, " What greater goodness can be, than that Christ is 
content to be captive upon the altar ? " 

Is not here good catholic stuff, Christian reader, trow you? Confer 
this doctrine with the doctrine of the Apostles, who teach us that we are 
complete in Christ, and I will refer ye to no better judge than to your own 
conscience. And now, therefore, if any man be in doubt in times past of 
the doctrines and proceedings of the church of Rome, whether it be rightly 
charged with blind errors, with blasphemy intolerable, and idolatry abo- 
minable, or not, here now may he be fully certified and resolved. For 
where was ever idolatry or blasphemy to be found, if it be not here in this 
Matins and Psalter of our Lady ? 

SECTION VIII. 

THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF JOHN BRADFORD, WHO TOGETHER WITH 
JOHN LEAF WAS BURNED IN SMITHFIELD. 

John Bradford was born at Manchester in Lancashire. His parents 
brought him up in learning from his infancy, and continued his education 
until he attained such knowledge in the Latin tongue, and such skill in 
writing, that he was able to gain his own living in a respectable situation. 
He then entered into the service of Sir John Harrington, knight, who 
in the great affairs of king Henry VIII. and Edward VI. which he had 
in hand when he was treasurer of the king's camps and buildings, at 
Boulogne, had such experience of Mr. Bradford's activity in writing, his 
cxpertness in the art of auditors, as also in his faithfulness, that he placed 



ACCOUNT OF MR. BRADFORD. 699 

great confidence in him. Thus encouraged and trusted, Mr. Bradford 
continued several years in a thriving way, after the course of this world, 
and so would have continued if his mind could have been satisfied. But 
the Lord had ordained him to more glorious and important objects, to 
preach the word of God to man. He called his chosen servant to the 
understanding and partaking of the gospel ; in which he was truly 
taught, that forthwith his effectual mission was perceived by the fruits. 
For then he forsook his worldly affairs, and after a just account given to 
his master of all his doings, he departed from him, to further the king- 
dom of God by the ministry of his holy word, and to give himself 
wholly to the study of the scriptures. The better to accomplish his 
design, he departed from the Temple at London, and went clown to the 
university at Cambridge, where his diligence in study, his profiting in 
knowledge, and his pious conversation, so pleased all men, that within 
a few years after he had been there, the university gave him the degree 
of master of arts. 

Immediately after, the master and fellows of Pembroke Hall gave 
him a fellowship in their college; and that good man, Martin Bucer, 
held him not only most dear unto him, but also oftentimes exhorted 
him to bestow his talent in preaching. To this Bradford always 
answered, that he was unable to serve in that office through 
want of learning, to which Bucer was wont to reply, " If thou 
hast not fine wheat bread, yet give the poor people barley bread, or 
whatsoever else the Lord hath committed unto thee." While Mr. Brad- 
ford was thus persuaded to enter into the ministry, Dr. Pudley, according 
to the order then in the church of England, called him to the degree of 
deacon. This order was not without some abuse, to which Mr. Bradford 
would not consent, and the bishop perceiving that he was willing to 
enter into the ministry, was content to ordain him deacon without any 
abuse, even as he desired. He then obtained for him a licence to preach, 
and gave him a prebend in his cathedral church of St. Paul's, where 
Mr. Bradford diligently laboured for the space of three years. 

On the 13th of August, in the first year of the reign of queen Mary, 
Mr. Bourne, then bishop of Bath, made a sermon at Paul's Cross, which 
set forth the merits of popery in such sort, that it moved the people to 
such great indignation, that they could scarcely refrain pulling him out 
of the pulpit. Neither could the reverence of the place, nor the pre- 
sence of bishop Bonner, nor yet the command of the lord-mayor of 
London, whom the people ought to have obeyed, stay their rage : but 
the more they spoke, the more the people were incensed. At length 
Mr. Bourne, seeing the violence of the people, and himself in such 
peril, desired Mr. Bradford, who stood in the pulpit behind him, to come 
forth, and to stand in his place and speak to the people. Mr. Bradford 
at his request obeyed, and spake to the people of godly and quiet 
obedience. As soon as the people heard him begin to speak unto them, 
they were so glad that they gave a great shout. The tumult soon ceased 
and in the end each departed quietly to his house. 

The same Sunday afternoon, Mr. Bradford preached at Bow church 
in Cheapside, and reproved the people for their seditious misdemeanor. 
After this he abode in London, with an innocent conscience, to wait 



700 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

what would come to pass. He was not long at liberty, for within three 
days after he was sent for to the Tower, where the queen then was, to 
appear before the council. There he was charged with this act of saving- 
Bourne, which they called seditious; and they also objected against him 
for preaching, and so by them he was committed first to the Tower, then 
to the King's Bench in Southwark, and after his condemnation he was 
sent to the Compter in the Poultry in London ; in which latter places he 
preached twice a day continually, unless sickness hindered him. He ate 
but one frugal meal a day, and studied continually on his knees. 

He remained in prison from August 1553, till January 1555 ; upon the 
22nd of which month he was called before Gardiner, and other of the 
commissioners. On coming into the presence of the council, (who had just 
finished with Dr. Farrar, of whom ye have heard,) John Bradford kneeled 
down ; but immediately, by the lord chancellor, was bidden to stand up. 
Then the lord chancellor spake thus to him in effect : that he had been of long 
time justly imprisoned for his seditious behaviour at Paul's Cross, the 
13th of August, in the year 1553, for his false preaching and arrogancy, 
taking upon him to preach without authority. " But now," said he, 
" the time of mercy is come, and therefore the queen's highness, 
minding to offer unto you mercy, hath by us sent for you, to declare 
and give the same, if you will with us return : and if you will do as we 
have done, you shall find as we have found, I warrant you." 

Mr. Bradford answered, " My lord and lords, I confess that I have 
been long imprisoned, and (with humble reverence be it spoken) un- 
justly, for that I did nothing seditiously, falsely, or arrogantly, in word 
or deed, by preaching or otherwise, but rather sought truth, peace, and 
all godly quietness, as an obedient and faithful subject, both in going 
about to serve the present bishop of Bath, then Mr. Bourne, the preacher 
at the Cross, and in preaching for quietness accordingly." 

Lord Chan. I know thou hast a glorious tongue, and goodly shews 
thou makest; but all is lies thou speakest. And again, I have not 
forgotten how stubborn thou wast when thou wast before us in the Tow 7 er, 
whereupon thou wast committed to prison concerning religion : I have 
not forgotten thy behaviour and talk, for which cause thou hast been 
kept in prison, as one that Would have done more hurt than I will 
speak of. 

Brad. My lord, I stand as before you, so before God, and one day 
we shall all stand before him : the truth then will be the truth, though 
now ye will not so take it. Yea, my lord, I dare say, that my lord of 
Bath, Mr. Bourne, will witness with me, that 1 sought his safeguard with 
the peril of mine own life, I thank God there-for. I took nothing upon me 
undesired, and that of Mr. Bourne himself, as if he were here present, I dare 
say he would affirm. For he desired me both to help him to pacify the 
people, and also not to leave him till he was in safety. And as for my 
behaviour in the Tower, and talk before your honours, if I did or said 
any thing that did not beseem me, if your lordships would tell me 
wherein it was, I should and would presently make you answer. 

Lord Chan. Well, to leave this matter: how sayest thou now? Wilt 
thou return again, and do as we have, and thou shalt receive the queen's 
mercy and pardon? 



EXAMINATION OF MR. BRADFORD. 70J 

Brad. My lord, I desire your mercy with God's mercy ; but your 
mercy with God's wrath, God keep me from : although, I thank God, 
my conscience doth not accuse, that I did speak any thing why I should 
need to receive the queen's mercy or pardon. For all that ever I did or 
spake was both agreeable to God's laws and the laws of the realm at that 
time, and did make much to quietness. I have not deceived the people, 
nor taught any other doctrine than, by God's grace, I am ready to con- 
firm with my life. And as for its devilishness and falseness, I would be 
sorry you could so prove it. 

Durham. What say you of the ministration of the communion, as now it is? 

Brad. My lord, I must desire of your lordship and of all your 
honours a question, before I dare make you an answer to any question. 
I have been six times sworn that I shall in no case consent to the prac- 
tising of any jurisdiction, or authority, on the bishop of Rome's behalf 
within this realm of England. Now, before God, I humbly pray your 
honours to tell me whether you ask me this question by his authority, or 
not? If you do, I dare not answer you any thing in his authority, 
except I would be forsworn, which God forbid. I was thrice sworn in 
Cambridge, when I was admitted master of arts, when I was admitted 
fellow of Pembroke Hall, and when I was there, the visitors came 
thither and sware the university. Again, I was sworn when I entered 
into the ministry, when I had a prebend given me, and when I was 
sworn to serve the king, a little before his death. 

Rochester. My lords, I never knew wherefore this man was in prison 
before now : but I see well that it had not been good that this man had 
been abroad : what the cause was that he was put in prison I know 
not; but I now well know that not without a cause he was, and is to 
be kept in prison. 

Sec. Bourne. Yea, it was reported this parliament time by the earl 
Derby, that he hath done more hurt by letters, and exhorting those 
that have come to him in religion, than ever he did when he was abroad 
by preaching. In his letters he curseth all that teach any doctrine 
which is not according to that he taught, and most heartily exhorteth 
them to whom he writeth to continue still in that they received by him, 
and such like as he is. How say you, Sir, have you not thus sedi- 
tiously written and exhorted the people ? 

Brad. I have not written nor spoken any thing seditiously; neither, 
I thank God, have I admitted any seditious thought, nor trust ever 
shall do. Concerning my letters, what I have written I have written. 

Lord Chan. We shall never have done with thee, 1 perceive now: be 
short, wilt thou have mercy? 

Brad. My lords, if I may live as a quiet subject without a clog of 
conscience, I shall heartily thank you for that pardon; if otherwise I 
behave myself, then I am in danger of the law: in the mean season I 
ask no more than the benefit of a subject till I be convicted of trans- 
gression. If I cannot have this, as hitherto I have not had, God's good 
will be done. 

Here the lord chancellor again offered mercy, and Bradford answered 
as before. Mercy with God's mercy should be welcome, but otherwise 
he would have none. Whereupon the lord chancellor rang a bell, 



702 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

when the under marshal came in, to whom his lordship said, " You 
shall take this man to you, and keep him close without conference with 
any man, but by your knowledge, and suffer him not to write any 
letters, for he is of another manner of charge to you now than he was 
before." And so they departed, Bradford looking as cheerfully as any 
man could do, declaring even a desire to give his life for the confirma- 
tion of his faith and doctrine. 

The second examination of Mr. Bradford took place immediately 
after the excommunication of Mr. Rogers, who has been before the 
reader. After a long speech of Gardiner and another bishop or two, 
Mr. Bradford said, " My lord, and my lords all, as I now stand in 
your sight before you, so I humbly beseech your honours to consider, 
that you sit in the seat of the Lord, who (as David doth witness) is in 
the congregation of judges, and sitteth in the midst of them judging 
righteously : and as you would have your place to be by us taken as God's 
place, so demonstrate yourselves to follow him in your sitting; that is, 
seek no guiltless blood, neither hunt by questions to bring into a snare 
them which are out of the same. At this present I stand before you 
guilty or guiltless: if guilty, proceed to give sentence accordingly; if 
guiltless, then give me the benefit of a subject, which hitherto 1 could 
not have." 

Here the lord chancellor said, that Bradford began with a true 
sentence — That the Lord is in the midst of them that judge. But, this 
and all his gesture declared but hypocrisy and vainglory. Then he 
endeavoured to clear himself that he sought not guiltless blood, and 
began a long process, stating that Bradford's fact at St. Paul's Cross 
was presumptuous and arrogant, and declared a taking upon himself to 
lead the people, which could not but turn to much disquietness, in that 
he was so refractory and stout in religion at that present. For which, 
as he was then committed to prison, so hitherto he has been kept in 
prison, where he has written letters to the great hurt of the queen's 
subjects, as was credibly declared by the earl of Derby in the parlia- 
ment house. And to this he added, that Mr. Bradford did stubbornly 
behave himself the last time he was before them ; and therefore not for 
any other thing did he now demand of him, but for his doctrine and 
religion. 

Brad. My lord, where you accuse me of hypocrisy and vainglory, 
I must and will leave it to the Lord's declaration, who will one day 
open yours and my truth and hearty meanings : in the mean season, 
I will content myself with the testimony of my own conscience, which 
if it yield to hypocrisy, could not but have God to be my foe also ; and 
so both God and man were against me. And as for my fact at St. 
Paul's Cross, and behaviour before you at the Tower, I doubt not but 
God will reveal it to my comfort. For if ever I did any thing which 
God used to public benefit, I think that my deed was one, and yet for 
it I have been and am kept a long time in prison. And as for letters 
and religion, I answer as I did the last time I was before you. 

Lord Chan. There didst thou say stubbornly and saucily, that thou 
wouldst maintain the erroneous doctrine in king Edward's days. 

Brad. My lord, I said, the last time I was before you, that I had 



EXAMINATION OF MR. BRADFORD. 703 

six times taken an oath, that I should never consent to the practising 
of any jurisdiction on the bishop of Rome's behalf; and therefore 1 
durst not answer to any thing that should be so demanded, lest I should 
be forsworn, which God forbid. Howbeit, saving my oath, I said I 
was more confirmed in the doctrine set forth publicly in the days of 
king Edward than ever I was before I was put in prison : and so I 
thought I should be, and yet think still shall be found more ready to 
give my life as God will, for the confirmation of the same. 

Lord Chan. I remember well that thou madest much ado about 
needless matter, as though the oath against the bishop of Rome were 
so great a matter. So others have done before thee; but yet not in 
such sort as thou hast : for thou pretendest a conscience in it, which 
is nothing else but mere hypocrisy. 

Brad. My conscience is known to the Lord, and whether I deal 
herein hypocritically or no, he knoweth. As therefore I said then, my 
lord, so I say again now — that for fear I should be perjured I dare 
not answer to any thing you should demand of me, if my answering 
should consent to the confirming or practising of any jurisdiction for the 
bishop of Rome here in England. I am not afraid of death, I thank 
God; for I have looked for nothing else at your hands a long time: 
but I am afraid when death cometh, I should have matter to trouble 
my conscience by the guiltiness of perjury, and therefore I answer 
as I do. 

Lord Chan. You have written seditious letters, and perverted the 
people thereby, and still seem as though you would defend the erro- 
neous doctrine in king Edward's time, against all men : and now you 
say you dare not answer. 

Brad. I have written no seditious letters, I have not perverted the 
people: but that which I have written and spoken, will I never deny, 
by God's grace. And where your lordship says, I dare not answer 
you ; that all men may know I am not afraid, save mine oath, ask 
me what you will, and I will plainly make you answer, by God's grace, 
although I now see my life lieth thereon. But, O Lord, into thy 
hands I commit it, come what will: only sanctify thy name in me, 
as in an instrument of thy grace, Amen. Now, ask what you will, 
and you shall see, I am not afraid, by God's grace, flatly to answer. 

Lord Chan. Well then, how say you to the blessed sacrament? Do 
you not believe there Christ to be present concerning his natural body ? 

Brad. My lord, I do not believe that Christ is corporally present at and 
in the due administration of the sacrament. By ' corporally,' I mean present 
corporally unto faith. I have been now a year and almost three quarters in 
prison, and in all this time you have never questioned me hereabout, 
when I might have spoken my conscience frankly without peril; but 
now you have a law to hang up and put to death, if a man answer 
freely and not to your liking, and therefore you come to demand this 
question. Ah, my lord, Christ used not this way to bring men to faith. 
Nor did the prophets nor apostles. Remember what Bernard writes to 
Eugenius the pope — " I read that the apostles stood to be judged, but 
I read not, that they sat to judge." 

Lord Chan. I use not this means. It. was not my doing, although 



704 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

some there be that think this to be the best way: for I, for my part, 
have been challenged for being too gentle oftentimes. 

Brad. My lord, I pray you stretch out your gentleness that I may 
feel it, for hitherto I have not. 

Lord Chan. With all my heart, not only I but the queen's highness 
would stretch out mercy, if with them you would return. 

The next morning about seven o'clock, one Thomas Hussey came 
into the chamber wherein Mr. Bradford lay, and began a long oration, 
saying, that of love and acquaintance he came to speak that which he 
would farther utter. "You did," said he, "so wonderfully behave 
yourself before the lord chancellor, and other bishops yesterday, that 
even the greatest enemies you have, saw that they have no matter against 
you : and therefore I advise you, this day, to desire a time, and men 
to confer withal, so shall all men think it a wonderful wisdom, and 
piety in you; and by this means you shall escape present danger, which 
else is nearer than you are aware of." To this Mr. Bradford answered, 
" I neither can nor will make such request. For then shall 1 give oc- 
casion to the people, to think that I doubt of the doctrine which I 
confess; which I do not, for thereof I am most assured, and therefore 
will give no such offence." 

As they were thus talking, the chamber door was opened, and Dr. 
Seaton entered, who after some by-talk of Mr. Bradford's age, and his 
country, began a gay and long discourse of my lord of Canterbury, 
Mr. Latimer, and Mr. Ridley, and how they at Oxford were not able 
to answer any thing at all ; and that therefore my lord of Canterbury 
desired to confer with the bishop of Durham and others; all which talk 
tended to this end, that Mr. Bradford should make the like suit, being 
not to be compared in learning to Dr. Cranmer. But John Bradford kept 
still one answer — " I cannot, nor I will not so offend the people : " whereat 
master Seaton waxed hot, and called Bradford arrogant, proud, and vain- 
glorious. Bradford answered, " Beware of judging, lest you condemn 
yourself." When all their talk took no such effect as they looked for, 
Hussey asked Bradford, " Will ye not admit conference, if my lord chan- 
cellor should offer it publicly ?" To this Bradford replied, " Conference ! 
if it had been offered before the law had been made, or if it were 
offered so that I might be at liberty to confer, and as safe as he with 
whom I should confer, then it were something : but else I see not to what 
other purpose conference should be offered, but to defer that which at 
length will come, and the lingering may give more offence than do good. 
Howbeit, if my lord should make such an offer of his own motion, I 
will not refuse to confer with any he may appoint." Again Dr. Seaton 
accused Mr. Bradford with being arrogant and proud, and they soon 
left him. Shortly after they were gone, Mr. Bradford was led to the 
church and there tarried uncalled for till eleven o'clock ; meanwhile 
the excommunication of Mr. Saunders, already related, took place. 

At length the time arrived for Mr. Bradford's last examination. He 
was again brought before the lord chancellor and other bishops, and his 
lordship began to speak to this effect — that if he would answer with 
modesty and humility, and conform himself to the catholic church with 
them, he might yet find mercy, because they would be loth to use 



EXAMINATION OF MR. BRADFORD. tVL> 

extremity. Therefore he concluded with an exhortation, that Mr. Bradford 
would recant his doctrine. 

Bradford. As yesterday I besought your honours to set in your 
sight the majesty and presence of God to follow him, who seeketh not 
to subvert the simple by subtle questions; so I humbly beseech every 
one of you to do this day: for you know well enough that guiltless 
blood will cry for vengeance. And this I pray not your lordships to do, 
as one that taketh upon me to condemn you utterly herein; but that ye 
might be more admonished to do that, which none doth so much as he 
should do. For our nature is so much corrupt, that we are very forgetful 
of God. And last of all, as yesterday the answers I made were by pro- 
testation and saving mine oath, so shall mine answers be this day; and 
this I do, that when death (which I look for at your hands) shall come, I 
may not be troubled with the guiltiness of perjury. 

At these words the lord chancellor was wroth, and said that they had 
given him respite to deliberate till this day, whether he would recant his 
errors of the blessed sacrament, which yesterday he uttered before them. 

Brad. My lord, you gave me no time of any such deliberation, neither 
did I speak anything of the sacrament which you did disallow. For when 
I had declared a presence of Christ to be there to faith, you went from that 
matter to purge yourself, that you were not cruel, and so went to dinner. 
Lord Chan. What! I perceive we must begin all again with thee. Did 
I not yesterday tell thee plainly, that thou madest a conscience where 
none should be? Did I not make it plain, that the oath against the 
bishop of Rome was an unlawful oath ? 

Brad. No, indeed, my lord : you said so, but you have not proved 
it yet, nor ever can do. 

Lord Chan. O Lord God, what a fellow art thou ! Thou wouldst go 
about to bring into the people's heads, that we, all the lords of the 
parliament house, the knights and burgesses, and all the whole realm 
be perjured. O what a heresy is this! Here, good people, you may- 
see what a senseless heretic this fellow is. If I should make an oath I 
would never help my brother, nor lend him money in his need; were 
this a good answer to tell my neighbour desiring my help, that I had 
made an oath to the contrary? or that I could not do it? 

Brad. O, my lord, discern betwixt oaths that be against charity and 
faith, and oaths that be according to faith and charity, as this is against 
the bishop of Rome. 

Here a long time was spent about oaths which were good, and those 
which were evil — the lord chancellor captiously asking often of Bradford 
a direct answer concerning oaths; which Bradford would not give simply, 
but with a distinction. Whereat the chancellor was much offended: 
but Bradford still kept him at bay, that the oath against the bishop of 
Rome was a lawful oath, using thereto the lord chancellor's own book, 
of true obedience, for confirmation of his assertion. 

Then came master Chamberlain of Woodstock, and told my lord chan 
cellor, that Bradford had been a serving-man with master Harrington. To 
which Gardiner said — " True, and he did deceive his master of seven-score 
pounds : and because of this, he went to be a gospeller and a preacher, 
good people; and yet you see how he pretendeth conscience." 

2 z 



706 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Brad. My lord, I set my foot by his, whoever he be, that can come 
forth, and justly vouch to my face, that ever I deceived my master. And 
as you are chief justicer by office in England, I desire justice upon them 
that so slander me, because they cannot prove it. 

Here my lord chancellor and master Chamberlain were smitten blank, 
and said they heard it. " But," quoth Gardiner, "we have another manner 
of matter than this against you ; for you are a heretic." " Yea," quoth the 
bishop of London, " he did write letters to master Pendleton, which knoweth 
his hand as well as his own : your honour did see the letters." 

Brad. That is not true ; I never did write to Pendleton since I came to 
prison, and therefore I am not justly spoken of. 

Lord Chan. Sir, in my house the other day, you did most contemptu- 
ously despise the queen's mercy, and stoutly said that you would maintain 
the erroneous doctrine of king Edward's days against all men. 

Brad. Well, I am glad that all men see now you have had no matter to 
imprison me before that day justly. Now say I, that I did not contemp- 
tuously contemn the queen's mercy ; but would have had it, (though if 
justice might take place, I need it not,) so that I might have had it with 
God's mercy, that is, without doing or saying anything against God and 
his truth. And as for maintenance of doctrine, because I cannot tell how 
you will stretch this word maintenance, I will repeat again that which I 
spake. I said I was more confirmed in the religion set forth in king 
Edward's days than ever I was : and if God so would, I trusted I should 
declare it by giving my life for the confirmation and testification thereof. 
So I said then, and so I say now. 

Lord Chan. Well, yesterday thou didst maintain false heresy concerning 
the blessed sacrament ; and therefore we gave thee till to-day to deliberate. 

Brad. My lord, as I said at the first, I spake nothing of the sacrament, 
but that which you allowed ; and therefore you reproved it not, nor gave 
me any time to deliberate. 

Lord Chan. Didst thou not deny Christ's presence in the sacrament ? 

Brad. No, I never denied nor taught, but that to faith, whole Christ, 
body and blood, was as present as bread and wine to the due receiver. 

Lord Chan. Yea, but dost thou not believe that Christ's body naturally 
and really is there, under the forms of bread and wine ? 

Brad. My lord, I believe Christ is present there to the faith of the due 
receiver : as for transubstantiation, I plainly and flatly tell you, I believe it 
not. I deny not his presence to the faith of the receiver ; but deny that 
he is included in the bread, or that the bread is transubstantiate. 

Worcester. If he be not included, how is he then present? 

Brad. Forsooth, though my faith can tell how, yet my tongue cannot 
express it; nor you, otherwise than by faith, hear it, or understand it. 

Here was much ado, now one doctor standing up and speaking this, 
and others speaking that, and the lord chancellor talking much of Luther, 
Zuinglius, (Ecolampadius ; but still Bradford kept him at this point, that 
Christ is present to faith ; and that there is no transubstantiation nor in- 
cluding of Christ in the bread : but all this would not serve them. There- 
fore another bishop asked whether the wicked man received Christ's very 
body or no ? To which Bradford answered plainly, " No." Whereat 
my lord chancellor made a long oration, showing how that it could not be 



CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. BRADFORD. 707 

that Christ was present, except that the evil man received it. But 
Bradford silenced his oration in a few words, that grace was at that time 
offered to his lordship, although he received it not; so that the receiving 
made not the presence, but God's grace, truth, and power, is the cause 
of the presence, which grace, the wicked that lack faith cannot receive. 
Bradford concluded his answer admirably, thus — " My lord, are not 
these words, Take, eat, a commandment? and are not these words, This 
is my body, a promise? If you will challenge the promise, and do not 
the commandment, may you not deceive yourself?" 

Here the lord chancellor denied Christ to have commanded the sacra- 
ment, and the use of it. Bradford said, " Why, my lord, is it not plain 
to children, that Christ, in so saying, commandeth? If it be not a com- 
mandment of Christ to take and eat the sacrament, why dare any take 
upon them to command and make that of necessity, which God leave th 
free ? as you do in making it a necessary commandment, once a year for all 
that be of discretion, to receive the sacrament. Here the lord chancellor 
called him again diabolus or calumniator, and began out of these words, 
" Let a man prove himself, and so eat of the bread, [' yea, bread,' quoth 
Bradford,] and drink of the cup," to prove that it was no commandment 
to receive the sacrament : " for then," quoth he, "if it were a command- 
ment, it should bind all men, in all places, and at all times." 

Brad. O my lord, discern between commandments : some be general, 
as the ten commandments, that they bind always, in all places, and all 
persons ; some be not so general, as this of the supper, the sacrament of 
baptism, of the thrice appearing before the Lord yearly at Jerusalem, of 
Abraham offering of Isaac, and many others. 

Here my lord chancellor denied the cup to be commanded of Christ : 
V for then," quoth he, " we should have eleven commandments." To this 
Bradford said — " Indeed I think you think as you speak : for else you 
would not take the cup from the people, in that Christ saith, ' Drink ye all 
of it.' But how say you, my lords ? Christ saith to you bishops especially, 
' Go and preach the gospel :' ' Feed Christ's flock,' etc. Is this a com- 
mandment or no?" 

Here was my lord chancellor in a chafe, and said as pleased him. Then 
the bishop of Durham asked Bradford when Christ began to be present 
in the sacrament — whether before the receiver received it, or no? Bradford 
answered, that the question was curious, and not necessary; and further 
said, that as the cup was the New Testament, so the bread was Christ's 
body to him that received it duly ; but yet so, that the bread is bread. 
" For," quoth he, " in all the Scripture ye shall not find this proposition, 
' Non est panis,' ' There is no bread.' And he brought forth Chrysostome, 
' Si in corpore essemus.' Much ado was hereabouts ; they calling Bradford 
heretic; and he, desiring them to proceed on in God's name, looked for that 
which God appointed for them to do. 

Lord Chan. This fellow is now in another heresy ; as though all things 
were so tied together, that of mere necessity all things must come to pass. 

Here Bradford prayed him to take things as they be spoken, and not 
wrest them into a contrary sense : " Your lordship," said he, "doth discern 
betwixt God and man. Things are not by fortune to God at any time, 
though to man they seem so sometimes. I speak but as the apostles 



7 °8 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

did — ' Lord, see how Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the prelates, are 
gathered together against thy Christ, to do that which thy hand and 
counsel hath before ordained for them to do.'" 

Here the lord chancellor began to read the excommunication. And 
when he came to the name of John Bradford, layman; he said, art thou 
no priest? To which he answered, " No, nor ever was a priest, or 
beneficed, or married, or any preacher, before public authority had 
established religion, or preacher after public authority had altered 
religion, and yet I am thus handled at your hands: but God, I doubt 
not, will bless where you curse." And so he fell down on his knees, 
and heartily thanked God that he had counted him worthy to suffer for 
his name's sake ; and prayed to God to give him repentance and a good 
mind. After the excommunication was read, he was delivered to the 
sheriff of London, and so had to the Clink, and afterwards to the 
Compter in the Poultry; this being proposed by his murderers, that he 
should be delivered from thence to the earl of Derby, to be conveyed 
into Lancashire, and there to be burned in the town of Manchester, 
where he was born : but their purpose concerning the place was after- 
wards altered, for he suffered in London. After his condemnation, 
which was the last day of January, Bradford being sent to prison, remained 
there till the 1st of July ; during all which time, divers other conferences 
and conflicts he sustained with sundry adversaries, which repaired unto him 
in the prison : of whom first bishop Bonner, coming to the Compter to 
degrade Dr. Taylor the 4th of February, called first for John Bradford, 
and began to talk with him,, the effect whereof here ensueth : 

Bonner. Because I perceive that ye are desirous to confer with some 
learned men, therefore I have brought master archdeacon Harpsfield to you. 

Brad. I never desired to confer with any man, nor yet do. Howbeit if 
ye will have one to talk with me I am ready. 

Bonner. Well, master Bradford, you are well beloved ; I pray you con- 
sider yourself, and refuse not charity when it is offered. 

Brad. Indeed, my lord, this is small charity, to condemn a man as you 
have condemned me, which never brake your laws. In Turkey a man may 
have charity ; but in England I could not yet find it. I was condemned 
for my faith, so soon as I uttered it at your requests, before I had committed 
anything against the laws. And as for conference, I am not afraid to talk 
with whom you will. But to say that I desire to confer, that do I not. 

Bon. Well, well. — Then he called for Taylor, and Bradford went his way. 

On another day of February, one master Willerton, chaplain of the 
bishop of London, came to confer with Bradford, and commenced by say- 
ing that he swerved from the church. 

Brad. That do I not, but ye do. For the church is Christ's spouse, 
and Christ's obedient spouse, which your church is not, which robbeth the 
people of the Lord's cup, and of service in the English tongue. 

Willerton. Why? It is not profitable to have the service in English; 
for it is written, " The lips of the priest should keep the law, and out of 
his mouth man must look for knowledge." 

Brad. Should not the people, then, have the Scriptures ? Wherefore 
serveth this saying of Christ, " Search the Scriptures?" 

Wil. This was not spoken to the people, but to scribes and learned men. 



DISPUTATION WITH JOHN BRADFORD. 709 

Brad. Then the people must not have the Scriptures? 

Willerton. No; for it is written, " They shall be all taught of God." 

Brad. Must we learn all at the priests ? Then would you bring the peo- 
ple to hang up Christ, and let Barabbas go; as the priests then wished. 

At which words, Willerton was so offended that he had no wish to talk 
any more. On the 25th of February, Percival Creswell came with master 
Harpsfield, who, after formal salutation, made a long oration to the effect 
that all men, even the infidels, Turks, Jews, anabaptists, and libertines, desire 
felicity as well as the Christians, and that every one thinketh to attain it 
by his religion. To which Bradford answered that he spake not amiss. 

Harps. But the way thither is not all alike : for the infidels by Jupiter 
and Juno, the Turk by his Alcoran, the Jew by his Talmud, do believe to 
come to heaven. For so may I speak of such as believe the immortality 
of the soul. And here is the matter, to know the way to this heaven. 

Brad. We may not invent any manner of ways. There is but one way, 
and that is Jesus Christ, as he himself doth witness, u I am the way !" 

Harps. It is true that you say, and false also. I suppose that you mean 
by Christ, believing in Christ. 

Brad. I have learned to discern betwixt faith and Christ. Albeit, I 
confess, that whoso believeth in Christ, the same shall be saved. 

Harps. No, not all that believe in Christ : for some shall say, " Lord, 
Lord, have we not cast out devils?" etc. But Christ will answer in the 
day of judgment to these, " Depart from me, I know you not." 

Brad. You must make difference betwixt believing, and saying, I be- 
lieve: as for example, if one should sw r ear he loveth you, for all his saying 
ye will not believe him when you see he doeth you all the evil he can. 

Harps. Well, this is not much material. There is but one way, Christ. 
How come we to know him ? Where shall we seek to find him ? 

Brad. We must seek him by his word, in his word, and after his word. 

Harps. Very good : but tell me how first we came into the company 
of them that could tell us this, but by baptism ? 

Brad. Baptism is the sacrament, by which outwardly we are ingrafted 
into Christ : I say outwardly, because I dare not exclude from Christ all 
that die without baptism. 

Harps. Well, we agree, that by baptism then we are brought, and 
begotten to Christ. For Christ is our Father, and the church his 
spouse, is our mother. Now then tell me whether this church of Christ 
hath not been always? 

Brad. Yes, since the creation of man, and shall be for ever. 

Harps. Very good. But tell me whether this church is a visible 
church, or not? 

Brad. It is no otherwise visible, than Christ was here on earth; that 
is, by no exterior pomp or shew that setteth her forth commonly: and 
therefore to see her we must put on such eyes, as good men put on to 
see and know Christ when he walked here on earth : for as Eve was of 
the same substance that Adam was of, so was the church of the same 
substance that Christ was of. 

Harps. Well, this church is a multitude. Hath it not the preaching 
of the gospel, and the administration of the sacraments? And yet more, 
hath it not the power of jurisdiction? I mean by jurisdiction, ad- 



710 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

monishing one another, and so forth. It hath also succession of bishops, 
which I will endeavour to prove as an essential point. 

Brad. You say as you would have it; for if this part fail you, all the 
church you go about to set up will fall down. You shall not find in all 
the scripture, this your essential part of succession of bishops. In 
Christ's church antichrist will sit. And Peter tells us, as it went in the 
old church before Christ's coming, so it will be in the new church since 
Christ's coming : that as there were false prophets, and such as bear rule 
were adversaries to the true prophets, so shall there be false teachers, even 
of such as are bishops and bear rule amongst the people. 

After some further talk, Harpsfield departed, promising to come again. 
On the 23rd of the same month, the archbishop of York and the bishop of 
Chichester came to the Compter to speak with Bradford. When he was 
brought before them, they used him very gently: desired him to sit 
down, and because he would not, they also would not sit. So they all 
stood, and whether he would or not, they would needs have him put on 
his cap, saying to him, that obedience was better than sacrifice. As 
they were thus standing together, the archbishop of York began to tell 
Mr. Bradford that they came to him out of pure love and charity, without 
being sent; and, after commending his godly life, he concluded with 
this question, How he was certain of salvation and of his religion? 
Mr. Bradford thanked him for their good will, and answered thus, "By 
the word of God, even by the scriptures, I am certain of salvation and 
religion." 

York. Very well said : but how do you know the word of God and 
the scriptures, but by the church? 

Brad. Indeed, my lord, the church was and is a means to bring a man 
to know the scriptures and the word of God, as the woman of Samaria 
was the means by which the Samaritans knew Christ: but when they 
heard him speak, they said, " Now we know that he is Christ, not 
because of thy words, but because we ourselves have heard." So after 
we come to the hearing and reading of the scriptures shewed unto us, 
and discerned by the church, we do believe them, and know them as 
Christ's sheep, not because the church saith they are the scriptures, but 
because they be so, being assured thereof by the same Spirit who wrote 
and spake them. 

York. You know, in the apostles' time at first the word was not 
written. 

Brad. True, if you mean it for some books of the New Testament; 
but else for the Old Testament St. Peter tells us, " We have a more 
sure word of prophecy;" not that it is simply so, but in respect of the 
apostles, which being alive and subject to infirmity, attributed to the 
written word more weight, as wherewith no fault can be found; whereas 
for the infirmity of their persons men perchance might have found some 
fault at their preaching; although in very deed no less obedience and 
faith ought to have been given to the one, than to the other; for all 
proceedeth from one Spirit of truth. 

York. That place of St. Peter is not to be understood of the word 
written. You know that Ireneeus and others do magnify much, and 
allege the church against the heretics, and not the scripture. 



DISPUTATION WITH JOHN BRADFORD. 711 

Brad. True, for they had to do with such heretics as denied the Scrip- 
tures, and yet did magnify the apostles ; so that they were forced to use 
the authority of those churches wherein the apostles had taught, and which 
had still retained the same doctrine. 

Chichester. You speak the very truth ; for the heretics did refuse all 
Scriptures, except it w 7 ere a piece of Luke's gospel. 

Brad. Then the alleging of the church cannot be principally used against 
me, which am so far from denying of the Scriptures, that I appeal to them 
utterly, as to the only judge. 

York. A pretty matter, that you will take upon you to judge the 
church ! I pray you, where hath your church been hitherto ? For the 
church of Christ is catholic and visible hitherto. 

Brad. My lord, I do not judge the church when I discern it from that 
congregation, and those which be not the church; and I never denied the 
church to be catholic and visible, although at some times it is more 
visible than at others. 

Chick. I pray you tell me where the church which allowed your doctrine 
was, these four hundred years? 

Brad. I will tell you, my lord, or rather you shall tell yourself, if you 
will tell me this one thing : where the church was in Elias's time, when 
Elias said that he was left alone ? 

Chick. That is no answer. 

Brad. I am sorry that you say so : but this will I tell your lordship, 
that if you had the same eyes wherewith a man might have espied the 
church "then, you would not say it were no answer. The fault why the 
church is not seen by you, is not because the church is not visible, but 
because your eyes are not clear enough to see it. 

Chick. You are much deceived in making this collation betwixt the 
church then and now. 

York. Very well spoken, my lord ; for Christ said, " I will build my 
church ;" and not " I do, or I have built it;" but, " I will build it." 

Brad. My lords, Peter teacheth me to make this collation, saying, as 
in the people there were false prophets, which were most in estimation 
before Christ's coming, so shall there be false teachers amongst the people 
after Christ's coming, and very many shall follow them. And as for your 
future tense, I hope your grace will not thereby conclude Christ's church 
not to have been before, but rather that there is no building in the church 
but Christ's work only : for Paul and Apollos be but waterers. 

Chick. In good faith I am sorry to see you so light in judging the church. 

Brad. My lords, I speak simply what I think, and desire reason to 
answer my objections. Your affections and sorrows cannot be my rules. 
If you consider the order and case of my condemnation, I cannot think 
but that it shall something move your honours. You know it well enough, 
no matter was laid against me, but was gathered upon mine own confession. 
Because I denied transubstantiation, and the wicked to receive Christ's 
body in the sacrament, therefore I was condemned and excommunicated ; 
but not of the church, although the pillars of the church did it. 

Chick. No ; I heard say the cause of your imprisonment was, for that 
you exhorted the people to take the sword in one hand, and the mattock 
in the other. 



712 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Brad. I never meant any such thing, nor spake anything in that sort. 

York. Yea, and you behaved yourself before the council so stoutly at 
the first, that you would defend the religion then ; and therefore worthily 
were you prisoned. 

Brad. Your grace did hear me answer my lord chancellor to that point. 
But put case I had been so stout as they and your grace make it : were 
not the laws of the realm on my side then? Wherefore unjustly was I 
prisoned : only that which my lord chancellor propounded, was my con- 
fession of Christ's truth against transubstantiation, and of that which the 
wicked do receive, as I said. 

York. You deny the presence. 

Brad. I do not, to the faith of the worthy receivers. 

York. What is that other than to say that Christ lieth not on the altar? 

Brad. My lord, I believe no such presence. 

Chick. It seemeth that you have not read Chrysostome, for he proveth it. 

Brad. I do remember Chrysostome saith, that Christ lieth upon the altar, 
as the seraphim with their tongs touch our lips with the coals of the altar 
in heaven, which is an hyperbolical locution, of which Chrysostome is full. 

York. It is evident that you are too far gone ; but let us come then to 
the church, out of which you are excommunicate. 

Brad. I am not excommunicated out of Christ's church, my lord, 
although they which seem to be in the church, and of the church, have 
excommunicated me, as the poor blind man was, John ix. ; I am sure Christ 
receiveth me. As I think you did well to depart from the Romish church, 
so I think you have done wickedly to couple yourselves to it again ; for 
you can never prove that which you call the mother church, to be Christ's. 

Chich. You were but a child when this matter began. I was a young- 
man, and then coming from the university, I went with the world : but, I 
tell you, it was always against my conscience. 

Brad. I was but a child ; howbeit, as I told you, I think you have done 
evil. For you are come and have brought others to that wicked man 
which sitteth in the temple of God, that is, in the church : for it cannot 
be understood of Mahomet, or any out of the church, but of such as 
bear rule in the church. 

York. See how you build your faith upon such places of scripture as 
are most obscure, to deceive yourself. 

Brad. Well, my lord, though I might by fruits judge of you and 
others, yet will I not utterly exclude you out of the church. And if I 
were in your case, I would not condemn him utterly that is of my faith 
in the sacrament, knowing as you know, that at least 800 years after 
Christ, as my lord of Durham writeth, it was free to believe or not 
believe transubstantiation. Will you condemn any man that believeth 
truly the twelve articles of the faith, although in some points he believe 
not the definition of that which you call the church? I doubt not but 
that he which holdeth firmly the articles of our belief, though in other 
things he dissent from your definitions, yet he shall be saved. 

" Yea," said both the bishops, " this is your divinity." 

Brad. No, it is Paul's; who saith, that if they hold the foundation, Christ, 
though they build upon him straw and stubble, yet they shall be saved. 

York. How you delight to lean to hard and dark places of the Scriptures. 



DISPUTATION WITH JOHN BRADFORD. 713 

Chick. I will show you how that Luther did excommunicate Zuinglins 
for this matter : (and so he read a place of Luther making for his purpose.) 

Brad. My lord, what Luther writeth, as you mind it not, no more do I 
in this case. My faith is not built on Luther, Zuinglius. or (Ecolampadius, 
in this point ; and indeed I never read any of their works in this matter. 

York. Well, you are out of the communion of the church; for you 
would have the communion of it consist in faith. 

Brad. Communion consisteth, as I said, in faith, and not in exterior 
ceremonies, as appeareth both by St. Paul, who would have one faith, 
and by Irenaeus to Victor, for the observation of Easter. 

York. You think none are of the church but such as suffer persecution. 

Brad. What I think. God knoweth : I pray your grace to judge me by 
my words, and mark what St. Paul saith — ' ; All that will live godly 
in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution." Sometimes Christ's church hath 
rest here ; but commonly it is not so, and specially towards the end her 
form will be more unseemly. 

York. Well, master Bradford, we leese our labour; for ye seek to put 
away all things which are told you to Your good : your church no man 
can know. I pray you, whereby can we know it ? 

Brad. Chrysostome says, " by the Scriptures :" and thus he often saith. 

York. That of Chrysostome in Opere imperfecta may be doubted of. 
The thing whereby the church may be known best, is succession of bishops. 

Brad. Xo, my lord. Lyra full well writeth upon Matthew, that "the 
church consisteth not in men, by reason either of secular or temporal power; 
but in men endued with true knowledge, and confession of faith, and of 
verity." Hilary, writing to Auxentius. says that the church was hidden 
rather in caves, then did glister and shine in thrones of pre-eminence. 

After they had tarried three hours with Bradford, one of their servants 
came and told them that my lord of Durham waited for them at master 
York's house. And so, after putting up their written books, and wishing 
poor Bradford good in words, they went their way, and he to his prison. 

Within two days following came into the Compter two Spanish friars to 
talk with master Bradford, sent (as they said) by the earl of Derby; of 
whom one was the king's confessor, the other was Alphonsus, who had 
before written a popish book against heresies. 

Alph. What is the matter whereof you were condemned ? We know not. 

Brad. I have been in prison almost two years : I never transgressed any 
of their laws for which I might justly be imprisoned ; and now I am con- 
demned, because I frankly confessed (which I repent not) my faith con- 
cerning the sacrament, when I was demanded in these two points : one, 
that there is no transubstantiation ; the other, that the wicked do not 
receive Christ's body. 

Alph. Let us look a little on the first. Do you not believe that Christ 
is present really and corporally in the form of bread ? 

Brad. Xo, I do believe that Christ is present to the faith of the worthy 
receiver, as there is present bread and wine to the senses and outward 
man : as for any such presence of including and placing Christ, 1 believe 
not, nor dare believe. 

Alph. I am sure you believe Christ's natural body is circumsciiptible. 

And here he made much ado of the two natures of Christ, how that the 



714 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

one is everywhere, and the other is in his proper place. After further talk 
on this subject, the friar, in a wonderful rage, spake so high that the whole 
house rang again ; and had Bradford been anything hot, one house could 
not have held them. At the length he came to this point, that Bradford 
could not find in the Scripture baptism and the Lord's supper to bear any 
similitude to each other. 

Brad. Be patient, and you shall see that by the Scripture I will find 
baptism and the Lord's supper coupled together. Paul saith, that as we 
are baptized into one body, so "we have drunk of one spirit," meaning 
the cup in the Lord's supper. 

Alph. Paul hath no such words. 

Brad. Yes, that he hath. Give me a Testament, and I will show you. 
The text is plain enough, and there are of the fathers which do so under- 
stand the place : for Chrysostome doth expound it so. 

Alphonsus, who had the Testament in his hand, desirous to suppress 
this foil, turned the leaves till he came to the place, (1 Cor. xi. ;) and there 
he read how that he was guilty who made no difference of the Lord's body. 

Brad. Yea, but therewith he saith, "He that eateth of the bread;" 
calling it bread still : and that after consecration, as in 1 Cor. x., he saith, 
" The bread which we break," etc. 

Alph. Oh, how ignorant are ye which know not that things, after their 
conversion, retain the same names which they had before, as Moses' rod. 

Brad. Sir, there is mention made of the conversion, as well as that 
the same appeared to the sense ; but here you cannot find it so. Find 
me one word how the bread is converted, and I will then say, you bring 
some matter that maketh for you. I do not trust my own reason, or my 
own interpretation; for I will bring you the fathers of the church 800 
years after Christ, to confirm what I speak. 

Alph. This church hath defined the contrary, and that I will prove by 
all the good fathers from Christ's ascension, even for 800 years at least 
continually, yea that the bread is turned into Christ's body. Will you 
believe ? 

Brad. Belief is God's gift, therefore I cannot promise : but I tell 
you I will give place : and I hope I shall believe his truth always, so 
good is he to me in Christ my Saviour. 

Alph. I find great fault with your answer. But this I let pass, and 
repeat the question, if 1 can prove it as you said, whether you will 
give place? 

Brad. Yes, that I will. Give me paper, pen, and ink, to write ; and 
now suppose that I prove by the testimony of the fathers, that con- 
tinually for 800 years after Christ at least, they did believe that the sub- 
stance of bread doth remain in the sacrament, what will you do? 

Alph. I will give place. 

Brad. Then write you here that you will give place if I so prove, and 
I will write that I will give place if you so prove ; because you are the 
elder you shall have the pre-eminency. 

Here the friar fumed marvellously, and said, " I came not to learn at 
thee: are not here witnesses? be not they sufficient?" So they arose and 
talked no more of that matter, going away without bidding Bradford farewell. 
After they were gone, a priest came, and willed him not to be so obstinate. 



DISPUTATION WITH JOHN BRADFORD. 715 

On the 21st of March, Mr. Bradford was called down, and as soon 
as he entered into the hall, Dr. Weston very gently took him by the 
hand, and asking how he did, desired all to go out, save himself, Mr. 
Collier, the earl of Derby's servant, the subdean of Westminster, the 
keeper, Mr. Claydon, and the parson of the church near the Compter. 
In their presence he began to tell Mr. Bradford, that he had often in- 
tended to come unto him, being desired by the earl of Derby: and that 
after he perceived that he could be contented rather to speak with him than 
any other, he could not but come to do him all the good in his power, 
without intending in the least to hurt or injure him. 

Bradford. Sir, when I perceived by the report of my lord's servant, 
that you did bear me good will, more than any other of your sort, I 
told him then that I could be better content and more willing to talk 
with you, if you should come unto me. This did I say : otherwise I 
desired not your coming. 

West. Well, Mr. Bradford, I am now come to talk with you : but 
before we begin, certain principles we must agree upon, which shall be 
this day's work ; and the first of these is that I shall greatly desire you 
to put away all vainglory, and not hold any thing for the praise of the 
world. 

Brad. Sir, St. Augustine maketh that indeed a piece of the defini- 
tion of a heretic ; which, if I cannot put away clean, (for I think there 
will be a spice of it remain in us, as long as this flesh liveth) yet I pro- 
mise you by the grace of God, that I purpose not to yield to it. God, 
I hope, will never suffer it to bear rule in them that strive against it, 
and desire all the dregs of it utterly to be driven out of us. 

West. I am glad to hear you say so, although, indeed, I think you 
do not so much esteem it as others do. And my next wish is, I would 
desire you to put away singularity in your judgment and opinions. 

Brad. Sir, God forbid that I should stick to any singularity or private 
judgment in God's religion. Hitherto I have not desired it. I neither 
do, nor mind at any time to hold any other doctrine than is public 
and catholic, taking the word catholic as good men do according to 
God's word. 

West. Very well, this is a good day's work. I hope to do you good; 
and therefore now I shall pray you to write me the heads of those things 
whereupon you stand in the sacrament, and to send them to me betwixt 
this and Wednesday next : until which time, yea, until I come to you 
again, be assured that you are without all peril of death. Of my fidelity 
I warrant you, therefore away with all doubts and misgivings of your 
safety. 

Brad. Sir, I will write to you the grounds I lean upon in this matter. 
As for death, if it come, welcome be it; this which you require of me 
shall be no great hindrance to me therein. 

West. You know that St. Augustine was a Manichean, yet was he con- 
verted at the length ; so have I good hope of you. 

Brad. Sir, because I will not flatter you, I would you should flatly 
know, that I am even settled in the religion wherefore I am condemned. 

West. Yea, but if it be not the truth, and you see evident matter to the" 
contrary, will you not then give place ? 



716 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Brad. God forbid, but that I should always give place to the truth. 
And I heartily and constantly pray that he will more and more confirm 
me in it, as he hath done and doth. 

West. Yea, but pray with a condition if you be in it already. 

Brad. No, sir, I cannot pray so, because I am settled and assured of 
this truth. 

West. Well, as the learned bishop answered St. Augustine's mother, 
that though he was obstinate, yet the tears of such a mother could not 
but win her son ; so also 1 hope your prayers, which you offer with tears, 
cannot but be heard by God, though not as you would, yet as best shall 
please him. Do you not remember the history that I refer to? 

Brad. Yea, Sir, 1 think it is of St. Ambrose. 

West. No, that it is not. I would lay you a wager on the truth of 
its being St. Augustine. As you are overseen herein, so are you in 
other things. 

Brad. Well, Sir, I will not contend with you for the name. This 
St. Augustine writeth in his confessions. 

West. The people are too much persuaded by you to withstand the 
queen. Send to me the heads of the doctrine of the supper, and after 
Wednesday I will come unto you again. Before I depart now I drink 
to your health. 

In the mean time, when Mr. Bradford had written his reasons and 
arguments, and had sent them to Dr. Weston, soon after, about the 
28th of March, there came to the Compter, Dr. Pendleton, and with 
him Mr. Collier, some time warden of Manchester, and Stephen Bech. 
After salutations, Dr. Pendleton began to speak to Mr. Bradford, that 
he was sorry for his trouble. And further, said he, after that I knew 
you could be content to talk with me I made the more speed, being as 
ready to do you good, and serve you what I can, as you would wish. 
To this Bradford answered, " Sir, I remember that once you were, as 
far as any man might judge, of the religion that I am of at present, 
and T remember that you have earnestly set forth the same. Gladly, 
therefore, would I learn of you what thing it was that moved your con- 
science to alter, and gladly would I see what thing it is that you have 
seen since which you saw not before. The cause for which I am con- 
demned, which you say you do not know, is no other than transub- 
stantiation, and because I deny that wicked men do receive Christ's 
body: wherein I would desire you to shew me what reasons, which 
before you knew not, did move your conscience now to alter. For 
once, as I said, you were as I am in religion." 

Dr. Pendleton, half amazed, began to excuse himself, as though he 
had not fully denied transubstantiation, although he confessed, that the 
word was not in scripture. He then made an endless tale of the thing 
that moved him to alter: but said he would gather all the places which 
moved him and send him them. And here he desired Mr. Bradford 
that he might have a copy of that which he had sent to Dr. Weston ; 
which Bradford promised him, and Pendleton soon after went his way. 

In the afternoon came Dr. Weston to Bradford; and, after gentle saluta- 
tions, he desired every man to depart. After that he had thanked Bradford 
for his writing to him, he showed the same writing which Bradford had sent 



CONVERSATION WITH MR. BRADFORD. 717 

him, which contained certain reasons against transubstantiation which 
he had carefully collected from the fathers and the holy scriptures. 

" That which is former," saith Tertullian, " is true; that which is later, 
false. But the doctrine of transubstantiation is a late doctrine, for it 
was not defined generally before the council of Lateran, about 1215 
years after Christ's coming, under Pope Innocent, the third of that 
name. Before that time it was free for all men to believe, or not believe 
it, as the bishop of Durham doth witness in his book of the presence 
of Christ in his supper, lately published. Therefore the doctrine of 
transubstantiation is false. 

" The words of Christ's supper be figurative; the circumstances of the 
scriptures, the analogy or proportion of the sacraments, and the opinions 
of all the holy fathers, which were and wrote for the space of 1000 
years after Christ's ascension, do teach this: whereupon it follows, that 
there is no transubstantiation. 

"The Lord gave to his disciples bread, and called it his body; the 
scriptures do witness. For he gave that and called it his body, which 
he took in his hand, whereon he gave thanks; which also he brake, and 
gave to his disciples, that is to say, bread; as the fathers Irenseus, Ter- 
tullian, Origen, Cyprian, Epiphanius, Augustine, and all the residue 
which are of antiquity, do affirm: but inasmuch as the substance of 
bread and wine is another thing than the substance of the body and 
blood of Christ, it plainly appeareth that there is no transubstantiation. 

"The bread is no more transubstantiate than the wine; but that the 
wine is not transubstantiate, St. Matthew and St. Mark teach us: for 
they witness that Christ said he would drink no more of the fruit of 
the vine, which was not blood but wine: and therefore it follows, that 
there is no transubstantiation. Chrysostom upon St. Matthew, and 
Cyprian do affirm this reason. 

" The bread in the Lord's supper is not Christ's natural body, but it 
is his mystical body : for the same Spirit that spake of it, This is my 
body, said also, For we being many are one bread and one body. But 
now it is not the mystical body by transubstantiation, and therefore it 
cannot be his natural body by transubstantiation. 

" The words spoken over the cup in St. Luke and St. Paul are not so 
mighty and effectual as to transubstantiate it: for then the cup, or that 
which is in it, should be transubstantiated into the New Testament: 
therefore the words spoken over the bread, are not so mighty as to make 
transubstantiation. 

"The doctrine which agreeth with those churches which be apostolical 
mother churches, is to be counted for truth, because it holdeth that 
which these churches received of the apostles, the apostles received of 
Christ, and Christ received of God. But it is manifest that the doctrine 
taught at present by the church of Rome, concerning transubstantia- 
tion, doth not agree with the apostolic and mother churches of Greece, 
of Corinth, of Philippi, Colossia, Thessalonica, and Ephesus, which 
never taught transubstantiation ; yea, it agreeth not with the doctrine 
of the church of Rome, as it was taught in times past." 

Alter considerable discussion on the preceding, Bradford told Weston 
that he was still even as he was at the first ; and till he should see matter 



718 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to teach his conscience the contrary, he said he must needs so continue. 
And so master doctor with most gentle words took his leave for three days. 
On the 5th of April, Dr. Weston came again to the Compter ; and after 
much talk he left Bradford, saying, " If I can do you good, I will : hurt 
you I will not. I am no prince, and therefore cannot promise you life, 
except you will submit yourself to the definition of the church." Now 
after his departing came the keeper, master Claydon, and Stephen Bech ; 
and they were very hot with Bradford, and spake with him in such sort 
as utter enemies, notwithstanding the friendship they both had hitherto 
pretended. God be with us, and what matter is it who be against us? 

Among divers which came to master Bradford in prison, some to dispute 
and confer, some to give counsel, some to take comfort, and some to visit 
him, there was a certain gentlewoman's servant, whose mistress had been 
cruelly afflicted, and miserably handled in her father's house, for not coming 
to the mass, and like at length to have been pursued to death, had not the 
Lord delivered her from her father's house. The servant of this gentle- 
woman coming to master Bradford, and taking him by the hand, said — 
" God be thanked for you : how do you do V 

Bradford. Well, I thank God. For as men in sailing, which be near 
to the shore or haven where they would be, would be nearer ; even so the 
nearer I am to God, the nearer I would be. — Our quarrel is most just : 
therefore let us not be afraid. How doth your mistress now ? 

Servant. Well, God be praised ; but she hath been sorer afflicted with 
her own father and mother, than ever you were with your imprisonment ; 
and yet God hath preserved her, I trust, to his glory.. 

Brad. I read this day a godly history, written by Basil the Great, of a 
virtuous woman who was a widow, and named Juletta. She had great 
lands and many children, and nigh her dwelt a cormorant, who for her 
virtuous and pious living had great indignation against her, and of 
malice he took away her lands, so that she was constrained to go to 
law with him : and in conclusion, the matter came to trial before the 
judge, who demanded of this tyrant why he wrongfully withheld these 
lands from this woman? He made answer and said, he might so do, for 
the woman was disobedient to the king's proceedings: for she would in 
no wise worship his gods, nor offer sacrifice unto them. Then the 
judge hearing that, said unto her, 'Woman, if this be true, thou art 
not only likely to lose thy land, but also thy life, unless that thou worship 
our gods, and do sacrifice unto them.' This good woman hearing that, 
stepped forth to the judge, and said — ' Is there no remedy but either to 
worship your false gods, or else to lose my lands and life? Then fare- 
well suit, farewell lands, farewell children, farewell friends, yea, and 
farewell life too: and in respect to the true honour of the everlasting- 
God, farewell all.' And with that saying the judge committed her to 
prison, and afterwards she suffered most cruel death: and being brought 
to the place of execution, she exhorted all women to be strong and 
constant. For she said they were redeemed with as dear a price as 
men. For although they were made of the rib of the man, yet they 
were all of his flesh; so that also in the case and trial of their faith 
towards God, they ought to be as strong. And thus died she constantly, 
not fearing death. I pray you tell your mistress this story. 



EXAMINATION OF JOHN LEAF. 719 

John Bradford continued in this prison until the month of July, in such 
labours and sufferings as he always had sustained. But when the time of 
his death was come, he was suddenly conveyed out of the Compter, in the 
night season, to Newgate ; and from thence he was carried the next morn- 
ing to Smithfield, where lie, constantly abiding in the same truth of God 
which before he had confessed, earnestly exhorting the people to repent 
and to return to Christ, and sweetly comforting the godly young man who 
was burnt with him, cheerfully ended his painful life, to live with Christ. 

With John Bradford was burnt one John Leaf, an apprentice to Humfrey 
Gawdy, tallow-chandler, of the parish of Christ-Church in London, of the 
age of nineteen years and above, born at Kirby-Moorside, in the county 
of York. Upon the Friday next before. Palm-Sunday he was committed 
to the Compter in Bread-street, by an alderman of the ward where he 
dwelt. Afterwards, on coming to examination before Bonner, he gave a 
firm and Christian testimony of his doctrine and profession, answering to 
such articles as were objected to him. First, as touching his belief and 
faith in the sacrament of the altar, he answered, that after the words of 
consecration, spoken by the priest over the bread and wine, there was not 
the very true and natural body and blood of Christ in substance ; and 
further did hold and believe, that the said sacrament of the altar, as it is 
now called, used and believed in this realm of England, is idolatrous and 
abominable; and also said further, that he believed, that after the words 
of consecration spoken by the priest over the material bread and wine, 
there is not the self-same substance of Christ's body and blood there con- 
tained ; but bread and wine as it was before : and further said that he 
believed, that when the priest delivereth the said material bread and wine 
to the communicants, he delivereth it but only material bread and wine ; 
and the communicants do receive the same in remembrance of Christ's 
death and passion, and spiritually, in faith, they receive Christ's body and 
blood, but not under the forms of bread and wine. He also affirmed, that 
he believed auricular confession not to be necessary to be made unto a 
priest, for it is no point of soul-health ; neither that the priest hath any 
authority given him by the Scripture to absolve and remit any sin. 

Upon these his answers and testimony of his faith, he at that time being- 
dismissed, was bid the Monday next, being the 10th of June, to appear 
again in the said place, there and then to hear the sentence of his con- 
demnation. At this time the bishop, propounding the said articles again 
to him as before, essaying by all manner of ways to revoke him to his own 
trade, that is, from truth to error, notwithstanding all his persuasions, 
threats, and promises, found him the same man still, so planted upon the 
sure rock of truth, that no words nor deeds of men could remove him. 

Then the bishop, after many words to and fro, at last asked him if he 
had been master Rogers's scholar? To whom John Leaf answered again, 
granting him so to be ; and that he did believe in the same doctrine of the 
said Rogers, and in the doctrine of bishop Hooper, Cardmaker, and others 
of their opinion, who of late were burned for the testimony of Christ, and 
that he would die in that doctrine that they died for : and on the bishop 
moving him again to return to the unity of the church, he with great 
courage answered him in these words : — " My lord, you call mine opinion 
heresy ; but it is the true light of the word of God." And again, repeating 



MR. BRADFORD'S LETTERS. 721 

This godly Bradford and heavenly martyr, during his imprisonment wrote 
sundry comfortable treatises, and many godly letters : some to the city of 
London, Cambridge, Walden, Lancashire, and Cheshire, and divers to his 
private friends. By which letters it appears how this godly man occupied 
his time in prison, what special zeal he bare to Christ's church, how earn- 
estly he admonished all men, how tenderly he comforted the heavy-hearted, 
and how faithfully he confirmed those whom he had taught. The first 
letter (from which the following is an extract) was addressed to his mother. 

" I am at this present in prison, (sure enough for starting,) to confirm 
that I have preached unto you : as I am ready, I thank God, with my life 
and blood to seal the same, if God vouchsafe me worthy of that honour. 
For, good mother and brethren, it is a most special benefit of God, to 
suffer for his name's sake and gospel, as now I do : I heartily thank God 
for it, and am sure that with him I shall be partaker of his glory ; as Paul 
saith, ' If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him.' Therefore be not 
faint-hearted ; but rather rejoice, at the least for my sake, which now am 
in the right and high way to heaven : for by many afflictions we must enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. Now will God make known his children. 
When the wind doth not blow, then cannot a man know the wheat from 
the chaff; but when the blast cometh, then flieth away the chaff, but the 
wheat remaineth, and is so far from being hurt, that by the wind it is more 
cleansed from the chaff, and known to be wheat. Gold, when it is cast into 
the fire, is more precious ; so are God's children by the cross of affliction. 

" Fear God, stick to his word, though all the world swerve from it. 
Die you must once, and when or how you cannot tell. Die, therefore, 
with Christ ; suffer for serving him truly and after his word ; for sure may 
we be, that of all deaths it is most to be desired to die for God's sake. 
This is the most safe kind of dying : we cannot doubt but that we shall go 
to heaven, if we die for his name's sake. And that you shall die for his 
name's sake, God's word will warrant you, if you stick to that which God 
by me hath taught you. You shall see that I speak as I think ; for, by 
God's grace, I will drink before you of this cup, if I be put to it." 

The second letter was addressed "to all that profess the gospel and true 
doctrine of Christ in the city of London." The following is an extract: 

" Cast your care on the Lord, knowing he careth for you. Depend 
on the providence of God, not only when you have means to help you, 
but when you have no means, yea, when all means are against you. 
Give him this honour, which of all other things he requireth at your 
hands — to become his children through belief in Christ his blessed Son. 
When you fall he will put his hand beneath you. Before you call he 
heareth you. Out of all evil he will finally deliver you, and bring you 
t© his eternal joy. I would gladly have given here my body to be 
burned for the confirmation of the true doctrine I have taught unto you. 
But that my country must have; therefore I pray you take in good 
part this signification of my good will towards all of you. Impute the 
want herein to time and trouble. Pardon me mine offensive and negli- 
gent behaviour when I was amongst you. With me repent and labour 
to amend. Continue in the truth which I have truly taught unto you, 
by preaching in all places where I have come; God's name, therefore 
is 3 a 



722 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

be praised. Confess Christ when you be called, whatsoever cometh 
therefrom, and the God of peace be with us all, Amen." 

The third letter, addressed to the University of Cambridge, we insert 
at full length. It is an admirable specimen of faithful remonstrance 
and reasoning. 

" To all that love the Lord Jesus and his true doctrine, being in the 
university and town of Cambridge, John Bradford, a most unworthy 
servant of the Lord, now not only imprisoned, but also condemned for 
the same true doctrine, wisheth grace, peace, and mercy, with increase 
of all godliness from God the Father of all mercy, through the bloody 
passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by the lively working of the Holy 
Spirit for ever, Amen. 

" Although I look hourly when I should be had to the stake, and 
although the charge over me is great and strict, yet having by the 
providence of. God secretly pen and ink, I could not but signify unto 
you my solicitude which I have for all of you in the Lord, though not 
as I would, yet as I may. You have often and openly heard the truth 
disputed and preached, that it is needless to do any more but only to 
put you in remembrance of the same; but hitherto you have not heard 
it confirmed, and as it were sealed up, as now you do and shall hear 
by me, that is, by my death and burning. For albeit I have deserved 
— through my uncleanness, hypocrisy, avarice, vainglory, idleness, un- 
thankfulness, and carnality, whereof I accuse myself, to my confusion 
before the world, that before God through Christ I might, as my assured 
hope is I shall, find mercy — eternal death and hell fire, much more 
than this affliction and fire prepared for me: yet my dearly beloved, it 
is not these, or any of these things, for which the prelates do persecute 
me, but God's verity and truth. Yea, even Christ himself is the only 
cause for which I am now condemned, and shall be burned as a heretic, 
because I will not grant the antichrist of Rome to be Christ's vicar 
general and supreme head of his church here, and every where upon 
earth, by God's ordinance:, and because I will not grant such corporeal, 
real, and carnal presence of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, 
as doth transubstantiate the substance of bread and wine, and is re- 
ceived by the wicked. Also I am excommunicated and accounted as a 
dead member of Christ's church, as a rotten branch, and therefore shall 
be cast into the fire. 

" Therefore you ought heartily to rejoice with me, and to give thanks 
for me, that God the eternal Father hath vouchsafed our mother to 
bring up any child in whom it would please him to magnify his holy 
name as he doth, and I hope for his mercy and truth's sake, will do in 
me and by me. Oh, what such benefit upon earth can it be, as that I 
who deserved death by reason of my sins, should be delivered to a de- 
monstration, a testification, and confirmation of God's verity and truth? 
Thou, my mother the university, hast not only had the truth of God's 
word plainly manifested unto thee by reading, disputing, and preaching, 
publicly and privately; but now to make thee altogether excuseless, 
and as it were, almost to sin against the Holy Ghost, if thou put to thy 
helping hand with the Romish rout to suppress the verity, thou hast my 



MR. BRADFORD'S LETTERS. 753 

life and blood as a seal to confirm thee, if thou wilt be confirmed : 
else to confound thee, and to bear witness against thee, if thou wilt take 
part with the prelates and clergy, which now fill up the measure of 
their fathers who slew the prophets and apostles, that all the righteous 
blood from Abel to Bradford, shed upon earth, maybe required at their 
hands. 

"Of this therefore I thought good before my death, as time and 
liberty would suffer me, to admonish thee, good mother, and my sister 
the town, that you would call to mind from whence you are fallen, and 
study to do the first works. You know these matters of the Romish 
supremacy, and the antichristian transubstantiation, whereby Christ's 
supper is overthrown, his priesthood evacuated, his sacrifice frustrated, the 
ministry of his word unplaced, repentance repelled, faith fainted, piety 
extinguished, the mass maintained, idolatry supported, and all impiety 
cherished : you know, I say, that these opinions are not only beside 
God's word, but even directly against it, and therefore to take part 
with them, is to take part against God, against whom you cannot pre- 
vail. 

" Therefore for the tender mercy of Christ, in his bowels and blood I 
beseech you to take Christ's eye-salve to anoint your eyes, that you 
may see what you do, and have done, in admitting, as I hear you have 
admitted, yea, alas ! authorized, the Romish rottenness which once you 
utterly expelled. O be not, ' The dog returned to his own vomit ; the 
sow that was washed returned to her wallowing in the mire.' 'Beware, 
lest Satan enter in with seven other spirits, and then the last shall be 
worse than the first.' ' It had been better ye had never known the truth, 
than after knowledge to run from it.' Ah, woe to this world and the 
things therein, which hath now so wrought with you. Oh that ever the 
dirt of the devil should daub up the eye of the realm! for thou, O mother, 
art as the eye of the realm. If thou be light and shine, all the body shall 
fare the better: but if thy light be darkness, alas, how great will the dark- 
ness be ! What is man, whose breath is in his nostrils, that thou shouldst 
thus be afraid of him ! 

"Oh what is honour and life here! Bubbles. What is glory in this 
world, but shame! Why art thou afraid to carry Christ's cross? Wilt 
thou come into his kingdom, and not drink of his cup? Dost thou not 
know Rome to be Babylon? Dost thou not know that as the old Babylon 
had the children of Judah in captivity, so hath this Rome the true 
Judah, that is, the confessors of Christ? Dost thou not know, that as 
destruction happened unto it, so shall it do unto this? And thinkest 
thou that God will not deliver his people now when the time is come, 
as he did then? Hath not God commanded his people to come out from 
her? Hast thou forgotten the woe that Christ threateneth to offence- 
givers? Wilt thou not remember, that it were better that a mill-stone 
were hanged about thy neck and thou thrown into the sea, than that 
thou shouldst offend the little ones? 

"And alas, how hast thou offended! Yea, and how dost thou still 
offend! Wilt thou consider things according to the outward shew? Was 
not the synagogue more seemly and like to be the true church, than the 
simple flock of Christ's disciples? Hath not the whore of Babylon more 



724 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

costly array, and rich apparel, externally to set forth herself, than the 
homely housewife of Christ? Where is the beauty of the king's daughter, 
the church of Christ? Without or within? Doth not David say, within? 
O remember that as they are happy which are not offended at Christ, so 
are they happy which are not offended at his poor church. Can the 
pope and his prelates mean honestly, which make so much of the wife, 
and so little of the husband ? The church they magnify, but Christ they 
contemn. If this church were an honest woman, (that is, Christ's wife) 
except they would make much of her husband, Christ and his word, she 
would not be made much of by them. 

" When Christ and his apostles were upon the earth, who was most 
like to be the true church, they or the prelates, bishops and synagogue? 
if a man should have followed custom, unity, antiquity, or the greater 
part, should not Christ and his company have been cast out of doors? 
therefore Christ saith, ' Search the scriptures/ Good mother, shall the 
servant be above his master? Shall we look for better entertainment 
at the hands of the world, than Christ and his dear disciples found? In 
Noah's time who was taken for the church, poor Noah and his family, or 
all the others that were destroyed by the flood? Who was taken for 
God's church in Sodom, righteous Lot, or the others? And doth not 
Christ say, ' As it was then, so shall it go now towards the coming of 
the Son of man?' What meaneth Christ when he saith, iniquity shall 
have the upper hand ? Doth not he likewise say, that charity shall wax 
cold ? And we plainly see the greatest scarcity of it in those, who would 
now be taken for Christ's true catholic church. All that fear God in 
this realm can tell more of this than I can write. 

"Therefore, dear mother, receive some admonition of one of thy poor 
children, now going to be burnt to ashes for the testimony of Jesus. 
Come again to God's truth ; come out of Babylon ; confess Christ and 
his true doctrine ; repent of what is past, make amends by declaring 
thy repentance by the fruits. Remember the reading and preaching 
of God's prophet, the true preacher, Martin Bucer. Call to mind the 
threatenings of God against impenitent sinners. Let the exile of Leaver, 
Pilkington, Grindal, Haddon, Horn, Scory, Ponet, and others, awake 
and strengthen thee. Let the imprisonment of thy dear sons, Cranmer, 
Ridley, and Latimer, move thee. Consider the martyrdom of thy 
intimate friends, Rogers, Saunders, and Taylor. And now cast not 
away my poor admonition, that am now going to be burnt and to 
receive the like crown of glory with my fellows. Take to heart God's 
calling by us. Be not as Pharaoh was, that it may not happen unto 
thee as it did unto him. What is that? Hardness of heart. And what 
then? Destruction eternally both of body and soul. Ah, therefore, good 
mother, awake, awake, repent, repent, and make haste to turn to the 
Lord. For otherwise it shall be more easy for Sodom and Gomorrah in 
the day of judgment than for thee. O harden not your hearts; O stop 
not your ears to-day in hearing God's voice, though it be by a most 
unworthy messenger. O fear the Lord, for his anger is begun to kindle. 
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. 

"You know I prophesied truly before the sweating sickness came, 
what would come, if you repented not your carnal preaching. And 



MR. BRADFORD'S LETTERS. 725 

now I tell you before I depart hence, that the ears of men shall tingle 
to hear the vengeance of God that will fall upon you all, both town and 
university, if you repent not, if you leave not your idolatry, if you turn 
not speedily to the Lord, if you still be ashamed of Christ's truth which 
you know. 

" O, Perne, repent; O, Thompson, repent! O, doctors, bachelors, and 
masters, repent! O, mayor, aldermen, and town-dwellers, repent, repent, 
repent, that you may escape the approaching vengeance of the Lord ! 
Rend your hearts and make haste to come unto the Lord. Let us all 
say, 'We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have not hearkened 
to thy voice, O Lord. Deal not with us after our deserts, but be mer- 
ciful unto our iniquities, for they are great. O pardon our offences. In 
thine anger remember thy mercy. Turn us unto thee, O Lord God of 
hosts, for the glory of thy name's sake. Spare us and be merciful unto 
us. Let not the wicked people say, Where is now their God ? O for 
thine own sake, for thy name's sake, deal mercifully with us. Turn thy- 
self unto us, and us unto thee, and we shall praise thy name for ever.' 

" If in this sort, my dearly beloved, in heart and mouth we come 
unto our Father, and prostrate ourselves before the throne of his grace, 
then surely we shall find mercy. Then shall the Lord look tenderly upon 
us, for his mercy's sake in Christ; then shall we hear him speak peace 
unto his people. For he is gracious and merciful, of great pity and 
compassion : he cannot be chiding for ever: his anger cannot last long 
to the penitent. Though we weep in the morning, yet at night we shall 
have our sorrow to cease. For he is merciful, and hath no pleasure in 
the death of a sinner : he would rather have him turn from his wicked- 
ness and live. 

" Oh turn ye now and repent, yet once again, I humbly beseech you, 
and then the kingdom of heaven shall draw nigh. The eye hath not 
seen, the ear hath not heard, nor is the heart of man able to conceive 
the joys prepared for us, if we repent, amend our lives, and heartily 
turn to the Lord. But if you repent not, but be as ye are, and go 
forwards with the wicked, following the fashion of the world, the Lord 
will lead you on with wicked doers, you shall perish in your wickedness, 
your blood will be upon your own heads, your parts shall be with hypo- 
crites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ; you shall be cast 
from the face of the Lord for ever and ever; eternal shame, sorrow, 
woe, and misery, shall be both in body and soul to you world without 
end. Oh, therefore, right dear to me in the Lord, turn you, turn you, 
repent you, repent you, amend, amend your lives, depart from evil, do 
good, follow peace, and pursue it. Come out from Babylon, cast off 
the works of darkness, put on Christ, confess his truth, be not ashamed 
of his gospel, prepare yourselves for the cross, drink of God's cup 
before it come to the dregs, and then shall I with you and for you, 
rejoice in the day of judgment, which is at hand ; and therefore prepare 
yourselves thereto, I heartily beseech you. And thus I take my farewell 
for ever of you in this present life, mine own dear hearts in the Lord. 
The Lord of mercy be with us all, and give us a joyful and sure meeting 
in his kingdom, Amen. 

" Your own in the Lord for ever, 

" JOHN T BRADFORD." 



726 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Mr. Bradford's fourth letter was addressed to the people of Lancashire 
and Cheshire, among whom he had laboured with fidelity and success. 
The fifth he wrote to the inhabitants of Walden in Essex, now generally 
called Saffron Walden, where he had many friends, whom he earnestly 
exhorted to be "steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord." The sixth he calls a letter to his loving brethren, 
their wives, and families; but the initials only of those brethren appear. 
The seventh he addressed to a friend named Erkinalde Rawlins, and 
this contains a passage not to be omitted. " You have cause to rejoice 
for those days because they are days of trial, wherein you yourselves 
and all true believers shall know that you belong not unto the world, 
but are the favourites and friends of God. Before these days came, Lord 
God ! how many thought themselves in God's bosom, and so were taken 
and would be taken by the world. But now we see whose they are. 
For whom we obey his servants we be. If we obey the world, then are 
we the world's, but if we obey God then are we God's; which thing 
these days have declared to all of us better than we ever knew it before." 

The eighth letter of this devoted saint was addressed to a suffering 
lady of the reformed faith, named Warcup; to whom the thirty-fifth 
letter was also inscribed, and to whose husband, with herself and some 
mutual friends of the name of Wilkinson, he addressed the thirteenth 
in the collection. From the thirty-fifth an extract will appear in due 
order; at present we must return to the ninth, inscribed to his fellow 
sufferer Mr. Laurence Saunders, who was then in the Marshalsea prison, 
and containing allusions to Dr. Taylor and Mr, Philpot, which we have no 
means at hand of explaining. In conclusion he says, '" God, our Father 
and gracious Lord, make perfect the good work he hath begun in us. He 
will do it, my brother, my dear brother, whom I have in my inward bowels 
to live and die with." The tenth letter is also addressed to Laurence 
Saunders, and contains little else than a repetition of the preceding. 

The eleventh letter is addressed "to my dear Fathers, Dr. Cranmer, 
Dr. Ridley, and Mr. Latimer;" and is here given almost entire : 

"Jesus Immanuel. My dear fathers in the Lord, I beseech God our 
sweet Father through Christ, to make perfect the good he hath begun 
in us all. I had thought that every one of your staves had stood next 
the door, but now it is otherwise perceived. Our dear brother Rogers 
hath broken the ice valiantly, as this day, I think, or to-morrow at the 
uttermost, hearty Hooper, sincere Saunders, and trusty Taylor, end their 
course, and receive their crown. The next am I, which hourly look for 
the porter to open me the gates after them, to enter into the desired rest. 
God forgive me mine unthankful ness for this exceeding great mercy, 
that amongst so many thousands it pleaseth his mercy to choose me to 
be one, in whom he will surfer. For although it be most true, that I 
justly suffer, (for I have been a great hypocrite, and a grievous sinner, 
the Lord pardon me,) yet he hath done it, he hath done it indeed; yet 
what evil hath he done? Christ whom the prelates persecute, his verity 
which they hate in me, hath done no evil, nor deserved death. There- 
fore ought I most heartily to rejoice of this tender kindness of 
the Lord towards me, which useth a remedy for my sin as a testi- 
monial of his covenant, to his glory, to my everlasting comfort, to 



xMR. BRADFORD'S LETTERS. 727 

the edifying of his church, and to the overthrowing- of antichrist and his 
kingdom. 

"Out of prison in haste, looking for the tormenter, February 8th, 1555. 

" J0HN T BRADFORD." 

The fourteenth letter was written to Sir James Hales, then a prisoner, 
like his estimable correspondent for the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. 
Mr. Bradford was, as he says, "unknown to him both by face and 
name;" yet he knew him to suffer for righteousness' sake, and therefore 
would not content himself with calling daily to God in his behalf. His 
style of writing in this letter is somewhat chastened, yet characteristic, 
as the following extract will shew. "Look, good master Hales, on your 
vocation: not many judges, not many knights, not many landed and 
rich men, hath God chose to suffer for his sake as he hath done you. 
Certainly, I dare say, you think not so of yourself, as though God were 
bound to prefer you, or had need of you; but rather attribute this as 
all things to the free mercy of God in Christ. Being a wise man you 
do judge of things wisely ; that is concerning this your cross, you judge 
of it not after the world, which is the great master of error ; nor after 
the judgment of the world's wisdom, which is foolishness to faith ; nor 
after the present sense, to which it seemeth not to be joyous but 
grievous; but after the word of God, which tells you that the cross is 
the path way to glory, felicity, and heaven." 

In the fifteenth letter the writer conjures Dr. Hill, a protestant phy- 
sician of celebrity in that day, to abide in the true faith for which he 
had begun to suffer, and to fear God as the best preservative to the fear 
of man. In the sixteenth, he entreats a pious gentlewoman, whose 
initials only he gives us, to make God's glory shine in all her words and 
works. The eighteenth is addressed to a faithful and pious woman, 
more exposed to inward than outward distress, and to whom, in a long 
and excellent letter, he thus writes, " Do you not hunger and thirst 
after righteousness? and I pray you, saith not he who cannot lie, that 
happy are such? How should God wipe away the tears from your eyes 
in heaven, if now on earth you shed no tears? How could heaven be a 
place of rest, if on earth you find it? How could you desire to be at 
home, if in your journey you find no difficulty, distress, or grief? How 
could you be made like unto Christ in joy, if in sorrow you never sobbed 
with him? If you will sit at Christ's table in his kingdom, you must 
first abide with him in his temptations. If you will drink of his cup 
of glory, despise not his cup of ignominy. If you were a market 
sheep, you should go in more fat and grassy pasture. If you were 
for the fair, you should be stall fed, and want no wealth ; but because 
you are God's own occupying, therefore you must pasture on the bleak 
and barren heath, abiding the storms and tempests that he may send 
down upon that and upon you." 

Most of the martyrs of this melancholy reign were more or less com- 
forted, and some of them wholly supported as to their mortal frame, by 
the noble lady Vane. Several* of the letters of Mr. Philpot and Mr. 
Trehern were addressed to her. She was also one of good Mr. Bradford's 
correspondents, and to her the nineteenth and twentieth and twenty-ninth 



728 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

letters in this collection were inscribed. They chiefly relate to certain 
important and intricate queries which she had in writing or in conversa- 
tion proposed to him ; but are not of sufficient importance to merit the 
preference of insertion. 

In the twenty-third letter he writes to some persons, whose names are 
not mentioned, but of whose piety he has a good opinion, while what he 
says implies some apprehension of their fainting in the day of final trial. 
In the twenty-fourth, a class of rather different persons, whose integrity 
he suspects, and of consequence stands in great doubt of their stability 
even in an outward profession of just sentiments, are faithfully ad- 
monished in the following terms. " You promised to fight under 
Christ's standard. You learned his cross before you learned your 
alphabet. Go forward then, and pay your vows to the Lord. Fight 
like men, and valiant men too under the standard of Christ. Take up 
the cross and follow your Master unto death — as your brethren Hooper, 
Rogers, Taylor, and Saunders, have already done ; and as now your 
brethren Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Farrar, and Bradford, are ready 
to do." 

The twenty-fifth letter was addressed to his " good brother" John 
Careless, then a prisoner in the King's Bench. It was in answer to one 
of which he says — " I never received so much consolation by any thing 
since I came into prison as I have by your last letter." It would appear 
that either Bradford had been too unmindful of this friend, or was in a 
state of depression when he wrote very unusual with him; for notwith- 
standing is the letter very brief, but almost full of misgiving and self- 
accusation. It concludes thus, "It is not one or two drops that maketh 
the stone hollow; but the perpetual dropping; so if with hearty prayer 
for them, and by good example gently working upon them, we may at 
length see the operation of God, we shall in the end rejoice. I beseech 
God to make perfect all the good he hath begun in us all." 

Letters the twenty-sixth and seventh are addressed to Mr. John Hall 
and his wife, then prisoners in Newgate, and contain, with nothing re- 
markable, his usual flow of consolatory reflection and benevolent admo- 
nition and advice. The twenty-eighth is in answer to a woman who 
desired to know of him if she might be present at the popish matins, 
provided she were absent from the mass? His reasons against her pro- 
posals are — that both the morning and evening service of the Romish 
church were in a foreign tongue, and consequently forbidden in scrip- 
ture — that they were idolatrous, and therefore sinful — that they were 
services of antichrist, which no Christian should attend — and that her 
example might greatly influence and injure others, for whom she would 
be called to judgment. 

The thirtieth letter was addressed to the sheriff of Coventry, Mr. 
Richard Hopkins, who to avoid danger and preserve unmolested the 
observance of the true faith and worship, fled with his family to Basle, 
where he remained till Mary's death. In the thirty-second letter there 
is this admirable passage, in answer to the inquiry of a friend, how he was 
to reply to his adversaries? " When you shall come before the magis- 
trates, to give a reason for the hope that is in you, do it with all 
reverence and simplicity: and if you are afraid of their power and 



MR. BRADFORD'S LETTERS. 729 

cruelty, set before you the example of the good father Moses; for he 
set the invisible God before the eyes of his faith, and with them he 
looked upon his glorious majesty and power, as with the eyes of his 
body he saw Pharaoh and all his frightful terrors. So do you, my 
dearly beloved, let your inward eyes give light unto you, that while you 
are before the magistrates, so and much more are you and they present 
before the face of God, who will give you such wisdom and strength as 
your enemies will be amazed at." 

The thirty-fourth is a remarkably serious and spiritual letter addressed 
to Mr. George Eaton. In the thirty-sixth he strongly urges a young 
lady, persecuted by her parents for not going to mass, to be steadfast in 
the true faith, and to reject with firmness and perseverance the papal 
system. The thirty-seventh is a letter of warm and honest thanks to all 
the friends from whom he had received comfort and relief during his 
long imprisonment. The good man's hour was now drawing near, when 
he fully apprehended, or rather anticipated, that he should pass through 
the fire of earth to the felicity of heaven. Letters forty-one and forty- 
two are to his mother, intimating this expectation as likely soon to be 
fulfilled. The latter is his final farewell to his*venerable parent, and 
thus expresses his perfect confidence and calmness in the almost imme- 
diate view of death. " My most dear mother, I heartily pray and 
beseech you to be thankful for me to God, who now taketh me unto 
himself. I die not as a criminal, but as a witness of Christ, the truth of 
whose gospel I have hitherto confessed, and now am willing to confirm 
by fire. I have nothing to give you, or to leave behind me for you ; 
only I pray God my Father, for Christ's sake, to bless you and to keep 
you from all evil. May he make you patient and thankful that he will 
take the fruit of your womb to witness his truth; wherein I confess to 
the whole world that I die, and depart this life in hope of a much 
better, which I look for at the hands of God my Father, through the 
merits of his Son Jesus Christ. Thus, my dear mother, I take my last 
farewell of you in this life, beseeching the Almighty and eternal Father 
by Christ, to grant us to meet in the life to come, where we shall give 
him continual thanks and praise for ever and ever, Amen." 

The forty-third letter, the last but one in the collection, was addressed 
to the queen, her council, and the whole parliament. Let those who but 
imagine it possible that John Bradford should have made these high 
powers his resort at last in hope of forgiveness, or, still more, should 
have attempted to conciliate them by flattery, or propitiate them by 
compromise and recantation, read the letter, and confess their suspicion, 
or fear, or whatever else it might be, unfavourable to his pre-eminent 
reputation for courage and constancy, to have been both premature 
itself and an offence against him. 

" In most humble wise complaineth unto your majesty and honours, 
a poor subject, persecuted for the confession of Christ's verity; which 
verity deserveth at your hands to be maintained and defended, as the thing 
by which you reign, and have your honours and authorities. Although we 
that be professors, and, through the grace of God, the constant confessors 
of the same, are, as it were, the out-sweepings of the world ; yet I say, the 
verity itself is a thing not unworthy for your ears to hear, for your eyes 



730 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to see, and for your hands to handle, help, and succour as the Lord 
hath made you able, and placed you where you are for the same purpose. 
Your highness and honours ought to know, that there is no innocency 
in words or deeds, where it is enough and sufficient only to accuse. It 
behoveth kings, queens, and all that be in authority, to know, that 
in the administration of their kingdoms they are God's ministers. It 
behoveth them to know, that they are not kings, but plain tyrants, who 
reign not to this end, that they may serve and set forth God's glory after 
true knowledge; and therefore it is required of them that they would 
be wise, and suffer themselves to kiss their Sovereign, lest they perish; 
as all those potentates, with their principalities and dominions, cannot 
long prosper, but perish indeed, if they and their kingdoms be not ruled 
with the sceptre of God, that is, with his word; which whoso honoureth 
not, honoureth not God; and they that honour not the Lord, the Lord 
will not honour them, but bring them into contempt, and at length take 
his own cause, which he hath chiefly committed to them to care for, into 
his own hands, and so overthrow them, and set up his own truth 
gloriously : the people also perishing with the princes, where the word 
of prophecy is wanting, much more is suppressed, as it is now in this 
realm of England, over which the eyes of the Lord are set to destroy it, 
your highness and all your honours, if in time you look not better to 
your office and duties herein, and not suffer yourselves to be slaves and 
hangmen to antichrist and his prelates, who have already brought your 
highness and honours in the mind to let Barabbas loose, and to hang up 
Christ. This by the grace and help of God I shall make apparent, if 
first it would please your excellent majesty, and all your honours, to 
take to heart God's doctrine, which rather through the malice of the 
pharisees, I mean the bishops and prelates, than your consciences, is 
oppressed; and not for our contemptible and execrable state in the 
world to pass the less of it. For this doctrine is higher, and of more 
honour and majesty than all the whole world. It standeth invincible 
above all power, being not our doctrine, but the doctrine of the ever- 
living God, and of his Christ, whom the Father hath ordained king, to 
have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the end of the 
world. And truly so he doth and will reign, that he will shake all the 
earth with his iron and brazen power, with his golden and silver bright- 
ness, only by the rod of his mouth, to shivers, in such a manner as 
though they were pots of clay, according to what the prophets write of 
the magnificence of his kingdom. And thus much for the doctrine, and 
your duties to hearken, to propagate, and defend the same. 

" But now will our adversaries mainly cry out against us, because no 
man be admitted once to speak against them, that we pretend falsely 
the doctrine and word of God, calling us the most wicked contemners 
of it, and heretics, schismatics, traitors, &c. All which their sayings, 
how malicious and false they are, though I might refer to that which is 
written by those men whose works they have condemned, and all that 
retain any of them, publicly by proclamation; yet here will I occasion 
your majesty and honours by this my writing, to see that it is far other- 
wise than they report of us. God our Father, for his holy name's sake, 
direct my pen to be his instrument to put into your eyes, ears, and 



STORY OF WILLIAM MINGE AND JAMES TREVISAM. 731 

hearts, that which most may make to his glory, in the safeguard of your 
souls and bodies, and preservation of the whole realm. Amen." 

In the month of May before, mention was made of certain letters directed 
from the king and queen to Bonner. Besides which letters, certain others 
had been directed a little before from the council to the said bishop ; by 
occasion of which letters, Bonner not long after caused a certain declaration 
to be made unto the people at Paul's cross, by Dr. Chedsey, to purge 
himself from the general suspicion of cruelty, which was spread abroad of 
him among the common people. The words of which declaration were in 
part as follow : " And whereas by these letters, coming from the king's 
and queen's majesties, it appeareth that their majesties 'do charge my 
lord bishop of London, and the rest of the bishops, with remissness and 
negligence in instructing the people infected with heresy, if they will 
be taught, and in punishing them if they will be obstinate and wilful, 
ye shall understand that my lord bishop of London, for his part, offereth 
himself ready to do therein his duty to the uttermost : — and that he will 
travail and take pains with all that be of his jurisdiction for their amend- 
ment ; and sorry he is that any are in prison for any such matter. And 
he willed me to tell you, that he is not so cruel or hasty to send men to 
prison as some be — slanderous and wilful to do naught, and lay their faults 
on other men's shoulders." 

SECTION IX. 

ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM MINGE AND JAMES TREVISAM — EXAMINATIONS AND 

MARTYRDOM OF JOHN BLAND ACCOUNT OF SHETERDEN, FRANKESII, AND 

MIDDLETON — STORY OF HALL, WAID, AND MARGERY POLLEY. 

The day after master Bradford and John Leaf did suffer in Smithfiekl, 
William Minge, a priest, died in prison at Maidstone, being there con- 
fined for religion, and would, had he lived a little longer, doubtless 
have suffered the fury of his adversaries, whose nature was to spare and 
favour none that favoured Christ's pure gospel. William Minge, with 
as great constancy and boldness yielded up his life in prison, as other 
good and godly men had done before at the stake, being of the same 
spirit with them, and having the same glorious hope. Had it pleased 
God to spare him for the same fate, judging by his spirit and conversa- 
tion, he would have been equally triumphant over the flames and over 
death in that apparently dreadful form. 

The next individual was James Trevisam, of the parish of St. Margaret 
in Lothbury. Being impotent and lame, he kept his bed a long time. He 
had a servant named John Small, who was reading in the Bible, when 
Berd the promoter came to the house, and would needs go up stairs, 
where he found four persons besides him and his wife; namely, the 
young man that read, and two men and a woman. Berd apprehended 
and carried them all to the Compter, where they remained about a 
fortnight, notwithstanding all the friends they could make. Not only 
so, but Berd intended to carry the poor lame man to Newgate in a cart, 
but the neighbours, who had a little more humanity, prevented that 
barbarous design. Nevertheless, the poor man was obliged to have two 



732 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

sureties for his forthcoming ; for he could not go out of his bed, being not 
only impotent, but also very sick the same time. So within a few days, 
the said James lying in extremity, the parson of the church, master 
Farthing, came to him, and had communication with him, and agreed well, 
and so departed. It happened after the priest was come down into the 
street, there met him one Toller, a founder. " Yea," saith he, "be ye 
agreed ? I will accuse you, for he denieth the sacrament of the altar." 
Upon that the parson went to him again, and then the priest and he could 
not agree. So the parson went to the bishop of London, and told him. 
The bishop answered, that he should be burnt ; and if he were dead, he 
should be buried in a ditch. And so, when he died, the parson was against 
his wife as much as he could, neither would let her have the coffin to put 
him in, nor anything else, but was fain to bear him upon a table to Moor- 
field, and there was he buried on the 3rd of July, 1555. The same night 
the body was cast up above the ground, and his sheet taken from him, and 
he left naked. After this the owner of the field, seeing him, buried him 
again. A fortnight after, the sumner came to his grave, and summoned 
him to appear at Paul's before his ordinary, to answer to such things as 
should be laid against him ! But what more befell upon him, I have not 
certainly to say. 

On the 12th of July, John Bland, John Frankesh, Nicholas Sheter- 
den, and Humphrey Middleton, were all burned at Canterbury together 
for one cause. Frankesh and Bland were ministers and preachers of 
the word of God, the one being parson of Adisham, and the other vicar 
of Rolvendean. Mr. Bland was a man so little born for his own advan- 
tage, that no part of his life was separated from the common and public 
utility of all men. His first doings were devoted to the bringing up of 
children in learning. Under him were trained up several young men, 
who afterwards flourished. In this number was Dr. Sands, a man of 
singular learning and worthiness, as may well become a scholar for such 
a tutor. 

After this coming to the ministry in the church of God, or rather 
being called thereto, he was inflamed with incredible desire to profit the 
congregation ; which may appear by this, that whereas he was twice 
cast into Canterbury prison for preaching the gospel, and delivered once 
or twice from thence at the intercession of his friends, yet he would 
preach again, as soon as he was delivered. Being the third time appre- 
hended, his friends yet once again would have found means to deliver 
him, if he would promise to abstain from preaching; but he stood in it 
earnestly, that he would admit no such condition, notably well express- 
ing unto us the manner and example which we read in the apostle 
St. Paul — "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, 
or anguish, or hunger, or nakedness, or persecution, or the sword?" 
But to express the whole life and doings of this godly martyr, seeing we 
have his own testimony concerning the same, it shall be best to refer the 
reader to his own report, writing to his father of the whole discourse of 
his troubles, from the beginning almost to the latter end, in order and 
manner as followeth : 

" Dearly beloved father in Christ Jesus, I thank you for your gentle 
letters. And to satisfy your mind as concerning the troubles whereof 



ACCOUNT OF MR. JOHN BLAND. 733 

you have heard, these shall both declare unto you all that has happened 
to me since you were with me, and also since I received your last letters. 
God keep you ever. 

" First, on Sunday the 3rd of September, after the service was ended, 
ere I had put off my surplice, John Austen came to the Lord's table, 
and laid both his hands upon it, saying, ' Who set this here again ? ' 
Now they say they took the table down the Sunday before, which I 
knew not, neither do I know who set it up again. The clerk answered 
that he knew not. Then said Austen — 'He is a knave, that set it here.' 
I was then going down the church, wondering wdiat he meant, I said 
— ' Goodman Austen, the queen's highness hath set forth a proclama- 
tion that you move no sedition.' Before 1 could speak any more, 
he called me a knave, repeating that by God's soul, I was a very 
knave. Then my clerk spoke to him, but what I am not sure. He 
called us both heretic knaves, and said we had deceived too long 
already, and if we said any service here again, he would turn our table 
upside down. In that rage he, with others, took the table and laid it 
on a chest in the chancel, and set the tressels by it. Soon after, I rode 
to Mr. Isaac, and declared unto him how seditiously Austen had behaved 
himself. Mr. Isaac directed a warrant to the constable, which was im- 
mediately served, so that he was brought before him the same night, and 
was bound by recognizance, with sureties, to appear if he w T ere called. 
But then w r e agreed so well, that it was never called for: and the table 
was brought down, and was permitted as before. 

" On Sunday the 25th of November, Richard Austen and his brother 
Thomas came again to the table after the communion, and wished to 
speak with me. I said, 'What is your will?' He said, 'You know 
that you took down the tabernacle wherein the rood did hang, and 
such other things : we would know what recompence you would make 
us : for the queen's proceedings are that such things must be put up 
again.' Quoth I, ' I know no such proceedings as et ; and as for that l 
did, I did it by commandment.' ' No,' said Thomas Austen, ' ye will not 
know the queen's proceedings.' ' Yes,' said I, ' I refuse not to know them.' 
Then said Richard, ' Ye are against the queen's proceedings ; for you say 
there are abominable uses and devilishness in the mass.' ' Goodman 
Austen,' said I, ' if I so said, I will say it again ; and stand to the proof of it.' 
' Masters all,' said he, ' bear record of these words ;' and went his way. 

" Quoth Thomas Austen, ' Thou wilt as soon eat this book as stand to 
them.' ' No,' quoth I, ' not so soon.' ' Tell us,' quoth he, ' what that 
devilishness is that is in the mass.' ' I have often preached it unto you,' 
said I, ' and ye have not believed it, nor borne it away, nor will now either, 
though I should tell you.' ' Thou art a heretic,' said he, ' and hast taught 
us nothing but heresy.' And at the last he said, ' Ye pulled down the 
altar : will ye build it again V ' No,' quoth I, ' except I be commanded ; 
for I was commanded to do that I did.' ' Well, if you will not,' said he, 
' then will I ; for I am churchwarden.' ' I charge you,' said I, ' that you 
do not, except you have authority.' ' I will,' said he, ' nor let for your 
charge. For we will have a mass here on Sunday, and a preacher that 
shall prove thee a heretic, if thou dare abide his coming.' ' God willing,' 



734 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

quoth I, ' I will; for he cannot disprove any doctrine that I have preached.' 
' Yes,' said Thomas, ' and that thou shalt hear, if thou run not away ere 
then.' ' No, goodman Austen, I will not run away.' ' Marry, I cannot 
tell/ said he. With many other words, we departed out of the church. 

"When the Sunday came, I looked for our preacher, and at the time of 
morning prayer I said to the clerk, ' Why do ye not ring? Ye forget that 
we shall have a sermon to-day.' ' No/ quoth he, ' master Miles's servant 
hath been here this morning, and said his master hath letters from my lord 
chancellor, that he must go to London, and cannot come/ That day I 
did preach a sermon to them in his stead ; and on making an end thereof 
I desired all men to conform to the gospel, and to depart quietly in peace. 
" Upon the Innocents' day, being the 28th of December, they had pro- 
cured the priest of Stodmarsh to say them mass. He had nigh made an 
end of matins ere I came ; and, when he had ended, he said to me, ' Master 
parson, your neighbours have desired me to say matins and mass ; I trust 
ye will not be against the queen's proceedings.' ' No/ quoth I, ' I will 
offend none of the queen's majesty's laws, God willing.' ' What say ye?' 
quoth he ; and made as he had not heard. And I spake the same words to 
him again, with a higher voice ; but he would not hear, though all the 
chancel heard. So I cried the third time, (that all in the church heard,) 
that I would not offend the queen's laws. Then he went to mass ; and 
when he was reading the epistle, I beckoned the clerk unto me, and said 
unto him, ' I pray you desire the priest, when the gospel is done, to tarry 
a little ; I have something to say to the people.' And the clerk did so. 

" Then the priest came down and sat in the stall; and I stood up in the 
chancel-door, and spake to the people of the great goodness of God, always 
shewn unto his people, unto the time of Christ's coming; and in him 
and his coming, what benefit they had; and among others I spake of 
the great and comfortable sacrament of his body and blood. And after 
I had briefly declared the institution, the promise of life to the good, 
and damnation to the wicked, I spake of the bread and wine, affirming 
them to be bread and wine after the consecration, as yonder mass book, 
saying — < Holy bread of eternal life, and the cup of perpetual salvation. 
As our bodily mouths eat the sacramental bread and wine, so doth the 
mouth of our souls, which is our faith, eat Christ's flesh and blood.' 
When I had made an end of that, I spake of the misuse of the sacra- 
ment in the mass; so that I judged it in that use no sacrament, and 
shewed how Christ bade us all eat and drink ; and in the mass one only 
eateth and drinketh, and the rest kneel, knock, and worship. After 
these things ended, as briefly as I could, I spake of the benefactors of 
the mass, and began to declare who made the mass, and recited every 
man's name: but before I had rehearsed them all, the churchwarden 
and the constable his son-in-law, violently came upon me, took my book 
from me, pulled me down, and thrust me into the chancel, with an ex- 
ceeding noise. Some cried, Thou heretic! some, Thou traitor! some, 
Thou rebel! and when every man had said his pleasure, and the rage 
was somewhat past, I asked them to be quiet, and let me speak to them 
quietly. 

" But they would not hear me, and pulled me, one on this side, and 
another on that. Then Richard Austen said, l Peace, masters, no more 



EXAMINATION OF Mil. BLAND. 735 

till mass be done;' when they ceased. Then I said to the churchwarden 
and constable, each holding me by the arm ; ' Masters, let me go into 
the church-yard till your mass be done.' Said the churchwarden, 
( Thou shalt tarry here till mass be done. Thou shalt tarry, for if thou 
go out thou wilt run away.' Then I said to the constable, ' Lay me in 
the stocks, and then you will be sure of me,' and turned my back to 
the altar. By that time Richard Austen had devised what to do with 
me, and called to the constable and churchwarden, and bade them put 
me into a side chapel, and shut the door on me, and there they kept 
me till mass was ended; when they came into the chapel to me, and 
searched what I had about me; and found a dagger, and took it from 
me. They brought me out of the church, and without the door they 
railed on me without pity or mercy; but anon the priest came out of 
the church, and Ramsey, who of late was clerk, said to me, 'Sir, where 
dwell you?' Therefore Thomas Austen took him by the arm, and said, 
* Come on, sirrah, you are of his opinion,' and took his dagger from 
him, and said he should go with him. 

" By this time John Gray, of Wingham, servant to John Smith, came 
in at the church-style, and seeing them hold Ramsey by the arms, said 
to him, 'How now, Ramsey, have you offended the queen's laws?' 
Therewith Thomas Austen took him, and said, ' You are one of their 
opinion, you shall go with them for company,' and took his dagger 
from him, and then demanded what he did there? but afterward they 
let him go. They carried me and Ramsey to Canterbury, guarded by 
eighteen persons. The next day they made a bill against me, but it 
served not their purpose, which was to have me in prison. But James 
Chapman and Bartholomew Joyes were bound in twenty pounds each 
for my appearance at the next general sessions, or in the mean time to 
appear, if I was sent for, before the queen's majesty's council, or any 
other commissioners sent by the queen's authority. Ramsey was bound 
to the peace, and to be of good behaviour till the next sessions. On 
the 23rd of February, Sir Thomas Finch, knight, and Mr. Hardes, sent 
for me and my sureties to Finch's place, took me from my sureties, and 
sent me to the castle of Canterbury, where I lay ten weeks, and then 
was bailed and bound to appear at the next sessions at Canterbury : but 
after, they changed it to be at Ashford on Thursday in "Whitsun-week, 
being the 19th of May; but in the mean time the matter was exhibited 
to the spiritual court." 

The first examination of John Bland in the Spiritual Court, before Harps- 
field and Collins, May 18, 1554, as recorded by the said John Bland: 

The 18th day of May, as aforesaid, master Harpsfield, archdeacon of 
Canterbury, made the mayor's serjeant to bring me before him and master 
Collins, commissary, into Christ's-church ; and they went with me into a 
chamber, in the suffragan of Dover's house. 

Then the archdeacon said, 'Art thou a priest?' And I said, 'I was 
one.' And he said, ' Art thou a graduate of any university?' And I said, 
'Yea.' 'What degree hast thou taken?' said he. 'The degree of a 
master of arts,' I said. ' The more pity,' quoth he, ' that thou shouldest 
behave thyself as thou hast done. Thou hast been a common licensed 
preacher, hast thou not ? And what hast thou preached ? ' 



736 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Bland. God's word, to the edifying, I trust, of his people. 

Harps. No, no ! to the destroying of their souls and thine both, except 
the mercy of God be all the greater. I pray thee, what hast thou preached : 
what one matter to the edifying of the people ? I only desire to win thee 
from the heresies thou art wrapt in, and hast infected others withal. Thou 
hast preached, as I am informed, that the blessed sacrament of the altar is 
not the real body and blood of Christ after the consecration. Tell me, hast 
thou not thus preached ; and is not this thy opinion ? 

Bland. Sir, I perceive that you seek some matter against me. But 
seeing that I am bound in the sessions to my good behaviour for preaching, 
which may be broken with words, and I know not with what words ; and 
also both mine authority to preach, and my living taken from me, I think 
I am not bound to make you an answer. 

Collins. Do you not remember that St. Peter biddeth you make answer 
to every man that asketh you a reason of the faith that is in you ? 

Bland. I know that, and am content so to answer as that text biddeth : 
but I am not asked after that manner, but rather to bring me into trouble. 

Then they said, " No, ye shall not be troubled for anything ye say here." 

Bland. For knowledge' sake I will commune with you, but not otherwise. 

And so they reasoned more than an hour, of the sacrament, both against 
me. At the last, Collins said, " Master Bland, will ye come and take in 
hand to answer such matter on Monday next, as shall be laid to you?" 

Bland. Sir, ye said I should not be troubled for anything said here. 

And they said, "Ye shall not; but it is for other matters." 

Bland. Sir, I am bound to appear, as some tell me, on Thursday next 
at Ashford : I am in doubt whether I can or no ; yet I have purposed to 
be there, and so to London to master Wiseman for certain money owing, 
to pay my debts withal. But I can sustain no great loss if I go not. 
I pray you let me have a longer day ; I cannot well come on Monday. 

Harps. Wilt thou not come, when he so asketh where he may command? 

Bland. Sir, I perceive it shall be for this or like matters : will it please 
you or master Collins, for God's sake, to confer Scriptures privately with 
me in this matter, seeing ye say ye would so gladly win me ? 

Harps. With all my heart will I take the pains, and I will also borrow 
what books thou wilt from the bishop's library. — And thus they departed. 

Now the 17th of May, at Ashford, I could not be released, but was 
bound to appear at the sessions held at Cranbrook July 3rd. On the 21st 
of May I appeared in the Chapter-house, where was a great multitude of 
people; and Harpsfield said, " Ye are come here according as ye were ap- 
pointed; and the cause is, that it hath pleased the queen's highness here 
to place me, to see God's holy word set forth, and to reform those that 
are here fallen into great and heinous errors, to the great displeasure 
of God, and the decay of Christ's sacraments, and contrary to the faith 
of the Catholic church, whereof thou art notably known to be one that 
is sore poisoned with the same, and hast infected and deceived many 
with thy evil preaching. This if thou wilt renounce, and come home 
again to the catholic church, both I and many others would be very 
glad: and I, for my part, shall be right glad to shew you the favour 
that lieth in me, as I said unto you when you were appointed hither, 
because you then refused to satisfy again the people that you had de- 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN UARPSFIELD AND ELAND. idi 

ceived. And whereas it is feigned by you, that I should openly dispute 
the matter with you this day; although I did neither so intend nor ap- 
point, yet I am content to dispute the matter with thee, if thou wilt not 
without disputation help to heal the souls that are brought hellward by 
thee. What sayest thou? 

Bland. I do protest before God and you all, that neither is my con- 
science guilty of any error or heresy, neither that I ever taught any 
error or heresy willingly. And where you say that I have feigned an 
open disputation with you, it is not true, as I can thus prove. On 
Saturday I was at Ugden's, and there Mr. Bingham laid it to my charge 
that such an open disputation as you have here offered, should be this 
day between you and me. Whereat I much marvelled, and said to him, 
that before that present I never heard any such word ; neither would I 
answer nor dispute. And to this masters Vaughan, Oxenden, Seth, and 
Ugden witness ; and further, that I never spake to you of any disputation, 
nor you to me. Now, if you have anything to say to me, I will answer. 
Harps. Hear ye what he saith ? His conscience is clear. I pray thee 
whereon groundest thou thy conscience ? Let me hear what thy faith is. 

Bland. I know not why ye should more ask me a reason of my faith, 
than any other man in this open audience. 

Harps. Why, thou heretic, art thou ashamed of thy faith ? If it were a 
Christian belief, thou needest not be ashamed of it. 

Bland. I am not ashamed of my faith : for I believe in God the Father, 
in Jesus Christ his only Son, and all the other articles of the creed; and I 
believe all the holy Scriptures of God. I will declare no more than this. 
Harps. Well, I will tell thee whereon I ground my faith : I do believe 
and ground my faith and conscience upon all the articles of the creed, and 
upon all the holy Scriptures, sacraments, and holy doctors of the church, 
and upon all the general councils. Lo, hereupon ground I my faith ! 

When he could get no other answer of me than I had said before, he 
called for a scribe to make an act against me. And after much commu- 
nication I said, " By what law and authority will you proceed against me V 
Master Collins said, "By the canon law." 

Bland. I doubt whether it be in strength or no. Yet I pray you let me 
have a counsellor in the law, and I will make answer according to the law. 
Harps. Why, thou heretic, thou wilt not confess thy faith to me, 
that have authority to demand it of thee; and yet I have confessed my 
faith to thee before all this audience. As concerning the blessed sacra- 
ment of the altar, thou hast taught, that after the consecration it is 
bread and wine, and not the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ. How sayest thou, hast thou not thus taught? 

Bland. Sir, as concerning this matter of the sacrament, when I was 
with you and Mr. Collins, you said then it was for other matters that I 
should come hither: and further, that you would be content at my 
desire to confer on the scriptures with me, to see if you could win me; 
and you said, you would borrow my lord of Dover's library, that I 
should have what book I would; and now you require me thus to 
answer, contrary to your promise, before any conference be had, and 
seek rather to bring me into trouble, than to win me. 

Harps. I will, as God shall help me, do the best to thee that I can, 

3 B 



733 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

if thou wilt be anything conformable; and I hope to dissolve all thy doubts, 
if thou be willing to hear. And I also will desire these two worshipful 
men, my lord of Dover and master Collins, to hear us. 

Bland. No, you shall pardon me of that : there shall be no such witness, 
but, when we agree, set to our hands. — Hereat made the people a noise 
against me, for refusing the witness : and here had we many more words 
than I can rehearse. But at the last I said, " Sir, will you give me leave 
to ask you one question V And he said, " Yea, with all my heart ; for in 
that thou askest anything, there is some hope that thou mayest be won." 

Bland. Sir, when it pleased Almighty God to send his angel unto the 
Virgin Mary to salute her, and said, ' Hail, full of grace,' etc., came any 
substance from God our Father into the Virgin's womb to become man ? — 
Whereat the archdeacon, as my lord of Dover and master Collins, stayed. 
But my lord spake first, and said, "The Holy Ghost came to her;" and ere 
he had brought out his sentence, Harpsfield added, " It was the power of 
God, sent by the Holy Ghost." But I said, " Sir, shall I ask one other 
question : Is there in the sacrament, after the consecration, Christ's 
natural body, with all the qualities of a natural body, or no V* 

Harps. Hark! hear you this heretic? He thinks it an absurdity to 
grant all the qualities of Christ's natural body to be in the sacrament. 
But it is no absurdity : for even that natural body that was born of the 
virgin Mary is glorified, and that same body is in the sacrament after 
the consecration. But perceive you not the arrogancy of this heretic, 
that will put me to answer him, and he will not answer me? He thought 
to put me to a pinch with his question ; for I tell you, it is a learned one. 

Bland. If you be so much disconcerted with me, I will say no more; 
yet I would all men heard, that you say the glorified body of Christ is 
in the sacrament after the consecration. 

Harps. I may call thee gross ignorant. Thou gross ignorant, is not 
the same body glorified that was born of the virgin Mary? Is it then 
any absurdity to grant that to be in the sacrament ? — And while he spake 
many other words, I said to master Petit, that the sacrament was instituted, 
delivered, and received of his apostles, before Christ's body was crucified ; 
and it was crucified before it was glorified ; which saying Petit partly 
recited to master archdeacon. 

Harps. Thou art without all learning. Was not Christ's body given to his 
apostles, as in a glorified act? a And yet no inconvenience, although his 
natural body was not crucified ; for when he was born of the Virgin Mary 
without pain, was not that the act of a glorified body? and when he 
walked on the water, and when he came into the house to his apostles, the 
doors being shut fast, were not these acts of a glorified body? — Then my 
lord of Dover helped him to a better place, and said, " When Christ was 
in Mount Tabor, he was there glorified in his apostles' sight." 

Harps. Ye say truth, my lord; he was glorified in the sight of three of 
his apostles. 

Bland. This methinks is new doctrine. 

Harps. Well, seeing he will by no other way be reformed, let the 

a How can Christ's glorified body be in the sacrament, when the sacrament was given before 
that body was crucified, and it was crucified before it was glorified? " The body unglorified was 
given Lh the sacrament, in a glorified act," quoth Harpsfield. 



THIRD EXAMINATION OF JOHN BLAND. 739 

people come in and prove these matters against him. — And therewith he 
brought forth a copy of the bill that was put against me at Christmas. 
Then he rose up and said, " See ye, good people that know this matter, 
that ye come in, and prove it against him. Whereunto answered Thomas 
Austen, " I pray you, let us be no more troubled with him." Then master 
archdeacon departed, and left master Collins to command me to appear 
the next day. Howbeit, for certain other urgent business that I had, I 
did not appear, but wrote a letter to master commissary, desiring him to 
respite the matter till my coming home again ; and if he would, I would 
be content to submit myself to the law when I came home. 

Now about the 28th day of June I came to master commissary to show 
him of my return, and offered myself to satisfy the law, if it were pro- 
ceeded against me, before master Cox of Surrey, and Marks the apparitor; 
but he gently said, that he had done nothing against me; and so appointed 
me to appear before him the Friday seven-night after. 

In the mean time was the sessions holden at Cranbrook, where I was 
bound to appear; and carrying surety with me to be bound again, (for I 
looked for none other,) did appear the 3rd of July. Then sir John Baker 
said, " Bland, ye are, as we hear say, a Scot; where were ye born and 
brought up ? " And I said, " I was born in England." He said, " Where ?" 
and I said, " In Sedberg, and brought up by one Dr. Lupton, provost of 
Eton college." " Well," said he, " I know him well. Remain to your 
bond till afternoon." Then said sir Thomas Moyle, " Ah, Bland, thou 
art a stiff-hearted fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when 
thou art called. Master sheriff, take him to your ward :" and the bailiff 
set me in the stocks, with others, and would not hear me speak one word. 
So we remained in the gaol of Maidstone till a fortnight before Michaelmas, 
or thereabouts; and then were we carried to Rochester, to the assize holden 
there, where we, among the prisoners, remained two days. And when we 
were called, and the judges of assize asked our causes, when my cause was 
rehearsed, master Barrow, clerk of the peace, said that I was an excom- 
municate person. 

Then master Roper of Linsted talked with the judges, but what I am 
not able to say: but the judges of assize said, " Take them to Maidstone 
again, and bring them to the sessions that shall be holden next at the 
town of Maiden." Howbeit, the sheriff did not send for us ; so we tarried 
at Maidstone till the sessions holden at Greenwich the 18th and 19th of 
of February, [1555.] I and others, being within the bar amongst the 
felons, and irons upon our arms, were called out the latter day by the 
jailer and bailiffs, and eased of our irons, and carried by them into the 
town to sir John Baker, master Petit, master Webb, and two others whom 
I knew not. 

Baker. Bland, wherefore were you cast into prison ? 

Bland. I cannot well tell. Your mastership cast me in. 

Baker. Yea, but wherefore were you in before that time ? 

Bland. For an unjust complaint put upon me. 

Baker. What was the complaint? (I told him as truly and briefly as I 
could.) Let me see thy book; (and I took him a Latin Testament.) 
Will ye go to the church, and obey and follow the queen's proceedings, 
and do as an honest man should do ? 



740 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Bland. I trust in God to do no otherwise but as an honest man should 
do. Will it please your mastership to give me leave to ask you a question : 
May a man do anything that his conscience is not satisfied in to be good? 

Baker. Away, away : — and threw down the book, and said, " It is no 
Testament." And I said, " Yes." Then master Webb took it up, and 
said, " Master Bland, I knew you when you were not of this opinion ; I 
would to God ye would reform yourself:" with other words. I said^ " If 
ye have known me of another opinion, it was for lack of knowledge." 

Baker. Yea> sayest thou so? By St. Mary, and thou hold thee there, 
I will give six fagots to burn thee withal, ere thou shouldest be unburned : 
hence, knave, hence ! 

And so were we reprieved into our place again within the bar; and 
at night, when judgment of felons and all was done, we were called, and 
the judge said to the jailer, " Take them with you, and deliver them to the 
ordinary ; and if they will not be reformed, let them be delivered to us 
again, and they shall have judgment and execution." And one of our 
company said, " My lord, if we be killed at your hands for Christ's sake, 
we shall live with him for ever." 

Then came we to the castle of Canterbury, and there we remained till 
the 2nd of March, on which day we were brought into the chapter-house 
of Cree-church, where were set the suffragan of Canterbury, master Collins, 
master Mills, with others; and then went to them masters Oxenden, 
Petit, Webb, and Hardes, justices. And when I was called, Webb said, 
" Here we present this man to you as one vehemently suspected of heresy." 

Bland. Mr. Webb, you have no cause to suspect me of heresy. I 
have been a prisoner this whole year, and no matter has been proved 
against me. I pray you, what is the reason that I have been kept so 
long in prison ? 

Webb. Leave your arrogant asking of questions, and answer to that 
which is laid to your charge. 

Bland. I do so; for 1 say you have no cause to suspect me of heresy. 

Webb. Yes; you denied to Sir John Baker, to be conformable to the 
queen's proceedings. Moreover, you were cast into prison, because you 
fled away from your ordinary. 

Bland. Then have I had wrong: for I never fled nor disobeyed mine 
ordinary, nor did anything contrary to the law. Let them now say if I did. 

But they said nothing; and when I saw they held their peace, I said, 
" Master commissary, have you been the cause of this my imprisonment?" 
" No," said he. " Ye know that when ye went from me, ye were 
appointed to appear the Friday after the sessions." Here I was suffered 
to speak no more, but was shut up in a corner till my companions were 
presented ; and then we were sent to Westgate into prison, and were put 
into several close holds, no man being permitted to come to us. We were 
four at this appearance: but one they dispatched, by what means I cannot 
tell, whose name was Cornwall, a tanner. 

And thus hitherto passed the talk between Bland and the justices, and 
certain gentlemen of the shire. Now followeth the reasonings between 
him and the clergymen before whom he was examined. Let us hear his 
own report of his appearance before the commissary and others in the 
Spiritual Court, in the Chapter-house of Cree-church, March 9, 1555 : 



FURTHER EXAMINATION OF JOHN BLAND. 741 

Collins. Master Bland, ye know that ye are presented unto us as one 
suspected of heresy. How say ye ? Be ye contented to reform yourself 
to the laws of this realm, and of the holy church ? 

Bland. I deny that I am suspected justly of heresy ; and this ye heard 
when I was presented, that I denied the suspicion to be just, but to defend 
the unjust punishment that I have suffered : neither can ye prove that any 
occasion hath been given by me, whereby any man should suspect me 
therein. But if you have a law or authority to proceed against me for 
anything done for a whole year ago and more, I will answer to it. 

Col. Ye were convented before master archdeacon and me, and matter 
of heresy laid to your charge. 

Bland. That matter was done and said a whole year ago, for I have 
been in prison this year and more. If you have anything against me 
by any law, I desire you to let me know the law and the matter, and 
I will answer according to the law. 

Then said my lord suffragan, " But that I am one of the judges, I would 
rise, and stand by thee, and accuse thee to be a sacramentary, and bring 
witness to prove it; yea, that thou hast called the mass an abominable idol." 

Bland. You, my lord, never heard me say so; but I heard you once 
say, that in your conscience ye had abhorred the mass three years. 

" Thou liest," quoth he " I never said so." 

Bland. My lord, if they might be heard, I can bring witness to approve 
it, with the day, time, and place ; and I once did hear master Collins say, 
at a visitation in Wingham, that Christ was a full satisfaction for all sin, 
present, past, and to come ; contrary to that he saith now. 

Col. This is but a drift. You had better answer now ; else you shall 
go to prison again, and be called on Monday, and have articles laid to you, 
and if ye then answer not directly, you shall be condemned as a heretic, 
and that will be worse for you. 

Bland. Sir, I do not now, nor will then, deny to answer anything that 
you can lay to my charge by the law : wherefore I trust ye will let me have 
the benefit of the law. 

Col. Well, on Monday, at nine of the clock, you shall see the law, and 
have articles laid unto you. 

The following Monday we were brought to the same place again ; but, 
as I did before, I demanded what they had to lay to my charge, and to 
see the law, which they said before I should see. Then they bro< ght 
forth a decretal, a book of the bishop of Rome's law to bind me to 
answer, which my heart abhorred to look upon. The effect was, that the 
ordinary had authority to examine, and that those whom they so examined 
must needs answer. But I said that it meant such as were justly sus- 
pected, as I was not. And here we had much communication; for I 
charged them with unjust imprisonment, which they could not avoid. 

Col. Are you willing to confer with some of us? It will be better 
for you; now we offer it, because you would not desire it. 

Bland. As I did not refuse before, no more will I now. I expected 
Dr. Faucet would have come to me without desiring, if any profit to 
me had been in conference ; for though I was never able to do him good, 
yet once I was his tutor. 

Col. Will you come to his chamber in the afternoon? 



742 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Bland. Sir, I am a prisoner ; and therefore it is meet that I obey, and 
come whither you will. — And so he departed. 

Here followeth a certain confutation of master Bland against false and 
manifest absurdities, granted by master Mills, priest of Christ's church in 
Canterbury ; which is also given as recorded by Bland himself: — 

Mills. We say, that Christ is in or under the sacrament really and cor- 
porally, which are the forms of bread and wine, and that there is his body 
contained invisibly ; and the qualities which we do see, as whiteness and 
roundness, be there without substance by God's power, as quantity and 
weight be there also by invisible measure. 

Bland. This is your own divinity, to make accidents the sacrament, and 
Christ's real body invisibly contained in them, and so to destroy the sacra- 
ment altogether. And yet the doctors say, the matter of the sacrament is 
bread and wine. And God by his power worketh no miracles with " Hoc 
est corpus meum," so to change the substance of bread and wine into 
his body and blood, in that he maketh accidents to be without their sub- 
stance by invisible measure. I am ashamed to see you so destroy Christ's 
sacrament, contrary to your own doctors, and trifle so with God's work. 

Mills. We eat Christ's flesh and blood spiritually, when we receive it 
with faith and charity ; and we also do eat it corporally in the sacra- 
ment. And the body that we so receive hath life ; for the Godhead is an- 
nexed thereto : which, although it be received with the body of Christ, yet 
it is not visible after a gross sort. And the flesh of Christ that we receive 
is lively; for it hath the Spirit of God joined to it. And if a man be 
drunken, it is not by receiving of the blood of Christ ; for it is contrary to 
the nature of Christ's blood. If he be drunken, it is by the qualities and 
quantities, without substance of blood. 

Bland. I am glad that you are so much against all men, to say that 
Christ's body is alive in the sacrament : it may fortune to bring you to 
the truth in time to come. Methinketh it is evil to keep Christ's body 
alive in the pix ; or else must ye grant, that he is alive in receiving, and 
dead in the pix. And ye say truth, that it is not the natural receiving of 
Christ's blood that maketh a man drunken, for it is the nature of wine that 
doth that ; which ye deny not. And a more truth ye confess than ye did 
think, when ye said, " If a man be drunken, it is by the qualities and 
quantities, without the substance of blood ; " for indeed blood hath no 
such qualities with it : by which it is evident that there is no natural blood. 
If a man be drunken with wine consecrated, it must be a miracle, as I 
think you will have it, that the said accidents should be without their 
natural substance, and work all the operations of both substance and 
accidents : and so it followeth, that a man may be drunken by miracle. 
The body that ye receive, ye say, is alive, because it is annexed to the 
Godhead ; and the flesh that ye receive is lively, because it hath the Spirit 
of God joined to it. This division is of your new inventions, to divide the 
body and the flesh; the one alive by the Godhead, the other lively by God's 
Spirit, and both one sacrament : ye make of it a thing so fantastical, that 
ye imagine a body without flesh, and flesh without a body ; as ye do 
qualities and quantities without substance, and a living body without 
qualities and quantities. 

Mills. If case so require, and there be a godly intent in the minister 



BLAND'S CONFUTATION OF POPISH ABSURDITIES. 743 

to consecrate, after the consecration thereof, there is present the body and 
blood of Christ, and no other substance but accidents without substance, 
to a true believer. 

Bland. You grant three absurdities, that in a tun of wine consecrated 
is nothing but accidents : and to increase it withal, you have brought in 
two inconveniences; first, that it is not the word of God that doth con- 
secrate, but the intent of the priest must help it. And if that lack, ye seem 
to grant no consecration, though the priest speak the word ; and yet your 
doctors say, that the wickedness of the priest minisheth not the sacrament. 
And to an unbeliever ye seem to say, that it is not the same that it is to 
the true believer; and then must the believer have something to do in the 
consecration. " Incidit in Scyllam, qui vult vitare Charibdim." 

Mills. The substance of Christ's body doth not fill the mouse's belly ; 
for although he doth receive the outward forms of bread and wine, yet he 
doth not receive the substance inwardly, but without violation. And a 
mouse cloth not eat the body of Christ, to speak properly; for it doth not 
feed him spiritually or corporally, as it doth man, because he doth not 
receive it to any inducement of immortality to the flesh. 

Bland. Ye make not your doctrine plain to be understood : we must 
know how a mouse can receive the substance inwardly and outwardly. 
Ye say he doth not receive the substance inwardly, but without violation : 
ergo, with violation he receiveth the substance inwardly. Ye say that the 
mouse cannot violate Christ's body; but he violateth the substance that 
he eateth. And this your proper speech doth import as much as that the 
mouse should eat the sacrament to as great effect, and the same thing, as 
doth the unworthy receiver; for, if that be the cause that he properly 
eateth not the body of Christ, because he doth not feed upon it spiritually 
nor corporally, nor receiveth it to any inducement of immortality, as ye 
say; then it followeth that the unbeliever and the mouse receive both 
one thing. And yet it cannot be denied but the mouse will live with con- 
secrated bread ; and then ye must grant the absurdity, that a substance is 
nourished and fed only with accidents. 

Mills. Men's bodies be fed with Christ's body, as with immortal meat, 
by reason of the Godhead annexed to eternal life; but men's bodies be 
corporally nourished with qualities and forms of bread and wine : and we 
deny that, by the sacramental eating, any gross humour turned into blood 
is made miraculously in the body. 

Bland. Whereas it cannot be denied that a man may live, and be 
nourished in his natural body with the sacramental bread and wine con- 
secrated, you cannot avoid that : but then you turn to the spiritual nourish- 
ing of man's body, by Christ's body and Godhead annexed, which is not 
to put away the absurdity, that either a man's natural body should be fed 
naturally with accidents, or else to have them changed into gross humours. 

Mills. If the forms of bread and wine be burned, or worms engendered, 
it is no derogation to the body of Christ, because the presence of his body 
ceaseth to be there, and no substance cometh again. 

Bland. Ye grant here, that a substance may be made of accidents, as 
ashes or worms; but I think you will have it by your miracles. And this 
I count a more absurdity than the other, that Christ's body should cease 
to be there, and no substance to come again ; for no word in all the Bible 



744 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

seems to serve you for the ceasing of his presence, though we granted you, 
(which we do not,) that it were there. God Almighty open your heart, if 
it be his will and pleasure, to see the truth. And if I thought not my 
death to be at hand, I would answer you to all the rest, in these and all 
other my doings. I submit myself to our Saviour Jesus Christ, and his 
holy word, desiring you in the bowels of Christ to do the same. 

At last on the 13th day of June this blessed and faithful servant of God 
was brought before Thornton, bishop of Dover, Robert Collins, the com- 
missary, and Nicholas Harpsfield, the archdeacon, at Canterbury. Under 
these a great sort of innocent lambs of Christ were cruelly entreated and 
slain at Canterbury, among whom this aforesaid master Bland was the 
first. To whom it was objected by the commissary, whether he believed 
that Christ is really in the sacrament, or no, etc.- To this he answered 
and said, that he believed that Christ is in the sacrament, as he is in all 
other good bodies : so that he judged not Christ to be really in the sacra- 
ment. Whereupon, the day being Monday, he was bid to appear again 
upon Wednesday next ; and from thence he was deferred again to Monday 
following, being the 20th of June, in the same chapter-house, then to 
hear further what should be done, in case he would not relent to their 
mind. The which day and place he, appearing as before, was required to 
say his mind plainly and fully to the foresaid articles, being again repeated 
to him : which articles, commonly and in course, they use to object to 
their examinates which be brought before them, and which need not again 
to be repeated. These articles being ministered, and his answers taken, 
respite was given him yet a few days to deliberate with himself. So, on 
the 25th day of the same month of June, he making his appearance again 
in the said chapter-house, there openly and boldly withstood the authority 
of the pope; whereupon his sentence was read, and so he was condemned 
and committed to the secular power. Touching the form and tenor of the 
sentence, because all their sentences of course agree in one, read before in 
the history of other godly martyrs. 

Having now passed over the examinations of master Bland, let us pro- 
ceed to his fellow-captives, being joined the same time with him in the 
like cause and like affliction; the names of whom were Nicholas Sheterden, 
John Frankesh, Humfrey Middleton, Thacker, and Cocker, of whom 
Thacker only gave back. The rest constantly standing to the truth, were 
altogether condemned by the suffragan of Canterbury the 25th day of June; 
touching whose examinations I shall not need long to stand. Forasmuch 
as the articles ministered against them were all one, so in their answers 
they little or nothing disagreed. And because Nicholas Sheterden had 
most talk with the archdeacon and the commissary, I will first begin with 
the same as recorded by himself. 

First, the archdeacon and commissary affirmed, that the very bare words 
of Christ, when he said, " This is my body," did change the substance, 
without any other interpretation or spiritual meaning of the words. 

Sheterden. Then, belike, when Christ said, " This cup is my blood," the 
substance of the cup was changed into his blood, without any other mean- 
ing ; and so the cup was changed, and not the wine. 

Arch. Not so ; for when Christ said, "This cup is my blood," he meant 
not the cup, but the wine in the cup. 



FIRST EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS SHETERDEN. 745 

Shet. If Christ spake one thing and meant another, then the bare words 
did not change the substance ; but there must be a meaning sought as 
well of the bread as of the cup. 

Arch. There must be a meaning sought of the cup otherwise than the 
words stand. But of the bread it must be understood only as it standeth. 

Shet. Then do you make one half of Christ's institution a figure, and 
the other half a plain speech ; and so ye divide Christ's supper. 

Arch. Christ meant the wine, and not the cup, though he said, " This 
cup is my blood." 

Shet. Then show me whether the words which the priests speak over the 
cup change the substance, or whether the mind of the priest doth it. 

Arch. The mind of the priest doth it, and not the words. 

Shet. If the mind of the priest doth it, and not the words, if the priest 
then do mind his harlot, or any other vain thing, that thing so minded 
was there made, and so the people do worship the priest's harlot instead of 
Christ's blood. And again, none of the people can tell when it is Christ's 
blood, or when it is not, seeing the matter standeth in the mind of the 
priest; for no man can tell what the priest meaneth but himself; and so 
are they ever in danger of committing idolatry. 

Then was the archdeacon somewhat moved, and sat him down, and said 
to the commissary, " I pray you, master commissary, speak you to him 
another while : for they are unreasonable and perverse answers, as ever I 
heard of." Then stood up the commissary, and said — " Your argument 
is much against yourself; for ye grant that the bread is a figure of 
Christ's body; but the cup can be no figure of his blood, nor yet his 
very blood ; and therefore Christ did not mean the cup, but the wine in 
the cup." 

Shet. My argument is not against me at all; for I do not speak it to 
prove that the cup is his blood, nor the figure of his blood, but to prove 
that the bare words being spoken of the priest, do not change the sub- 
stance no more of the bread, than they do change the cup into blood. 
It still remaineth for you to answer my question to the archdeacon — 
whether the mind of the priest when he speaketh over the cup, doth 
change it into blood, or the bare words? 

Com. Both together doth it, the words and the mind of the priest to- 
gether; yea, the intent and words together do it. 

Shet. If the words and intents together do change the substance, yet 
must the cup be his blood, and not the wine, forasmuch as the words 
are — "This cup is my blood," and the intent, ye say, was the wine; or 
else the words take none effect, but the intent only. 

Com. It was the intent of the priest before he went to mass, without 
the words; for if the priest did intend to do as holy church had ordained, 
then the intent made the sacrament to take effect. 

Shet. If the sacraments take effect of the intent of the priest, and 
not of God's word, then many parishes having a priest that intendeth 
not well, are utterly deceived both in baptising, and also worshipping 
that thing to be God which is but bread, because for lack of the priest's 
intent, the words do take none effect in it; so that by this it is ever 
doubtful, whether they worship Christ, or bread, because it is doubtful 
what the priests do intend. 



746 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Then the commissary would prove to me, that Christ's manhood was in 
two places at one time, by these words of Christ in the third chapter of 
John; where he saith, " No man ascendeth up to heaven, but he that came 
down from heaven; that is to say, the Son of man which is in heaven." 
By this he would prove that Christ was then in heaven and on earth also, 
naturally and bodily. 

Shet. This place and other places of scripture must needs be under- 
stood of the unity of the person, in that Christ was God and man; and 
yet the matter must be referred to the Godhead, or else ye must fall into 
great error. 

Com. That is not so ; for it was spoken of the manhood of Christ, 
forasmuch as he saith, the Son of Man which is in heaven. 

Shet. If ye will needs understand it to be spoken of Christ's manhood, 
then must ye fall into the error of the Anabaptists, who deny that Christ 
took flesh of the Virgin Mary; for if there be no body ascended up, but 
that which came down, where is then his incarnation? for then he 
brought his body down with him. 

Com. Lo, how you seek an error in me, and see not how ye err your- 
self! For it cannot be spoken of the Godhead, except ye grant that 
God is passable; for God cannot come down, because he is not 
passable. 

Shet. If that were a good argument, that God could not come down, 
because he is not passable; then it might be said by the like argument, 
that God could not sit, and then heaven is not his seat, and then say as 
some do, that God hath no right hand for Christ to sit at. 

Com. It is true that God hath no right hand indeed. 

Shet. Oh, what a spoil of Christ's religion will this be, that because 
we cannot tell how God came down, therefore we shall say, that he came 
not down at all; and because we cannot tell what manner of hand he 
hath, to say that he hath no hand at all; and then he cannot reach the 
utmost part of the sea. O misery ! at length will it come to pass, that 
God cannot sit, and then how can heaven be his seat; and if heaven be 
not his seat, then there is no heaven; and then at length I doubt ye will 
say there is no God, or else no other God but such as the heathen gods 
are, which cannot go nor feel. 

Com. Why, doth not the scripture say, that God is a spirit? and what 
hand can a spirit have? 

Shet. Truth it is, God is a spirit, and therefore is worshipped in spirit 
and truth ; and as he is a spirit, so hath he a spiritual power, so hath he 
a spiritual seat, a spiritual hand, and a spiritual sword; which we shall 
feel, if we go this way to work. Because we know not what God hath, 
therefore if we say he hath none, then it may as well be said there is no 
Christ. 

Then the commissary said, he would talk no more with me; and so 
departed. And also he was compelled to grant, that Christ's testament 
was broken, and his institution was changed from that he left it : but he 
said they had power so to do. 

My first answering, after their law was established ; written from Westgate 
by me, Nicholas Sheterden : Because I know that ye will desire to hear 
from me some certainty of my state, I was called before the suffragan, and 



SECOND EXAMINATION OF SHETERDEN. 747 

seven or eight of the chief priests, and examined of certain articles ; and 
then I required to see their commission. They showed it to me, and said, 
" There it is, and the king and queen's letters also." Then I desired to 
have it read : and so in reading I perceived, that on some notable suspicion 
he might examine upon two articles : Whether Christ's real presence were 
in the sacrament ; and whether the church of England be Christ's catholic 
church. To that I answered, that I had been a prisoner three quarters of 
a year, and as I thought wrongfully : reason would, therefore, that I should 
answer to those things wherefore I was imprisoned. 

The suffragan said, his commission was, I must answer directly yea or 
nay. This commission, said I, was not general to examine whom ye will, 
but on just suspicion. He said I was suspected, and presented to him. 
Then I required that the accusation might be snowed. He said he was 
not bound to show it ; but he commanded me in the king and queen's name 
to answer directly. 

Shet. And I, as a subject, do require of you justice : for that I have 
done I ask no favour. 

Suff. Thou wast cast into prison because thou wast suspected. 

Shet. That was a pretty suspicion, because I had suffered imprisonment 
contrary to God's law and the realm, that therefore I must now, for amends, 
be examined of suspicion without cause, to hide all the wrong done to me 
before. For when I was cast into prison, there was no law but I might 
speak as I did : therefore, in that point, I could be no more suspected than 
you, who preached the same yourself not long before. All men shall know, 
that as ye suspect and prove no cause, so shall ye condemn me without a 
matter, and then shall all men know ye seek my blood, and not justice. 

Suff. No, we seek not thy blood, but thy conversion. 

Shet. That we shall see. For then shall you prove my perversion first, 
before you condemn me on your suspicion without proof of the same : and 
by that I shall know whether you seek blood or no. If you could prove 
that men might wrongfully imprison before a law, and in the meanwhile 
make laws, and then, under that, hide the first offence, then you say true, 
or else not. — (From Westgate, in haste : Nicholas Sheterden.) 

The next examination of Nicholas Sheterden before the bishop of Win- 
chester, then lord chancellor, as recorded by himself: — I w r as called into 
a chamber before the lord chancellor, the suffragan, and others — priests, I 
think, for the most part. He standing to the table, called me to him, and 
because I saw the cardinal was not there, I bowed myself and stood near. 
Then said he, " I have sent for you, because I hear you are indicted for 
heresy ; and, being called before the commissioners, ye will not answer nor 
submit yourself." I said, " If it like you, I did not refuse to answer ; but 
I did plainly answer, that I had been in prison long time, and reason it was 
that I should be charged or discharged for that, and not to be examined 
of articles to hide my wrong imprisonment ; neither did I know any indict- 
ment against me. If there were any, it could not be just, for I was not 
abroad since the law was made." 

Winchester. If thou wilt declare thyself to the church to be a Christian, 
thou shalt go, and then have a writ of wrong imprisonment. 

Shet. I have no mind to sue now, but require to have justice : make a 
promise I will not; but if I offend the law, then punish me accordingly. 



748 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

For it might be that my conscience was not persuaded, nor would be, 
in prison : seeing these things which I have learned, were by God's law 
openly taught and received by the authority of the realm. 

Win. It was not a few that could be your guides in understanding, 
but the doctors and the whole church ; now, whom wouldst thou be- 
lieve? either the few or the many? 

Shet. I did not believe for the few or for the many, but only for him 
that bringeth the word, and shewed it to me to be so, according to the 
process thereof. 

Win. Well, then, if an Arian come to thee with scripture, thou wilt 
believe him, if he shew this text — " My Father is greater than I." 

Shet. No, my lord, he must bring me also the contrary place, and 
prove them both true, where he saith — " My Father and I are one." 

So, after many words, Winchester came to the church's faith, and 
comely orders of ceremonies and images. And then I joined to him again 
with the commandments. He said, that was done that no false thing 
should be made, as the heathen would worship a cat, because she killed 
mice. I said that it was plain that the law forbade not only such, but even 
to make an image of God to any likeness. He asked, where find ye that ? 

Shet. Forsooth, in the law where God gave them the commandments : 
for he said, " Ye saw no shape, but heard a voice only :" and added a 
reason why, " lest they should after make images, and mar themselves." 

Winchester said, I made a goodly interpretation. I said, no, it was the 
text. Then was the Bible called for ; and when it came, he bade me find 
it, and I should strait be confounded with mine own words ; so that if there 
were any grace in me, I would trust mine own wit no more. And when 
I had read it aloud, he said, " Lo, here thou may est see ; this is no more to 
forbid the image of God, than of any other beast, fowl, or fish," (the place 
was Deut. iv.) I said it did plainly forbid to make any of these an image 
of God, because no man might know what shape he was of. Therefore 
might no man say of any image, " This is an image of God." 

Win. Well, yet by your leave, so much as was seen we may ; that is, 
of Christ, of the Holy Ghost ; and the Father who appeared to Daniel. 

Shet. That is no proof that we may make images contrary to the com- 
mandment ; for though the Holy Ghost appeared like a dove, yet was he 
not like in shape, but in certain qualities ; and therefore when I saw the 
dove, I might remember the Spirit to be simple and loving, etc. 

With that Winchester was somewhat moved, and said I had learned my 
lesson ; and asked me who taught me, with many more words. And he 
said he would prove how good and profitable images were to teach the 
unlearned, etc. At the last I said, " My lord, although I were able to 
make never so good a gloss upon the commandments, yet obedience is 
better than all our good intents : " and much ado we had. At last he saw, 
he said, what I was, and how he had sent for me for charity's sake to talk 
with me, but now he would not meddle ; and said my wrong imprisonment 
could not excuse me, but I must clear myself. I said that was easy for 
me to do ; for I had not offended. Winchester said, I could not escape 
so ; there I was deceived. I said, " Well, then I am under the law," etc. 
The archdeacon was there called in for me, and he laid to me, that with 
such arrogancy and stoutness as never was heard, I behaved myself before 



EXAMINATION OF HALL AND WAID. 749 

him; whereas he was minded with such mercy towards me, etc. I declared 
that herein he falsely reported me, and brought in the queen's proclama- 
tion that none should be compelled, till the law were to compel. " And 
I did use him then," said I, "as I use your grace now, and no otherwise." 

Winchester said that I did not use myself very well now. I said, I had 
offered myself to be bailed, and to confer with them, when and where they 
would. — Winchester said, I should not confer, but be obedient. I said, 
let me go, and I will not desire to confer neither; and when I offended, let 
them punish me: and so departed. — By your brother, Nicholas Sheterden. 

And thus much concerning the examinations of Nicholas Sheterden and 
master Bland. Now to touch something of the other martyrs, which were 
the same time examined, and suffered with them together; to wit, Humfrey 
Middleton, of Ashford, and John Frankesh, vicar of Rolvendean, in the 
diocese of Kent. Here first should be declared the articles, which publicly, 
in their last examinations, were jointly and severally ministered unto them 
by the foresaid Thornton, bishop of Dover. But forasmuch as these 
are already expressed in the story of master Bland, it shall not be needful. 

To these seven articles then being propounded to the four persons above 
named, first answered John Frankesh somewhat doubtfully, desiring further 
respite to be given him of fourteen days to deliberate with himself, which 
was granted. Master Bland answered flatly and roundly, as before ye heard. 
Nicholas Sheterden and Humfrey Middleton answered to the first and second 
articles affirmatively. To the third, concerning the catholic church, after 
a sort they granted. To the fourth, fifth, and sixth, concerning the real 
presence, and the sacrament to be administered in the Latin tongue, and 
in one kind, they utterly refused to answer. Sheterden said, he would 
not answer thereto, before the cause were determined why he was impri- 
soned, and so still remained prisoner, before the laws of parliament were 
known and ascertained. Middleton added moreover and confessed, that 
he believed in his own God, saying — " My living God, and no dead god 
for me!" These four, upon their answers, were condemned by the 
suffragan of Dover the 25th day of June, 1555. 

Being delivered to the secular power, they were all burnt together 
at Canterbury, on the 12th of July, at two several stakes, but in one 
fire, where they in the sight of God and of his holy angels, and before 
men, like true soldiers of Jesus Christ, gave a constant testimony to the 
truth of his holy gospel. A few days before he suffered, Sheterden wrote 
affectionately to his wife and mother, and also two letters to his brother. 

In the same month of July followed the martyrdoms of Nicholas Hall, 
bricklayer, and Christopher Waid, of Dartford, linen-weaver, which both 
were condemned by Maurice, bishop of Rochester, about the last day 
of June. The six articles administered to them were the same as others 
which have been mentioned : That they were christian men and professed 
the catholic determinations of our holy mother church : That they who 
maintain or hold otherwise than our holy mother the catholic church 
doth, are heretic: That they hold and maintain, that in the sacrament 
of the altar, under the forms of bread and wine, is not the very body 
and blood of Christ; but that the body of Christ is verily in heaven 
only, and not in the sacrament: That they have and do hold and main- 
tain, that the mass, as it is now used in the catholic church, is naught 



750 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and abominable: That they have been, and be amongst the people of 
that jurisdiction vehemently suspected upon the premises, and thereupon 
indicted. 

To these articles they answered rather variously, and thus proved 
themselves to be honest men as well as christians. Hall denied to call 
the catholic and apostolic church his mother, because he found not this 
word Mother in the scriptures. Concerning the very body and blood 
of Christ to be under the forms of bread and wine in substance, they 
would not grant; affirming the very body of him to be in heaven, and 
the sacrament to be a token or remembrance of Christ's death. Hall 
adding moreover, That whereas before he held the sacrament to be but 
only a token or remembrance of Christ's death, now he said, that there 
is neither token nor remembrance, because it is now misused and clean 
turned from Christ's institution. Concerning the mass in the fourth 
article, to be abominable, Waid, with the other, answered, that as they 
had confessed before, so they would not now go from what they had 
said. To the fifth article for the people's suspicion, they made no great 
account nor difficulty to grant the same. 

And thus much concerning the articles and answers of these good men : 
which being received, immediately sentence of condemnation was pro- 
nounced by the said Maurice. Nicholas Hall was burned at Rochester 
about the 19th day of July; and Christopher Waid, about the same time, 
at Dartford. Furthermore, with the aforesaid Hall and Waid, three others 
were condemned, whose names were Joan Beach, widow, John Harpol, of 
Rochester, and Margery Polley : of which latter, touching her examination 
and condemnation, here followeth in story. 

Margery Polley, widow of Richard Polley of Pepenbury, was accused 
and brought before the said Maurice, bishop of Rochester ; which bishop, 
rising out of the chair of his majesty, in the swelling style, after his ordi- 
nary fashion, to dash the silly poor woman, began in these words : 

" We Maurice, by the sufferance of God, bishop of Rochester, pro- 
ceeding of our mere office in a cause of heresy against thee, Margery 
Polley, of the parish of Pepenbury, of our diocese and jurisdiction of 
Rochester, do lay and object against thee all and singular these arti- 
cles ensuing. To which, and to every parcel of them, we require of 
thee a true, full, and plain answer, by virtue of thine oath thereupon 
to be given." The oath being administered, and the articles, which were 
the same as those against Hall and Waid, commenced against her, she 
so framed her answers, especially to the third and fourth article, that 
she neither allowed the deity of the sacrament, nor the absurdity of the 
mass. Upon which sentence was read against her, and she was con- 
demned for the same. Her death followed not immediately, but took 
place same days after, about the time that Waid was burnt. They were 
brought out together, though they did not suffer at the same hour nor 
on the same spot. 

Christopher Waid, as has been intimated, was sentenced to be burnt 
at Dartford. On the day appointed for his execution, which was in 
the month of July, there was carried out of town betimes in the morn- 
ing in a cart, a stake, and therewith many bundles of reeds, to a 
gravel-pit, the common place for the execution of felons. Thither 



BURNING OF CHRISTOPHER WAID. 751 

also was brought a load of fagots and tall wood : unto which place 
resorted the people of the country in great numbers, and there tarried his 
coming, insomuch that thither came divers fruiterers with horse-loads of 
cherries, and sold them. About ten of the clock came the sheriff, with a 
great many other gentlemen and their retinue appointed to assist him, and 
with them Christopher Waid and Margery Polley, riding pinioned, and 
both singing a psalm. As soon as Margery Polley espied afar off the 
multitude gathered about the place where he should suffer, waiting his 
coming, she said unto him very loud and cheerfully, " You may rejoice, 
Waid, to see such a company gathered to celebrate your marriage this day." 
And so, passing by the place, which joined hard to the highway, they 
were carried straight down to the town, where Margery was kept until the 
sheriff returned from Waid's execution. And Waid being made ready, and 
stripped out of his clothes at an inn, had brought unto him a fair long 
white shirt from his wife, which being put on, he was led on foot to the 
foresaid place. And coming straight to the stake, he took it in his 
arms, embracing it, and kissed it, setting his back unto it, and standing 
in a pitch-barrel, which was taken from the beacon, being hard by. 
Then a smith brought a hoop of iron, and with two staples made him 
fast to the stake under his arms. Thus fixed, with his eyes and hands 
lifted up to heaven, he repeated with a cheerful and loud voice the last 
verse of the 86th Psalm — " Shew some good token upon me, O Lord, 
that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, 
Lord, hast helped me, and comforted me." Near to the stake was a 
little hill, upon the top whereof were set up four stays, quadrangle-wise, 
with a covering round about like a pulpit: into which place, as Waid 
was thus praying at the stake, entered a friar with a book in his hand ; 
whom when Waid espied, he cried earnestly unto the people, to take 
heed of the doctrine of the whore of Babylon, exhorting them to em- 
brace that gospel preached in king Edward's days. While he was thus 
speaking to the people, the sheriff interrupted him, saying, " Be quiet, 
Waid, and die patiently." " I am quiet," said he, " I thank God, 
Mr. Sheriff, and so trust to die." All this while the friar stood still 
looking over the coverlet, as though he would have uttered somewhat : 
but Waid strongly admonished the people to beware of that doctrine ; 
which when the friar perceived, whether he was amazed, or could have 
no audience of the people, he withdrew immediately, without speaking 
any word, and went down to the town. Then the reeds being set about 
the martyr, he pulled them, and embraced them in his arms, and again 
addressed the people louder than before. His tormentors perceiving 
this, cast fagots at him ; but notwithstanding, he still put them off, his 
face being hurt with the end of a fagot. Then the fire being kindled 
he cried unto God often, " Lord Jesus, receive my soul," without any 
token or sign of impatience; till at length he was no longer heard to 
speak, but still holding his hands together over his head towards heaven, 
even when he was dead, as though they had been stayed up with a prop 
standing under them. 



752 



SECTION X. 

BURNING OF DIRICK CARVER, JOHN LAUNDER, JOHN DENLEV, JOHN NEW- 
MAN, PATRICK PACKINGHAM, AND OTHER GODLY MARTYRS. 

The 22nd day of this month of July was burned at Lewes, in Sussex, one 
Dirick Carver, brewer, late of Brighthelmstone^ in the same county. And 
the next day was also burned at Stenning, another named John Launder, 
husbandman, late of Godstone, in Surrey. These two men were (with 
others) about the end of October, anno 1554, apprehended by Edward 
Gage, gentleman, as they were at prayers in the house of Carver ; and by 
him sent up to the queen's council, who, after examination, sent them to 
Newgate, there to attend the leisure of Bonner. From whence (upon the 
bishop's receipt of a letter from the lord treasurer) they were brought on 
the 8th of June into the bishop's house in London ; and there (being ex- 
amined upon divers points of religion) they made their several confessions, 
subscribing and signing with their own hands. These being read, the bishop 
objected unto them certain other articles, causing them to swear truly and 
directly to answer thereunto ; which articles they confessed to be true, re- 
ferring themselves chiefly to their former confessions. This done, after 
long persuasions and fair exhortations, they were demanded whether they 
would stand to their answers. Launder said, " I will never go from these 
answers so long as I live." Carver also confirmed the same ; upon which 
they were commanded to appear again in the Consistory on the 10th. 

On Monday, being the said 10th of June, these two persons, with others, 
were brought to the bishop's consistory. The bishop, beginning with 
Carver, caused his confession with the articles and answers to be openly 
read to him, asking him whether he would stand to the same. To which 
Carver answered that he would : " for your doctrine," said he, " is poison 
and sorcery. If Christ were here, you would put him to a worse death 
than he was put to before. You pretend and say that you can make a god : 
ye can make a pudding as well. Your ceremonies in the church be beg- 
gary and poison. And further I say, that auricular confession is contrary 
to God's word, and very poison :" with divers other such words. 

The bishop, seeing this constancy, and finding that neither his flatteries 
nor threatenings could once move this good man to incline to their idolatry, 
pronounced his usual and general blessing, as well towards Carver as also 
upon the said John Launder; who (after the like manner of process used 
with him) remained in the same constancy. They were therefore both 
delivered unto the sheriffs, who were there present ; but afterwards were 
conveyed to the places above named, and there most joyfully gave their 
bodies to be burned in the fire, and their souls into the hands of Almighty 
God, by Jesus Christ, who had assured them to a better hope of life. 

Furthermore, on the said Carver's coming into the town of Lewes to be 
burned, the people called upon him, beseeching God to strengthen him in 
the faith of Jesus Christ. He thanked them, and prayed unto God to 
strengthen them in the like faith. When he came to the stake, he kneeled 
down and made his prayers, and the sheriff made haste. Then his book 
was thrown into the barrel; and when he had stripped (as a joyful member 
of God) he went into the barrel himself. And as soon as he came in, the 



MARTYRDOM OF D1RICK CARVER. 753 

unbending, fearless man took up the New Testament which some one 
had thrown into it, and threw it among the people, as though he would 
not suffer the profanation of the word of the Lord being burnt with him. 
He then, with a serene countenance and solemn voice, addressed them 
in these words. " Dear brethren and sisters, witness you all, that I am 
come to seal with my blood Christ's gospel, because I know that it is 
true: it is not unknown unto you, but that it hath been truly preached 
here in Lewes, and in all places of England, and now it is not. And 
because that I will not here deny the gospel, and be obedient to man's 
laws, I am condemned to die. Dear brethren, as many of you as do 
believe upon the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, unto everlasting 
life, see you do the works appertaining to the same. And as many of you 
as do believe upon the pope of Rome, or any of his laws which he sets 
forth in these days, you do believe to your utter condemnation ; and, ex- 
cept the great mercy of God, you shall burn in hell perpetually." After 
that the fire came to him, he cried, " O Lord, have mercy upon me ;" and 
sprung up in the fire calling upon the name of Jesus, and so ended. 

About the same time was burnt at Chichester, Thomas Iveson, of 
Godstone, in the county of Surry, carpenter. His apprehension, exa- 
mination, constancy, and condemnation, were at the same time, and 
nearly in the same form with that of Dirick Carver and John Launder. 
The same fate awaited John Aleworth; but that he died in prison at the 
town of Reading, where he was confined, for the testimony of the 
gospel. Although the catholic prelates, according to their usual 
solemnity, excluded him from christian burial, yet we see no cause to 
exclude him from the number of Christ's holy martyrs, and heirs of his 
heavenly kingdom and glory. 

Among the number that endeavoured in these trying days to keep a 
good conscience, was James Abbes, a young man, who was forced to 
share his part with his brethren in wandering from place to place, to 
avoid the peril of apprehension. At length he was caught by the hands 
of the enemy, and brought before Dr. Hopton, bishop of Norwich : 
who examining him respecting his religion, and charging him therewith, 
began to threaten and persuade him so strongly, that at last he appeared 
willing to recant. After he was dismissed, the bishop calling him again, 
gave him a piece of money, which when James had received, and had 
again withdrawn, his conscience began to throb, and he returned im- 
mediately to the bishop, threw him his money, and said, he repented that 
he ever gave his consent to their wicked persuasions. Hereupon, Dr. 
Hopton with his chaplains laboured afresh to win him again, but in 
vain; for he would not yield, but stood manfully in his Master's quarrel 
to the end, and abode the torture of the fire in the consuming of his 
body to ashes, which took place in Bury, the second of August, 1555. 

In the midst of this rage of the malignant adversaries against the 
saints, there was one Edmund Tyrrel, a justice of the peace within the 
county of Essex, who on returning from the burning of some martyrs, 
met with John Denley, and John Newman, both of Maidstone in Kent, 
travelling upon the way, and going to visit some of their friends in 
Essex. Full of officious zeal, he apprehended them upon suspicion, 
searched them, and finding the confession of their faith about them in 

3 c 



754 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

writing, sent them with a letter to the queen's commissioners. The com- 
missioners immediately dispatched them to bishop Bonner, who on 
June 28th, caused Denley and Newman, with one Patrick Packingham, 
to be brought into his chamber, where examining them upon their con- 
fessions, they all answered in effect one thing. Upon this they were 
commanded to appear in the bishop's consistory the fifth of the following 
month. 

The articles of objection to Mr. Denley have some points of di- 
versity from what have already appeared: sufficient to claim for them 
insertion. That the said Denley hath not believed, nor doth believe, 
that there is any catholic church of Christ here in earth. That he 
hath not believed, nor doth believe, that this church of England 
is any part or member of the said catholic church. That he hath 
believed and doth believe, that the mass now used in England is 
full of idolatry and evil, and plain against God's word, and therefore 
he hath not heard it, nor will hear it. That he hath believed, and doth 
believe, that auricular confession now used in this realm of England, is 
not good, but contrary to God's word; that absolution given by the 
priest on hearing confession, is not good, nor allowable by God's word, 
but contrary to the same; that the christening of children, as it is now 
used in the church of England, is not good, nor allowable by God's 
word, but against it : likewise confirming of children, giving of orders, 
saying of matins and even-song, anointing of sick persons, making of 
holy bread and water, with the rest of the church; that there are but 
two sacraments in Christ's catholic church, namely, that of baptism and 
the sacrament of the altar; that forasmuch as Christ is ascended up into 
heaven, therefore the very body of Christ is not in the sacrament of the 
altar. To these were added the following charge, That thou Patrick 
Packingham, now being of the age of twenty-one at least, being within 
the house of the bishop of London at St. Paul's and by him brought 
to the great chapel to hear mass there, the said 23rd day of June, in 
the year of our Lord 1555, didst unreverently stand in the said chapel, 
having thy cap on thy head all the time of mass; and didst also refuse 
to receive holy water and holy bread at the hands of the priest, there 
contemning and despising the mass, and the said holy water and bread. 

The answers to these objections possess also sufficient interest and 
importance to merit record. " I believe the holy catholic church, which 
is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Christ being 
the head ; which holy church is the congregation of faithful people dis- 
persed through the whole world ; which church doth truly preach God's 
holy word, and doth also administer the two sacraments of baptism and 
the supper of the Lord, according to that word. I do believe that the 
church of England, using the faith and religion which is now used, is 
no part or member of the aforesaid catholic church, but is the church 
of antichrist, the bishop of Rome being the head thereof. Christ's 
testament is that he would have all things done to the edifying of the 
people, as it appeareth when he taught them to pray ; and also it 
appeareth by St. Paul, when he saith — ' He that prophesieth, speaketh 
unto men for their edifying, for their exhortation, and for their comfort: 
he that speaketh with tongues, profiteth himself; he that prophesieth, 



DENLEY'S ANSWERS TO CHARGES. 755 

edifieth the congregation. Even so likewise, when you speak with 
tongues, except you speak words that have signification, how shall it be 
understood what is spoken? for you shall but speak in the air.' 

"I do believe, that the mass now used in England is abominable 
idolatry and blasphemy against God's holy word ; for Christ in his holy 
supper instituted the sacrament of bread and wine to be eaten together 
in remembrance of his death till he come, and not to have them wor- 
shipped, and made an idol of: for God will not be worshipped in his 
creatures, but we ought to give him praise for his creatures, which 
he hath created for us. For he saith in the second commandment, 
1 Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of 
any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath, thou shalt not 
bow down to them, nor worship them.' 

" I do believe, that auricular confession is not good as it is now used. 
Touching my sins wherein I have offended God, I must seek to him for 
remission thereof; for our Saviour saith, 'Come unto me, all ye that 
labour and are laden, I will give you rest.' The prodigal son saith, 
1 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I 
have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son.' Also David saith, ' I acknowledge my sin unto 
thee. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.' 

" I believe, as touching the sacrament of baptism, it is altered and 
changed ; for St. John used nothing but the preaching of the word and 
the water, as it doth appear when Christ required to be baptised of him, 
and others also who came to John to be baptised. The chamberlain said, 
' See here is the water, what hindereth me to be baptised V It appeareth 
here that Philip had preached unto him. We do not read, that he asked 
for any cream, oil, or spittle, or conjured water, or conjured wax, or salt ; 
for it seemeth that Philip had preached no such thing to him ; for he would 
as well have asked for them as for water ; and the water was not conjured, 
but even as it was before. Then there are no more sacraments than 
two; baptism, and the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; 
except you will make the rainbow a sacrament : for there is no sacra- 
ment but what hath a promise annexed to it. And last, with regard to 
the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, ye have my mind written 
already, plainly expressed : for Christ's body is in heaven, and will not 
be contained in so small a piece of bread. And as the words which 
Christ spake are true indeed, so must they also be understood by other 
places of scripture w 7 hich Christ spake himself, and also the apostles after 
him. And thus I make an end." All this Denley signed with his name. 

On the 1st day of July, the three prisoners, Denley, Newman, and 
Packingham, were brought into the consistory in St. Paul's, where 
Bonner proceeded against them after the usual form ; reading first their 
confessions, articles, and answers, and then tempting them sometimes 
with fair promises, at other times with threatenings, which indeed were 
his strongest arguments and reasons. In the end, seeing their un- 
moveable constancy, upon the 5th of July he condemned them as 
heretics, and delivered them to the sheriffs of London, as to his common 
executioners. The sheriffs kept them till they were commanded by writ 
to send them to their several places of suffering; and accordingly 



756 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Mr. Denley was conveyed to Uxbridge, where he was burned on the 
8th of August; and in the midst of the flames he sung a psalm with 
remarkable strength and fervency. Mr. Packingham suffered at the 
same town, about three weeks after. Their fellow-prisoner Newman 
survived another month, during which the following examination of his 
opinions took place. 

One of the doctors, whose name Newman doth not express, began to 
question him on the words of Christ — " This is my body which is given 
for you." To this Newman promptly replied, " It is a figurative speech, 
one thing spoken, and another meant; as Christ saitfr — ' I am a vine, I 
am a door, I am a stone.' Is he therefore a material stone, vine, or 
door? — I do not so believe; for the soul of man doth not feed upon 
natural things as the body doth. I think the soul of man doth feed as 
the angels in heaven, whose feeding is only the pleasure, joy, felicity, 
and delectation that they have of God : and so the soul of man doth 
feed and eat, through faith of the body of Christ. The soul doth live 
otherwise than the body which doth perish : therefore natural things do 
but feed the body only. I pray you, what did Judas receive at the 
supper? You say that Judas received the very body of Christ; but the 
devil had entered into him before, and then he had the devil and Christ 
in him at one time. We ought to know that Christ will not be in an 
unclean person, who hath the devil." 

Dr. Thornton, suffragan of Dover, then sought to confound Mr. 
Newman by the favourite popish argument drawn from the omnipotence 
and omnipresence of God. He said — " Seeing God may do all things, 
he may do what he list, and be where he will. And doth not the Psalm 
say, He is in hell, and in all places? Why should we then doubt of his 
being in the sacrament?" "Though his Godhead be in all places, yet 
that is not sufficient to prove that his humanity is in all places," 
answered Newman. "I believe that God is omnipotent, and may do all 
things. I know that he can also be every where; but will you have the 
humanity of Christ in all places as the Deity is? When you say that if 
it please him he may be in all places with the Deity; I dare not even 
grant that, lest I should deny Christ to be a very man, and that were 
against all the scriptures." Thornton then put to him the question 
plainly — " How say you, is the body of Christ really in the sacrament, 
or no?" To which Newman replied, " I believe it not, and must deny 
it till I be persuaded by a further truth. I stand not, as you say, to 
mine own opinion but to the scriptures of God." f 

Being, like his noble companions, found faithful and unalterable in the 
cause of truth, he was, as before observed, condemned with them. Ac- 
counts differ concerning the place of his martyrdom — some assigning it 
to Walden in Essex, and others to Chichester, in Sussex. Being an 
inhabitant of Maidstone, it might be conjectured that he suffered there, 
as the condemned were usually appointed to die where they had mostly 
lived. It is, however, the more probable that he endured the fiery 

f Instead of leaving the admirable arguments of Mr. Newman weakened by the interpo- 
sition of short and colloquial questions, they have been rendered continuous by the omission 
of those questions : at the same time not an atom of the reasoning of this good man has 
been suffered to escape, nor in a single instance has his meaning been misinterpreted. 



CONDEMNATION OF SEVERAL PROTESTANTS. 757 

ordeal at Chichester, in company with Richard Hook, an equally faith- 
ful, though not an equally clever man, the latter end of August, 1555. 

Mention has been already made in the story of Mr. John Bland, and 
Mr. Nicholas Sheterden, of other Kentish men, who were with them 
called forth and examined by Thornton, suffragan of Dover, Dr. Harps- 
field, Richard Faucet, and Robert Collins; but their condemnation and 
execution were deferred till the latter end of August. Their names 
were Coker, Hopper, Laurence, Collier, Wright, and Stere. The ar- 
ticles objected to them have been before related. To which articles 
they severally answered as follows. 

William Coker said, he would answer no otherwise than he had 
already; and being offered a respite of six days more, he refused it; 
upon which sentence of condemnation was read against him on the 
11th of July. William Hopper seemed at first to admit the faith and 
determination of the Roman church, but calling himself better to mind, 
constantly adhered to the truth, and was condemned on the 16th of 
July. Henry Laurence was examined on the same day, and answered 
to the articles objected against him; first denying auricular confession, 
and that he neither had, nor would receive the sacrament, because the 
order of the holy scripture was changed. So resolute was he, that he 
was also charged for not putting off his cap, when the suffragan made 
mention of the sacrament, and for not doing reverence to the same. 
After considerable effort made with him he was required to subscribe his 
answers, and wrote under their examinations — "You are all of antichrist, 
and him you fol — ." Here he was stopped from writing any further. 
Being found constant, sentence was given against him on the 2nd of 
August. 

Richard Collier, of Ashford, was examined on the 16th of August. 
He answered, that he did not believe, that after the consecration there 
was the real and substantial body of Christ, but only bread and wine, 
and that it is most abominable, most detestable, and most wicked to 
believe otherwise. Upon this, sentence was read against him, and he 
was condemned on the same day. After his condemnation he sung a 
psalm. Wherefore the priests and their officers railed at him, saying he 
was out of his wits. Richard Wright was then required of the judge to 
declare what he believed of the real presence in the sacrament, and 
answered, that as touching the sacrament of the altar and the mass, he 
was ashamed to speak of it, or to name it, and that he allowed it not, as 
it was used in the church. On which sentence was accordingly read to 
him. William Stere, also of the parish of Ashford, was brought up on 
the same day. And as touching the sacrament of the altar, he found it 
not, he said, in the scripture, and, therefore, would not answer there- 
unto. When the judge commanded him to be uncovered, while speaking 
of the sacrament of the altar, William told him, that he needed not to 
reverence that matter so highly. Then sentence was pronounced against 
him; and after it was read, he said, that the sacrament of the altar was 
the most blasphemous idol that ever was. These six martyrs and wit- 
nesses of the truth, being condemned by the bloody suffragan of Dover, 
and equally cruel archdeacon of Canterbury, were burnt all together in 
that city, at three stakes in one fire, about the latter end of August. 



758 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The London prisons beginning now to be overstocked with the perse- 
cuted christians, and numbers continually coming in, the council and 
commissioners, thinking to make quick dispatch, sent ten martyrs, 
named in the following letter, to Bonner, by him to be examined and 
disposed of. The letter is a sample of the coolness with which these 
abettors of cruelty prepared to sacrifice some of the most upright men 
of the nation, and some also of its most amiable and benevolent women, 
at the shrine of a base superstition. " After our hearty commendations 
to your good lordship, we send you here John Wade, William Hale, 
George King, Thomas Leyes, Thomas Fust, Robert Smith, Stephen 
Harwood, George Tankerfield, Elizabeth Warne, and Joan Lashford,s 
sacramentaries ; all which we desire your lordship to examine, and to 
order according to the ecclesiastical laws: praying your lordship to 
appoint some of your officers to receive them at this bearer's hands. 
And thus most heartily fare your lordship well. From London this 
2nd of July. Your lordship's loving friends." Signed by four com- 
missioners. 

We shall now proceed briefly to relate the particulars of these worthies, 
who lived and died in a good confession. We begin with the first of 
the women, Elizabeth Warne. She was the widow of John Warne, 
upholsterer, and martyr, who was burnt the latter end of the May 
before, as has been recorded in his story, in connection with Mr. Card- 
maker and others. She had been apprehended amongst others the 
first of January, in a house in Bow-churchyard, in London, as they 
were gathered together in prayer, and was carried to the Compter, 
where she remained till the 11th day of June; when she was brought 
to Newgate, and confined there till the 2nd of July. Then was she 
sent by the queen's commissioners to Bonner, bishop of London, who, 
on the 6th of the same month, caused her, with Robert Smith, George 
Tankerfield, and others, to be brought before him into his palace, 
and there examined upon sundry articles, such as were commonly ad- 
ministered to the martyrs of that day. In addition to the chief objec- 
tion made against her, respecting the corporeal presence of the body 
and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, as the chief ground 
and most profitable foundation for their catholic dignity, many other 
matters he objected against her and her fellow-prisoners, as for not 
coming to the church, for speaking against the mass, despising their 
ceremonies, &c. 

In the end, when she had been several times brought before him and 
his adherents, and by them earnestly exhorted to recant, she said — " Do 
what you will; for if Christ were in an error, then am I in one." Upon 
which she was condemned as a heretic, on the 12th of the same month, 
and delivered to the secular power, to be put to death, which took place 
at Stratford le Bow on the following month. It is painful to think that 
the chief procurer of her death was Dr. Storey, who was somewhat 
related to her, or else to her late husband. He, at her first apprehen- 
sion, endeavoured by all means to get her pardon, and accordingly 

e This young woman appears to have been the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warne, and a 
child worthy of such holy and devoted parents. Whether the name Lashford arose from 
her being married, or was a second name by which she was generally known, is uncertain. 



ACCOUNT OF GEORGE TANKERFIELD. 759 

applied to Dr. Martin, one of the commissioners in matters of religion, 
himself not being then one, and by his suit obtained her deliverance 
for that present; yet afterwards, upon what occasion God only knoweth, 
except upon some burning charity, Storey becoming one of the com- 
missioners, caused not only John Warne, but also his wife, and after- 
wards his daughter, to be again apprehended, never leaving them till 
he had brought them all to ashes. 

George Tankerfield, of London, born in York, about the age of twenty- 
seven years, had been, in the days of king Edward, a papist, till the 
time queen Mary came in ; and then perceiving the great cruelty which 
the papists used, he was brought into a doubt of their doctrines, and 
began in his heart to abhor them. Concerning the mass, whereof he 
had but a doubtful opinion before, and much striving with himself in 
that case, he at length fell to prayer, desiring God in mercy to open 
to him the truth, that he might be thoroughly persuaded therein, 
whether it were of God or not ; if not, that he might utterly hate it in 
his heart. The Lord mercifully heard his prayer, daily working more 
and more in him to detest his former errors. He was then moved to 
read the Testament, whereby the Lord enlightened his mind with the 
knowledge of the truth, working a lively faith in him to believe the 
same, and utterly to detest all popery, and at length he came no more 
to their doings. Moreover, the truth kindled such a flame in him, as 
would not be kept in, but uttered itself by the confession thereof, re- 
proving his former ways to his friends, exhorting them likewise to 
repent and turn to the truth with him, till they at length discovered him. 

It pleased God to strike him w 7 ith sickness, whereby he lay long con- 
fined; and on a certain day, to take the air abroad, he rose and walked 
into the Temple fields to see the shooters. In the mean time Mr. 
Beard, yeoman of the guard, came to his house and enquired for him, 
pretending to his wife, that he came only to have him dress a banquet 
at the lord Paget's. His wife, because of his apparel, which was very 
rich, took him to be some great friend, and with all speed prepared 
herself to fetch her husband ; and lest this gentleman should be tired 
with tarrying, she fetched him a cushion to sit on, and laid a fair napkin 
before him, and set bread thereon, and came to her husband; who, 
when he heard it, said — " a banquet, woman! indeed it is such a ban- 
quet as will not be very pleasant to the flesh; but God's will be done." 
When he came home he saw who it was, and called him by his name, 
which when his wife perceived, and wherefore he came, she seized a 
spit and would have run him through, had not the constable which Mr. 
Beard had sent for by his man, come in and rescued him: yet she sent 
a brickbat after him, and hit him on the back. And so Tankerfield 
was delivered to the constable, and brought to Newgate about the last 
day of February, 1555. 

Being thus brought to prison by his adversaries, at length, with the 
others before named, he was brought to his examination before bishop 
Bonner, who, after his accustomed manner, ordered his articles and 
positions to be objected against him. To these he answered again, 
constantly declaring his mind concerning auricular confession, the 
sacrament of the popish altar, and the mass. He avowed that he had 



760 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

not confessed to any priest for five years past, nor to any, but only to 
God ; and further declared that he would not hereafter be confessed 
by any priest, for that he found it not in Christ's book. Then, as it 
regardeth the sacrament, commonly called the sacrament of the altar, 
he confessed that he neither had nor did believe, that in the sacrament 
there was the real body and blood of Christ, because the body was 
ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of God the 
Father. To these things he added his belief that the mass now used 
in the church of England was full of idolatry and abomination, and 
against the word of God ; affirming also, that there were but two sacra- 
ments in the church of Christ, baptism and the supper of the Lord. 
To these assertions he said he would stand; which he did to the end. 

When at last the bishop began to read the sentence, first exhorting 
him, with many words, to revoke his heretical opinion, he resisted all 
their persuasions. " I will not," said he, " forsake mine opinions, 
except you, my lord, can refute them by scriptures; and I care not for 
your divinity; for you condemn all men, and prove nothing against 
them." And after many words of exhortation, which Bonner then used, 
to convert, or rather pervert him, he answered boldly — That the church, 
whereof the pope is supreme head, is no part of Christ's catholic church; 
and adding thereunto, pointing to the bishops, and speaking to the 
people, saying, " Good people, beware of them, and such as them, for 
these be the people that deceive you, and lead you astray like silly 
sheep." Then the bishop read the sentence of condemnation, and gave 
him to the secular power, who conducted him to St. Alban's, where he 
ended his life with much patience and constancy on the 26th of August, 
for the defence of the truth. 

The reader will be interested with some particulars of this good man's 
last days, derived from authentic sources of information. He was 
brought to St. Alban's by the high sheriff of Hertfordshire, Edward 
Brocket, esq. and Mr. Pulter, of Hitchen, who was under-sheriff. They 
put up at the Cross-keys inn, where there was a great concourse of 
people to see and hear the prisoner ; some were sorry to find so pious 
a man brought to be burned ; others praised God for his constancy and 
perseverance in the truth. Contrariwise, some said, it was pity he did 
stand in such opinions: and others, both old men and women, cried 
against him; one called him heretic, and said it was not fit that he lived. 
But Tankerfield spake unto them so effectually out of the word of God, 
lamenting their ignorance, and protesting unto them his unspotted 
conscience, that God did mollify their hardened hearts, insomuch that 
some of them who had doubted him, departed out of the chamber 
weeping. 

There came a certain school-master to have communication with him, 
the day before he was coming to St. Alban's, concerning the sacrament 
of the altar, and other points of the popish religion : but as he urged 
Tankerfield with the authority of the doctors, wresting them after his 
own will; so on the other side, Tankerfield answered him mightily by 
the scriptures, not wrested after the mind of any man, but being inter- 
preted after the will of the Lord Jesus. As he would not allow sucli 
allegations as Tankerfield brought out of the scriptures without the opi- 



MARTYRDOM OF GEORGE TANKERFIELD. 761 

nions of the doctors; so again Tankerfield would not credit his doctrine 
to be true, except he would confirm it by the scriptures. In the end, 
Tankerfield prayed him that he would not trouble him in such matters, 
for his conscience was established. He, therefore, departed from him 
wishing him well, and protesting that he meant him no more hurt than 
his own soul. 

When the hour drew on that he should suffer, he desired the wine- 
drawer that he might have a pint of malmsey and a loaf, that he might 
eat and drink in remembrance of Christ's death and passion, because 
he could not have it administered to him by others in such manner as 
Christ commanded : and then he kneeled down, making his confession 
unto the Lord with all which were in the chamber with him ; and after 
he had prayed earnestly, and had read the institution of the holy sup- 
per by the Lord Jesus out of the evangelists, and out of St. Paul, he 
said — " O Lord, thou knowest it, I do not this to derogate authority from 
any man, or in contempt of those which are thy ministers, but only be- 
cause I cannot have it administered according to thy word." When 
he had spoke these and such like words, he received it with giving of 
thanks. Then he was entreated to strengthen him by taking some meat; 
but he said he would not eat that which should do others good that had 
more need, and that had longer to live than he had. 

He prayed his host to let him have a good fire in the chamber, which 
was granted him; and then sitting on a form before it, he put off his 
shoes and hose, and stretched out his leg to the flame; and when it had 
touched his foot he quickly withdrew his leg, shewing the flesh did per- 
suade him one way, and the spirit another. The flesh said, " O thou 
fool, wilt thou burn, and needest not?" The spirit said, " Be not 
afraid, for this is nothing in respect of fire eternal." The flesh said, 
M Do not leave the company of thy friends and acquaintance which love 
thee, and will let thee lack nothing." The spirit said, "The company 
of Jesus Christ and his glorious presence doth exceed all earthly friends." 
The flesh said, " Do not shorten thy time, for thou mayest live if thou 
wilt much longer." The spirit said, "This life is nothing unto the life 
in heaven which lasteth for ever." And all this time the sheriffs were 
at a gentleman's house at dinner, not far from the town, whither also 
resorted many knights and gentlemen out of the country, because his 
son was married that day, and until they returned from dinner, the pri- 
soner was left to the care of his host, by whom he was kindly treated; 
and considering that his time was short, his saying was — " Although the 
day be ever so long, yet at the last it ringeth to evening song." 

About two o'clock, when the sheriffs returned from dinner, they 
brought Mr. Tankerfield out of the inn to the place where he should 
suffer, which was called Romeland, being a green place near the west 
end of the Abbey church; unto which when he was come, he kneeled 
down by the stake that was set up for him; and after he had ended his 
prayers he arose, and with a joyful faith said, that although he had 
a sharp dinner, yet he hoped to have a joyful supper in heaven. While 
the fagots were set about him, there came a priest and persuaded him 
to believe on the sacrament of the altar, and he would be saved. But 
Tankerfield cried vehemently — "I defy the whore of Babylon! fie on 



762 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that abominable idol: good people, do not believe him." Then the 
mayor of the town commanded fire to be set to the heretic, and said, 
if he had but one load of fagots in the world, he would give them to 
burn him. Amidst this confusion there was a certain knight, who went 
unto Tankerfield, and taking him by the hand said — " Good brother, be 
strong in Christ." This he spake softly; and Tankerfield said, " O 
Sir, I thank you, 1 am so; I thank God." Then fire was set unto him, 
and he desired the sheriff and all the people to pray for him ; most of 
them did so. And so embracing the fire, he called on the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and was quickly out of pain. 

We are now to review the history of Mr. Robert Smith, a gentleman 
whose talents and character gained him the highest esteem. Mr. Smith 
was brought to Newgate on the 5th of November, by John Matthew, a 
yeoman of the guard, by the command of the council. He had for- 
merly devoted his services to the house of Sir Thomas Smith, knight, 
being at the same time provost of Eton : from thence he was preferred 
to Windsor, having there in the college a clerkship of ten pounds a 
year. Of stature he was tall and slender, active about many things, 
but chiefly delighted in the art of painting, which many times, rather 
for his amusement than for gain, he practised. In religion he was fer- 
vent, after he had once tasted the truth; wherein he was much con- 
firmed by the preaching of Mr. Turner, of Windsor, and others. At 
the coming in of queen Mary he was deprived of his clerkship by her 
visitors; and not long after was apprehended, and brought to examina- 
tion before Bonner. The following examinations were written with his 
own hand, and will be given to the reader with only such abridgment 
as Will render them the more acceptable. 

" About nine in the morning I was, among the rest of my brethren, 
brought to the bishop's house; and first of all I was brought before him 
into his chamber, where he began as followeth, after he had asked my 
name — How long is it since you were confessed to any priest? 

Smith. Never since I had years of discretion. For I never saw it 
needful, neither commanded by God to shew my faults to any of that 
sinful number whom you call priests." 

Bon. Thou shewest thyself even at thy first speech to be a rank here- 
tic, who being weary of painting, art entered into divinity, and so fal- 
len, through thy departing from thy vocation, into heresy. 

Smith. Although I understand painting, yet, I praise God, I have 
had little need hitherto to live by it. 

Bon. How long is it since you received the sacrament of the altar, 
and what is your opinion of the same? 

Smith. I never received it since I had years of discretion, nor ever 
will, by God's grace; neither do I esteem it in any point, because it 
hath not God's ordinance, but rather is set up to mock him withal. 

Bon. Do you not believe that the sacrament is the very body of 
Christ naturally, substantially, and really, after the words of conse- 
cration ? 

Smith. I showed you before it was none of God's ordinances, as you 
use it; then much less to be God, or any part of his substance; but 
only bread and wine erected to the use aforesaid : yet, nevertheless, if 



DIALOGUE BETWEEN BONNER AND SMITH. 763 

you can prove it to be the body that you spake of by the word, I will 
believe it; if not, I will do as I do, account it a detestable idol. 

Bon. Then there is no remedy, but you must be burned. 

Smith. You shall do no more unto me than you have done to better 
men than either of us. But think not thereby to quench the spirit of 
God, neither to make your matter good. For your wound is too well 
seen to be healed so privily with blood. For even the very children 
have all your deeds in derision ; so that though you patch up one place 
with authority, yet shall it break out in forty to your shame. 

Bon. Well, even now, by my troth, even in good earnest, if thou 
wilt go to confession I will tear this paper of your examination in 
pieces. 

Smith. It would be too much to your shame to shew it to men of 
discretion. 

" After this answer, I was carried down to the garden with my jailer, 
and there remained till my brother Harwood was examined; then being 
again brought up before Bonner, he demanded if I agreed with Harwood 
in his confession. " 

Bon. What say you to the catholic church? Do you not confess 
there is one in earth? 

Smith. Yes, verily, I believe that there is one catholic church, or 
faithful congregation, which is built upon the prophets and apostles, 
Christ Jesus being the head corner stone: which church, in all her 
words and works maintaineth the word, and bringeth the same for her 
authority. Of this I hope I am by grace made a member. 

Bon. You shall understand, that 1 am bound when my brother of- 
fendeth, and will not be reconciled, to bring him before the congrega- 
tion : now if your church be the same, where may a man find it, to 
bring his brother before it? 

Smith. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that when the 
tyranny of the bishops was so great against the church in Jewry, they 
were fain to assemble in houses and secret places, as they do now: 
and yet were they nevertheless the church of God : and seeing they 
had their matters redressed being shut up in a corner, may not we do 
the like now? 

Bon. Yea, their church was known full well. For St. Paul wrote 
to the Corinthians, to have the man punished and excommunicated that 
had committed evil with his father's wife. Whereby we may well per- 
ceive it was a known church; but yours is not known. 

Smith. Then could you not persecute it as you do : but as you say 
the church of God at Corinth was manifest both to God and St. Paul ; 
even so is this church of God in England, which you persecute, both 
known to God, and also even to the very wicked, although they know 
not, nor will know their truth nor conversation ; yea, and your sinful 
number have professed their verity, and maintained the same a long 
season. 

Bon. Well, thou sayest that the church of God was only at Corinth, 
when St. Paul wrote unto them ; and so will I put in writing, with your 
permission. 

Smith. I greatly marvel, my lord, that you are not ashamed to lay 



764 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

snares for your brethren in this manner. This is now the third snare 
you have laid for me. First, to make me confess that the church of 
England is not the church of Christ. Secondly, to say it is not known. 
Thirdly, to say the church of God is not universal, but particular. 
This is not the office of a bishop, for had an innocent come in your 
way you would have done your best, I see, to have entangled him. 

Bon. You are no innocent, as it appeareth. Tell us, how sayst thou 
of the church ? 

Smith. I told you whereon the true church is built, and I affirm it not 
only in England to be the congregation of God, but also in omnem 
terrain: as it is written, "Their sound is gone forth into all lands;" 
and this is the afflicted and persecuted church, which ye cease not to 
imprison, and kill. In Corinth was not all the congregation of God, 
but a select number of those holy people. For neither Paul nor Peter 
were present at Corinth when they wrote, and yet were they of the 
church of God, as many thousands more which also communicate in 
that Holy Spirit. 

A certain doctor, the same probably who had questioned Mr. New- 
man, now took up the argument with Mr. Smith, politely asking to have 
some communing, and desiring first to know if he were a prisoner. 

Smith. I am in this flesh a prisoner, and subject to my master and 
yours; but I hope yet the Lord's free man through Christ Jesus. 

Doctor. I do much desire to talk to you lovingly, because you are a 
man I much lament. You say in derision or in despite, Sub melle latet 
venerium: but let me ask you, What derogation was it to Christ, when 
the Jews spat in his face ? 

Smith. If the Jews, being his enemies, did spit in his face, and we 
being his friends throw him into the draught, which of us have deserved 
the greatest damnation? But by your argument, he that doth injury to 
Christ shall have a most plenteous salvation. 

" Then started the doctor away, and would have his humanity incom- 
prehensible—making a comparison between our soul and the body of 
Christ; bringing in to serve his turn, which way came Christ in among his 
disciples, the doors being shut? 

Smith. Although it be said, that when he came the doors were shut, 
yet have I as much to prove, that the doors opened at his coming as 
you have to prove he came through the door. For that Almighty God 
who brought the disciples out of prison, which yet when search was 
made was found shut, was able to let Christ in at the door, although it 
were shut: and yet it maketh not for your purpose ; for they saw him, 
heard him, and felt him ; that you cannot say you do, neither is lie in 
more places than one at the same time. 

" At this answer they made many scoffings, and we were carried into 
my lord's hall, where we were baited by the band of servants almost all 
the day, until our keeper seeing their rudeness shut us all up in a hand- 
some chamber, while my lord went into his synagogue to condemn Mr. 
Denley and Mr. Newman. Then they brought my lord mayor up into 
the chamber where my lord intended to sup, to hear the matter; and I 
was the first that was called ; where my lord mayor being set with the 
bishop and one of the sheriffs, wine was flowing on every side, whilst { 



EXAMINATION OF ROBERT SMITH. Too 

stood before them like a mute ; which made me remember how Pilate 
and Herod were made friends, and how no man was sorry for Joseph's 
hurt. But after my lord had well drunk, my articles were sent for and 
read, and he demanded whether I did say as was written ? 

Smith. That which I have said, I have said; and what I have said I 
mean. 

Bon. Well, my lord mayor, your lordship hath heard, in some measure 
what a stout heretic this is, and that his articles have deserved death ; 
nevertheless forasmuch as they report me to seek blood, and call me 
bloody Bonner, whereas, God knoweth, I never sought any man's blood 
in all my life, I have kept him from the consistory this day, whither I 
could have brought him justly. I desire him to turn, and I will, with 
all speed, dispatch him out of his trouble; and this 1 profess before 
your lordship and all this audience. 11 

Smith. Why, my lord, do you put on this fair vizor before my lord 
mayor, to make him believe that you seek not my blood, to cloak your 
murders, through my stoutness, as you call it? Have you not had my 
brother Tomkins before you, whose hand when you burned most cruelly 
you burned also his body ; and not only him, but a great many of the 
members of Christ, men that lived virtuously, and also the queen's most 
true subjects, as their goods and bodies have made manifest? And seeing 
in these saints you have shewed so little mercy, shall it seem to my lord 
and his audience that you shew me more? No, no, my lord. But if 
you mean as you say, why then do you examine me of what I am not 
bound to answer you ? 

Bon. Well, what sayest thou by the sacrament of the altar? Is it not 
the very body of Christ, flesh, blood, and bone, as it was born of the Virgin? 

Smith. I have answered, that it is none of God's order, nor a sacrament, 
but man's own invention. 

Then he proved before the audience that it was a dead god, declaring 
the distinction appointed between two creatures of bread and wine, and 
that a body without blood hath no life ; at which Harpsfield was much 
offended, and said, " I will approve by the Scriptures that ye blaspheme 
God in so saying: for it is given in two parts, because there are two things 
shown, that is to say, his body and his passion, as saith St. Paul; and, 
therefore, is the bread his body, and the wine the representation of his 
death and blood-shedding." 

Smith. You falsify the word, and rack it to serve your purpose. For 
the wine was not only the shewing of his passion, but the bread also. 
For our Saviour saith, " So often as you do this, do it in remembrance 
of me." And St. Paul saith, " So oft as you eat of this bread, and 
drink of this cup, you shall show the Lord's death till he come." And 
here is as much reverence given to the one as to the other. Wherefore, 

h This is a striking instance of a feature too common in Bonner's character, uniting inge- 
nious wit with cool deliberate barbarity, presenting the most cruel parts of his disposition 
from beneath a mask of the greatest hypocrisy. He sought to convey to those who heard 
him, not perhaps excepting the lord mayor himself, that upon Smith's recantation he should 
be delivered from his present thraldom and peril : whereas it is too clear that the sangui- 
nary dissembler meant only that the reward of recantation should be a more speedy dispatch 
by the fire, a more prompt sentence and a quicker burning ! In this light Smith evidently 
viewed it. 



766 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

if the bread be his body, the cup must be his blood, and you may as 
well make his body in the cup, as his blood in the bread. 

"Then my lord rose up and went to the table, where the lord mayor 
desired me to save my soul. I answered, I hoped it was saved through 
Christ Jesus; desiring him to have pity on his own soul, and remember 
whose sword he carried, and how much influence he had on others. I 
was then carried into the garden, and there abode till the rest of my 
friends were examined, and then were we sent away to Newgate with 
many foul farewells, my lord giving the keeper a charge to lay me in 
limbo. This was done for two or three days, and on Saturday, at eight 
o'clock, I was brought to his chamber again, and there examined by the 
bishop. 

Bon. Thou, Robert Smith, sayest that there is no catholic church here 
on earth. 

Smith. You have heard me both speak the contrary, and you have 
writing as a witness of the same. Must you of necessity begin with 
a lie ? It maketh manifest that you determine to end with the same. 
But there shall no liars enter into the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, 
if you will be answered, ask mine articles that were written yesterday, 
and they shall tell you that I have confessed a church of God, as well in 
earth as in heaven ; and yet all one church, and all members of Christ 
Jesus. 

Bon. Well, what sayest thou to the auricular confession ? Is it not 
necessary to be used in Christ's church? and wilt thou not be confessed 
by the priest ? 

Smith. It is not needful to be used in Christ's church, as I answered 
yesterday. But if it be needful for your church, it is to pick men's 
pockets ; and such pick-pocket matter is all the whole rabble of your 
ceremonies : for all that you maintain is but a money affair. 

Bon. Why, how art thou able to prove that confession is a pick- 
pocket matter? Art thou not ashamed to say so? 

Smith. I speak by experience : for I have both heard and seen the 
fruits of the same. For first it hath been a betrayer of king's secrets, 
and the secrets of other men's consciences ; who being delivered, and 
glad to be discharged from their sins, have given great sums of money 
to priests to absolve them, and sing masses for their souls. 

Bon. Ah, you are a generation of liars ! there is not one true word 
that cometh out of your mouths. 

Smith. Yes, my lord, I have said that Jesus Christ has died for my 
sins, and risen for my justification, and this is no lie. 

Bon. How sayest thou, Smith, to the seven sacraments? Believest thou 
not that they be of God's order, that is to say, the sacraments of his 
institution and of his church? 

Smith. I believe that in God's church are but two sacraments, that is 
to say, the sacrament of regeneration, and the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper : and as for the sacrament of the altar, and all your other sacra- 
ments, they may well serve your church; but God's church hath nothing 
to do with them, neither have I any thing to do to answer them, nor 
you to examine me of them. 



EXAMINATION OF ROBERT SMITH. 767 

Bon. Why, is God's order changed in baptism? In what point do we 
dissent from the word of God ? 

Smith. First, in hallowing your water; in conjuring of the same; 
in baptising of children with anointing and spitting in their mouths, 
mingled with salt; and with many other lewd ceremonies, of which not- 
one point is able to be proved in God's order. 

Bon. By the mass, this is the most unshame-faced heretic that ever I 
heard speak. 

Smith. Well sworn, my lord ; you keep a good watch. 

Bon. Well, Mr. Comptroller, you catch me at my words : but I will 
watch thee as well, I warrant. 

Smith. It is a shameful blasphemy against Christ, so to use any 
mingle-mangle in baptising young infants. 

Bon. I believe, I tell thee, that if they die before they be baptised, 
they be damned. 

Smith. You shall never be saved by that belief. But I pray you, my 
lord, shew me, are we saved by water, or by Christ? 

Bon. By both. 

Smith. Then the water died for our sins : and so must ye say, that the 
water hath life; and it being our servant, and created for us, is our 
Saviour. This, my lord, is a good doctrine, is it not ? 

Bon. Why, how understandeth thou the scriptures? " Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
of God." And how readest thou again Christ's words — " Suffer these 
children to come unto me ?" and if thou wilt not suffer them to be bap- 
tised after the laudable order, thou hinderest them to come unto Christ. 

Smith. When you allege St. John — " Except a man be born of water 
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," and will 
thereby prove the water to save, and so the deed or work to save and 
put away sins ; I will send you to St. Paul, who asketh of the Galatians, 
" Whether they received the Spirit by the deeds of the law, or by the 
preaching of faith?" and there concludeth, that the Holy Ghost accom- 
panieth the preaching of faith, and with the word of faith entereth into 
the heart. So now, if baptism preach unto me the washing in Christ's 
blood, so doth the Holy Ghost accompany it, and it is unto me as a 
preacher and not a Saviour. And whereas ye say, I hinder the children 
to come unto Christ, it is manifest by our Saviour's words that you 
hinder them to come that will not suffer them to come unto him without 
the necessity of water. For he saith " Suffer them to come unto me," 
and not unto the water ; and therefore if you condemn them, you con- 
demn both the merits and words of Christ. For our Saviour saith, 
" Except ye turn and become as children, ye cannot enter the kingdom 
of God." 

Bon. Well, sir, what say you to the sacrament of orders? 

Smith. You may call it the sacrament of disorders ; for all orders 
are appointed of God. But as for your shaving, anointing, greasing, 
polling, and rounding, there are no such things appointed in God's book, 
and therefore I have nothing to do to believe your orders. And as for 
you, if you had grace and intelligence, you would not so disfigure your- 
self as vou do. 



^~ 68 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Bon. Sayest thou so? Now, by my troth, I will go shave myself to 
anger thee withal. 

That Bonner should have had the folly to put his ridiculous threat 
into execution, and that at the moment and upon the spot, is almost 
past belief even of that strange man. Yet Mr. Smith's narrative of the 
affair goes on to say that " he sent for his barber, who immediately 
came : and before my face at the door of the next chamber, he shaved 
himself, desiring me before he went, to answer to these articles." 

Bon. What say you to holy bread and holy water, to the sacrament 
of anointing, and to all the rest of such ceremonies of the church? 

Smith. I say they be baubles for fools to play withal, and not for the 
children of God to exercise themselves in, and therefore they may go 
among the refuse. 

" My lord then left me with certain doctors, of whom I asked this 
question." 

Smith. Where were you all the days of king Edward, that you spake 
not that which you speak now? 

Doct. We were in England. 

Smith. Yea, but then ye had the faces of men; but now ye have put 
on lions' faces again, as saith St. John. Ye show yourselves as full of 
malice as ye may be ; for ye have for every time a vizor ; yea, and if 
another king Edward should arise, ye would then say, " Down with the 
pope, for he is antichrist, and so are all his angels." 

"Then was I reviled, and so sent away, and brought in again before 
these men; when one of them asked me if I disallowed confession ? I an- 
swered, ' Look in mine articles, and they shall show you what I allow.' " 

Doct. Your articles confess that you allow not auricular confession. 

Smith. Because the word alloweth it not, nor commandeth it. 

Doct. Why, it is written, thou shalt not hide thy sins and offences. 

Smith. No more do I when I confess them to Almighty God. 

Doct. Why, you cannot say that you can hide them from God, and 
therefore you must understand the words are spoken to be uttered to 
them that do not know them. 

Smith. You have made a good answer: then the priest must confess 
himself to me, as well as I to him; for I know his faults and secrets no 
more than he knoweth mine. But if you confess to the priest and not 
unto God, you shall have the reward that Judas had; for he confessed 
himself to the priest, and presently went and hanged himself; and so 
many as do not acknowledge their faults to God are said to hide them. 

Doct. What did they that came to John to be baptised? 

Smith. They came and confessed their sins to Almighty God. 

Doct. And not unto John? 

Smith. If it were unto John, as you are not able to prove, yet it was 
to God, before John and the whole congregation. 

Doct. Why, John was alone in the wilderness. 

Smith. Indeed! and yet the scriptures say he had many disciples, 
and that many pharisees and sadducees came to his baptism ! Here the 
scriptures and you agree not. If they confessed themselves to John, as 
you say, it was to all the congregation, as St. Paul doth to Timothy, 
and to all that read his epistles, in opening to all the hearers, that he 
was not worthy to be called an apostle, because he had been a tyrant. 



EXAMINATION OF ROBERT SMITH. 769 

But as for ear-confession, you never knew it allowed by the word. The 
prophet David made his confession unto God, and saith — " I will confess 
my sins unto the Lord." Daniel maketh his confession unto the Lord. 
Judith, Toby, Jeremy, Manasseh, with all the fathers, did even so. And 
the Lord hath said — " Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will 
deliver thee." This is the word of God; now bring somewhat of the 
word to help yourself withal. You call me a dog! Nay, you are dogs, 
that because holy things are offered, will slay your friends. For I may 
say with St. Paul, " I have fought with beasts," in the likeness of men. 

Bonner now returned to the assault, boasting of having been shaved ; 
and exclaiming as he entered — " How standeth it, doctors, have you 
done any good?" 

Doct. No, my lord, we can do no good to such an evil man. 

Smith. Then it is fulfilled which is written, " How can an evil tree 
bring forth good fruit?" 

Bon. Well, wilt thou neither hear them nor me? 

Smith. Yes, I am compelled to hear you; but you cannot compel me 
to follow you. 

Bon. Well, thou shalt be burnt at a stake in Smithfield, if thou wilt 
not turn. 

Smith. And you shall burn in hell, if you repent not: but, my lord, 
to put you out of doubt, because I am weary, I will strain courtesy with 
you : I perceive you will not with your doctors come unto me, and 1 am 
determined not to come unto you, by God's grace. For I have hardened 
my face against you as brass. 

Mr. Smith was now dismissed for some days. " On the 12th of July 
I was with my brethren brought into the consistory, and mine articles 
read before the lord mayor and sheriffs, with all the assistants: to which 
I answered as I had done before. Then my lord proceeded with the 
rest of my articles, demanding of me if I said not as was written. To 
which I answered — 'No!' And turning to my lord mayor, I said — 'I 
require you, my lord, in God's behalf, unto whom pertaineth your 
sword and justice, that I may here before your presence answer to these 
objections that are laid against me, and have probation of the same; 
and if any thing that I have said, or will say, be proved heresy, I shall 
not only with all my heart forsake the same, and cleave to the truth, 
but also recant wheresoever you shall assign me, and all this audience 
shall be witness to the same.' 

L. Mayor. Why, Smith, thou canst not deny but this writing contains 
what thou saidst! 

Smith. Yes, my lord, I deny that which he hath written, because he 
hath both added to, and diminished from the same; but what I have 
spoken I will never deny. I denied what you call the blessed sacrament 
of the altar to be any sacrament, and I do here stand to make probation 
of the same : but if my lord or any of his doctors be able to prove either 
the name or usage of the same, I will recant mine error. 

Bon. By my troth, Mr. Speaker, you shall preach at a stake, or I am 
no saint. 

Smith. No, my lord, nor yet a good bishop. For a bishop, saith 
St. Paul, should be faultless, and a vessel dedicated unto God ; and are 
" 3d 



770 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

you not ashamed to sit in judgment and be a blasphemer, condemning 
innocents? 

Bon. Well, Mr. Comptroller, you are faultless. 

Smith. My lord mayor, I require you in God's name, that I may have 
justice. We be here to-day a great many innocents wrongfully accused 
of heresy. And I require you, if you will not seem to be partial, let 
me have the favour at your hands that the apostle had at the hands of 
Festus and Agrippa, who being heathens and infidels, gave him leave to 
speak for himself, and also heard the probation of his cause. This 
require I at your hands, who being a christian judge I hope will not 
deny me that right, which the heathen have suffered : if you do, then 
shall all this audience, yea, and the heathen, speak shame of your act. 
For all that do well come to the light, and they that do evil hate the 
light. 

" At this the lord mayor hanging down his head, said nothing; but the 
bishop told me, I should preach at the stake, and the sheriff cried with 
the bishop for the officers to take me away. I had now been before 
them four times, desiring justice, but could have none: at length my 
friends required the same with one voice, but could not have it; so we 
had sentence; and then being carried out, were brought in again, and 
received it separately. But before the bishop gave me sentence, he told 
me in derision of my brother Tankerfield, a tale between a gentleman 
and his cook. To this I answered, ' My lord, you fill the people's ears 
with fantasies and foolish tales, and make a laughing matter at blood ; 
but if you were a true bishop, you should leave these railing sentences, 
and speak the words of God.'" 

Bon. Well, I have offered to that naughty fellow, Mr. Speaker, your 
companion the cook, that my chancellor should here instruct him, but 
he hath with great disdain refused it. How sayest thou, wilt thou have 
him instruct thee, and lead thee into the right way? 

Smith. My lord, if your chancellor will do me any good, and take 
any pains, as you say, let him take mine articles in his hands, that you 
have objected against me, and either prove one of them heresy, or any 
thing that you do to be good: and if he be able so to do, I stand here 
with all my heart to hear him; if not, I have no need, I praise God, of 
his sermon : for I come to answer for my life, and not to hear a sermon. 

Then began the sentence, " In the name of God." To which I 
answered, that he began in a wrong name, requiring of him, where he 
learned in scripture to give sentence of death against any man for his 
conscience sake. To which he made no answer, but went forward to 
the end, and immediately cried — " Away with him!" Then I turned 
to the mayor, and said — " Is it not enough for you, my lord mayor, and 
you that are the sheriffs, that you have left the straight way of the 
Lord, but you must condemn Christ causeless?" 

Bon. Well, Mr. Comptroller, now you cannot say but I have offered 
you fair, to have instruction. And now, I pray thee, call me bloody 
bishop, and say, I seek thy blood. 

Smith. Well, my lord, if neither I nor any of this congregation do 
report the truth of your fact, yet shall these stones cry it out rather 
than it shall be hidden. 



SMITH'S POETICAL LETTER TO HIS CHILDREN. 



77 J 



Bon. Away with him, away with him! 

I then turned to my fellow-sufferers and said — "Well, good friends, 
you have seen and heard the great wrong that we have received this 
day, and you are all witnesses that we have desired the probation of 
our cause by God's book, and it hath not been granted : but we are 
condemned, and our cause not heard. Nevertheless, my lord mayor, 
forasmuch as you have here exercised God's sword causeless, and will 
not hear the right of the poor, I commit my cause to Almighty God, 
who will judge all men according to right, before whom we shall both 
stand without authority; and there will I stand in the right, and have 
judgment, to your great confusion, except you repent, which the Lord 
grant you to do, if it be his will." And then was I with the rest of my 
brethren carried to Newgate. 

Thus was this steady martyr condemned on the 12th of July. While 
he remained in prison, between the periods of his sentence and his 
death, he was very active in exhorting and encouraging his fellow 
martyrs, and teaching the way of life to those who were confined for 
criminal offences, many of whom he converted to the truth. He ter- 
minated his triumphant career at Uxbriclge, on the 8th of August, 
rejoicing in the cross even in the midst of the flames. While in prison, 
he wrote several letters to his friends, some of which were in verse, 
a proof, that he could not be under any impression of fear at his ap- 
proaching death. His verses discover more of the genius of piety than 
poetry. Considering the backward state and the paucity of English 
poetry in the age in which he lived, his verse, at the same time, displays 
an ease and prettincss by no means unworthy of perusal. But that the 
reader may judge for himself, we insert the following specimen, ad- 
dressed to his children. A longer poem, on religious subjects gene- 
rally, precedes this in some former editions; but the domestic one here 
inserted will be more acceptable both for its brevity, and the touching 
nature of the theme. 



Give ear, my children, to my words, 

Whom God hath dearly bought : 
Lay up my law within your heart, 

And print it in your thought. 
For I your father have foreseen 

The frail and filthy way 
Which flesh and blood would follow fain, 

E'en to their own decay. 
For all and every living beast 

Their crib do know full well ; 
But Adam's heirs, above the rest, 

Are ready to rebel : 
And all the creatures on the earth 

Full well can keep their way : 
But man, above all other beasts, 

Is apt to go astray. 
For earth and ashes is his strength, 

His glory and his reign ; 
And unto ashes at the length, 

Shall he return again. 
For flesh doth flourish like a flower, 

And grow up like the grass, 
And is consumed in an hour, 

As it is brought to pass. 



In me the image of your years, 

Your treasure and your trust : 
Whom ye do see before your face, 

Dissolved into dust. 
For as you see your father's flesh 

Converted into clay : 
Even so shall ye, my children dear, 

Consume and wear away. 
The sun and moon, and all the stars, 

That serve the day and night ; 
The earth and ev'ry earthly thing, 

Shall be consumed quite. 
And all the worship that is wrought, 

That have been heard or seen, 
Shall clean consume and come to nought, 

As it had never been. 
Therefore that ye may follow me, 

Your father and your friend, 
And enter into that same life, 

Which never shall have end: — 
I leave you here a little book, 

For you to look upon : 
That you may see your father's face 

When I am dead and gone. 



772 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



Who for the hope of heavenly things, 

While he did here remain, 
Gave over all his golden years 

In prison and in pain. 
Where I among mine iron bands, 

Inclosed in the dark, 
Not many days before my death 

Did dedicate this work, 
To you mine heirs of earthly things, 

Which I have left behind, 
That ye may read and understand, 

And keep it in your mind ; 
That as you have been heirs of that, 

Which once shall wear away ; 
Even so ye may possess the part 

Which never shall decay. 
In following of your father's foot, 

In truth and also love : 
That ye may likewise be his heirs 

For evermore above. 
And in example to your youth, 

To whom I wish all good, 
I preach you here a perfect faith, 

And seal it with my blood. 
Have God always before your eyes, 

In all your whole intents : 
Commit not sin in any wise, 

Keep his commandments. 
Abhor that arrant whore of Rome, 

And all her blasphemies ; 
And drink not of her decretals, 

Nor yet of her decrees. 
Give honour to your mother dear, 

Remember well her pain : 
And recompense her in her age, 

In like with love again. 
Be always aiding at her hand, 

And let her not decay : 
Remember well your father's fall, 

That should have been her stay. 
Give of your portion to the poor, 

As riches do arise : 
And from the needy naked soul, 

Turn not away your eyes. 
For he that will not hear the cry 

Of such as are in need, 
Shall cry himself and not be heard, 

When he would hope to speed. 
If God have given you great increase, 

And blessed well your store : 
Remember ye are put in trust, 

To minister the more. 
Beware of foul and filthy lust, 

Let whoredom have no place : 
Keep clean your vessels in the Lord, 

That he may you embrace. 
Ye are the temples of the Lord, 

For ye are dearly bought: 
And they that do defile the same, 

Shall surely come to nought. 
Possess not pride in any case, 

Build not your nests too high : 



But have always before your face, 

That ye were born to die. 
Defraud not him that hired is, 

Your labours to sustain ; 
But give him always out of hand, 

His penny for his pain. 
And as ye would that other men, 

Against you should proceed ; 
Do ye the same again to them 

When they do stand in need. 
And part your portion with the poor, 

In money and in meat : 
And feed the fainted feeble soul, 

With that which ye should eat. 
That when your body lacketh meat, 

And clothing to your back, 
Ye may the better think on them 

That now do live and lack. 
Ask counsel also at the wise ; 

Give ear unto the end : 
Refuse not you the sweet rebuke 

Of him that is your friend. 
Be thankful always to the Lord, 

With prayer and with praise : 
Desire you him in all your deeds, 

For to direct your ways : 
And sin not like that swinish sort, 

Whose bellies being fed — 
Consume their years upon the earth 

From belly unto bed. 
Seek first, I say, the living God ; 

Set him always before ; 
And then be sure that he will bless 

Your basket and your store. 
And thus if you direct your days 

According to this book, 
Then shall they say that see your ways, 

How like me ye do look. 
And when you have so perfectly, 

Upon your fingers' ends, 
Possessed all within your book, 

Then give it to your friends. 
And I beseech the living God, 

Replenish you with grace, 
That I may have you in the heav'ns, 

And see you face to face. 
And though the sword have cut me off, 

Contrary to my kind, 
That I could not enjoy your love, 

According to my mind. 
Yet I do hope when that the heav'ns 

Shall vanish like a scroll, 
I shall receive your perfect shape, 

In body and in soul. 
And that I may enjoy your love, " 

And you enjoy the land, 
I do beseech the living God 

To hold you in his hand. 
Farewell, my children, from the world, 

My children and my friends ; 
I hope to God to have you all, 

When all things have their ends. 



ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 773 

And if you do abide in God, God grant you so to end your years 

As you have now begun; As he shall think it best; 

Your course 1 warrant will be short, Tliat ye may enter into heav'n, 

Ye have not far to run. Where I do hope to rest, 

A third letter in prose, addressed to his brother, on the education of 
his daughter, appears in some editions; and a fourth — "to all who 
unfeignedly love God" — appears in others. From the latter an extract 
will interest our readers. After reviewing the principal truths for which 
he and other martyrs were called to lay down their lives, he says — 

" These doctrines have all the blessed martyrs of Christ's church 
witnessed with their blood to be true. To this truth have the con- 
sciences of all true believers subscribed ever since the ascension of 
Christ. This witness is not of man, but of God. What better can ye 
give your lives for than the truth. He who does this takes the readiest 
way to life eternal. He that hath the pope's curse for the truth, is sure 
of Christ's blessing. Well then, my brethren, what shall now hinder 
your going forward as ye have begun? Hold on the right way — look 
not back — have the eye of your soul fixed upon Christ — and follow 
him whithersoever he is pleased to lead you. Away with the thorns 
that choke the heavenly seed of the gospel. Do not those gain who 
find heavenly and immortal treasure for earthly and corruptible riches? 
Loseth that man any thing who is forsaken of all the world, when he is 
received to be the heir of God, and joint heir with Christ? Heavenly 
for earthly — immortal for mortal — permanent for transitory — is infinite 
gain for a christian conscience." 

Two martyrs named Harwood and Fust suffered about the same time 
as their brethren, Smith and Tankerfield, in whose company they were 
condemned by bishop Bonner. As the proceedings against them were 
so much alike, it would be superfluous to repeat the particulars. Har- 
wood was burnt at Stratford, and Fust at Ware. It is worth observing 
of Mr. Fust, that on his last examination, when Bonner was persuading 
him to recant, he answered with great boldness — " No, my lord, for no 
truth cometh out of your mouth, but all lies: you condemn men, and 
will not hear the truth." 

An equally remarkable example of intrepid fidelity, in his behaviour 
before the same cruel judge, was one William Hale, who was sent to 
bishop Bonner by Sir Nicholas Hare and other commissioners. He be- 
longed to Thorp, in the county of Essex. When Bonner pronounced 
his sentence, the fearless man looked around on the assembly and said — 
"Ah, good people, beware of this idolater, and this antichrist, "pointing 
to the bishop. He was then delivered to the sheriffs to be burnt as a 
heretic, who sent him to Barnet, where about the latter end of August 
he most constantly sealed the faith with his death. 

Three others were devoted to death at the same time ; but a fatal 
sickness while in prison deprived them of the honour of a public mar- 
tyrdom. The names of these martyrs were George King, Thomas Leyes, 
and John Wade. Their close confinement, and the hardships to which 
they were subjected, in Lollard's tower, made them the prey of lingering 
and loathsome disease; which, however, they bore with signal patience till 



774 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

death, nearly at the same time, put a period to their sufferings and de- 
gradation ; but not to their enemies' malice — for their bodies were cast 
out into the fields to be the prey of beasts, and would have been un- 
buried but for the care of some humble and faithful brethren, who 
interred them under cover of a dark night. 

The same charitable attention was paid by other friends to the remains 
of a worthy protestant mechanic of the name of William Andrew, of 
Horsley, in the county of Essex, who was brought to Newgate the 1st 
day of April, 1555. His principal persecutor was the lord Rich, whose 
influence in the county obtained his arrest. Andrew being twice 
examined before bishop Bonner, boldly stood in defence of his religion. 
At length, by the severe usage he met with in Newgate, he there lost his 
life, which otherwise would have been taken away by fire : and so after 
the popish manner he was cast out into a field, and by night was pri- 
vately buried by the hands of good men and faithful brethren, remind- 
ing us of the impressive fact of christian history — " Devout men carried 
Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him." 

At Cobdock, near Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, lived a justice 
of the peace named Foster, remarked for his zeal and hatred against 
the faithful, whom he took every means of persecuting. Among many 
whom he had troubled, was Mr. Samuel, in king Edward's days a very 
holy and faithful preacher of God's word, who for his constant beha- 
viour in his sermons, seems worthy of high admiration. He was mi- 
nister at Barfold, in Suffolk, where he industriously and successfully 
taught the flock which the Lord had committed to his charge, so long 
as the time would suffer him to do his duty. 

At last he was removed from the ministry, and deprived of his be- 
nefice, and although he could not escape the violence of the time, yet 
would he not give over his care for his flock, but continued to, teach 
them by stealth, when he could not openly do it. On the order being 
given by the queen, that all priests who had been married in king Ed- 
ward's days, should put away their wives, and be compelled to return 
to a single life, Mr. Samuel would not obey, because he knew it to be 
manifestly abominable; but determining with himself, that God's laws 
were not to be broken for man's traditions, he still kept his wife at 
Ipswich, and gave his diligence in the mean time to instructing others 
which were about him, as occasion served. At last Mr. Foster having 
intelligence thereof, being very officious in those parts, spared no time 
nor diligence, but quickly sent his spies abroad, laying close wait for 
Mr. Samuel, that if he came home to his wife at any time, they might 
apprehend him, and carry him to prison. 

In conclusion, they espied him at home with his wife, and brought 
word to the officer, who came to the house, and beset it with a great 
company, and so took him in the night, because they durst not do it in 
the day-time for fear of trouble and tumult, although Mr. Samuel did 
not withstand them at all, but meekly yielded himself into their hands. 
When they had thus caught him, they put him into Ipswich jail, where 
he patiently spent his time among his pious brethren, so long as he was 
permitted to continue there. However, not long after, he was carried to 
Norwich, where Dr. Hopton, bishop of that diocese, and Dr. Dunnings, 



v \ 



MARTYRDOM OF MR. SAMUEL. 775 

his chancellor, exercised great cruelty against him. These men were 
most abhorred instruments of cruelty, exceeding all the rest of their 
class in tormenting the bodies of the martyrs. For although the others 
were sharp enough in their generation, yet would they be satisfied with 
imprisonment and death, and could go no farther. 

The bishop therefore, or else his chancellor, thinking that he might 
as easily prevail with Mr. Samuel, as he had done with several before, 
kept him in a very close prison at his first coming, where he was chained 
upright to a great post, in such sort, that standing only on tip-toe, he 
was fain to stay up the whole poise of his body by the chain. And to 
this they added a far more grievous torment, keeping him without meat 
and drink, whereby he was unmercifully vexed through hunger and 
thirst; saving that he had every day allowed him two or three mouthfuls 
of bread, and three spoonfuls of water, to the end rather that he might 
be reserved to farther torment, than that they would nourish his life. 
O worthy constancy of the martyr! O pitiless hearts of papists, worthy 
to be complained of, and to be accused before God and nature ! O won- 
derful strength of Christ in his members ! Whose heart, though it had 
been made of adamant stone, would not have relented at the intoler- 
able vexations, and extreme pains above nature ! 

At last, when he was brought forth to be burned, which was but a 
trifle in comparison of those pains that he had passed, there were 
several that heard him declare what strange things had happened to 
him during the time of his imprisonment: namely, that after he had 
been famished or pined with hunger two or three days together, he then 
fell into a delicious slumber, at which time one clad all in white seemed 
to stand before him, who administered comfort unto him by these words 
— " Samuel, Samuel, be of good cheer, and take a good heart unto thee; 
for after this day shalt thou never be either hungry or thirsty!" This 
came to pass accordingly, for soon after he was burned; and from his 
dream to his death he felt neither hunger nor thirst. And this he de- 
clared, to the end, as he said, that all men might behold the wonderful 
work of God ! Many other matters concerning the great comfort he 
had of Christ in his afflictions he could utter, he said, besides this, but 
that modesty would not suffer him to utter it. And yet if it had pleased 
God, I wish he had been less modest in that behalf, that the love and 
care that Christ hath of his servants, might have the more appeared 
thereby unto us by such present arguments, for the more plentiful com- 
fort of the godly, though there be sufficient testimonies of the same in 
the holy scriptures already. 

No less memorable is it, and worthy also to be noted, concerning the 
three ladders which he said he had seen in his sleep set up towards 
heaven; of which there was one somewhat longer than the rest, but yet 
at length they became one, joining, as it were, all three together. This 
was a forewarning revealed unto him, declaring undoubtedly the mar- 
tyrdom first of himself, and then of two honest women, who were brought 
forth and suffered in the same town not long after. 

As Mr. Samuel was going to the stake, a certain female came to him, 
and kissed him, which being marked by them that were present, she 
was sought for the next day after to be had to prison and burned : how- 



776 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ever, as God of his goodness would have it, she escaped their fiery 
hands, keeping herself secret in the town a good while after. But 
while this female, called Rose Nottingham, was marvellously preserved 
by the providence of God, two other honest women did fall into the 
rage and fury of that time: the one was the wife of a brewer named 
Potten, the other of a shoemaker named Trunchfield. With these two 
Rose was very familiar and well acquainted, and advised one of them, 
that she should convey herself away while she had time and space, 
seeing she could not bear the queen's proceedings; but her friend an- 
swered her, that it is well enough to fly away, which remedy she might 
use if she pleased. " My case standeth otherwise," she said ; " I am tied to 
a husband, and have besides young children at home; and then I know 
not how my husband, being a carnal man, will take my departure from 
him; therefore I am minded, for the love of Christ and his truth, to 
stand to the extremity of the matter." 

The day after that on which Mr. Samuel suffered, these two pious 
wives, Potten and Trunchfield, were apprehended and imprisoned toge- 
ther. As they were both by sex and nature somewhat tender, so they 
were at first less able to endure the straitness of the prison, and es- 
pecially the brewer's wife was cast into great agony and trouble of 
mind thereby. But Christ beholding the weak infirmity of his servant, 
did not fail to help her when she was in this necessity. At length they 
both suffered after Samuel, February 19th, 1556; greatly supported 
by many things that were said of him as well as by him. It was re- 
ported by some who were present at his sufferings, and saw him burn, 
that his body did^ shine as bright as new tried silver in the eyes of all 
that stood by. If, too, these holy women had read or heard of Mr. 
Samuel's letter left behind him, exhorting the faithful to patience and 
perseverance in the cause of Christ, it must have contributed much to 
their final support. 

"A man knoweth not his time; but as the fish is taken with the angle, 
and as the birds are caught with a snare, so are men caught and taken 
in the perilous time when it cometh upon them. The time cometh; 
the day draweth near. Better were it to die than to live and see the 
miserable works which are done under the sun ; such sudden and strange 
mutation, such woeful, heinous, and lamentable divisions so fast approach, 
and none, or very few, thoroughly repent. Alas, for this sinful nation, 
a people of great iniquity and seed of ungraciousness, corrupting their 
ways. They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One 
of Israel to anger, and are gone backward. Who now liveth not in 
such security and rest, as though all dangers were clean overpast? Who 
now blindeth and buffeteth not Christ, and then asketh him to tell the 
smiter? Yea, who liveth not now in such felicity, worldly pleasures 
and joys, wholly seeking the world, providing ancl craftily shifting for 
the earthly clod and carnal appetite, as though sin were clean forgotten, 
overthrown, and devoured? Like hoggish Gergesites, we are more afraid 
and ashamed of Christ our Messiah, fearing the loss of our filthy pigs, I 
mean our transitory goods, and disquieting our sinful and mortal bodies 
in this short, uncertain, and miserable life, than of a legion of devils, 



MR. SAMUEL'S LETTER. 77 7 

seducing and driving us from hearing, reading, and believing in Christ, 
God's eternal Son, and his word, the power to save our souls, unto 
vanities, lies, and fables, and to this bewitching world. 

" Let us be constant in obeying God rather than men. For although 
they slay our sinful bodies for God's verity ; yet they cannot do it but 
by God's sufferance and good will, to his praise and honour, and to our 
eternal joy and felicity. For our blood shed for the gospel, shall 
preach it with more fruit, and greater furtherance, than did our mouths, 
lives, and writings; as did the blood of Abel, and Stephen, with many 
others. What though they laugh Christ and his word to scorn, who sit 
in the chair of perverse pestilent scoffers; to whom, as to the wise 
Gentiles of the world, the gospel of Christ is but foolishness, as it was 
to the Jews a slander and a stumbling stone, whereat they now being 
fallen, have provoked the wrath and vengeance of God upon them. 

" Let us'therefore with an earnest faith lay fast hold on the promises in 
the gospel, and let us not be separated from the same by any temptation, 
tribulation, or persecution. Let us consider the verity of God to be 
invincible, inviolable, and immutable, promising and giving us, .his 
faithful soldiers, life eternal. It is he only that hath deserved it for us: 
it is his only benefit, and of his only mere mercy, and unto him only 
must we render thanks. Let not therefore the vain fantasies and dreams 
of men, and foolish gaudy toys of the world, nor the crafty delusions 
of the devil, drive and separate us from our hope of the last day. O 
that happy and joyful day, I mean to the faithful, when Christ by his 
covenant shall grant and give unto them that overcome, and keep 
his words to the end, that they may ascend and sit with him, as he as- 
cended and sitteth on the throne with his Father. The same body and 
soul that is now with Christ afflicted, shall then with Christ be glorified: 
now in the butcher's hands, as sheep appointed to die, then sitting at 
God's table, with Christ in his kingdom, as God's honourable and dear 
children ; where we shall have heavenly riches for earthly poverty ; 
saturity of the pleasant presence of the glory of God, for hunger and 
thirst; celestial joys in the company of angels, for sorrows, troubles, and 
cold irons; and life eternal for bodily death. O happy precious souls! 
O welcome death, and evermore blessed, right dear in the eyes of God ! 
to you the spring of the Lord shall ever be flourishing. Then, as saith 
Isaiah, 'The redeemed shall return and come again unto Sion, praising 
the Lord, and eternal mercies shall be over their heads: and they shall 
obtain mirth and solace; sorrow and woe shall be utterly vanquished.' 
' Yea, I am he,' saith the Lord, ' that in all things giveth you ever- 
lasting consolation.' To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
be glory and praise for ever. Amen." 

" itOBEKT SAMUEL." 

After the suffering of Mr. Samuel, about the beginning of September, 
William Allen, a labouring man, was burnt in Walsingham in the 
same county of Norfolk. Being brought before the bishop, and asked 
the cause why he was imprisoned, he answered, That he was put in 
prison because he would not follow the cross, meaning, that he would 



7/8 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

never go in procession after the popish crucifix. Then being willed 
by the bishop to return again to the catholic church, he answered, 
that he would turn to the catholic church, but not to the Romish 
church : adding, that if he saw the king and queen, and all others 
follow the cross, or kneel down to the cross, he would not. For 
this, sentence of condemnation was given against him on the 12th 
of August, to be burnt at the town of his abode and birth. He 
declared such constancy at his martyrdom, and had such credit with 
the justices, by reason of his well-tried conversation among them, that 
he was suffered to go unbound to his execution, and there being fastened 
with a chain, stood quietly without shrinking until he died. 

The next martyr worthy of notice was a venerable patriarch of the 
name of Roger Coo, who suffered at Yoxford, where he had chiefly 
lived, about the same time as Mr. Allen atWalsingham, and Mr. Samuel 
at Ipswich. All these towns being in the diocese of Norwich, the mar- 
tyrdoms of Suffolk as well as Norfolk must be ascribed to the " tender 
mercies" of the bishop of that see, Dr. Hopton. Being brought before 
that cruel prelate, Coo was first asked by him why he was imprisoned ; 
and answered boldly — "At the justice's commandment." 

Bish. There was some cause why you were imprisoned ? 

Coo. Here is my accuser, who alleges that I would not receive the 
sacrament. But I thought I had transgressed no law, because there 
was no law to transgress. I have been in prison a long time, and know 
not the law that now is. 

Accuser. No, nor will not. My lord, ask him when he received the 
sacrament. 

Coo. I pray you, my lord, let him sit down, and examine me yourself. 
I will not receive, because the bishop of Rome hath changed God's 
ordinances, and given the people bread and wine instead of the gospel, 
and the belief of the same. 

Bish. Is not the holy church to be believed ? It hath charge of your 
soul. 

Coo. I believe it, if it be built upon the word of God : but if you 
have charge of my soul, and you go to the devil for your sins, what shall 
become of me ? 

Bish. Do you not believe as your father did ? Was not he an honest 
man? 

Coo. It is written, that after Christ hath suffered, " There shall come 
a people with the prince that shall destroy both city and sanctuary." 
I pray you shew me whether this destruction was in my father's time, or 
now? I will obey the laws of the kingdom as far as they agree with the 
word of God ; but no farther. 

Bish. Whether they agree with the word of God or not, we are bound 
to obey them; yea and if the king were an infidel. 1 

Coo. If Shaclrach, Meshach, and Abednego had so done, Nebuchad- 
nezzar had not confessed the living God. 1 may say the same of Daniel 
and others. 

4 A modern prelate discovered exactly the same spirit ; who said in the House of Lords, 
that the poor had nothing to do with the laws but to obey them. 



ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 779 

Bish. These two-ancl-twenty years we have been governed by such 
kings. 

Coo. My lord, why were you then dumb, and did not speak or bark ? 

Bish. I durst not for fear of death. 

This hasty, and to all appearance inadvertent and unintended con- 
fession, operated as much against the bishop's cause as even the bold 
and ingenuous answers of honest Roger Coo. One resource was opened 
to the baffled bishop, he could report his prisoner to be contumacious 
and contemptuous to the ecclesiastical court. This was done ; on which 
account Coo says in his narrative — "I recollected and wrote down my 
railing, as they called it, that light should not be taken for darkness, 
nor sin for holiness, and the devil for God, who ought to be feared and 
honoured both now and for ever, Amen." At length, after sundry 
troubles and conflicts with his adversaries, he was committed to the fire 
at Yoxford, in the county of Suffolk, where he most blessedly ended his 
aged years, about Michaelmas 1555. 

Our next noble confessor, of ignoble birth and occupation, was one 
Thomas Cobb, a butcher of Haverhill, who was condemned on the 12th 
day of August, and executed in the month of September. Being 
brought and examined by Michael Dunnings, the bloody chancellor of 
Norwich, whether he believed that Christ is really and substantially in 
the sacrament of the altar ? he answered, That the body of Christ, born of 
the Virgin, was in heaven, and otherwise he would not answer, because 
he had read it in the scriptures, that Christ did ascend, and never did 
descend since ; and therefore said, that he had not learned in the scrip- 
ture, that Christ should be in the sacrament. Then being demanded 
whether he would obey the laws of the realm of England, made for the 
unity of the faith, or no ? he answered, That his body should be at the 
king and queen's commandment so far as the law of God would suffer. 
In fine, being condemned, he was burnt in the town of Thetford. 

We must now return from the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, to 
Kent and the diocese of Canterbury : and here five worthy martyrs, whose 
lives were forfeited for the true testimony of Christ and his gospel, await 
our attention. George Catmer, and Robert Streater, were inhabitants 
of Hythe, a town on the southern coast. Anthony Burward was of Chal- 
lock ; George Brodbridge, of Broomfield ; and James Tutty, of Brenchley. 
These good men were all together brought before Dr. Thornton, suf- 
fragan of Dover, and his accomplices, and were jointly and severally 
examined upon the usual articles, touching the sacrament of the altar, 
auricular confession, and the other peculiarities of the dominant church. 
Catmer, who was first examined, made answer thus — "Christ sitteth in 
heaven on the right hand of God the Father, and therefore I do not 
believe him to be in the sacrament of the altar ; but he is in the 
worthy receiver spiritually ; and the sacrament, as you use it, is an abo- 
minable idol." Next to him Robert Streater was asked, Whether he did 
believe the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar ? At 
once the resolute and honest man said — " I do not so believe, for you 
do maintain heresy and idolatry, in that you teach to worship a false 
god in the sacrament, enclosed in a box. It is you that are the malig- 



730 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

nant of the church: for in your church there are twenty things used 
against the law of God." Anthony Burward, though more brief, was 
equally firm and conclusive. 

After him it was demanded of George Brodbridge what he said to 
those articles? He answered, that he would not be confessed by a 
priest, because no man could forgive his own sins. He further said, 
that in the sacrament of the altar there is no real body of our Saviour 
Christ, but bread given in remembrance of him. " Moreover," he said, 
" as for your holy bread, your holy water, and your holy mass, I do 
utterly defy them." Last of all, James Tutty made and confirmed the 
foregoing answers, though in words somewhat different. On this they 
were condemned as heretics, and were all five burned at Canterbury in 
one fire, about the middle of July then next following. 

Although the rage and vehemency of the terrible persecution in queen 
Mary's days chiefly existed in London, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and 
Kent, as hath been partly declared; yet notwithstanding, few parts of 
the realm were free from this fatal storm, but in almost all places some 
were put to death for the cause of righteousness. In the diocese of 
Litchfield and Coventry were two persons, Thomas Hayward and John 
Goreway, both condemned as heretics, and burnt at Litchfield about the 
time of the martyrdoms just detailed. 

Unto this present time pertaineth also the memorable martyrdom of 
Mr. Robert Glover, gent., in the diocese of Litchfield and Coventry. He 
was apprehended, and put to death in September; but his apprehension 
and troubles cannot well be treated of, without mentioning some things 
relating to John Glover, for whom the commission was chiefly sent 
down, although it pleased God that John escaped, and Robert in his 
stead was apprehended and martyred. In describing some part of their 
virtuous order of life, we shall begin with John the eldest, who, being 
heir to his father in the town of Manchester, was endowed with con- 
siderable possessions and worldly goods; but much more plentifully was 
he enriched with God's heavenly grace, which so wrought in him, that 
he with his brethren, Robert and William, received and embraced the 
happy light of Christ's holy gospel, and also most zealously professed it, 
and lived accordingly. 

John Glover was a man of a very tender conscience, and seemed to 
have a deeper sense of heavenly things than the others. His spiritual 
conflicts were very extraordinary. For a long time he had dwelt under 
the fearful impression of having committed the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, as spoken of by the Lord Jesus, k which, precluding from his 

k As the opinions of commentators and learned men, respecting the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, have been swelled into volumes, and as it still remains a mystery in the minds of 
multitudes, we here present to our readers an extract upon the subject, from an author 
who has, in our opinion, the clearest views upon it. After having satisfactorily answered 
all the objections which could reasonably be made to his arguments, he thus proceeds. 

" In a word, the conclusion of the whole may again be collected thus — In the days of 
Moses, and before Mose9 from the beginning, not to believe the Holy Ghost and what he 
then witnessed, by whomsoever, or in whatsoever manner he chose to declare the saving 
truth, was to sin against the Holy Ghost. From Moses down to the coming of the Holy 
One and the Just, not to believe the doctrine then delivered by the inspiration of the Holy 



V 



ACCOUNT OF JOHN GLOVER. 781 

mind all hope of future happiness, rendered him extremely miserable ; 
so that he could enjoy nothing, but was worn as by a baleful disease. 
At length it pleased God to give him faith, when his fears were dis- 
persed, and he could cry Abba, Father. He now was filled with joy 
and peace, became dead to the world, and seemed like one in heaven, 
abhorring in his mind all profane doings. Neither was his talk any 
thing different from the fruits of his life, never throwing out an idle, 
vile, or vain word. The most part of his lands he distributed to the use 
of his brethren, and committed the rest to the management of his 
servants and officers, whereby he might the more quietly give himself 
up to his godly study, as to a continual sabbath. This was about the 
latter end of king Henry's reign, and continued in the time of the young 
and pious Edward. 

After this, in the persecuting days of queen Mary, as soon as the 
bishop of Coventry heard of his fame, and of his being so ardent and 
zealous in the gospel of Christ, he immediately wrote a letter to the 
mayor and officers of Coventry to apprehend him as soon as possible. 
But by the good providence of God, it happened otherwise : for God 
disposeth all things after his own pleasure. Therefore, of his divine 
wisdom, thinking it too much that one man should be so overcharged 

Ghost, was the very sin against the Holy Ghost, in those days. When the Messiah, after 
John the Baptist, his forerunner, came and taught and wrought miracles, the unbelievers 
sinned against the Holy Ghost still more and more. But when Jesus was declared the Son 
of God, with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead ; 
and the gospel, by the Holy Ghost from heaven, was preached to every creature under 
heaven, whithersoever the apostles with their doctrines were sent, as they now are unto us, 
at this day, — the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost arrived at the very highest pitch 
of aggravation. And who, sayest thou, is guilty of it ? — Thou, thy very individual self, 
O reader! art indeed at this present moment of God's long suffering and forbearance, guilty 
of this most alarming sin and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost ; holding him for a liar in 
his testimony concerning the Son of God, if thou hast not verily set to thy seal that God is 
true, and hast not attained the same precise, honourable, divine faith, as all the apostles 
themselves had, and which they preached by the Holy Ghost, and have also recorded in 
their writings, which are our standard: for the faith of all God's elect is one, and their hope 
one in the Lord. ' Be not deceived — God is not mocked : as a man soweth, so shall he 
also reap. These things are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God, and that believing ye may have life through his name.' 

Hence it appears, that this dreadful sin is neither more nor less than the resisting and 
discrediting the word of God ; which was written at the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
So that ' Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life, and he that believeth nor the Son, shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth 
on htm.' 

Such is the note of Milner, in the edition of 1806. To this the editor of the present 
edition begs leave to append the following somewhat qualifying remarks from the admirable 
" Conversations" of the Rev. Richard Watson. " On our Lord's return to Capernaum 
he cast out a devil which had inflicted both blindness and dumbness upon an unhappy man. 
This was a case of peculiarly afflictive and notorious possession : and it was the impression 
made by this miracle in favour of his Messiahship upon the minds of the people, which led 
the Pharisees to utter the blasphemy — * This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beel- 
zebub the prince of the devils! ' This was the wretched argument by which they steeled 
their perverted consciences against all conviction, and which constituted that sin against the 
Holy Ghost, whose power co-operated with Christ in working his miracles, which was de- 
clared to be beyond forgiveness. This is the only unpardonable sin. It is not every sin 
against the Holy Ghost which is unpardonable, though some make awful approaches to 
that which is so : but this sin, the only one excepted from divine mercy, is defined to be 
blasphemy against Him." 



782 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

with so many sufferings, did provide, that Robert his brother, being both 
stronger in body, and also better furnished with helps of learning to 
answer the adversaries, should sustain that conflict, and even so it came 
to pass. For as soon as the mayor of Coventry had received the bishop's 
letters for the apprehending of Mr. John Glover, he forthwith sent private 
notice to him to convey himself away, who accordingly escaped with his 
brother William. 

But when the officer had searched a long time for him in vain, he 
went into an upper chamber, where he found Robert lying on his bed, 
he having been long sick, and brought him immediately before the 
sheriff. The sheriff, notwithstanding, favouring Robert and his cause, 
would indeed fain have dismissed him, and wrought what means he 
could, saying, that he was not the man for whom they were sent: yet, 
being terrified with the threats of the officer, who insisted on his being 
detained till the bishop's coming, he was constrained to carry him 
against his will, and so confined him till the bishop arrived. To enter, 
however, upon the story and martyrdom of Mr. Robert Glover, as the 
whole narration of the same by his own record and testimony in writing 
was sent unto his wife, it seems best, for the more credit of the matter, to 
exhibit extracts from his own letter : — 

" To my entirely beloved wife, Mary Glover, 

"The peace of conscience which passeth all understanding, the sweet 
consolation, comfort, strength, and boldness of the Holy Ghost, be con- 
tinually increased in your heart, through a fervent, earnest, and steadfast 
faith in our most dear and only Saviour Jesus Christ. I thank you 
heartily, for your letters sent to me in my imprisonment. I read them 
with tears more than once or twice; with tears of joy and gladness, that 
God had wrought in you so merciful a work; an unfeigned repentance, 
a humble and hearty reconciliation, a voluntary submission and obedience 
to the will of God in all things. Which when I read in your letters, 
and judged them to proceed from your heart, I could not but be 
thankful to God, rejoicing for you, and these his great mercies poured 
upon you. 

" After I came into prison, and had reposed myself there a while, I 
wept for joy and gladness, musing much of the great mercies of God, 
and saying to myself — O Lord, who am I, on whom thou shouldst 
bestow this great mercy, to be numbered among the saints that suffer 
for the gospel's sake! Not long after, Mr. William Brasbridge, Mr. 
Charles Phineas, and Mr. Nicholas Hopkins, came unto me, persuading 
me to be dismissed upon bonds. But I answered, that as the masters 
had nothing to burden me withal; if I should enter into bonds, I should 
in so doing accuse myself; and seeing they had no matter to lay to my 
charge, they might as well let me pass without bonds as with them. 

" They, however, used many worldly persuasions to me to avoid the 
present peril, and also how to avoid the forfeiture if I brake my promise. 
I said, I had cast up my pennyworth by God's help. They undertook 
also to make the bond easy. — Then the second day after the bishop's 
coming to Coventry, Mr. Warren came to the Guildhall, and ordered 
the chief jailor to carry me to the bishop. I laid to Mr. Warren's 



ROBERT GLOVER'S LETTER TO HTS WIFE. 783 

charge the cruel seeking of my death; and when he would have excused 
himself, I told him he could not wipe his hands so; for he was as guilty 
of my blood before God, as though he had murdered me with his own 
hands. Thus he departed from me, saying, I needed not to fear if I 
would be of his belief. 

" When I came before the bishop in Mr. Denton's house, he began 
with the protestation, that he was my bishop for lack of a better, and 
willed me to submit myself. Mr. Chancellor standing by, said I was a 
master of arts. Then my lord laid to my charge my not coming to the 
church. Here I might have dallied with him, and put him to his proof, 
forasmuch as I had not been in his diocese for a long season, neither were 
any of the citizens able to prove any such matter against me. Notwith- 
standing I answered him through God's merciful help, that I neither had, 
nor would come to their church, so long as their mass was used there, to 
save, if I had them, five hundred lives. I desired him to shew me one 
jot or tittle in the scriptures for the proof and defence of the mass. To 
this he answered, he came to teach, and not to be taught. I told him 
I was content to learn of him, so far as he was able to teach me by the 
word of God. 

" ' Who shall judge the word?' then asked the bishop. I answered — 
' Christ was willing that the people should judge his doctrine by search- 
ing the scriptures, and so was Paul ; methinks you should claim no 
further privilege nor pre-eminence than they had. — If you will be 
believed because you are a bishop, why find you fault with the people 
that believed bishop Latimer, bishop Ridley, and bishop Hooper?' 
1 Because they were heretics/ he quickly answered. I then asked — 
'And may not you err as well as they?' I expected my lord to use 
some learned arguments to persuade me, but instead of that he op- 
pressed me only with his authority. He said, I dissented from the 
church, and asked me where my church was before king Edward's time? 
But I desired him to shew me where their church was in Elias's time, 
and what outward shew it had in Christ's time? To this he answered, 
1 Elias's complaint was only of the ten tribes that fell from David's 
house, whom he called heretics.' But I said confidently — ' You are 
not able to shew any prophets that the other two tribes had at that same 
time.' 

" My lord making no answer to that, Mr. Rogers, one of the masters 
of the city, cometh in the mean season, taking upon him as though he 
would answer to the text. But my lord forthwith commanded me to be 
committed to some tower, if they had any besides the common jail, 
saying, he would at the end of the visitation of his diocese, drive out 
such wolves. Mr. Rogers willed him to content himself for that night, 
till they had taken further order for me. ' Even where it pleaseth you,' 
said I to my lord — ' I am content;' and so I was returned at that time 
to the common jail again from whence I came. 

" Certain Serjeants and constables at Coventry being appointed to 
convey us to Litchfield, to be delivered there to one Jephcot, the chan- 
cellor's man, sent from Coventry with us for the same purpose, we were 
commanded to be on horseback about eleven o'clock on Friday, it being 
a market clay, in order that we might be the more gazed at : and to set 



784 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the people's hearts more against us, they exhibited a letter concerning a 
proclamation made for calling in and disannulling all such books as truly 
expounded the scriptures. We arrived at Litchfield about four o'clock, 
and had leave to repose ourselves till supper-time. The house we put 
up at was the sign of the Swan, where we were entertained friendly and 
gently. 

" I was put into a prison that same night, where I continued till I 
was condemned, in a place next the dungeon, where was small room, a 
strong building, and very cold, with little light; and there I was allowed 
a bundle of straw instead of my bed, without chair, form, or any thing 
else to rest myself upon. God of his mercy gave me great patience 
through prayer that night, so that if it had been his pleasure, I could 
have been contented then to have ended my life: but Jephcot, and one 
Percy, the bishop's man, who afterwards was my continual keeper for 
the most part, came to me in the morning, to whom I said — ' This is a 
great extremity, God send us patience.' Upon which they consented 
that I should have a bed of my own procuring. But I was allowed no 
help, neither night nor day, nor company of any kind, notwithstanding 
my great sickness; nor yet paper, pen, ink, or books, except my New 
Testament in Latin, and a Prayer-book which I brought privily in. 

" Within two days after, Mr. Chancellor, and Mr. Temsey, a pre- 
bendary there, came into my prison. The first exhorted me to conform 
myself to my lord and to the church. He wished no more hurt to my 
soul than he did to his own ; perhaps this was because I had laid to his 
charge at Coventry the seeking of my blood unjustly and wrongfully. 
I answered, that I refused not to be ruled by that church, which was 
content to be governed by the word of God. He asked me, ' How know 
you the word of God, but by the church?' I answered — 'The church 
sheweth which is the word of God, therefore the church is above the 
word of God ! This is no good reason in learning, Mr. Chancellor. For 
it is like unto this — 'John sheweth the people who Christ was; therefore 
John was above Christ!' 

" He said, he came not to reason with me, and so departed. And I 
remained for the space of eight days without further conference with 
any man, until the bishop's coming: in which time I gave myself con- 
tinually to prayer and meditation on the merciful promises of God unto 
all, without exception of person, that call upon the name of his Son 
Jesus Christ. I found in myself daily amendment of health of body, 
increase of peace in conscience, and many consolations from God, by 
the help of his Holy Spirit, and sometimes as it were a taste and glim- 
mering of the life to come. 

" At the bishop's first coming to Litchfield after my imprisonment, I 
was called into a by-chamber next to my prison to meet him. When I 
came before him, and saw none but his officers, chaplains, and servants, 
except it were an old priest, I was partly amazed, and lifted up my 
heart to God for his merciful help and assistance. He asked me how I 
liked my imprisonment; but I gave him no answer touching that ques- 
tion. He then proceeded to persuade me to be a member of his church, 
which had continued so many years. As for my church, he said to me, 
it was not known but lately in Edward's time. To this I answered, that 



MARTYRDOM OF ROBERT GLOVER. 785 

I professed myself to be a member of that church which is built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the head 
corner-stone; and so alleged the place of St. Paul to the Ephesians. 
And this church hath been from the beginning, though it bear no 
glorious shew before the world, being ever for the most part, under the 
cross and affliction, contemned, despised, and persecuted. When my 
lord contended on the other side, that they were the church, I said — 
' So cried all the clergy against the prophets of Jerusalem, saying, 
'The church of the Lord, the church of the Lord.' And always when 
I was about to speak any thing, my lord cried, ' Hold thy peace, I 
command thee by the virtue of thy obedience to hold thy peace,' calling 
me a proud arrogant heretic. Upon this contemptuous abuse, I desired 
him to lay something to my charge in particular, and then to convince 
me with some scriptures and good learning. 

" He began to move certain questions. I refused to answer him in 
corners, requiring that I might make my answer openly. He said I 
should answer him there. I stood with him upon that point till he said 
I should go to prison again, and there have neither meat nor drink till 
I had answered him. Then I lifted up my heart to God, that I might 
stand and agree with the doctrine of his most holy word ; while he pre- 
pared to ask me — How many sacraments Christ instituted to be used in 
the church? I answered without hesitation — The sacrament of baptism, 
and the sacrament that he instituted at his last supper. He expressed 
surprise that I mentioned no other sacraments, and asked me further, 
Whether I allowed their confession, and absolution? to which I 
answered, 'No:' adding thus — 'To all those who declare a true and 
unfeigned repentance, a sure hope and trust in the death of Christ; to 
such the ministers of Christ have authority to pronounce in his name the 
remission of sins.' Then the bishop would know my mind, what I 
thought of the presence of Christ's body in the sacrament. To which 
I answered — That their mass was neither sacrifice nor sacrament, be- 
cause they had taken away the true institution, which, when they 
restored again, I would tell them my judgment concerning Christ's 
body in the sacrament." 

Thus much did this worthy martyr of God leave behind him in his 
own hand-writing, concerning the manner of his usage in prison, and 
also of his disputes with the bishop and his chancellor. More examina- 
tions he had, no doubt, with the bishop in the public consistory, before 
he was brought forth to be condemned, which he would also have left 
unto us, if either length of life or leisure of time had permitted him to 
finish what he intended; but by reason of the writ of his burning being 
sent from London, want of time did neither serve him so to do, neither 
could the records of his last examination be procured. 

Only this could be learned by the relation of one Austen Bernher, 
a minister, and a familiar friend of his. Mr. Robert Glover, after he was 
condemned by the bishop, and was now to be delivered out of this 
world, found his heart heavy, and desolate of all spiritual consolation, 
and felt in himself no willingness, but rather a heaviness and dullness 
of spirit, to bear the bitter cross of martyrdom. This led to serious 
and devout self-examination; fearing in himself lest the Lord had 

3e 



786 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

utterly withdrawn his wonted favour from him, he made his moan to 
this Bernher, his friend, signifying unto him how earnestly he had 
prayed day and night unto the Lord, and yet could receive no sense of 
comfort from him. By a faithful friend, but one kind of advice could 
be given. Bernher desired him patiently to wait the Lord's pleasure, 
and howsoever his present feeling was, yet seeing his cause was just 
and true, he exhorted him constantly to adhere to the same, and to play 
the man, nothing doubting but that the Lord in his good time would 
visit him, and satisfy his desire with plenty of consolation. 

The night before his martyrdom was spent in praying for strength 
and courage to endure manfully the fiery trial; but strange to say that 
strength and courage which he sought were delayed till almost the 
moment that he needed them. When the time came of his martyrdom, 
as he was going to the place, and was come within sight of the stake, 
suddenly he was so mightily replenished with God's holy comfort and 
heavenly joy, that he cried out, clapping his hands to Austen, "Austen, 
he is come, he is come!" and that with such joy and alacrity as one 
seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty and life, 
than as one passing out of the world by any pains of death. Such 
was the change of the marvellous working of the Lord's hand upon that 
good man. It is impossible to read such a memorial of divine interpo- 
sition, preceded by a mysterious absence of courage and comfort, without 
calling to mind several remarkable passages of holy writ. " God is our 
refuge and strength — a very present help in time of trouble. — The Lord 
shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he 
seeth that their strength is gone, and there is none shut up or left. — It 
shall come to pass in that day the light shall not be clear nor dark: but 
it shall be one day which shall be known unto the Lord, not day nor 
night; and it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be 
light:'— Psa. xlvi. I ; Deut. xxii. 36; Zech. xiv. 6, 7. 

In the same fire with Mr. Glover was Cornelius Bungay, of Coventry, 
likewise burnt. He also was condemned by the bishop of Coventry and 
Litchfield. It was objected against him, that for three years past, in 
the cities of Coventry and Litchfield, and places thereabout, he did 
hold, maintain, argue, and teach, that the priest hath no power to ab- 
solve from sins. That by baptism sins are not washed away, because 
that the washing of the flesh purgeth the flesh outwardly, and not the 
soul. That there are in the church only two sacraments, baptism and 
the Lord's supper. That in the sacrament of the altar was not the 
real body and blood of Christ, but the substance of bread and wine 
there remaining still, because St. Paul calleth it bread and wine. That 
the pope is not the head of the visible church here on earth. That all 
these premises are true, manifest, and notorious, and that upon the same 
there hath been and is a public voice and fame, as well in the places 
above rehearsed as in other quarters also about. 

To these articles Mr. Bungay answered much in the manner of his 
suffering brethren preceding him ; without fear of the consequence of 
confessing their general application to himself; at the same time pru- 
dently qualifying all points wherein the charge against him was pushed 
beyond the truth, and he was made responsible for what he did not 



V 



ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 787 

believe. His condemnation soon followed, and the citizens of Coventry 
were excited by the spectacle of two of the worthiest of their fraternity 
consumed to ashes for no crime, but for their resolute preservation of a 
good conscience and a pure faith. 

John and William Glover, the brothers of Robert Glover, ought not 
to be omitted in this history: although they were not called to martyr- 
dom, yet they were cast out of the church, and excommunicated even 
after they were dead, by having christian burial denied them. When 
the sheriffs, with their under officers and servants, were sent to seek 
John Glover, they came into his house, where he and his wife were. It 
chanced as he was in a chamber by himself, the officers bursting into 
the house, and searching other rooms, came to the very room where 
John was, who holding the latch softly in his hand, perceived and heard 
the officers bustle about the door, one of whom having the string in his 
hand, was ready to draw the same. Meanwhile another coming by, 
whose voice he heard and knew, bade them come away, saying, they 
had been there before. Whereupon they departing thence, went to 
search other corners of the house, till they found Agnes Glover, his wife, 
who being carried to Litchfield, and examined before the bishop, at 
length was constrained to give place to their tyranny. Her husband, 
in the mean time, partly for care of his wife, partly through cold 
taken in the woods where he lay, caught an ague, of which he lost 
his life, which the cruel papists so long had sought for. 

Six weeks after he was dead and buried in the church-yard, without 
priest or clerk, Dr. Dracot, then chancellor, sent for the parson of the 
town, and demanded how it happened that he was buried there. The 
parson answered that he was sick at the time, and knew not of it. Then 
the chancellor commanded him to go home, and cause the body to be 
taken up, and cast over the wall into the highway. The parson an- 
swered, that it had been six weeks in the earth, and that in consequence 
none were able to undertake it. " Well," said Dr. Dracot, " then take 
this bill and pronounce him in the pulpit a damned soul, and a twelve- 
month after take up his bones, when the flesh will be consumed, and cast 
them over the wall, that the horses may tread upon them, and then I 
will come and hallow again that place in the church-yard where he was 
buried." This was recorded by the parson of the town, and told to Mr. 
Robert Glover's wife, by whose credible information we received the same. 

Similar usage was practised also by these catholic tyrants upon the 
body of William, the third brother, whom it had pleased Almighty God 
about the same season to call out of this vale of misery. The well-dis- 
posed people of the town of Wem, in Shropshire, where he died, brought 
the body into the parish church, intending there to have buried it. But 
one Bernard, curate of the said church, in order to stop the burial, rode 
to the bishop to inform him of the matter, and to have his advice 
therein. In the mean time the body having lain a whole day, in the 
night time Richard Maurice, a tailor, would have interred him, but he 
was hindered by John Thorlyne, of Wem, with some others, who would 
not suffer the body to be buried ; expressing the contrary examples of 
good Tobit; for as he was religious in burying the dead, so this man's 
religion consisted in not burying it. So that after he had lain there two 



788 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

days and a night, Bernard, the curate, came with the bishop's letter, 1 
which forbad the interment of the body, and which commanded the 
church-wardens to assist the curate in hindering any persons who should 
attempt to put it in the ground. Accordingly they who brought the 
corpse to the church were obliged to carry it back again at their own 
charges. But as it was corrupted, they were forced to draw it with 
horses into a broom-field, and there bury it. 

The same example of charitable affection was also to be seen and 
noted in the burying of one Edward Burton, Esq. who in the diocese of 
Chester, departing this world the day before queen Elizabeth was 
crowned, required of his friends, as they would answer for it, that his 
body should be buried in his parish church, which was St. Chad's, in 
Shrewsbury, and that no Romish priest should be present thereat. 
This thing being declared to the curate of that parish, John Marshall, 
and the body being brought to the burial, upon the same day when the 
queen was crowned, the curate said plainly that it should not be buried 
in the church there. Whereunto one of the friends of the deceased, 
named George Torpelley, answering again, said, That God would judge 
him in the last day. Then said the priest, ' Judge, God, or devil, the 
body shall not come there!' And so they buried him in his own garden. 

In the same county, one Oliver Richardine, of the parish of Whitchurch, 
was burnt in Haverford-west, Sir John Yonge being sheriff the same time, 
which seemeth to have been about the last year of king Henry VIII. 

William Wolsey and Robert Pygot were the next who followed Robert 
Glover and Cornelius Bungey to martyrdom. They were both of the 
town of Wisbeach, and were judged and condemned at Ely, by John 
Fuller, the bishop's chancellor, Dr. Shaxton, his suffragan, Robert 
Steward, dean of Ely, and John Christopherson, dean of Norwich, 
October 9, 1555. William Wolsey was a constable, and was very 
harshly treated by one Everard, a justice, who caused him to put in 
sureties for his good behaviour and appearance at the next general 
sessions held within the isle of Ely. Being called again at the next 
sessions, he was still constrained to put in new sureties, which at length 
he refused to do, and in consequence was committed to jail at the assize 
held at Ely in Lent. 

In the Easter week following, Dr. Fuller, the chancellor, with Chris- 
topherson, and Dr. Young, came to confer with him, and charged him 
with being out of the catholic faith, desiring him to meddle no further 
with the scriptures, than it became such a layman as he was to do. 
Wolsey stood still a great while, suffering them to speak their pleasure; 

1 " Understanding that one Glover, a heretic, is dead in the parish of Wem, which Glover hath for 
all the time of my being in this country been known for a rebel against our holy faith and religion, 
a contemner of the holy saci-aments and ceremonies used in the holy church, and hath separated 
himself from the holy communion of all good Christian men, and never required to be recon- 
ciled to our mother holy church, nor in his last days did call for his ghostly father, but died 
without all rites belonging to a Christian man ; I thought it good, not only to command the 
curate of Wem that he should not be buried with Christian man's burial, but also will and com- 
mand all the parish of Wem, that no man procure help, nor speak to have him buried in holy 
ground: but I do charge and command the churchwardens of Wem, in special, and all the 
parish of the same, that they assist the said curate in defending, and letting, and procuring that 
he be not buried in the church, or within the walls of the churchyard : and likewise I charge 
those that brought the body to the place to carry it away again, and that at their charge, as they 

will answer at their peril. At Eccleshall, this 6th day of September, anno 1558, 

" By your ordinary, Radulpii Coventry and Litchfield." 



\ 



ACCOUNT OF WOLSEY AND PYGOT. 789 

at last he answered — " Good Mr. Doctor, what did our Saviour Christ 
mean, when he spake these words — ' Woe unto you scribes and phari- 
sees, hypocrites; for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: 
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to 
go in." To this Dr. Fuller answered that he must understand, that Christ 
spake to the scribes and pharisees. Nothing daunted, Wolsey made this 
smart reply — " Nay, Mr. Doctor, Christ spake even to you, and your 
fellows here present, and to all such as you are." To ward off this 
charge, Dr. Fuller left him a book to read, of a learned man's writing, 
that is to say, Dr. Watson's, who was then bishop of Lincoln. 

Wolsey receiving the book, diligently read it over, and found it in 
many places manifestly contrary to God's word. At length, a fortnight 
or three weeks following, Dr. Fuller resorting again to the prison to 
converse with Wolsey, asked him how he liked the book. Wolsey re- 
plied, that he liked the book no otherwise than he thought before he 
should find it. Whereupon the chancellor taking his book, departed 
home. But at night, when Dr. Fuller came to his chamber to look on 
it, he found in many places, contrary to his mind, the book rased with 
a pen by Wolsey, and being vexed therewith, called him an obstinate 
heretic. 

The assizes to be held at Wisbeach drawing nigh, Dr. Fuller came 
again to Wolsey, and spake to him on this manner — "Thou dost much 
trouble my conscience, wherefore I pray thee depart, and rule thy tongue, 
so that I hear no more complaint of thee, and come to the church when 
thou wilt; and if thou be complained upon, so far as I may, I promise 
thee I will not hear of it." The bold and just answer of Wolsey to 
this crafty proposal was in admirable keeping with apostolic precedent. 
When an earthquake had shaken to the foundation the gaol in which 
Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi, the magistrates issued a per- 
mission for them to depart: but Paul said unto the messenger — " They 
have cast us uncondemned into prison, and now would privily thrust 
us out: nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out." 
In the same spirit of truth and justice, Wolsey said — " Doctor, I was 
brought hither by a law, and by a law I will be delivered." Being then 
brought to the sessions, he was laid in the castle at Wisbeach, he and 
all his friends thinking that he should have suffered there at that present 
time, but it proved otherwise. 

Robert Pygot was a painter, and being at liberty, was presented by 
some evil disposed persons, sworn men as they called them, for not 
coming to the church. Being called in the sessions, he would not absent 
himself, but appeared before Sir Clement Hygham, who was judge, who 
said unto him — "Ah, are you the holy father the painter? How chance 
you came not to the church?" Pygot said — " I am not out of the church, 
I trust in God." The judge, evading the subject, said — " No, Sir, this 
is no church, this is a hall." To which Pygot answered — " I know very 
well it is a hall : but he that is in the true faith of Jesus Christ, is never 
absent, but ever present in the church of God." On this the judge ex- 
claimed — " Ah, sirrah! you are too high for me to talk with, wherefore 
I will send vou to them that are better learned than I am." He 



790 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

straightway commanded him to the jail where Wolsey lay; and the 
sessions being ended, they were carried again to Ely prison. 

In the mean time some of their neighbours of Wisbeach being at Ely, 
came to see how they did. There visited them also a chaplain of bishop 
Goodrike, a Frenchman, named Peter Valentius, who said to Wolsey 
and Pygot — " My brethren, according to my office I am come to talk 
with you, for I have been almoner here these twenty years and above. 
Wherefore I must desire you, to take it in good part that I am come. 
I promise you not to pull you from your faith. But I both require and 
desire in the name of Jesus Christ, that you stand to the truth of the 
gospel and word, and I beseech the Almighty God, for his son Jesus 
Christ's sake, to preserve both you and me in the same unto the end. 
For I know not myself how soon I shall be at the same point that you 
are." Thus with many like words he proceeded, causing all that were 
there present to water their cheeks with tears, contrary to the expectation 
they all had of him. 

A short time after Pygot and Wolsey were called to judgment, be- 
fore Dr. Fuller, then chancellor, with old Dr. Shaxton, Christopherson, 
and others in commission, who laid earnestly to their charge for their 
belief in divers articles, but especially of the sacrament of the altar. 
To this their answer was, That the sacrament of the altar was an idol, 
and that the natural body and blood of Christ were not present really 
in the sacrament; and to this opinion they said they would keep, per- 
fectly believing the same to be no heresy, but the very truth. On this 
the doctors said, that they were out of the catholic faith. Shaxton 
added, " Good brethren, remember yourselves, and become new men, 
for I myself was in this fond opinion that you are now in, but I am now 
become a new man." Wolsey answered, "Ah! are you become a new 
man? Woe be to thee, thou wicked new man, for God shall justly judge 
thee." "Say nought unto him," Dr. Fuller then said; " this Wolsey 
is an obstinate fellow, and one that I could never do good upon. But 
as for the painter, he is a man quiet and indifferent, as far as I perceive, 
and is soon reformed, and may very well be delivered for an ill opinion 
I find in him." 

In this, however, Fuller was mistaken, for on Christopherson writing 
a confession for Pygot to sign, the latter refused, on the ground that it 
was their faith and not his. On this the writer of the confession taunted 
Fuller, and said — " Lo, Doctor! you would have let this fellow go, who 
is as much a heretic as the other." And so immediately judgment was 
given upon them to die. Which done, after the sentence was read, they 
were sent again to prison. On the day appointed for their execution, 
one Peacock, a bachelor of divinity, being to preach, took his text out 
of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, of one that had lived 
inordinately by abusing his father's wife; comparing the martyrs to the 
same man, oftentimes saying that such members must be cut off from 
the congregation ; most maliciously reporting Wolsey to be out of 
the faith, and in many places palpably opposing the very letter of 
scripture. 

His sermon being ended, the prisoners were brought to the place of 



MARTYRDOM OF WOLSEY AND PYGOT. 791 

execution, and bound to the stake with a chain; thither came Richard 
Collinson, a priest, who said unto Wolsey — " Brother Wolsey, the 
preacher hath openly reported in his sermon this day, that you are 
quite out of the catholic faith, and deny baptism, and that you do err 
in the holy scripture; wherefore I beseech you, for the certifying- of 
my conscience, with others here present, that you declare in what place 
of the scripture you do err and find fault." To this Wolsey solemnly 
answered — " I take the eternal and everlasting God to witness, that I 
do deny no part or point of God's book, the holy bible, but hold and 
believe in the same to be most firm and sound doctrine in all points 
most worthy for my salvation, and for all other christians to the end of 
the world. Whatsoever mine adversaries report of me, God forgive 
them there-for." With that came one to the fire with a great sheet 
full of books to burn, like as they had been New Testaments. Said 
Wolsey — " O do give me one of them!" Pygot desired another,- both 
of them clapping them close to their breasts, saying the 106th Psalm, 
desiring all the people to say, Amen ! They then were soon enveloped 
in flames, committing their souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. 11 

Wolsey, while in prison at Ely, was visited by Thomas Hodilo, 
brewer. To whom he delivered certain money to be distributed, part 
to his wife, and part to his kinsfolks and friends, and especially six 
and eight-pence to Richard Denton, a smith at Wellney, Cambridge- 
shire, with his commendation, that he marvelled he tarried so long 
behind him, seeing that he was the first who delivered the book of 
scripture into his hand, and assured him that it was the truth. Hodilo 
both to avoid the danger of the time, and to have a witness to the 
transaction, delivered the sum of money to Mr. Lawrence, a preacher, 
in Essex, to be distributed as Wolsey had appointed ; which thing he 
performed, riding from place to place. When this six shillings and 
eight-pence were delivered to Richard Denton, with the message, his 
answer was this, " I confess it is true, but alas! I cannot burn." This 
was almost a year after Wolsey had suffered. But he that could not 
burn for the cause of Christ, was afterwards burnt against his will, 
even after Christ had given peace to his church. For in the year 1564, 
his house was set on fire, and he endeavouring to save his goods, 
perished in the flames, with two others — an event interpreted by most 
as a judgment for his fearfulness. Not much unlike this, was the 
example of Mr. West, chaplain to bishop Ridley, who refusing to 
suffer in the cause of Christ, with his master, said mass against his 
conscience, and died soon after. 

n Mr. Fox remarks in addition that he received from a friend, from the university of 
Cambridge, the following comparison of these two excellent martyrs — each excellent in his 
way. " Pygot was mild, humble, and modest, promising that he would conform to his 
persecutors, if they could persuade him by the scriptures. Wolsey was stout, strong, and 
vehement, as one having the fulness of the Spirit, and detested all their doing. Hence he 
was jealous over his friend, lest his gentle nature should have been overcome by the entice- 
ments of his foes: with whom therefore he was unwilling he should converse." 



792 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



SECTION XVI. 

HISTORY AND MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP RIDLEY AND BISHOP LATIMER, AND 
CHARACTER OF STEPHEN GARDINER, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 

On the 16th of October, 1555, those two pillars of Christ's church, 
Dr. Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London, and Mr. Hugh Latimer, some- 
time bishop of Worcester, were burnt in one fire at Oxford. Men ever 
memorable for their piety, learning, and incomparable ornaments and 
gifts of grace, joined with no less commendable sincerity of life. 

Dr. Ridley was born in the county of Northumberland, and was 
descended from a most respectable family. He received the rudiments 
of his education at Newcastle; and, when a child, discovered great 
promptness in learning. From Newcastle he was removed to the 
university of Cambridge, where in a short time he became so famous, 
that for his singular aptness, he was called to higher functions and 
offices of the university, by degrees pertaining thereunto, and was at 
length placed at the head of Pembroke-hall, and there made doctor of 
divinity. After this, departing from thence he travelled to Paris, and 
at his return was made chaplain to king Henry VIII., and promoted 
afterwards to the bishopric of Rochester, and from thence, in king 
Edward's days, translated to the more important bishopric of London. 

In his several offices he so diligently applied himself by preaching 
and teaching the true and wholesome doctrine of Christ, that no good 
child was more singularly loved by his dear parents, than he by his 
flock and diocese. Every holiday and Sunday he preached in one 
place or other, except he were otherwise hindered by weighty affairs and 
business; and to his sermons the people resorted in great numbers, 
swarming about him like bees; and so faithfully did his life pourtray 
his doctrines, that even his very enemies could not reprove him in any 
thing. His learning, moreover, was superior, his memory was great, 
and he had attained such reading withal, that he deserved to be com- 
pared to the best men of his age, as his works, sermons, and sundry 
disputations in both the universities well testified. He was also wise of 
counsel, deep of wit, and very politic in all his doings. He was 
anxious to gain the papists from their erroneous opinions, and sought 
by gentleness to win them to the truth, as his gentleness and courteous 
treatment of Dr. Heath, who was prisoner in his house a whole year, 
sufficiently proved. In fine, he was in all points so good, pious, and 
spiritual a man, that England never saw his superior. 

He was comely in his person, and well proportioned. He took all 
things in good part, bearing no malice nor rancour against any one, 
but straightways forgetting all injuries and offences done against him. 
He was very kind and faithful to his relations; and yet not bearing 
with them any otherwise than right would require, giving them always 
for a general rule, yea to his own brother and sister, that they doing 
evil should look for nothing at his hand, but should be as strangers and 
aliens to him, and that to be his brother and sister in deed and in truth, 



CHARACTER OF DR. RIDLEY. 793 

they must be children of God, disciples of Christ, and live towards all 
men in peace and love. 

He used all kinds of ways to mortify himself, and was much given to 
prayer and contemplation : for duly every morning, as soon as he was 
dressed, he went to his chamber, and there upon his knees prayed for 
half an hour; which being done, immediately he went to his study 
where he continued till ten o'clock, and then came to the common 
prayer daily used in his house. These being done he went to dinner; 
where he talked little, except where occasion required, and then it was 
sober, discreet, and wise, and sometimes merry if reasonable cause 
allowed and justified it. 

The dinner done, which was not very long, he used to sit an hour, or 
thereabouts, talking, or playing at chess: he then returned to his study, 
and there would continue, except visiters or business abroad prevented 
him, until five o'clock, when he would come to common prayer, as in 
the forenoon ; which being finished, he went to supper, behaving him- 
self there as at his dinner before. After supper he recreated himself 
again at chess, after which he would return again to his study ; continuing 
there till eleven o'clock at night, which was his common hour of going 
to bed, after saying his prayers upon his knees as in the morning when 
he rose. When at his manor of Fulham, he used to read daily a lecture 
to his family at the common prayer, beginning at the Acts of the 
Apostles, and so going through all the epistles of St. Paul, giving to 
every man that could read a New Testament, rewarding them also with 
money, for learning by heart certain principal chapters; being marvel- 
lously careful over his family, that they might be a pattern of all virtue 
and honesty to others. In short, as he was godly and virtuous himself, 
so nothing but virtue and godliness reigned in his house, feeding them 
with the food of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

The following is a striking instance of the benevolence of his temper, 
shewn to Mrs. Bonner, mother of Dr. Bonner, bishop of London. 
When at his manor of Fulham he always sent for Mrs. Bonner, who 
dwelt in a house adjoining his own, to dinner and supper, with Bonner's 
sister. She was always placed in the chair at the head of the table, 
being as gently treated and welcomed as his own mother, and he would 
never have her displaced from her seat, although the king's council had 
been present; saying, when any of them were there, " By your lordship's 
favour, this place of right and custom is for my mother Bonner." How 
well he was recompensed for this singular kindness and gentle pity 
afterwards at the hands of Dr. Bonner, is too well known. For who 
afterwards was a greater enemy to Dr. Ridley than Dr. Bonner? Who 
went more about to seek his destruction than he ? Recompensing his 
gentleness with extreme cruelty ; as well appeared by the severity 
against Dr. Ridley's own sister and her husband : whereas the gentle- 
ness of the other permitted Bonner's mother, sister, and others of his 
kindred, not only quietly to enjoy all that which they had from bishop 
Bonner, but also entertained them in his house, shewing much courtesy 
and friendship daily unto them ; while, on the other side, Bonner being 
restored again, would not suffer the brother and sister of bishop Ridley, 
and other of his friends, to enjov that which they had bv their brother, 



794 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

but also churlishly, without all order of law or honesty, wrested from 
them all the livings they had in their own right. 

Dr. Ridley was first called to the favouring of Christ and his gospel, 
by the reading of Bertram's book of the sacrament; and the conference 
with archbishop Cranmer, and with Peter Martyr, did not a little con- 
firm him in that belief. Being now, by the grace of God, thoroughly 
won and brought to the true way, as he was before blind and zealous in 
his old ignorance, so was he constant and faithful in the right knowledge 
which the Lord had opened unto him, and so long he did much good, 
when power and authority defended the gospel, and supported the peace 
and happiness of the church. But after it pleased God to bereave us 
of our stay, in taking from us king Edward, the whole state of the 
church of England was left desolate and open to the enemy's hand : so 
that bishop Ridley, after the coming in of queen Mary, was one of the 
first upon whom they laid their hands, and committed to prison, as hath 
been sufficiently declared ; first in the Tower, and from thence conveyed 
with archbishop Cranmer and bishop Latimer, to Oxford, and with them 
inclosed in the common prison of Bocardo ; but at length being 
separated from them, he was committed to custody in the house of one 
Irish, where he remained till the day of his martyrdom, which was 
upwards of eight months. 

While he continued in prison with his fellow-sufferer Latimer, they 
would sometimes confer together by letter, when they could not with 
safety converse with the tongue. The following is a specimen of this 
kind of prison conversation. 

Ridley says, " In writing again you have done me an unspeakable 
pleasure, and I pray that the Lord may requite it you in that day. For 
I have received great comfort at your words : but yet I am not so filled 
withal, but that I thirst much more now than before, to drink more of 
that cup of yours, wherein you mingle unto me profitable with pleasant. 
I pray you, good father, let me have one draught more to comfort my 
stomach. For surely, except the Lord assist me with his gracious aid, 
in the time of his service, I know I shall play but the part of a white- 
livered knight. But truly my trust is in him, that in minja infirmity he 
should try himself strong, and that he can make the coward in his cause 
to fight like a man. I now begin almost every day to look when 
Diotrephes with his warriors shall assault me : wherefore I pray you, 
good father, for that you are an old soldier, and an expert warrior, and 
God knoweth I am but a young soldier, and as yet of small experience 
in these feats, help me, I pray you, to buckle my harness. And now I 
would have you to think, that these darts are cast at my head by some 
one of Diotrephes' or Antonius' soldiers." 

Latimer answers, " ' Except the Lord help me,' ye say. Truth it 
is: 'for without me,' saith he, 'ye can do nothing;' much less suffer 
death of our adversaries, through the bloody law now prepared against 
us. But it followeth, 'If you abide in me, and my word abide in you, 
ask what you will, and it shall be done for you.' What can be more 
comfortable? Sir, you make answer yourself so well, that I cannot 
better it. Sir, I begin now to smell what you mean by travelling thus 
with me ; you use me as Bilney did once, when he converted me, pre- 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 795 

tending as though he would be taught by me, he sought ways and means 
to teach me, and so do you. I thank you therefore most heartily. For 
indeed you minister armour unto me, whereas I was unarmed before and 
unprovided, saving that I give myself to prayer for my refuge. 

The objector, whose darts Ridley apprehended, visited both these 
good men in prison, and thus assailed them. 

Obj. All men marvel greatly, why you, after the liberty granted unto 
you, more than the rest, do not go to mass, which is a thing much 
esteemed by all men, yea, of the queen herself. 

Rid. Because no man that layeth hand on the plough and looketh 
back is fit for the kingdom of God, and also for the self-same cause why 
St. Paul would not suffer Titus to be circumcised, which is, that the 
truth of the gospel might remain with us incorrupt. And also, "If I 
build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a trespasser." 
This is likewise another cause : lest I should seem by outward fact to 
allow the thing, which I am persuaded is contrary to sound doctrine, 
and so should be a stumbling-block unto the weak. But "woe be unto 
him by whom offence cometh : it were better for him that a mill-stone 
were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the midst of the sea." 

Obj. What is it then that offendeth you so greatly in the mass, that 
you will not vouchsafe once either to hear or see it? And from whence 
cometh this new religion upon you ? Have you not been used in times 
past to say mass yourself? 

Rid. I confess my fault and ignorance; but know you that for these 
matters I have done penance long ago, both at St. Paul's Cross, and 
also openly in the pulpit at Cambridge, and I trust that God hath for- 
given me this mine offence : for I did it ignorantly. But if you be 
desirous to know, and will vouchsafe to hear what things offend me in 
the mass, I will rehearse those which be most clear, and seem most 
manifestly to impugn God's word, and they are these — The strange 
tongue ; the want of the shewing of the Lord's death ; the breaking of 
the Lord's commandment of having a communion; the sacrament is not 
communicated to all under both kinds, according to the word of the 
Lord ; the sign is servilely worshipped for the thing signified ; Christ's 
passion is injured, forasmuch as this mass-sacrifice is affirmed to remain 
for the purging of sins; to be short, the manifold superstitions, and 
trifling fooleries which are in the mass, and about the same. 

Lat. Better a few things well pondered, than to trouble the memory 
with too much ; you shall prevail more with praying, than with studying, 
though mixture be best, for so one shall alleviate the tediousness of the 
other. I intend not to contend much with them in words, after a 
reasonable account of my faith given: for it will be but in vain. They 
will say as their fathers said, when they have no more to say — " We 
have a law, and by our law he ought to die." " Be you steadfast and 
immoveable, abounding in the work. — Stand fast." How oft is this 
repeated — " If you abide in me, and in my word." But we shall be called 
obstinate, sturdy, ignorant, heady, and what not; so that a man hath 
need of much patience, having to do with such men. 

Obj. But you know how great a crime it is to separate yourself from 
the communion or fellowship of the church, and to make a schism, or 



796 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 






division. You have been reported to have hated the sect of the ana- 
baptists, and always to have impugned the same. Moreover, this was 
the pernicious error of Novatus, and of the heretics called Cathari, that 
they would not communicate with the church. 

Rid. I know that the unity of the church is to be retained by all 
means, and the same is necessary to salvation. But I do not take the 
mass, as it is at this day, for the communion of the church, but a popish 
device, whereby both the commandment and the institution of our 
Saviour, for the oft frequenting of the remembrance of his death, is 
eluded, and the people of God are miserably deluded. The sect of the 
anabaptists, and the heresy of the Novatians, ought of right to be 
condemned, forasmuch as without any just or necessary cause, they 
wickedly separated themselves from the communion of the congregation ; 
for they did not allege that the sacraments were unduly administered ; 
but turning their eyes from themselves, wherewith, according to St. 
Paul's rule, they ought to examine themselves, and casting their eyes 
ever upon others, they always reproved something, for which they 
abstained from the communion, as from an unholy thing. 

Lat. I remember that Calvin beginneth to confute the Interim after 
this sort, with this saying of Hilary — " The name of peace is beautiful, 
and the opinion of unity is fair: but who doubteth that to be the true 
and only peace of the church, which is Christ's?" I would you had that 
little book, there would you see how much is to be given to unity. 
St. Paul, when he requireth unity, joineth with it, according to Jesus 
Christ, no further. Diotrephes now of late, did always harp upon 
unity. Yea, Sir, said I, but in verity, not popery. Better is diversity, 
than unity in popery. 

Obj. But admit there be in the mass what peradventure might be 
amended, or at least made better; yea, seeing you will have it so, admit 
there be a fault; if you do not consent thereto, why do you trouble 
yourself in vain? Do you not know both by Cyprian and Augustine, 
that communion of sacraments doth not defile a man, but consent of 
deeds? 

Rid. If it were any one trifling ceremony, or if it were some one thing 
of itself indifferent, for the continuance of the common quietness I 
. could be content to bear it. But forasmuch as things done in the mass 
tend openly to the overthrow of Christ's institution, I judge that by no 
means either in word or deed I ought to consent unto it. As for that 
which is objected out of the fathers, I acknowledge it to be well spoken, 
if it be well understood. But it is meant of them which suppose they 
are defiled, if any secret vice be either in the ministers, or in them that 
communicate with them; and is not meant of them which abhor super- 
stition, and wicked traditions of men, and will not suffer the same to be 
thrust upon themselves, or upon the church, instead of God's word and 
the truth of the gospel. 

Lat. The mass is altogether detestable, and by no means to be borne 
withal; so that of necessity, the mending of it is to abolish it for ever. 
For if you take away oblation and adoration, which hang upon conse- 
cration and transubstantiation, most of the papists will not set a button 
by the mass, as a thing which they esteem not, but for the gain that 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 797 

Followeth thereon. For if the English communion, which of late was 
used, were as gainful to them as the mass hath been heretofore, they 
would strive no more for their mass : from thence groweth the grief. 

Obj. Consider into what dangers you cast yourself, if you forsake the 
church ; and you cannot but forsake it, if you refuse to go to mass. 
For the mass is the sacrament of unity; without the ark there is no sal- 
vation. The church is the ark and Peter's ship. You know this saying 
well enough — " He shall not have God to be his Father, which acknow- 
ledged not the church to be his mother." Moreover, without the church, 
as Augustine saith, be the life ever so well spent, none shall inherit the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Rid. The holy catholic or universal church, which is the communion 
of saints, the house of God, the city of God, the spouse of Christ, the 
body of Christ, the pillar and stay of truth ; this church I believe ac- 
cording to the creed ; this church I do reverence and honour in the 
Lord. But the rule of this church is the word of God, according to 
which rule we go forward unto life. "And as many as walk according to 
this rule," I say with St. Paul, " peace be upon them, and upon Israel, 
which pertaineth unto God." The guide of this church is the Holy 
Ghost. The marks whereby this church is known unto me in this dark 
world, and in the midst of this crooked and froward generation, are — 
the sincere preaching of God's holy word, the due administration of the 
sacraments, charity, and faithful observing of ecclesiastical discipline, 
according to the word of God. And that church or congregation which 
is garnished with these marks, is in very deed that heavenly Jerusalem, 
which consisteth of those that be born from above. This is the mother 
of us all, and by God's grace I will live and die the child of this church. 
Out of this, I grant, there is no salvation; and I suppose the rest of the 
places objected are rightly to be understood of this church only. ' In 
times past, there were many ways to know the church of Christ, that is 
to say, by good life, by miracles, by chastity, by doctrine, by administer- 
ing the sacraments. But from the time that heresies took hold of the 
church, it is only known by the scriptures which is the true church. 
They have all things in outward show, which the true church hath in 
truth. They have temples like unto ours/ Wherefore only by the 
scriptures do we know which is the true church. To that which they 
say, that the mass is the sacrament of unity, I answer — The bread which 
we break, according to the institution of the Lord, is the sacrament of the 
unity of Christ's mystical body. " For we being many, are one bread 
and one body, forasmuch as we are all partakers of one bread." But 
in the mass, the Lord's institution is not observed ; for we are not all 
partakers of one bread, but one devoureth all. So that it may seem a 
sacrament of singularity, and of a certain special privilege for one sect 
of people, whereby they may be discerned from the rest, rather than a 
sacrament of unity, wherein our knitting together in one is represented. 

This passage of Ridley — this definition of the true church, and of the certain marks by 
which it may be known — this distinction between the method of ascertaining the church 
before and after it became Roman and papal — merits the utmost attention, and deserves to 
be written in letters of gold. If Ridley had never written or spoken any thing else, this 
would have been sufficient to convince the world that, on every thing relating to the evi- 



798 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Lat. Yea, what fellowship hath Christ with antichrist? Therefore it 
is not lawful to bear the yoke with papists. " Come forth from among 
them, and separate yourselves from them," saith the Lord. It is one 
thing to be the church indeed, another thing to counterfeit it. Would 
to God it were well known what is the forsaking of the church. In 
king Edward's days, who was the church of England? The king and 
his favourers, or mass-mongers in corners? If the king and the fa- 
vourers of his proceedings, why were we not now the church, abiding in 
the same proceeding? If private mass-mongers might be of the church, 
and yet contrary to the king's proceedings, why may we not be of the 
church contrary to the queen's proceedings? Not all that are covered 
with the title of the church, are the church indeed. Separate thyself 
from them that are such, saith St. Paul. From whom? The text hath 
before — " If any man follow other doctrines, he is puffed up and 
knoweth nothing." Weigh the whole text, that you may perceive what 
is the fruit of contentious disputations. But wherefore are such men 
said to know nothing, when they know so many things? You know the 
old verses — 

Hoc est nescire, sine Christo plurima scire: 

Si Christum bene scis, satis est, si cetera viescis.v 

Therefore would St. Paul know nothing but Jesus Christ and him 
crucified. As many as are papists and mass-mongers, they may well 
be said to know nothing. For they know not Christ, forasmuch as in 
their massing, they take much away from the benefit and merit of 
Christ. 

Obj. That church which you have described to me is invisible, but 
Christ's church is visible and known. For else why should Christ have 
said, "Tell it unto the church?" For he had commanded in vain to go 
unto the church, if a man cannot tell which it is. 

Rid. The church which I have described is visible, it hath members 
which may be seen; and also I have before declared, by what marks 
and tokens it may be known; but if either our eyes be so dazzled, that 
we cannot see, or that Satan hath brought such darkness into the world, 
that it is hard to discern the church, that is not the fault of the church, 
but either of our blindness, or of Satan's darkness. But yet in this 
most deep darkness, there is one most clear lamp, which of itself alone 
is able to put away all darkness. " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
and a light unto my steps." 

Obj. The church of Christ is a catholic or universal church, dis- 
persed throughout the whole world ; this church is the great house of 
God, in which are good men and evil mingled together, goats and sheep, 

dences of religious truth and sacred scriptural worship, he would have been equal as a 
disputant to the most enlightened who ever opened his lips or employed his pen in such a 
cause. 

p To give full effect to these admirable lines, we present the reader with the following 
rather free, but still fair and faithful translation. 

To know all things here, and yet not Christ to know, 
Is ignorance deep as the deepest below : 
To know the Lord Jesus, and know nothing more, 
Is knowledge the highest to which we can soar. 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 799 

corn and chaff: it is the net which gathereth all kinds of fishes. This 
church cannot err, because Christ hath promised it his Spirit, which 
shall lead it into all truth, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it; that he will be with it unto the end of the world ; whatsoever 
it shall loose or bind upon earth shall be loosed or bound in heaven. 
This church is the pillar and stay of truth; this is it for which St. 
Augustine saith, he believeth the gospel. But this universal church 
alloweth the mass, because the greater part of the same allowed) it. 

Rid. I grant that the name of the church is taken after three divers 
manners in the scripture. Sometimes for the whole multitude of them 
who profess the name of Christ, of which they are also named Christians. 
But as St. Paul saith of the Jews, not every one is a Jew, that is so 
outwardly; neither yet all that be of Israel are counted the seed; even 
so, not every one that is a christian outwardly is a christian indeed. 
For if any man have not the spirit of Christ, the same is none of his. 
Therefore that cjiurch which is his body, and of which Christ is the 
head, standeth only on living stones, and true christians, not only 
outwardly in name and title, but inwardly in heart and in truth. But 
forasmuch as this church, as touching the outward fellowship, is con- 
tained within the great house, and hath with the same outward society 
of the sacraments and ministry of the word, many things are spoken of 
that universal church which cannot truly be understood, but only of 
that pure part of the church. So that the rule of Ticonius concerning 
the mingled church, may here well take place; where there is attributed 
unto the whole church that which cannot agree to the same, but by- 
reason of the one part thereof; that is, either for the multitude of good 
men, which is the very true church indeed; or for the multitude of evil 
men, which is the malignant church and synagogue of Satan. And 
there is also a third taking of the church; of which although there be 
seldom mention in the scriptures in that signification, yet in the world, 
even in the most famous assemblies of Christendom, this church hath 
borne the greatest sway. This distinction pre-supposed of the three 
sorts of churches, it is an easy matter, by a figure called synecdoche, 
to give to the mingled and universal church that which cannot truly be 
understood, but only of the one part thereof. But if any man will 
affirm that universality doth so pertain unto the church, that whatsoever 
Christ hath promised to the church, it must needs be understood of that, 
I would gladly know of the same man where that universal church was 
in the times of the patriarchs and prophets, of Noah, Abraham, and 
Moses, of Elias, and Jeremiah, of Christ and the apostles, in the time 
of Alius, when Constantius was emperor, and Felix, bishop of Rome, 
succeeded Liberius. It is worthy to be noted, what Lyra writeth upon 
Matthew — ''The church doth not stand in men by reason of their power 
or dignity, whether it be ecclesiastical or secular. For princes and 
popes, and other inferiors, have been found to have fallen away from 
God. Therefore the church consisteth in those persons, in whom is true 
knowledge and confession of the faith, and of the truth. Evil men are 
in the church in name, and not in deed." And St. Augustine saith — 
" Whoever is afraid to be deceived by the darkness of this question, let 
him ask counsel at the same church of it; which church the scripture 



800 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

doth point out without any doubtfulness." All my notes which I have 
written and gathered out of such authors as 1 have read in this matter, 
and such like, are come into the hands of such as will not let me have 
the least of all my written books; wherein I am enforced to complain 
of them unto God : for they spoil me of all my labours, which I have 
taken in my study these many years. My memory was never good, for 
help whereof I have used for the most part, to gather out notes of my 
reading, and so to place them, that thereby I might have had the use of 
them when the time required. But who knoweth whether this be God's 
will, that I should be thus ordered, and spoiled of the poor learning I 
had in store, to the intent that I, now destitute of that, should from 
henceforth with St. Paul learn only to know Christ and him crucified? 
The Lord grant me herein to be a good young scholar, and to learn this 
lesson so well, that neither death nor life, wealth nor woe, make me ever 
to forget it. 

Lat. I have no more to say in this matter; for you yourself have 
said all that is to be said. The strong saying of St. Augustine — / would 
not believe the Gospel, but as the church declareth it — was wont to trouble 
many men; as I remember, I have read it well qualified by Philip 
Melancthon. This it is in effect: the church is not a judge but a 
witness. There were some in his time that lightly esteemed the testi- 
mony of the church, and the outward ministry of preaching, and rejected 
the outward word itself, cleaving only to their inward revelations. Such 
rash contempt of the word provoked and drove St. Augustine into that 
excessive vehemency. In which, after the bare sound of the words, he 
might seem to such as do not attain unto his meaning, that he preferred 
the church far before the gospel, and that the church hath a free au- 
thority over the same; but that pious man never thought so. It were 
a saying worthy to be brought forth against the Anabaptists, who thought 
the open ministry to be a thing not necessary, if they any thing esteemed 
such testimonies. I would not hesitate to affirm, that the most part of 
the whole universal church may easily err. And again I would not 
hesitate to affirm, that it is one thing to be gathered together in the 
name of Christ, and another thing to come together with a mass of the 
Holy Ghost going before. For in the first, Christ ruleth ; in the latter, 
the devil beareth the sway; and how can any thing be good which they 
thus go about? From this latter shall our six articles come forth again 
into the light, they themselves being very darkness. But it is demanded, 
whether the sounder or better part of the catholic church may be seen 
of men? St. Paul saith — "The Lord knoweth them that are his." 
What manner of speaking is this in commendation of the Lord, if we 
knew as well as he who are his? Well, thus is the text — "the sure 
foundation of God standeth still, and hath this seal, The Lord knoweth 
them that are his; and let every man that nameth the name of Christ 
depart from iniquity." Now how many are there of the whole catholic 
church of England who depart from iniquity? How many of the noble- 
men, how many of the bishops or clergy, how many of the rich men, 
or merchants, how many of the queen's counsellors, yea, how many 
of the whole realm? Tn how small room then, I pray you, is the true 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 801 

church within the realm of England? And where is it? And in what 
state? 

Obj. General councils represent the universal church, and have this 
promise of Christ — " Where two or three be gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them." If Christ be present with two 
or three, then much more where there is so great a multitude. But in 
general councils mass hath been approved and used. 

Rid. Of the universal church which is mingled of good and bad, 
thus I think — Whensoever they which be chief in it, which rule and 
govern the same, and to whom the whole mystical body of Christ doth 
obey, are the lively members of Christ, and walk after the guiding and 
rule of his word, and go before the flock to everlasting life, then un- 
doubtedly councils gathered together of such guides and pastors of the 
christian flock, do indeed represent the christian church; and being so 
gathered in the name of Christ, they have a promise of the gift and 
guiding of his Spirit into all truth. But that any such council hath at 
any time allowed the mass, such an one as ours was of late, in a strange 
tongue, and stuffed with so many absurdities, errors, and superstitions; 
that I utterly deny, and affirm it to be impossible. For like as there is 
no agreement betwixt light and darkness, betwixt Christ and Belial; so 
surely superstition and the sincere religion of Christ, w 7 ill-worship and 
the pure worshipping of God, such as God requireth of his, in spirit 
and truth, never can agree together. You will say, where so great a 
company is gathered together it is not credible but there are two or 
three gathered in the name of Christ. I answer, If there be one hun- 
dred good, and two hundred bad, what can the less number of voices 
avail ? It is a known thing, and a common proverb, oftentimes the 
greater part overcometh the better. 

Lat. As touching general councils, at this present I have no more 
to say than you have said. Only I refer you to your own experience, 
to think of our country parliaments and convocations, how and what 
you have seen and heard. The greater part in my time did bring 
forth six articles: for then the king would have it so, being seduced of 
certain. Afterward the greater part did repel the same, our good Josias 
willing to have it so. The same articles now again another great but 
worse part hath restored. O what an uncertainty is this ! But after 
this manner most commonly are men's proceedings. God be merciful 
unto us! Who shall deliver us from such torments of mind? Therefore 
is death the best physician unto the faithful, whom he together and at 
once delivereth from all griefs. 

Obj. If the matter should go thus, that in general councils men 
should not stand to the greater number of the multitude, then should 
no certain rule be left unto the church, by which controversies in 
weighty matters might be determined ; but it is not to be believed, that 
Christ would leave his church destitute of so necessary a help and 
safeguard. 

Rid. Christ, who is the most loving spouse of his church, who also 
gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it unto himself, did give unto 
it abundantly all things which are necessary to salvation; but yet so, 
that the church should declare itself obedient unto him in all things, 

3 F 



802 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and keep itself within the bounds of his commandments, and not to 
seek any thing which he teacheth not, as necessary unto salvation. Now 
for determination of all controversies in his religion, Christ himself hath 
left unto the church not only Moses and the prophets, whom he willeth 
in all doubts to go unto, and ask counsel at, but also the gospels, and 
the rest of the body of the New Testament; in which whatsoever is 
heard of Moses and the prophets, and whatsoever is necessary to be 
known unto salvation, is revealed and opened. So that now we have 
no need to say — " Who shall climb up into heaven, or who shall go 
down into the depth," to tell us what is needful to be done? Christ 
hath done both, and hath commended to us the word of faith, which 
also is abundantly declared to us; so that hereafter, if we walk earnestly 
in this way to the searching out of the truth, it is not to be doubted but 
through the certain benefit of his Spirit, which he hath promised unto 
us, we may find it, and obtain everlasting life. Should men ask counsel 
of the dead for the living? saith Isaiah. Let them go rather to the 
law and to the testimony. Christ sendeth them that be desirous to know 
the truth unto the scriptures, saying — " Search the scriptures." I re- 
member a like thing well spoken of St. Jerome — " Ignorance of the 
scriptures is the mother and cause of all errors." And in another 
place, as I remember, in the same author — " The knowledge of the 
scriptures is the food of everlasting life." But now methinks I enter 
into a very broad sea, in that I begin to shew, either out of the scrip- 
tures themselves, or out of the ancient writers, how much the holy 
scripture is of force to teach the truth of our religion. But this is it 
that I am now about, that Christ would have the church, his spouse, in 
all matters of doubt to ask counsel at the word of his Father, written 
and faithfully left, and commended unto it in both Testaments. Neither 
do we read, that Christ in any place hath laid so great a burden upon 
the members of his spouse, that he hath commanded them to go to the 
universal church. *' Whatsoever things are written, are written for our 
learning." Christ gave unto his church, "some apostles, some prophets, 
some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, to the edifying of the 
saints, till we come all to the unity of the faith." But that all men 
should meet together out of all parts of the world, to define the articles 
of our faith, I neither find it commanded by Christ, nor written in the 
word of God. 

Lat. There is difference between things pertaining to God or faith, 
and politic and civil matters. For in the first we must stand only to the 
scriptures, which are able to make us all perfect and instructed unto 
salvation, if they be well understood. And they offer themselves to be 
well understood only to them, which have good-wills, and give them- 
selves to study and prayer. Neither are there any men less apt to 
understand them, than the prudent and wise men of the world. But 
in the other, that is, in civil and politic matters, oftentimes the magis- 
trates tolerate a less evil for avoiding a greater. And it is the property 
of a wise man to dissemble many things, and he that cannot dissemble, 
pannot rule. In which they betrayed themselves, that they do not 
earnestly weigh what is just, and what is not. Wherefore for as much 
as man's laws, if they be but in this respect only, that they be devised 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 803 

by men, are not able to bring any thing to perfection, but are enforced 
of necessity to suffer many things out of square, and are compelled 
sometimes to wink at the worst things; seeing they know not how to 
maintain the common peace and quiet otherwise, they do ordain that 
the greater part shall take place. You know what these kind of 
speeches mean; I speak after the manner of men; you walk after the 
manner of men; all men are liars. St. Augustine well saith — " If ye 
live after man's reason, ye do not live after the will of God." 

Obj. If you say that councils have sometimes erred, or may err, how 
then should we believe the catholic church? since councils are gathered 
by the authority of the catholic church. 

Rid. From "may be," to "be indeed," is no good argument; but from 
"being," to "may be," no man doubteth but it is a most sure argument. 
That councils have sometimes erred, it is manifest. How many were 
there in the eastern world, which condemned the Nicene council? and 
all those who would not forsake the same, they called by a slanderous 
name, Homousians. Were not Athanasius, Chrysostom, Cyril, and Eusta- 
chius, men very well learned, and of godly life, banished and condemned 
as famous heretics, and that by evil councils? How many things are 
there in the canons and institutions of the councils, which the papists 
themselves do much dislike? But here perad venture one man will say 
unto me, We will grant you this in provincial councils, or councils 
of some one nation, that they may sometimes err, forsomuch as they 
do not represent the universal church; but it is not to be believed, that 
the general and full councils have erred at any time. I will recite one 
place only out of St. Augustine which, in my judgment, may suffice in 
this matter instead of many. " Who knoweth not that the holy scrip- 
ture is so set before us, that it is not lawful to doubt of it; and that 
the letters of bishops may be reproved by other men's words, and by 
councils; and that the councils themselves which are gathered by pro- 
vinces and countries, do give place to the authority of the general 
and full councils; and that the former and general councils are 
amended by the latter, when as by some experience of things, either what 
was shut up is opened, or that which was hid is known?" Thus much 
out of St. Augustine. But I will plead our Antonian, upon matter 
confessed. Here with us as when popery reigned, I pray you how doth 
that book, which was called, "The bishop's book," composed in the time 
of king Henry VIII. whereof the bishop of Winchester is thought 
to be either the first father, or chief gatherer; how doth it sharply re- 
prove the Florentine council, in which was decreed the supremacy of 
the bishop of Rome, and that with the consent of the emperor of Con- 
stantinople, and of the Grecian heads? So that in those days our 
learned ancient fathers and bishops of England did not hesitate to affirm, 
that a general council might err. But methinks I hear another man 
despising all that I have brought forth, and saying — " These which you 
have called councils, are not worthy to be called councils, but rather 
assemblies and conventicles of heretics." I pray you, Sir, why do you 
judge them worthy of so scandalous a name? Because they decreed 
things heretical, contrary to sound doctrine and true godliness, and 
against the faith of true religion? The cause must be weighty, for which 



804 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

they ought of right so to be called. But if it be so that all councils 
ought to be despised which decree any thing contrary to sound doctrine, 
and the true word, which is according to godliness, forsomuch as the 
mass such as we had here of late, is openly against the word of God ; 
forsooth, it must of necessity follow, that all such councils as have ap- 
proved such masses, ought to be shunned and despised, as conventicles 
and assemblies that stray from the truth. 

Another man alleged unto me the authority of the bishop of Rome, 
without which, neither can the councils be lawfully gathered, nor being 
gathered, determine any thing concerning religion. But this objection 
is only grounded upon the ambitious and shameless maintenance of the 
Romish tyranny and usurped dominion over the clergy; which tyranny 
we Englishmen long ago, by the consent of the whole realm, have ex- 
pelled and abjured. And how rightly we have done it, a little book 
set forth of both the powers doth clearly shew. I grant that the Romish 
ambition hath gone about to challenge to itself, and to usurp such a 
privilege of old time. But the council of Carthage, in the year of our 
Lord 457, did openly withstand it, and also the council at Milevite, in 
which St. Augustine was present, did prohibit any applications to be 
made to bishops beyond the sea. 

Obj. St. Augustine saith,. the good men are not to be forsaken for 
the evil; but the evil are to be borne withal for the good. You will 
not say that in our congregations all be evil. 

Rid. I speak nothing of the goodness or badness of your congrega- 
tions; but I fight in Christ's quarrel against the mass, which doth utterly 
take away and overthrow the ordinance of Christ. Let that be taken 
quite away, and then the partition wall that made the strife shall be 
broken down. Now to the place of St. Augustine, for bearing with 
the evil for the good's sake, there ought to be added other words, which 
the same writer hath expressed in other places; that is, if those evil 
men do cast abroad no seeds of false doctrine, nor lead others to de- 
struction by their example. 

Obj. It is perilous to attempt any new thing in the church, which 
lacketh example of good men. How much more so is it to commit 
any act, unto which the examples of the prophets, of Christ, and of 
the apostles, are contrary? But unto this your fact, in abstaining from 
the church by reason of the mass, the examples of the prophets, of 
Christ, and of the apostles, are clean contrary. The first part of the 
argument is evident, and the second part I prove thus, In the times of 
the prophets, of Christ, and his apostles, all things were most corrupt. 
The people were miserably given to superstition, the priests despised 
the law of God; and yet notwithstanding we read not that the prophets 
made any schisms or divisions; and Christ himself frequented the 
temple, and taught in the temple of the Jews. Peter and John went 
up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. Paul after the 
reading of the law, being desired to say something to the people, did 
not refuse to do it. Yea further, no man can shew that either the 
prophets, or Christ, or his apostles, did refuse to pray together with 
others, to sacrifice, or to be partakers of the sacrament of Moses' law. 

Rid. I grant the former part of your argument; and to the second 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 805 

part I say, that although it contain many true things, as of the corrupt 
state in the times of the prophets, and the apostles; and of the temple 
being frequented by Christ and his apostles; yet the second part of 
your argument is not sufficiently proved. For you ought to have 
proved, that either the prophets, or Christ, or his apostles, did in the 
temple communicate with the people in any kind of worshipping which 
is forbidden by the law of God, or repugnant to the word of God. But 
that can no where be shewed. And as for the church, I am not angry 
with it, and I never refused to go to it, and to p»ay with the people, to 
hear the word of God, and to do all other things whatsoever, that may 
agree with the word of God. St. Augustine, speaking of the ceremonies 
of the Jews, although he grants they grievously oppressed that people, 
both for the number and bondage of the same, yet he calleth them 
burdens of the law, which were delivered unto them in the word of God ; 
not presumptions of men, which notwithstanding, if they were not con- 
trary to God's word, might in some measure be borne withal. But 
now, seeing they are contrary to such things as are written in the word 
of God, whether they ought to be borne by any christian, let him judge 
who is spiritual, who feareth God more than man, and loveth everlasting 
life more than this short and transitory one. To that which was said, 
that my fact lacketh example of the godly fathers that have gone be- 
fore, the contrary is most evident in the history of Tobit; of whom it is 
said, that when all others went to the golden calves, which Jeroboam 
the king of Israel had made, he himself alone fled from their company, 
and got him to Jerusalem unto the Lord, and there worshipped the 
Lord God of Israel. Did not the man of God threaten grievous plagues 
both unto the priests of Bethel, and to the altar which Jeroboam had 
there made after his own fantasy? Which plagues king Josias, the true 
minister of God, did execute at the time appointed. And where do we 
read, that the prophets or the apostles did agree with the people in their 
idolatry? For what cause, I pray you, did the prophets rebuke the 
people so much, as for their false worshipping of God after their own 
minds, and not after God's word? For what was so much war in Israel 
as for that? Wherefore the false prophets ceased not to accuse the 
true prophets of God: therefore they beat them, and banished them. 
How else, I pray you, can you understand what St. Paul allegeth, 
when he saith — " What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part 
hath the believer with the infidel? Or how agreeth the temple of God 
with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God himself 
hath said; I will dwell among them, and will be their God, and they 
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and 
separate yourselves from them, and touch no unclean thing; so will I 
receive you, and be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and 
daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty." 

Judith, that holy woman, would not suffer herself to be defiled with 
the meats of the wicked. All the saints of God, which truly feared 
God, when they have been provoked to do any thing which they knew 
to be contrary to God's laws, have chose to die rather than forsake the 
laws of their God. Wherefore the Maccabees put themselves in danger 
of death for the defence of the law, and at length died manfullv in the 



806 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

defence of the same. If we praise the Maccabees, and that with great 
admiration, because they did stoutly stand even unto death, for the law 
of their country; how much more ought we to suffer all things for our 
baptism, for the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and for all 
the points of his truth? As to the supper of the Lord, such a one as 
Christ commanded us to celebrate, the mass utterly abolisheth, and 
corrupteth most shamefully. 

Lat. Who am I, that should add any thing to this which you have 
spoken? Nay, I rather thank you, you have vouchsafed to minister so 
plentiful an armour to me, being otherwise altogether unarmed, saving, 
that he cannot be left destitute of help, who rightly trusteth in the help 
of God. I only learn to die in reading of the New Testament, and am 
always praying unto my God, that he will be an helper unto me in 
time of need. 

Obj. Seeing you are obstinately set against the mass, as you affirm, 
because it is done in a tongue not understood by the people, and for 
other causes, I cannot tell what; therefore it is not the true sacrament 
ordained of Christ. I begin to suspect you, that you think not catho- 
licly of baptism also. Is our baptism which we use in a tongue un- 
known to the people, the true baptism of Christ, or not? If it be, then 
the strange tongue doth not hurt the mass. If it be not the baptism of 
Christ, tell me how you were baptised. Or will you have, as the 
anabaptists insist, all which were baptised in Latin, baptised again in 
the English tongue? 

Rid. Although I would wish baptism to be given in the vulgar tongue, 
for the people's sake which are present, that they may the better un- 
derstand their own profession, and also be more able to teach their 
children the same, yet, notwithstanding, there is not like necessity of the 
vulgar tongue in baptism, as in the Lord's supper. Baptism is given 
to children, who, by reason of their age, are not able to understand 
what is spoken to them, whatsoever it be. The Lord's supper is and 
ought to be given to them that are at years of maturity. Moreover, in 
baptism, which is accustomed to be given to children in the Latin 
tongue, all the substantial points which Christ commanded to be done, 
are observed. And therefore I judge your baptism to be a true baptism ; 
and that it is not only not needful, but also not lawful, for any man so 
baptised, to be baptised again. But yet they ought to be taught the 
catechism of the christian faith, when they come to years of discretion; 
which catechism whosoever despiseth, or will not desirously embrace 
and willingly learn, in my judgment he playeth not the part of a 
christian. But in the popish mass are wanting certain substantiate, 
that is to say, things commanded by the word of God, to be observed 
in the ministration of the Lord's supper; of which there is sufficient 
declaration made before. 

Lat. Where you say, "I would wish," surely I would wish that you had 
spoken more strongly, and to have said, It is of necessity that all things 
in the congregation should be done in the vulgar tongue, for the edifying 
and comfort of them that are present, notwithstanding that the child itself 
is sufficiently baptized in the Latin tongue. 

Obj. Forasmuch as I perceive you are so wedded to your opinion, 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 807 

that no gentle exhortations, no wholesome counsels, can call you home 
to a better mind, there remaineth that which in like cases was wont to 
be the only remedy against stubborn persons, that you must be hampered 
by the laws, and compelled to obey ; or else suffer that which a rebel to 
the laws ought to suffer. Do you not know, that whosoever refuseth to 
obey the laws of the realm betray eth himself to be an enemy to his 
country ? Do you not know, this is the readiest way to stir up sedition 
and civil war ? It is better that you should bear your own sin, than 
through the example of your breach of the common laws, the common 
quiet should be disturbed. How can you say you will be the queen's 
true subjects, when you openly profess that you will not keep her laws? 

Rid. O heavenly Father, the Father of all wisdom, understanding, and 
true strength, I beseech thee, for thy only Son our Saviour Christ's sake, 
look mercifully upon me, wretched creature, and send thine Holy Spirit into 
my breast, that not only I may understand according to thy wisdom how this 
pestilent and deadly dart is to be borne off, and with what answer it is to be 
beaten back, but also when I must join to fight in the field for the glory of thy 
name, that then 1, being strengthened with the defence of thy right hand, may 
manfully stand in the confession of thy faith, and of truth, and continue in the 
same unto the end of my life, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Now to the objection. I grant it to be reasonable, that he, which 
by words and gentleness cannot be made to yield to that which is right 
and good, should be bridled by the strait correction of the laws : that 
is to say, He that will not be subject to God's word, must be punished 
by the laws. It is true that is commonly said, " He that will not obey 
the gospel, must be tamed and taught by the rigour of the law." But 
these things ought to take place against him who refuseth to do that 
which is right and just according to true godliness, not against him who 
cannot quietly bear superstitions, but doth hate and detest from his 
heart such kind of proceedings, and that for the glory of the name of 
God. To that which you say, a transgressor of the common laws 
betrayeth himself to be an enemy of his country, surely a man ought 
to look unto the nature of the laws, what manner of laws they be which 
are broken : for a faithful christian ought not to think alike of all 
manner of laws. But that saying ought only truly to be understood of 
such laws as are not contrary to God's word. Otherwise, whosoever love 
their country in truth, they will always judge, if at any time the laws of 
God and man be the one contrary to the other, that a man ought rather 
to obey God than man. And they that think otherwise, and pretend a 
love to that country, forasmuch as they make their country to fight as 
it were against God, in whom consisteth the only stay of their country, 
surely I think such are to be judged most deadly enemies and traitors 
to their country. For they that fight against God, who is the safety of 
their country, what do they else but go about to bring upon their country 
a present ruin and destruction ! 

But this is the readiest way, you say, to stir up sedition, to trouble 
the quiet of the commonwealth; therefore are these things to be re- 
pressed in time by force of law. Behold, Satan doth not cease to prac- 
tise his old guiles and accustomed subtleties. He hath ever his dart in 
readiness to hurl against his adversaries, to accuse them of sedition, 
that he may bring them, if he can, in danger of the higher powers. 



808 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

For so hath he by his ministers always charged the prophets of God. 
Ahab said unto Elias, " Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" The false 
prophets also complained to their princes of Jeremy, that his words were 
seditious, and not to be suffered. Did not the scribes and pharisees 
falsely accuse Christ as a seditious person, and one that spake against 
Csesar? Did they not at last cry, " If thou let this man go, thou 
art not Csesar's friend?" The orator Tertullus, how doth he accuse 
Paul before Felix the high deputy? "We have found this man a 
pestilent fellow, and stirrer of sedition, unto all the Jews in the whole 
world." But, I pray you, were these men, as they were called, 
seditious persons? Christ, Paul, and the prophets? God forbid But 
they were by false men falsely accused. And for what, I pray you, but 
because they reproved before the people their guiles, superstition, and 
deceits? For that which was objected last, that he cannot be a faithful 
subject to his prince, who professeth openly that he will not observe the 
laws which the prince hath made ; here I would wish that I might have 
an impartial judge, and one that feareth God, to whose judgment in 
this cause I promise I will stand. I answer, therefore, a man ought to 
obey his prince, but in the Lord, and never against the Lord. For he 
that knowingly obeyeth him against God, doth not a duty to the prince, 
but is a deceiver, and an helper unto him to work his own destruction. 
He is also unjust who giveth not to the prince that which is the prince's, 
and to God that which is God's. Here cometh to my remembrance that 
notable saying of Valentinian the emperor, for choosing the bishop of 
Milan — " Set him in the bishop's seat, to whom, if we, as men, do 
offend at any time, we may submit ourselves." Polycarp the most con- 
stant martyr, when he stood before the chief rulers, and was commanded 
to blaspheme Christ, and to swear by the fortune of Caesar, answered 
with a mild spirit — "We are taught to give honour unto princes, and 
those powers which be of God ; but such honour as is not contrary to 
God's religion." 

Thus the answers to the objector appear at present to end: what fol- 
lows seems to have been addressed by Ridley to Latimer in a more pri- 
vate conference. 

" Hitherto you see, good father, how I have in word only made, as it 
were, a flourish before the fight, which I shortly look for, and how I 
have begun to prepare certain kinds of weapons to fight against the 
adversary of Christ, and to muse with myself how the darts of the old 
enemy may be borne off, and after what manner I may smite him again 
with the sword of the Spirit. I learn also to accustom myself to 
armour, and to try how I can go armed. InTynedale, where I was born, 
not far from the borders of Scotland, I have known my countrymen to 
watch night and day in their harness, such as they had, and their spears 
in their hands, especially when they had any private warning of the 
coming of the Scots. And so doing, although at every such bicker- 
ing some of them spent their lives, yet by such means, like valiant 
men, they defended their country. And those that so died, I think 
that before God they died in a good quarrel, and their offspring 
and progeny were loved by all the country the better for their father's 
sake. And in the quarrel of Christ our Saviour, in the defence 



CONFERENCE BETWEEN RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 809 

of his own divine ordinances, by which he giveth unto us life and 
immortality; yea, in the quarrel of faith and the christian religion, 
wherein resteth our everlasting salvation, shall we not watch? Shall we 
not go always armed? Always looking when our adversary shall come 
upon us by reason of our slothfulness? Yea, and woe be unto us if he 
can oppress us unawares, which undoubtedly he will do, if he find us 
sleeping. Let us awake, therefore ; for if the good man of the house 
knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and 
not suffer his house to be broken up. Let us awake, therefore, I say : 
let us not suffer our house to be broken up. ' Resist the devil, and he 
will fly from you.' Let us resist him manfully, and taking the cross 
upon our shoulders, let us follow our captain Christ, who, by his own 
blood, hath dedicated and hallowed the way which leadeth unto the 
Father, that is, to the light which no man can attain, the fountain of 
everlasting joys. Let us follow, I say, whither he calleth and inviteth 
us, that after these afflictions, which last but for a moment, whereby he 
trieth our faith, as gold by the fire, we may everlastingly reign and 
triumph with him in the glory of the Father, and that through the merit 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father and 
the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever, Amen. 
Amen. 

" Good father, forasmuch as I have determined with myself to pour 
forth these my cogitations into thy bosom, here, methinks, I see you 
suddenly lifting up your head towards heaven, after your manner, and 
then looking upon me with your prophetical countenance, say, * Trust 
not, my son, to these word- weapons; for the kingdom of God is not in 
word, but in power.' And remember always the words of the Lord : 
'Do not imagine beforehand, what and how you will speak; for it 
shall be given you in the same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not 
you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.' 
I pray you, therefore, father, pray for me, that I may cast my whole 
care upon him, and trust upon him in all perils. For I know, and am 
surely persuaded, that whatsoever I can imagine or think beforehand it 
is nothing, except he assist me with his Spirit when the time is. I be- 
seech you therefore father, pray for me, that such a complete harness of 
the Spirit, such a boldness of mind, may be given unto me, that I may 
out of a true faith say with David, ' I will not trust in my bow, and it 
is not my sword that shall save me. For he hath no pleasure in the 
strength of an horse: but the Lord's delight is in them that fear him, 
and put their trust in his mercy.' I beseech you pray, pray that I may 
enter this fight only in the name of God, and that when all is past, I 
being not overcome, through his gracious aid, may remain and stand 
fast in him till that day of the Lord, in which to them that obtain the 
victory shall be given the lively manna to eat, and a triumphant crown 
for evermore. Now, father, I pray you to help me to buckle on this 
harness a little better. For you know the deepness of Satan, being an 
old soldier, and you have collared with him ere now; blessed be God, 
who hath ever aided you so well. I suppose he may well hold you at the 
bay. But truly he will not be so willing, I think, to join with you as 



810 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

with us youngsters. Sir, I beseech you, let your servant read this unto 
you, and now and then, as it shall seem unto you best, let your pen run 
on my book : spare not to blot my paper ; I give you good leave." 

To this admirable communication of Ridley, Latimer returned the 
following characteristic answer. " Sir, I have caused my man not 
only to read your armour unto me, but also to write it out, for it is not 
only solid armour, but also well buckled armour. 1 see not how it 
could be better. I thank you even from the bottom of my heart for it, 
and my prayers you shall not lack, trusting that you do the like for me; 
for indeed there is the 'help in time of need.' And if I were learned 
as well as St. Paul, I would not bestow much amongst them, further 
than gall them, and spur-gall too, when and where occasion were 
given, and matter came to mind ; for the law shall be our sheet-anchor, 
stay, and refuge. Therefore there is no remedy, now when they have the 
master-bowl in their hand, but patience. Better is it to suffer what 
cruelly they will put upon us, than to incur God's high indignation. 
Wherefore, my good lord, be of good cheer in the Lord, with due con- 
sideration what he requireth of you, and what he doth promise you. 
Our common enemy shall do no more than God will permit him. God 
is faithful, who will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength. Be 
at a point what you will stand unto ; stick unto that, and let them both 
say and do what they list. They can but kill the body, which otherwise 
is of itself mortal. Neither yet shall they do that when they list, but 
as God will suffer them, when the hour appointed is come. It will be 
but in vain to use many words with them, now they have a bloody and 
deadly law prepared for you. 

" The number of the criers under the altar must needs be fulfilled: if 
we be separated thereunto, happy be we. That is the greatest promotion 
that God giveth in this world, to be such Philippians, ' to whom it is 
given not only to believe, but also to suffer for the sake of Christ.' But 
who is able to do these things? Surely all our ability, all our sufficiency 
is of God. He requireth and promiseth. Let us declare our obedience 
to his will when it shall be requisite in the time of trouble, yea, in the 
midst of the fire. When the number that cry under the altar is fulfilled 
which I suppose will be shortly, then have at the papists, when they 
shall say, Peace, all things are safe, when Christ shall come to keep 
his great parliament to redress all things that are amiss. But he shall 
not come as the papists feign him, to hide himself, and to play bo-peep 
as it were under a piece of bread ; but he shall come gloriously, to 
the terror and fear of all his enemies and to the great consolation and 
comfort of all that will here suffer for him. Comfort yourselves and 
one another with these words. 

" Lo, Sir, here have I blotted your paper vainly, and played the fool 
egregiously; but so I thought better than not to fulfil your request at 
this time. Pardon me, and pray for me; pray for me I say, pray for me. 
For I am sometimes so fearful, that I would creep into a mouse-hole; 
sometimes God doth visit me again with his comfort. So he cometh and 
goeth, to teach me to feel and to know mine infirmity, to the intent to 
give thanks to him that is worthy, lest I should rob him of his due, as so 
many do, and almost all the world. What belief is to be given to papists 



BISHOP RIDLEY'S LETTERS. 811 

may appear by their racking, writing, wrenching, and monstrously in- 
juring of God's holy scripture, as appeareth in the pope's law. But I 
dwell here now in a school of forgetful ness. Fare you well once again, 
and be you steadfast and unmoveable in the Lord. Paul loved Timothy 
marvellously well, notwithstanding he saith unto him — ' Be thou par- 
taker of the afflictions of the gospel;' and again, ' Harden thyself to 
suffer afflictions. Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life.'" 

The following letter is an interesting communication from Ridley to 
Bradford and his prison-fellows in the King's Bench, Southwark, 1554. 

" Well beloved in Christ our Saviour, we all with one heart wish to 
you, with all those that love God in deed and truth, grace and health, 
and especially to our dearly beloved companions which are in Christ's 
cause, and the cause both of their brethren and of their own salvation, 
to put their neck willingly under the yoke of Christ's cross. How 
joyful it was to us to hear the report of Dr. Taylor, and of his godly 
confession, I assure you it is hard for me to express. Blessed be God, 
which was and is the giver of that, and of all godly strength and support 
in the time of adversity. As for the rumours that have or do go abroad, 
either of our relenting or massing, we trust, that they which know God 
and their duty towards their brethren in Christ, will not be too easy of 
belief. For it is not the slanderer's evil tongue, but a man's evil deed 
that can with God defile a man; and, therefore, with God's grace, you 
shall never have cause to do otherwise than you say you do, that is, not 
to doubt but that we will by God's grace continue steadfast and un- 
moveable. Like rumours as you have heard of our coming to London, 
have been here spread of the coming of certain learned men prisoners 
hither from London ; but as yet we know no certainty which of these 
rumours is or shall be more true. Know you that we have you in our 
daily remembrance, and wish you and all the rest of our foresaid com- 
panions well in Christ. 

" It would much comfort us, if we might have knowledge of the state 
of the rest of our most dearly beloved, which in this troublesome time 
do stand in Christ's cause, and in the defence of the truth thereof. We 
have heard somewhat of Mr. Hooper's matter, but nothing of the rest. 
We long to hear of father Crome, Dr. Sands, Mr. Saunders, Veron, 
Beacon, Rogers, and others. We are in good health, thanks be to God, 
and yet the manner of using us doth change as sour ale in summer. It 
is reported to us by our keepers, that the university beareth us heavily. 
A coal happened to fall in the night out of the chimney, and burnt a 
hole in the floor, and no more harm was done, the bailiff's servant sitting 
by the fire. Another night there chanced, as the bailiffs told us, a 
drunken fellow to multiply words, and for the same he was set in 
Bocardo. Upon these things, as is reported, there is a rumour risen in 
the town and country about, that we would have broke the prison with 
such violence, as that if the bailiffs had not played the pretty men, we 
should have made an escape. We had out of our prison a wall that we 
might have walked upon, and our servants had liberty to go abroad in 
the town or fields, but now both they and we are restrained from both. 



812 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

" My lord of Worcester passed through Oxford, but he did not visit 
us. The same day our restraint began to be more close, and the book 
of the communion was taken from us by the bailiffs at the mayor's 
command, as the bailiffs did report to us. No man is licensed to come 
unto us; before they might, that would see us upon the wall, but that is 
so grudged at, and so evil reported, that we are now restrained. Blessed 
be God, with all our evil reports, grudges, and restraints, we are merry 
in God, all our care is and shall be, by God's grace, to please and serve 
him, of whom we look and hope, after these temporal and momentary 
miseries, to have eternal joy and perpetual felicity with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, Peter, and Paul, and all the heavenly company of the angels 
in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. As yet there has no learned 
man, nor any scholar, been to visit us since we came into Bocardo, which 
now in Oxford may be called a college of Quondams. For as you know 
we are no fewer than three, s and I dare say every one well contented 
with his portion, which I do reckon to be our heavenly Father's good 
and gracious gift. Thus fare you well. We shall, by God's grace, one 
day meet together, and be merry. The day assuredly approacheth 
apace; the Lord grant that it may shortly come. For before that day 
come, I fear the world will wax worse and worse. But then all our 
enemies shall be overthrown and trodden under foot: righteousness and 
truth then shall have the victory, and bear the bell away, whereof the 
Lord grant us to be partakers, and all that love truly the truth. 

" We all pray you, as we can, to cause all our commendations to be 
made unto all such as you know did visit us and you when we were in 
the Tower, with their friendly remembrances and benefits. Mrs. Wilk- 
son and Mrs. Warcup* have not forgotten us, but ever since we came to 
Bocardo, with their charitable and friendly benevolence have comforted 
us: not that else we did lack, (for God be blessed, he hath always suf- 
ficiently provided for us) but that is a great comfort, and an occasion 
for us to bless God, when we see that he maketh them so friendly to 
tender us, whom some of us were never familiarly acquainted withal." 

A selection only of the letters of Ridley can be made. The next 
deserving special attention is one addressed generally to all his suffering 
brethren through the country. 

" Grace, peace, and mercy, be multiplied among you. What worthy 
thanks can we render unto the Lord for you, my brethren; namely, for 
the great consolation which, through you, we have received in the Lord, 
who, notwithstanding the rage of Satan, that goeth about by all manner 
of subtle means to beguile the world, and also busily laboureth to restore 
and set up his kingdom again, that of late began to decay and fall to 
ruin; you remain yet still immoveable, as men surely grounded upon a 

8 Cranmer was the other individual of the three; and though nothing is hinted of his 
taking a share in the correspondence of these illustrious prisoners, it is evident, b}' the in- 
cidental mention of him in this place, that he had not yet become shaken, nor that he yet 
thought of recanting. 

1 Two excellent women to whom some of Bradford's best letters were addressed. It 
would appear from their ministrations to the Oxford as well as London prisoners, that they 
d;voted themselves to a general attention to the wants of the martyrs of that day. 



BISHOP RIDLEY'S LETTERS. 813 

strong rock. And now, albeit that Satan by his soldiers and wicked 
ministers, daily draweth numbers unto him, so that it is said of him, that 
he plucketh the very stars out of heaven, while he driveth into some 
men the fear of death, and loss of all their goods, and sheweth to others 
the pleasant baits of the world; namely, riches, wealth, and all kinds 
of delights and pleasures, fair houses, great revenues, fat benefices, and 
what not; and all to the intent that they should fall down and worship, 
not the Lord, but the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, that 
great beast and his image, and should be enticed to commit fornication 
with the strumpet of Babylon, together with the kings of the earth, with 
the lesser beast, and with the false prophets, and so to rejoice and be 
pleasant with her, and to get drunk with the wine of her fornication : 
yet blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath 
given unto you a manly courage, and hath so strengthened you in the 
inward man, by the power of his Spirit, that you can contemn so well 
all the allurements of the world, esteeming them as vanities, mere trifles, 
and things of nought; who hath also wrought, planted, and surely es- 
tablished in your hearts, so steadfast a faith and love of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, joined with such constancy, that by no engines of antichrist, be 
they ever so terrible or plausible, you will suffer any other Jesus, or any 
other Christ, to be forced upon you, besides him whom the prophets 
have spoken of before, the apostles have preached, the holy martyrs of 
God have confessed and testified with the effusion of their blood. 

" In this faith stand you fast, my brethren, and suffer not yourselves 
to be brought under the yoke of bondage and superstition any more. 
For you know, brethren, how our Saviour warned us before hand, that 
such should come as would point unto the world another Christ, and 
would set him out with so many false miracles, and with such deceivable 
and subtle practices, that even the very elect, if it were possible, should 
thereby be deceived : such strong delusion to come did our Saviour give 
warning of before. But continue you faithful and constant, and be of 
good comfort, and remember that our great captain hath overcome the 
world: for he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world, and 
the Lord promiseth us, that for the elect's sake, the days of wickedness 
shall be shortened. In the mean season abide you and endure with 
patience as you have begun : ' Endure,' I say, and 'reserve yourselves unto 
better times,' as one of the heathen poets said; cease not to shew your- 
selves valiant soldiers of the Lord, and help to maintain the travailing 
faith of the gospel. 

" ' You have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God 
you may receive the promises. For yet a very little, and he that shall 
come, will come, and will not tarry; and the just shall live by faith: 
but if any withdraw himself, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.' 
These are the words of the living God. ' But we are not they which 
do withdraw ourselves unto damnation, but they which believe unto J;he 
salvation of the soul.' Let us not suffer these words of Christ to fall 
out of our hearts by any manner of terror, or threatenings of the world. 
I Fear not them which kill the body,' the rest you know. For I write 
not unto you, as men which are ignorant of the truth, but who know 
the truth; and to this end only, that we agreeing together in one faith, 



814 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

may comfort one another, and be more confirmed and strengthened 
thereby. We never had a better, or more just cause either to contemn 
our life, or shed our blood ; we cannot take in hand the defence of a 
more certain, clear, and manifest truth. For it is not any ceremony for 
which we contend ; but it toucheth the very substance of our whole 
religion, yea, even Christ himself. Shall we, or can we receive any other 
Christ instead of him, who is alone the everlasting Son of the everlasting 
Father, and is the brightness of the glory, and a lively image of the 
substance of the Father, in whom only dwelleth corporeally the fulness 
of the Godhead, who is the only way, the truth, and the life? Let such 
wickedness, let such horrible wickedness be far from us. For although 
there be that be called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there may 
be many gods, and many lords, yet unto us there is but one God, who 
is the Father, of whom are all things, and we by him; but every man 
hath not knowledge. This is life eternal, that they know thee to be the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. If any therefore 
would force upon us any other God, besides him whom Paul and the 
apostles have taught, let us not hear him, but let us fly from, and hold 
him accursed. 

" Brethren, you are not ignorant of the deep and profound subtleties 
of Satan ; for he will not cease to range about you, seeking by all means 
possible whom he may devour: but play you the men, and be of good 
comfort in the Lord. And although your enemies and the adversaries 
of the truth, armed with all worldly force and power that may be, do 
set upon you: yet be you not faint-hearted, and shrink not therefore, 
but trust unto your captain Christ, trust unto the Spirit of truth, and 
trust to the truth of your cause; which as it may by the malice of Satan 
be darkened, so can it never be clean put out. For we have most 
plainly, evidently, and clearly on our side, all the prophets, all the 
apostles, and undoubtedly all the ancient ecclesiastical writers which 
have written, until of late years past. 

" Let us be hearty and of good courage therefore, and thoroughly 
comfort ourselves in the Lord. Be in no wise afraid of your adversaries; 
for that which is to them an occasion of perdition, is to you a sure token 
of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given, that not only 
you should believe on him, but also suffer for his sake. And when you 
are railed upon for the name of Christ, remember that by the voice of 
Peter, yea, and of Christ our Saviour also, ye are counted with the 
prophets, with the apostles, and with the holy martyrs of Christ, happy 
and blessed for ever: for the glory and Spirit of God resteth upon you. 
On their part our Saviour Christ is evil spoken of, but on your part 
he is glorified. For what can they else do unto you by persecuting you, 
and working all cruelty and villany against you, but make your crowns 
more glorious, yea beautify and multiply the same, and heap upon them- 
selves the horrible plagues and heavy wrath of God? and therefore, good 
brethren, though they rage ever so fiercely against us, yet let us not wish 
evil unto them again, knowing that while for Christ's cause they vex and 
persecute us, they are like mad-men, most outrageous and cruel against 
themselves, heaping hot burning coals upon their own heads: but rather 
wish well unto them, knowing that we are thereunto called in Christ 



ACCOUNT OF BISHOP LATIMER. 815 

Jesus, that we should be heirs of the blessing. Let us pray therefore 
unto God, that he would drive out of their hearts this darkness of errors, 
and make the light of his truth to shine unto them, that they acknow- 
ledging their blindness, may with all humble repentance be converted 
unto the Lord, and with us confess him to be the only true God, which 
is the Father of light, and his only Son Jesus Christ, worshipping him 
in spirit and truth. The Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ comfort your 
hearts in the love of God, and patience of Christ, Amen. Your brother 
in the Lord, whose name this bearer shall signify unto you, ready always 
by the grace of God to live and die with you." 

Grindal, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, was at this time an 
exile in the city of Frankfort. Thence he addressed a letter to bishop 
Ridley, lamenting his sufferings, and entreating him to be constant and 
valiant for the truth. In the course of the letter he desires to know the 
mind of Ridley in regard to printing a manuscript of his on the subject 
of transubstantiation. Ridley answers that he does nor think it worth 
while to translate or print the work till it is seen how he, the author, is 
likely to be disposed. There is nothing in the other parts of his answer 
to Grindal that is remarkable, unless it be the following paragraph, 
which shews him to have been a man of humour and wit as well as true 
wisdom and virtue : " Of us three prisoners at Oxford, I am kept most 
strict; because the man in whose house I am a prisoner is governed by 
his wife — a morose superstitious old woman, who thinks she shall merit 
by having me closely confined. The man himself, whose name is Irish, 
is civil enough to all, but too much ruled by his wife. Though I never 
had a wife, yet from this daily usage I begin to understand how great 
and intolerable a burden it is to have a bad one. The wise man says 
rightly — a good wife is the gift of God, and he who has a good wife is 
a blessed man." 

Having commenced this chapter with a sketch of the life of Ridley, 
it will now be proper to review the leading incidents in the history of 
Latimer. He was the son of Hugh Latimer, of Thurcaster, in the 
county of Leicester, a husbandman in good repute, with whom he was 
brought up till he was about four years old: when his parents, seeing 
him to be of a ready, prompt, and sharp wit, purposed to train him up 
to literature; wherein he so profited in the common schools of his own 
country, that at fourteen years of age he was sent to the university of 
Cambridge: where, after some continuance in the exercise of other 
things, he devoted himself to the school divinity of that age. Zealous 
he was then in the popish religion, and therewith so scrupulous, as him- 
self confessed, that being a priest, and officiating at the mass, he was 
so servile an observer of the Romish decrees, that he thought he had 
never sufficiently mingled his massing wine with water; and moreover, 
that he should never be damned, if he were once a professed friar, with 
many such superstitious fantasies. And in this blind zeal he was a 
great enemy to the professors of Christ's gospel; as both his oration, 
when he commenced bachelor of divinity, against Melancthon, and his 
other works, plainly declared. He also was strongly excited against 



816 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Mr. Stafford, reader of the divinity lectures in Cambridge, at whom he 
most spitefully railed, and persuaded the youth of Cambridge in no 
wise to believe him. 

Notwithstanding, such was the purpose of God, that when he saw his 
good time, by which he thought utterly to have defaced the professors 
of the gospel, and true church of Christ, he was himself by a member of 
the same caught in the blessed net of God's word. For Mr. Thomas 
Bilney, seeing Mr. Latimer to have a zeal, although not according to 
knowledge, felt a brotherly pity towards him, and began to consider by 
what means he might win this zealous ignorant brother to the truth. 
Wherefore, after a short time, he came to Mr. Latimer's study, and 
desired him to hear his confession, which he willingly did; when he 
was, by the good Spirit of God, so touched, that immediately he forsook 
the study of the school-doctors, and other such fopperies, and became 
an earnest student in true divinity. So that whereas before he was an 
enemy, and almost a persecutor of Christ, he was now a zealous seeker 
after him, changing his old manner of cavilling and railing, into a dili- 
gent kind of conferring, both with Mr. Bilney and others, and went also 
to Mr. Stafford before he died, and desired his forgiveness. 

After his own conversion, he was not satisfied without endeavouring 
to bring about that of others. He therefore became both a public 
preacher, and a private instructor to the rest of his brethren within the 
university, for the space of three years, spending his time partly in the 
Latin tongue among the learned, and partly amongst the simple people 
in his native language. But the Prince of darkness soon found a means 
to disturb this happy state. There was an Augustine friar, who took 
occasion upon certain sermons of Mr. Latimer, which he preached about 
Christmas, 1529, as well in the church of St. Edward, as also in that 
of St. Augustine, within the university of Cambridge, to inveigh 
against him, because Mr. Latimer in the said sermons, according to the 
common usage of the season, gave the people certain cards out of the 
5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of St. Matthew, whereupon they might, not 
only then, but at all other times, occupy their time. For the chief 
triumph in the cards he limited the heart, as the principal thing they 
should serve God withal, whereby he quite overthrew all hypocritical 
and external ceremonies, not tending to the necessary furtherance of 
God's holy word and sacraments. For the better attaining hereof, he 
wished the scriptures to be in English, in order that the common people 
might be better enabled to learn their duty to God and to their neigh- 
bours. His treatment of this subject was so apt for the time, and so 
pleasantly applied by him, that it not only declared the wit and dexte- 
rity of the preacher, but also wrought in the hearers much fruit, to the 
overthrow of popish superstition. 

This happened on the Sunday before Christmas-day; on which day 
coming to the church, he entered the pulpit, taking for his text the 
words of the gospel aforesaid, "Who art thou?" &c. And in deliver- 
ing the cards as above mentioned, he made the heart to be Triumph," 
exhorting and inviting all men thereby to serve the Lord with inward 



Tl 



ie word trump, as now used, is a corruption from triumph — the triumph card. 



EXTRACT FROM LATIMER'S SERMOX. 817 

heart and true affection, and not with outward ceremonies : adding 
moreover, to the praise of that Triumph, that though it were ever so 
small, yet it would take up the best court card beside in the bunch, 
yea, though it were the king of clubs: meaning thereby how the Lord 
would be worshipped and served in simplicity of heart and verity, 
wherein consisteth true christian religion, and not in the outward deeds 
of the letter only, or in the glittering shew of man's traditions, or 
pardons, pilgrimages, ceremonies, vows, devotions, voluntary works, 
and works of supererogation, foundations, oblations, the pope's supre- 
macy, &c. so that all these either were needless, where the other is 
present; or else were of small estimation, in comparison of the other. 
As these sermons were so important in their consequences, we here 
present the reader with the following beautiful extract from one of 
them, written in Cambridge about the year of our Lord 1529 : — 

" Tu quis es ? Which words are as much as to say in English, ' Who 
art thou V These be the words of the Pharisees, which were sent by the 
Jews unto John the Baptist in the wilderness, to have knowledge of 
him who he was; which words they spake unto him of an evil intent, 
thinking that he would have taken on him to be Christ, and so they 
would have had him done by their good wills, because they knew 
that he was more carnal and given to their laws, than Christ indeed 
should be, as they perceived by their old prophecies: and also, because 
they marvelled much at his great doctrine, preaching, and baptising, 
they were in doubt whether he was Christ or not: wherefore they said 
unto him, "Who art thou?" Then answered John, and confessed 
that he was not Christ. Now here is to be noted the great and prudent 
answer of John the Baptist unto the Pharisees, that when they re- 
quired of him who he was, he would not directly answer of himself, 
what he was himself; but he said he was not Christ, by which saying 
he thought to put the Jews and Pharisees out of their false opinion and 
belief towards him, in that they would have had him to exercise the 
office of Christ, and so declared further unto them of Christ saying — 
" He is in the midst of you, and amongst you, whom ye know not, the 
latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." By this you may 
perceive that St. John spake much in the praise of his master Christ, 
professing himself to be in no wise like unto him. So likewise it shall 
be necessary unto all men and women of this world, not to ascribe unto 
themselves any goodness of themselves, but all unto our Lord God, as 
shall appear hereafter, when this question Who art thou? shall be moved 
unto them: not as the Pharisees did unto John, from an evil pur- 
pose, but of a good and simple mind, as may appear hereafter. 

" Now then, according to the preacher, let every man and woman, of 
a good and simple mind, contrary to the Pharisees' intent, ask this 
question— Who art thou ? This question must be moved to themselves, 
what they be of themselves, on this fashion — What art thou of thy only 
and natural generation between father and mother, when thou earnest 
into the world? What substance, what virtue, what goodness art thou 
of thyself? Which question, if thou rehearse oftentimes to thyself, thou 
shalt well perceive and understand, how thou shalt make answer to it: 

18 3 G 



SI 8 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

which must be made in thiswise: I am of myself, and by myself, coming 
from my natural father and mother, the child of the anger and indig- 
nation of God, the true inheritor of hell, a lump of sin, and working 
nothing of myself, but all towards hell, except I have better help of 
another, than I have of myself. Now we may see in what state we enter 
into this world, that we be of ourselves the true and just inheritors of 
hell, the children of the ire and indignation of Christ, working all towards 
hell, whereby we deserve of ourselves perpetual damnation, by the right 
judgment of God, and the true claim of ourselves: which unthrifty state 
that we be born unto is come unto us for our own deserts, as proveth 
well this example following. 

"Let it be admitted for the probation of this, that it might please the 
king's grace now being, to accept into his favour a mean man, of simple 
degree and birth, not born to any possessions; whom the king's grace 
favoureth, not because this person hath of himself deserved any such 
favour, but that the king casteth his favour unto him of his own mere 
motion and fancy : and because the king's grace will more declare his 
favour unto him, he giveth unto this said man a thousand pounds in 
lands, to him and his heirs, on this condition, that he shall take upon 
him to be the chief captain and defender of his town of Calais, and to 
be true and faithful to him in the custody of the same, against the 
Frenchmen especially above all other enemies. This man then taketh 
on him this charge, promising this fidelity thereunto; it chanceth in 
process of time, that by the singular acquaintance and frequent fami- 
liarity of this captain with the Frenchmen, these Frenchmen give unto 
the said captain of Calais a great sum of money, so that he will be but 
content and agreeable, that they may enter into the said town of Calais 
by force of arms, and so thereby possess the same unto the crown of 
France. Upon this agreement the Frenchmen do invade the said town 
of Calais, only by the negligence of this captain. 

" Now the king hearing of this invasion, cometh with a great puissance 
to defend this his said town, and so by good policy of war overcometh 
the said Frenchmen, and entereth again into his town of Calais. Then 
he being desirous to know how these enemies of his came thither, maketh 
strict search and inquiry by whom this treason was conspired; by this 
search it was known and found his own captain to be the very author 
and the beginner of the betraying it. The king seeing the great in- 
fidelity of this person, dischargeth this man of his office, and taketh from 
him and his heirs this thousand pounds' possessions. Think you not that 
the king doth use justice unto him, and all his posterity and heirs? Yes 
truly, the said captain cannot deny himself but that he had true jus- 
tice, considering how unfaithfully he behaved himself to his prince, con- 
trary to his own fidelity and promise: so likewise it was of our first 
father Adam. He had given unto him the spirit and science of know- 
ledge, to work all goodness therewith; this said spirit was not given only 
to him, but unto all his heirs and posterity. He had also delivered him 
the town of Calais, that is to say, paradise in earth, the most strong and 
fairest town in the world, to be in his custody: he nevertheless, by the 
instigation of these Frenchmen, that is, the temptation of the fiend, did 



EXTRACT FROM LATIMER'S SERMON. 819 

consent unto their desire, and so he broke his promise and fidelity, the 
commandment of the everlasting King his master. 

" Now then, the king seeing this great treason in his captain, dispos- 
sessed him of the thousand pounds' of lands, that is to say, from ever- 
lasting life and glory, and all his heirs and posterity: for likewise as he 
had the spirit of science and knowledge for him and his heirs; so in like 
manner when he lost the same, his heirs also lost it by him, and in him. 
So now this example proveth, that by our father Adam we had once in 
him the very inheritance of everlasting joy; and by him, and in him 
again we lost the same. The heirs of the captain of Calais could not 
by any manner of claim ask of the king the right and title of their 
father in the thousand pounds, by reason the king might answer and 
say unto them, that although their father deserved not of himself to 
enjoy so great possessions, yet he deserved by himself to lose them, 
and greater, committing so high treason as he did, against his prince's 
commandment; whereby he had no wrong to lose his title, but was un- 
worthy to have the same, and had therein true justice; let not you think, 
which be his heirs, that if he had justice to lose his possessions, you 
have wrong to lose the same. 

" In the same manner it may be answered unto all men and women now 
in being, that if our father Adam had true justice to be excluded from 
his possessions of everlasting glory in paradise, let us not think the 
contrary that be his heirs, but that we have no wrong in losing also the 
same; yea, we have true justice and right. Then in what miserable 
estate we are, that of the right and just title of our own deserts have lost 
the everlasting joy, and claim of ourselves to be true inheritors of hell ! 
For he that committeth deadly sin willingly, bindeth himself to be an 
inheritor of everlasting pain : and so did our forefather Adam willingly 
eat of the apple forbidden. Wherefore he was cast out of the everlast- 
ing joy in paradise, into this corrupt world among all vileness, whereby 
of himself he was not worthy to do any thing laudable or pleasant to 
God, evermore bound to corrupt affections and beastly appetites, trans- 
formed into the uncleanest and most variable nature that was made 
under heaven, of whose seed and disposition all the world is lineally 
descended ; insomuch that this evil nature is so much diffused and shed 
from one into another, that at this day there is no man or woman living, 
who can of themselves wash away this abominable vileness : and so we 
must needs grant ourselves to be in like displeasure unto God, as our 
father Adam was; by reason hereof, as I said, we are of ourselves the 
very children of the indignation of God, the true inheritors of hell, and 
working all towards hell, which is the answer to this question, made to 
every man and woman by themselves — Who art thou? 

" And now the world standing in this damnable state, cometh in the 
occasion of the incarnation of Christ; the Father in heaven perceiving 
the frail nature of man, that he by himself and of himself could do 
nothing for himself, by his prudent wisdom sent down the second per- 
son in the Trinity, his Son Jesus Christ, to declare unto man his plea- 
sure and commandment: and so at the Father's will, Christ took on him 
human nature, being willing to deliver man out of this miserable way, 
and was content to suffer cruel passion in shedding his blood for all 



820 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

mankind, and so left behind for our safeguard, laws and ordinances, to 
keep us always in the right path unto everlasting life, as the gospels, 
the sacraments, the commandments; which if we do keep and observe 
according to our profession, we shall answer better unto this question 
— 'Who art thou V than we did before: for before thou didst enter into 
the sacrament of baptism, thou wert but a natural man or a natural 
woman; as I might say, a man, a woman; but after thou takest on thee 
Christ's religion, thou hast a longer name; for then thou art a christian 
man, a christian woman. Now then, seeing thou art a christian man, 
what shall be the answer of this question — 'Who art thou?' 

"The answer of this question is, when I ask it unto myself, I must say 
that I am a christian man, a christian woman, the child of ever- 
lasting joy, through the merits of the bitter passion of Christ. This 
is a joyful answer. Here we may see how much we are bound and 
indebted unto God, that hath revived us from death to life, and saved 
us that were condemned; which great benefit we cannot well consider 
unless we remember what we were of ourselves before we meddled with 
him or his laws: and the more we know our feeble nature, and set less 
by it, the more we shall conceive and know in our hearts what God hath 
done for us : and the more we know what God hath ' done for us, the 
less we shall set by ourselves, and the more we shall love and please 
God; so that in no condition we shall either know ourselves or God, 
except we utterly confess ourselves to be mere vileness and corruption. 
Well now it is come unto this point, that we are christian men, christian 
women, I pray you, what doth Christ require of a christian man, or of 
a christian woman ? Christ requireth nothing else of a christian man or 
woman, but that they will observe his rules." 

To relate at full the alarm the preaching of this and the other sermons 
occasioned at Cambridge, would require too much time and space. A 
prior of Black Friars, named Buckenham, attempted to prove that 
it was not expedient for the scriptures to be in English, lest the ignorant 
and vulgar sort, through the occasion thereof, might be brought in danger 
of leaving their vocations, or else of running into some inconvenience. 
As an example he said, " The ploughman, when he heareth this in the 
gospel, ' No man that layeth his hand on the plough and looketh back, 
is meet for the kingdom of God,' might peradventure cease from his 
plough. Likewise the baker, when he hears that a little leaven cor- 
rupteth a whole lump of dough, may perchance leave our bread unlea- 
vened, and so our bodies shall be unseasoned. Also the simple man, 
when he heareth in the gospel, ' If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out 
and cast it from thee,' may make himself blind, and so fill the world 
with beggars." These, with some others, this clerkly friar brought out, 
to prove his purpose of keeping scripture in a strange tongue, and from 
the common people ! 

Mr. Latimer hearing the sermon of Buckenham, came shortly after 
to the church to answer him. To hear him came a multitude, as well 
of the university as of the town, both doctors and other graduates, with 
great expectation to learn what he could say : among whom also, 
directly in the face of Latimer, underneath the pulpit, sat Buckenham, 
with his black friar's cowl about his shoulders. Then Latimer, first 



BENEVOLENCE OF MR. LATIMER. 82 i 

repeating the reasons of Buckenham, whereby he would prove it a dan- 
gerous thing for the vulgar to have the scriptures in their own tongue, 
so refuted the friar, so answered to his objections, so ridiculed his bald 
reason of the ploughman looking back, of the baker leaving his bread 
unleavened, and of the simple man plucking out his eye, that the vanity 
of the friar might to all men appear, well proving and declaiing to the 
people, that there was no such danger from the scriptures being in 
English. And proceeding moreover in his sermon, he began to dis- 
course of the mystical speeches and figurative phrases of the scriptures ; 
which he said were not so diffuse and difficult as pretended. 

Besides this Buckenham, there was also another railing friar, a doctor 
and a foreigner, named Venetus, who likewise in his sermons railed 
and raged against Mr. Latimer, calling him a mad and brainless man. 
and persuading the people not to believe him. To whom Mr. Latimer 
answering again, took for his ground the words of our Saviour Christ, 
"Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the 
judgment. But I say unto you, Whosoever is angry with his neighbour 
shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say unto his 
neighbour Raca, shall be in danger of the council : and whosoever shall 
say to his neighbour, Fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire." The discuss- 
ing of which, first he divided the offence of killing into three branches, 
one to be with hand, the other with heart, the third with word. With 
hand, when we use any weapon drawn, to spill the blood of our neighbour. 
With heart, when we be angry with him. With word, when we dis- 
dainfully rebuke our neighbour, or despitefully revile him. 

But why should we here decipher the names of his adversaries, when 
whole swarms of friars and doctors flocked against him on every side, 
almost through the whole university, preaching against and abusing him? 
Amongst whom was Dr. Watson, master of Christ's college, whose 
scholar Latimer had been. In short, almost as many as were heads of 
houses, so many were the enemies of this worthy standard-bearer of 
Christ's gospel. At last came Dr. West, bishop of Ely, who preaching 
against him at Barnwell-abbey, forbad him within the churches of that 
university to preach any more. Notwithstanding, so the Lord provided, 
that Dr. Barnes, prior of the Augustine friars, did license Mr. Latimer 
to preach in his church of the Augustines, and he himself preached at 
St. Edward's church, which was the first sermon of the gospel that Dr. 
Barnes preached, being Sunday and Christmas Eve. Whereupon cer- 
tain articles were gathered out of his sermon, and brought against him 
by Mr. Tyrell fellow of the King's-hall, and so by the vice-chancellor 
they were presented to the cardinal. 

Thus Mr. Latimer being baited by the friars, doctors, and masters of 
that university, about the year 1529, notwithstanding the malice of these 
malignant adversaries, continued yet in Cambridge preaching for about 
three years together, with favour and applause of the godly, also with 
such admiration of his enemies who heard him, that the bishop himself 
coming in, and witnessing his merit, wished himself to have the like, 
and was compelled to commend him upon it. After this, Mr. Latimer 
and Mr. Bilney continued in Cambridge for some time, where they so 
frequently conferred together, that the field wherein they usually walked 



822 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

was long after called the heretics' hill. As their intimacy was much 
noted by many of the university, so was it full of many good examples, 
to all who would follow them, both in visiting the prisoners, and reliev- 
ing the needy. The following interesting story will exemplify the bene- 
volence of Mr. Latimer. It happened that, with Mr. Bilney, he went 
to visit the prisoners in the tower of Cambridge, and being there, among 
others was a woman who was accused of having killed her own child, 
which act she plainly and steadfastly denied. Whereby it gave them 
occasion to search for the matter, and at length they found that her 
husband loved her not, and therefore sought all means to destroy her. 
The particulars were thus: — 

A child of hers had been sick a whole year, and at length died in 
harvest time, as it were in a consumption : which when it was gone, 
she sought her neighbours to help her at the burial, but all being abroad 
in the harvest, she was forced with heaviness of heart, to prepare the 
child alone for the burial. Her husband coming home, accused her 
of murdering the child. This was the cause of her trouble ; and Mr. 
Latimer, by earnest inquisition of conscience, thought the woman not 
guilty. Immediately after this he was called to preach before king 
Henry VIII. at Windsor, and after his sermon the king sent for him, 
and talked familiarly with him. At which time Mr. Latimer, find- 
ing an opportunity, kneeled down, opened the whole matter to the king, 
and desired her pardon, which he granted, and gave it to him at his 
return home. In the mean time the woman was delivered of a child in 
the prison, to which Mr. Latimer stood godfather. But all the while 
he would not tell her of the pardon, but laboured to have her confess 
the truth of the matter. At length the time came when she expected 
to suffer, and Mr. Latimer came as he was wont, to instruct her; when 
she made great lamentations, to be purified before her suffering, for she 
thought she must be damned if she died without purification. Mr. 
Bilney being with Mr. Latimer, told her, that law was made for the 
Jews, and not for us, and that women were as well in the favour of 
God before they be purified as after ; and that it was appointed for 
a civil and politic law. They then argued with her till they had better 
instructed her, and at length shewed her the king's pardon, and liberated 
her. 

Besides this, many other actions equally benevolent, were known to 
originate from this zealous christian; insomuch, that the enemies of 
truth, instigated by envy, soon sought a means to interrupt the har- 
mony of him and his friend. So much virtue provoked envy in many. 
Among the rest of this number was Dr. Redman, a man favouring 
more of superstition than of true religion, after the zeal of the Pharisees, 
yet not so malignant or hurtful, but of a mild disposition, and also 
liberal in well doing, so that few poor scholars were in that university 
who fared not the better by his purse. He was a man of great authority 
in the university of Cambridge, and perceiving the boldness of Mr. 
Latimer, in publishing in sincerity the genuine truths of the gospel, 
endeavoured by a letter to persuade him from his manner of preaching. 
To this Mr. Latimer wrote the following laconic answer. 



BENEVOLENCE OF MR. LATIMER. 823 

*' Reverend Mr. Redman, it is even enough for me, that Christ's sheep 
hear no man's voice but Christ's: and as for you, you have no voice of 
Christ against me ; whereas for my part, I have a heart that is ready to 
hearken to any voice of Christ that you can bring me. Thus fare you 
well, and trouble me no more from talking with the Lord my God." 

Mr. Latimer having thus laboured in preaching and teaching in Cam- 
bridge about three years, was at length called up to Cardinal Wolsey for 
heresy, by the procurement of some of the university, where he was 
content to subscribe and grant to such articles as they then propounded 
to him. After that he again returned to the university, where shortly 
after, by the means of Dr. Butts, the king's physician, a singular good 
man, he was placed in the number of those who laboured in the cause of 
the king's supremacy. On this he went to the court, where he remained 
a certain time in Dr. Butts's chamber, and preached very often in 
London. At last being weary of the court, and having a benefice 
offered by the king, at the suit of the lord Cromwell and Dr. Butts, he 
gladly accepted it, and withdrew from the court, wherewith in no case, 
he could agree. 

The royal gift was at West Kingston, in Wiltshire, in the diocese of 
Sarum. Here this good preacher exercised himself with much diligence, 
teaching his flock and all the country about. In fine, his diligence was 
so great, his preaching so powerful, the manner of his teaching so 
zealous, that there also he could not escape enemies. So true it is what 
St. Paul foretelleth us — " Whosoever will live godly in Christ shall suffer 
persecution." It so happened, that as he was preaching upon the Virgin 
Mary, and reserving all honour to Christ our only Saviour, certain popish 
priests being therewith offended, sought and created much trouble against 
him, drawing out articles and impositions which they falsely and un- 
charitably imputed unto him — That he should preach against our Lady, 
for that he reproved in a sermon the superstitious rudeness of certain 
blind priests, who taught that she never had any sin, and that she was 
not saved by Christ — that he should say, that saints were not to be wor- 
shipped — that Ave Maria was a salutation only, and no prayer — that 
there was no material fire in hell — and that there was no purgatory, 
trifling with the subject and saying, that he had rather be in purgatory 
than in Lollard's Tower. 

The chief enemies and molesters of him, besides these country priests, 
were Dr. Powel, of Salisbury, Dr. Wilson, sometime of Cambridge, a 
Mr. Hubberdin, and Dr. Sherwood. Of whom some preached and some 
wrote against him ; insomuch that by their procurement he was cited up, 
and called to appear before Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, and 
Stokesly, bishop of London, January 29th, 1531. Against which cita- 
tion, although Mr. Latimer did appeal to his own ordinary, yet notwith- 
standing that, he was brought to London before Warham and Stokesly, 
where he was greatly molested, and detained a long time from his 
cure at home, being called thrice every week before the bishops, to 
make answer for his preaching, and had certain articles or propositions 
drawn out and laid to him, whereunto they required him to subscribe. 
At length he not only perceiving their practical proceedings, but being 



824 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM, 

also much grieved with their troublesome unquietness, who neither 
would preach themselves, not yet suffer him ; he wrote to the archbishop, 
partly excusing his infirmity, whereby he could not appear at their com- 
mandment, partly expostulating with them for so troubling and detain- 
ing him from doing his duty, and that for no just cause, but only for 
preaching the truth against certain vain abuses crept into religion, much 
needful to be spoken against. The letter is as follows. 

" MOST REVEREND GOVERNOR, 

" Had not sickness prevented me, I had myself waited on you at 
your palace; but these fresh troubles have brought on me a sharp 
return of an old distemper, so that I can't be able to wait on you to- 
day without great pain ; but that your lordship might no longer in vain 
expect my coming, I have sent these lines scribbled with mine own hand 
to your grace, as to a most upright judge, of my excuse, in which I wish 
I had more time or more judgment to frame a just expostulation with 
your grace for detaining me so long against my will from my cure, and 
that so unseasonably, at a time when it most behoves every pastor to be 
with his flock. But what shall I say, if it is lawful for so mean a 
prisoner to plead with so great a father? If we esteem a priest good for 
doing his duty, who, while he remains in this earthly tabernacle, never 
ceaseth to teach and admonish his congregation, and so much the more 
as he draws nearer his last home, what must we think of those who 
neither preach themselves now, nor permit those who are desirous to do 
it, unless they are bound to do and say nothing but what they please. 
At first I thought it safe to submit myself entirely to your clemency, but 
now it seems as safe to justify myself a little, since one thing was 
pretended in the beginning, but now another, and what will be the end 
I have great room to doubt; but I hope truth only will be used. First 
I was sent to London, where I was before the court of Canterbury; 
then all was stopped that had been done, and the matter had bounds 
and limits set to it by him who sent me; but so the business was 
handled and brought into doubt, that at length there seemed no end of 
it, but that it must be infinitely prolonged. For while, without either 
method or design, I was questioned of one thing after another, whether 
pertinent or impertinent, now by one and then by another, if I gave 
them no answer, or if I answered them to the purpose — which I thought 
was not imprudent sometimes to put an end to the dispute — I was 
equally uncivil ; while one answers to many and of many things, he 
may inadvertently say something that may prejudice the most righteous 
cause. None ought to judge me wicked for what at most they can call 
but an error of conscience ; and to remember all things, it behoves a 
man to remember the foundation of the other world. When a man acts 
against conscience, he doth it to gain, to maintain, or defend his own ; 
but what they charge me with is far different, and I believe without ex- 
ample, wickedly requesting to know the cause of my confinement. If 
any person is disposed to attack my sermons, that they are obscure, or 
not cautiously enough worded, I am prepared either to explain or vindi- 
cate them, for I never preached any thing against the truth, against the 
councils of the fathers, or the catholic faith. All that my adversaries 
or detractors truly charge me with, is what I have long desired, and do 



LATIMER'S EPISTLE. 825 

desire, namely, the improving the common people's judgment. I 
heartily desire that all men might know and comprehend the disagree- 
ment of things, the worth, place, time, degrees, and order proper for 
each, and how much they are concerned in those things which God has 
prepared for them to walk in : every man ought to be very diligent in 
doing the works of his calling; after which, many things indifferent 
may be done with equal diligence, amongst which are all things which 
no law has forbid, unless we forbid them to ourselves. It is lawful 
to use images, to go on pilgrimages, to invocate saints, to remember 
the souls in purgatory, but these which are voluntary acts are to be so 
restrained, that they diminish not the just esteem of the precepts 
of God, which bestow eternal life on those who follow them : they who 
use them otherwise, are so far from gaining the love of God, that they 
rather incur his hatred. The true love of God is to keep his command- 
ments, as our Saviour says, ' He who heareth my words and doeth them, 
he it is who loveth me.' Let no man then have so mean an opinion of 
the laws of God, as to make them equal to the fancies of men, since by 
those at the last day before the tribunal of Christ we shall all be judged, 
and not by these; as Christ says, 'The word that I speak, that shall 
judge you at the last day:' and what man is able to make amends for 
the breach of one of those commands, by any or all of these specious 
additions? O that we would be but as ready, as diligent, as devoted to 
do his will, as we are to follow our own empty notions! Many things 
done with an upright heart God accepts of, making allowance for our 
infirmities, though he has not commanded or required them; but these 
things ought to be taken away when they begin to have the force of 
commands, lest while we do these we omit those that are absolutely 
necessary; and what can be more absurd than to revere as ordinances 
of God, the idle fancies of men, whilst his true ordinances are neglect- 
ed : whence I in behalf of the commandments of God stand hitherto 
immoveable, not seeking my own but Christ's gain, not my own but 
God's glory: and whilst I live I will stand steadfast. 

" Thus all the German divines have hitherto complained of the intoler- 
able abuse of these things, that no man desirous of the glory of Christ can 
accept of the ministry without doing what is against his conscience, and 
if some have submitted to this hardship purely to do good, yet what doth 
the christian religion suffer by it? unless we are so miserably blinded as 
to think that these things are to be dispensed with for our own filthy 
gain, though they are not for the honour of God. Now who can justify 
the constant practice of such things which in themselves are highly 
criminal? Some things are constantly performed which ought never, 
while others are omitted which ought always to be done : now who can- 
not see this manifest abuse? And who sees, and does not grieve? And 
who grieves, that would not labour to remove it? And when shall it be 
removed, while it is constantly preached and commended ? Why, it is 
hardly possible for it not to be universal. It is one thing barely to 
permit, and another to enforce as law. ' Go,' says Christ, ' and teach 
the people whatsoever I have commanded you.' Let us therefore, by 
the help of God, go and do this; let us employ our whole strength to 
preach the sincere word of God, not to flatter or cook up our sermons 



826 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to men's depraved taste, then shall we be true preachers of God's word. 
Careless as men are in what relates to God, they are diligent enough in 
what relates to themselves, to this they want no spurs; but they are 
miserably deceived by an unjust esteem of things, and an early super- 
stition received in their tender years from their forefathers, which we 
are hardly able to remember by any preaching, how frequent, how 
earnest, how sincere and pure soever, which God doth now permit; 
for in these evil days they who ought to preach themselves, forbid them 
to preach who are willing and able, and on the contrary, compel time- 
servers, who damnably detain the miserable people in superstition and 
false confidence; but the Lord have mercy upon us, and grant we may 
know his way upon earth, not to be found amongst those to whom he 
says, ' My ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your 
thoughts. ' Hence I dare not subscribe to these propositions, most 
honoured father, because I would no ways be accessary to the longer 
continuance of these popular superstitions, lest I should be the author 
of my own damnation. Were I worthy, I would even give you some 
advice, but that impertinent thing, the heart, can do little else than 
guess, none knowing the things of a man but the spirit of a man which 
is in him. It is not any pride that hinders me from subscribing to these 
propositions; on the contrary, I am very sorry I cannot wholly perform 
your request. I know how great a crime it is to disobey the fathers 
and governors of the church, but then regard is to be had to what they 
command, in which case we ought always to obey God rather than man. 

" My head aches so much ; and my body is so weak, that I can neither 
come, nor write over again and correct these lines; but your lordship 
I hope, will approve, if not the judgment, yet the endeavours of your 
lordship's devoted servant." 

The ; several articles which he was required by the bishops to subscribe 
were these — " I believe that there is a purgatory to purge the souls of the 
dead after this life; that the souls in purgatory are holpen with the 
masses, prayers, and alms of the living; that the saints do pray as 
mediators now for us in heaven ; that they are to be honoured by us in 
heaven; that it is profitable for Christians to call upon the saints, that 
they may pray as mediators for us unto God ; that pilgrimages and obla- 
tions done to the sepulchres and relics of saints are meritorious; that 
they which have vowed perpetual chastity may not marry, nor break 
their vow, without the dispensation of the pope; that the keys of binding 
and loosing, delivered to Peter, do still remain with the bishops of Rome 
his successors, although they live wickedly, and are by no means, nor 
at any time, committed to laymen; that men may merit and deserve at 
God's hand by fasting, prayer, and other good works of piety; that they 
which are forbidden by the bishop to preach, as suspected persons, ought 
to cease until they have purged themselves before the said bishop, or 
their superiors, and be restored again; that the fast which is used in Lent 
and other fasts prescribed by the canons, and by custom received of 
the Christians, are to be observed and kept; that God in every one of 
the seven sacraments giveth grace to a man, rightly receiving the same; 
that consecrations, sanctifyings, and blessings, by use and custom received 
in the church, are laudable and profitable; that it is laudable and pro- 



ARTICLES PRESENTED TO LATIMER. 827 

fitable, that the venerable images of the crucifix and other saints should 
be had in the churches as a remembrance, and to the honour and wor- 
ship of Jesus Christ and his saints; that it is laudable and profitable to 
deck and to clothe those images, and set up burning lights before them 
to the honour of the said saints." 

To these articles, whether he did subscribe or not, it is uncertain. It 
appears by his letter above, that he durst not consent to them ; for he 
says — " I dare not subscribe to these propositions, because I would no 
ways be accessary to the longer continuance of these popular supersti- 
tions, lest I be the author of my own damnation." But whether he was 
compelled afterwards to agree, through the cruel dealings of the 
bishops, remains a doubt. By the words and the title in Tonstal's 
register prefixed before the articles, it may seem that he did subscribe. 
The words of the register are these — "Hugh Latimer, bachelor of 
divinity, of the university of Cambridge, in a convocation held at West- 
minster before the lord archbishop of Canterbury, the lord bishop of 
London, and the rest of the clergy, has acknowledged and made the 
following confession of his faith, as in these articles, March 21st, 1531." 
If these words be true, it may be thought that he subscribed. But it 
ought to be received with great doubt, considering the subtlety, artifice, 
and want of candour, that prevailed amongst the Romish party. The 
following curious incident was related by himself in a sermon preached 
at Stamford, October 9th, 1550. 

" I was once in examination before five or six bishops, where I had 
much trouble: thrice every week I came to examinations, and many 
snares and traps were laid to get something. Now God knoweth I was 
ignorant of the law, but that God gave me wisdom what I should speak ; 
it was God indeed, or else I had never escaped them. At last I was 
brought forth to be examined into a chamber hung with arras, where 
I was wont to be examined : but now at this time the chamber was 
somewhat altered. For whereas before there was wont always to be a 
fire in the chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an arras hung 
over the chimney, and the table stood near the fire-place. There was 
amongst the bishops who examined me, one with whom I had been very 
familiar, and took him for my great friend, an aged man, and he sat 
next to the table's end. Then amongst other questions he put forth a 
very subtle and crafty one, and such an one indeed, as I could not think 
so great danger in. And when I should make answer, one said, 'I 
pray you, Mr. Latimer, speak out, I am very thick of hearing, and here 
may be many that sit far off.' I marvelled at this that I was bid to 
speak out, and begun to suspect, and give an ear to the chimney ; and 
there I heard a pen writing in the chimney behind the cloth. They had 
appointed one there to write all mine answers, for they made sure that 
I should not start from them: there was no starting from them. God 
was my good Lord, and gave me answer, I could never else have 
escaped it." 

The question then and there objected to him was — Whether he thought 
in his conscience that he had been suspected of heresy ? This was a cap- 
tious question. There was no holding of peace; for that was to grant 
himself faulty. To answer it was everyway full of danger. But God, 



828 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

who always giveth in need what to answer, helped him, or else he had 
never escaped their bloody hands. Although what was his answer he 
doth not there express. 

Amongst these hard and dangerous straits, it had been hard for him, 
and almost impossible to have escaped and continued so long, had not 
the almighty helping hand of the Highest preserved him through the 
power of his prince; who with much favour embraced him, and with his 
mere power sometimes rescued and delivered him out of the crooked 
claws of his enemies. Moreover, at length, also through the interest of 
Dr. Butts and lord Cromwell, he advanced him to the dignity of a bishop, 
namely, bishop of Worcester. It were too long to stand particularly 
upon such things as might be brought to the commendation of this pious 
prelate; but the days then were so dangerous and variable, that he could 
not in all things do what he would. Yet what he could do, that he per- 
formed to the utmost of his strength, so that although he was not utterly 
able to extinguish all the sparkling relics of superstition, yet he so 
wrought that they were, in a great measure, lessened of their evil. As 
for example, in this thing, and divers others, it appeared that when it 
could not be avoided, but that holy water and holy bread must needs 
be received, yet so he prepared and instructed them of his diocese, with 
such informations and lessons, that in receiving thereof superstition 
should be excluded, and some remembrance taken thereby, teaching 
and charging the ministers of his diocese, in delivering the holy water 
and the holy bread, to use these forms. On giving the water, which 
had been blessed, they were to say to the people — 

" Remember your promise in baptizing ; 
Christ, his mercy and blood-shedding, 
By whose most holy sprinkling, 
Of all your sins you have free pardoning." 

And on giving the people the consecrated bread, they were to say — 

" Of Christ's body this is a token, 
Which on the cross for our sins was broken : 
Wherefore of your sins you must be foisakers, 
If of Christ's death you will be partakers." 

Thus this good man behaved himself in his diocese. But still, both 
in the university and at his benefice, he was tossed and troubled by 
wicked and evil disposed persons; so in his bishopric also, he was not 
free from some that sought his trouble. As among many other evil 
willers, one especially there was, and he no small person, who accused 
him then to the king for his sermons. He thus explained himself in 
another discourse — " In the king's days that is dead, a great many of 
us were called together before him, to speak our minds in certain matters. 
In the end one kneeleth down and accuseth me of having preached 
seditious doctrine. A heavy salutation, and a hard point of such a man's 
doing, as if I should name you would not think. The king turned to 
me and said — ' What say you to that, Sir?' Then I kneeled down, and 
turned first to my accuser, and asked him — « Sir, what form of preach- 
ing would you appoint me in preaching before a king? Would you 



PREACHING OF LATIMER BEFORE KING EDWARD. 829 

have me preach nothing as concerning a king in a king's sermon? 
Have you any commission to appoint me what I shall preach ?' Besides 
this, I asked him divers other questions, and he would make no answer 
to any of them all ; he had nothing to say. 

" Then I turned to the king, and submitted myself to his grace, and 
said — ' I never thought myself worthy, nor did I ever sue to be a 
preacher before your grace, but I was called to it, and would be willing 
to give place to my betters; for I grant that there be a great many 
more worthy of the room, than I am. And if it be your grace's plea- 
sure so to allow them for preachers, I could be content to carry their 
books after them. But if your grace allow me for a preacher, I would 
desire you to give me leave to discharge my conscience, and thus to 
frame my doctrine according to my audience. I had been a very 
blockhead to have preached so at the borders of your realm, as I preach 
before your grace.' And I thank Almighty God that my sayings were 
well accepted of the king; for like a gracious lord he turned into an- 
other communication. It is even as the scripture saith — 'The Lord 
directeth the king's heart.' Some of my friends came to me with tears 
in their eyes, and told me, they expected I should have been in the 
Tower the same night." 

Besides this, divers other conflicts and combats this godly bishop 
sustained in his own country and diocese, in taking the cause of right 
and equity against oppression and wrong. Thus he continued in his 
laborious function of a bishop till the coming in of the six articles. Then 
being distressed through the straitness of time, he must either sacrifice 
a good conscience, or else forsake his bishopric ; the latter of which he 
freely did, and Dr. Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury, resigned likewise with 
him. At which time he threw off his rochet in his chamber among his 
friends, and suddenly gave a leap for joy, on being discharged of 
such a heavy burden. However, he was not so lightened, but that 
troubles and labours followed him wheresoever he went. For a little 
after he renounced his bishopric, he was much bruised by the fall of a 
tree: then coming up to London for remedy, he was molested and 
troubled by the bishops, and was at length sent to the Tower, where he 
remained prisoner till king Edward came to the crown, by which means 
the golden mouth of this preacher, long shut up before, was now opened 
again. He continued all the reign of Edward labouring in the Lord's 
harvest most fruitfully, discharging his talent at Stamford, and before 
the duchess of Suffolk, and many other places in this realm, as at Lon- 
don in the Convocation-house, and especially before the king at the 
court. In the inner garden, which had been applied to lascivious and 
courtly pastimes, there he dispensed the fruitful word of the glorious 
gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching before the king and his whole court, 
to the edification of many; for the most part twice every Sunday, 
although being so bruised by the fall of a tree, and above sixty-seven 
years of age. 

As the diligence of this man of God never ceased all the time of king 
Edward, to profit the church both publicly and privately, so it is like- 
wise to be observed, that the same good Spirit of God who assisted and 
comforted him in preaching the gospel, did also enable him to foretell 



830 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

all those plagues which afterwards ensued ; if England ever had a pro- 
phet, he seemed to be one. And for himself, he ever affirmed that the 
preaching of the gospel would cost him his life, to which he no less cheer- 
fully prepared himself; for after the death of king Edward, and not 
long after Mary was proclaimed queen, a pursuivant was sent down 
into the country to call him up, of whose coming, although Mr. Latimer 
lacked no forewarning, being informed thereof about six hours before 
by one John Careless, yet he was so far from endeavouring to escape, 
that he prepared himself for his journey before the officer came to his 
house. 

At this the pursuivant marvelled, when Mr. Latimer said unto him — 
" My friend, you are a welcome messenger unto me. And be it known 
unto you and to all the world, that I go as willingly to London at this 
present, being called by my prince to render a reckoning of my doctrine, 
as ever I was at any place in the world. I doubt not but that God, as he 
hath made me worthy to preach his word before two excellent princes, so 
will he able me to witness the same unto the third, either to her comfort 
or discomfort eternally." When the pursuivant had delivered his letters, 
he departed, affirming that he had command not to wait for him. By this 
it was manifest that they would not have had him appear, but rather to 
have fled out of the realm, knowing that his constancy would deface them 
in their popery, and confirm the godly in the truth. 

Coming up to London, and entering by Smithfield he merrily said, 
that Smithfield had long groaned for him. He was then brought before 
the council, where he patiently bearing all the mocks and taunts given 
him by the scornful papists, was again sent to the Tower: there being 
assisted by the heavenly grace of Christ, he meekly endured imprison- 
ment a long time, notwithstanding the cruel and unmerciful usage of his 
enemies, who then thought their kingdom would never fall; yet he 
shewed himself not only patient, but also merry and cheerful, above all 
that they could work against him : yea, such a valiant spirit the Lord 
gave him, that he was able not only to despise the terrors of prisons and 
torments, but also to deride and laugh to scorn even the cruel proceed- 
ings of his enemies. It is well known to many what answer he made to 
the lieutenant when he was in the Tower. For when the lieutenant's 
man upon a time came to him, the aged father, kept without fire in the 
frosty winter, and well nigh starved with cold, bade the man tell his 
master, that if he did not look better after him, perchance he might 
deceive him — meaning by a premature death. 

The lieutenant hearing this, and not knowing what to make of so odd 
a speech, and fearing that he would in earnest make his escape, began 
to look more strictly to his prisoner, and so coming to him, charged him 
with his words, at the same time reciting them. His answer was — " So 
I said, for I suppose you expect that I should burn; but except you let 
me have some fire, I am like to deceive your expectation, for I am in 
danger of starving here with cold." Thus this good man passing a long 
time in the Tower, with as much patience as a man in his case could do, 
from thence was carried to Oxford, with Cranmer and Ridley, there to 
dispute upon articles sent down from Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, 
as before mentioned : the manner and order of which disputations be- 



LATIMER'S COMMUNICATION TO MR. MORRICE. 831 

tween them and the university doctors, having been sufficiently expressed. 
Where also is declared, how and by whom Mr. Latimer, with his fellow- 
prisoners, were condemned after disputations, and so committed again 
to the prison, where they continued from the month of April till October, 
occupied either with brotherly conference, fervent prayer, or fruitful 
writing. 

Mr. Latimer, by reason of the feebleness of his age, wrote least of all 
the distinguished martyrs of the day, especially in the latter time of his 
imprisonment; but in prayer he was fervently occupied, earnestly sending 
up to the throne of grace the following among numerous other petitions 
— That as God had appointed him to be a preacher of his word, so also 
he would give him grace to stand to his doctrine until his death. That 
God of his great mercy would restore his gospel to England once again. 
That of his good providence he would preserve the lady Elizabeth, whom 
in his prayer he used to name, and even with tears desiring God to make 
her a comfort to England. The answer to this prayer especially reminds 
us that " the prayer of a righteous man availeth much." So it appeared 
in the present case : indeed all the requests of this faithful servant were 
fully granted. His letters were equal to his prayers. Many of them were 
written in Latin ; and they are so numerous and so long, that our limits 
will not admit of their insertion. 

The following is a letter of Master Latimer to Master Morrice, con- 
cerning the articles which were falsely and untruly laid against him : — 

" Right worshipful and mine own good master Morrice, health in 
Christ Jesus. And I thank you, for all hearty kindness, not only here- 
tofore shewed unto me, but also that now of late you would vouchsafe 
to write unto me, so poor a wretch, to my great comfort among all these 
my troubles, I trust and doubt nothing in it, but God will reward you 
for me, and abundantly supply my inability. Mr. Morrice, you would 
wonder to know how I have been treated at Bristol, I mean by some of 
the priests, who first desired me, welcomed me, made me cheer, heard 
what I said, and allowed my saying in all things while I was with them ; 
but when I was gone home to my benefice, perceiving that the people 
favoured me so greatly, and that the mayor had appointed me to preach 
at Easter, privily they procured an inhibition for all them that had not 
the bishop's license, which they knew well enough I had not, and so 
craftily defeated master mayor's appointment, pretending they were 
sorry for it, procuring also certain preachers to rail against me, as 
Hubberdin and Powel, with others ; whom when I had brought before 
the mayor, and the wise council of the town, to know what they could 
lay to my charge, wherefore they so declaimed against me, they said 
they spake as they were informed. However no man could be brought 
forth that could stand to any thing: so that they had place and time 
to belie me shamefully, but they had no place or time to lay to my 
charge when I was present and ready to make them answer. God 
amend them, and assuage their malice, that they have against the 
truth and me. 

" They did belie me to have said that our Ladv was a sinner, when I 



832 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

had said nothing of the sort; but to reprove certain, both priests and 
beneficed men, which do give so much to our Lady, as though she had 
not been saved by Christ, a whole Saviour, both of her, and of all that 
be or shall be saved. I did reason after this manner, that either she 
was a sinner, or no sinner; if a sinner, then she was delivered from sin 
by Christ; so that he saved her, either by delivering or preserving her 
from sin, so that without him neither she nor any other could be saved. v 
And to avoid all offence, I shewed how it might be answered, both to 
certain scriptures, which maketh all generally sinners, and also unto 
Chrysostom and Theophylact, who make her namely and specially a 
sinner. But all would not serve, their malice was so great; notwith- 
standing that .500 honest men can and will bear record. When they 
cannot reprove that thing that I do say, then will they belie me to say 
that thing which they can reprove; for they will needs appear to be 
against me." 

This was not the only subject of calumny which Latimer's enemies 
took up. He proceeds thus to describe them. 

" So they lied when I had shewn certain divers significations of this 
word 'saints' among the vulgar people: First, images of saints are called 
saints, and so they are not to be worshipped : take worshipping of them 
for praying to them ; for they are neither mediators by way of redemp- 
tion, nor yet by way of intercession. And yet they may be well used 
when they be applied to the uses for which they were ordained, to be 
laymen's books for remembrance of heavenly things, exciting the living 
to ' follow them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' 
Take saints for inhabitants of heaven, and worshipping of them, for 
praying to them; I never denied, but that they might be worshipped, 
and be our mediators, though not by way of redemption, in which Christ 
alone is a whole Mediator, both for them and for us ; yet by the way of 
intercession. w 

"Although they have charged me with denying pilgrimage, I never 
denied it. And yet I have said that much scurf must be pared away, 
ere ever it can be well done : superstition, idolatry, false faith, and trust 
in the pilgrimage, unjust estimation of the thing, setting aside God's 
ordinances for doing of the thing; debts must be paid, restitution made, 
wife and children must be provided for, duty to our neighbours dis- 
charged. And when it is at the best, before it be vowed, it need not be 
done, for it is neither under the command of God nor man to be done. 

v Mary was indeed, according to the salutation of Elizabeth, highly blessed among 
women in bearing that sacred body wherein her God became incarnate; but still she was 
a daughter of Adam, and consequently not without sin, and needing the atoning blood 
of Christ and his righteousness, as much as any of her fellow creatures — a fact indirectly 
conveyed by the words of Christ himself, who, when a certain woman exclaimed — "Blessed 
is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked ! " — answered " Yea, 
rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it." Nothing can be clearer 
than that a humble believer in Christ is superior to the virgin as such, and that her chief 
excellence consists in her own humble and holy faith in his salvation. 

w This may seem a harmless opinion ; but no warrant for it can be drawn from scripture. 
We see neither in the Prophets nor the Apostles any examples of praying to saints. Alf 
requests are to be made known unto God through Christ, Psa. xlv. 17; Ixxii. 15; Acts 
iv. 12 ; Phil, ii 9—11 ; 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6; Heb. ix. 14, 15. 



GODLY LETTERS OF HUGH LATIMER. 833 

And wives must advise with their husbands, and husbands and wives with 
curates, before it be vowed to be done, etc. 

''As for the Ave Maria, a who can think that I would deny it? I said it 
was a heavenly greeting or saluting of our blessed Lady, wherein the 
angel Gabriel, sent from the Father of heaven, did annunciate and shew 
unto her the good-will of God towards her, what he would with her, 
and to what he had chosen her. But I said it was not properly a prayer 
as the Pater Noster, which our Saviour Christ himself made for a pro- 
per prayer, and bid us to say it for a prayer, not adding that we should 
say ten or twenty Ave Marias withal : and I denied not but that we may 
well say Ave Maria also, but not so that we shall think that the Pater 
Noster is not good, a whole and perfect prayer, and cannot be well said 
without Ave Maria: so that I did not speak against the well saying 
of it, but against the superstitious saying of it, and of the Pater Noster 
too; and yet I put a difference betwixt it, and that which Christ made 
to be said for a prayer. 

"Whoever could think or say that I alleged that there was no fire 
whatever in hell ? However, good authors do make a difference betwixt 
suffering in the fire with bodies, and without bodies. The soul without 
the body is a spiritual substance, which they say cannot receive a cor- 
poreal quality; and some make it a spiritual fire, and some a corporeal 
fire. And as it is called a fire, so it is called a worm, and it is thought 
of some not to be a material worm, that is, a living reptile, but it is a 
metaphor, but that is nothing to the purpose; for a fire it is, a worm it 
is, pain it is, torment it is, anguish it is, a grief, a misery, a sorrow, a 
heaviness inexplicable and intolerable, whose nature and condition in 
every point, who can tell, but he that is of God's privy council? God 
give us grace rather to be diligent to keep us out of it, than to be curious 
to discuss the property of it ; for certain we be, that there is little ease, 
yea, none at all, but weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, which be 
the effects of extreme pain, rather certain token what pain there is, than 
what manner of pain there is." 

The subject of Purgatory has already been before the reader in refer- 
ence to Latimer. He writes thus — 

" He that sheweth the state and condition of it, doth not deny it. 
But I had rather be in it than Lollard's Tower, the bishop's prison, for 
divers reasons. In this I might die bodily for lack of meat and drink; 
in that I could not. In this I might die spiritually for fear of pain, or 
lack of good counsel ; there I could not. In this I might be in extreme 
necessity ; in that I could not, if it be peril of perishing. In this I 
might lack charity ; there I could not. In this I might lose my 
patience; in that I could not. In this I might be in danger of death; 
in that I could not. In this I might be without surety of salvation ; in 
that I could not. In this I might dishonour God ; in that I could not. 
In this I might murmur and grudge against God; in that I could not. 

a To speak with the least harshness of this, it was certainly a work of supererogation 
and of will worship. Mr. Latimer, in these answers, doubtless discovers an apprehension 
of speaking the simple truth, which many of his brother martyrs were quite free from. 
This, however, was in an early part of his career; as he advanced he became more firm 
and clear, until all obscuritv vanished. 

3 ii 



834 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

In this I might displease God ; in that I could not. In this I might 
be displeased with God; in that I could not. In this I might be 
judged to perpetual prison, as they call it; in that I could not. In 
this I might be craftily handled ; in that I could not. In this I might 
be brought to bear a fagot; in that I could not. In this I might be 
discontented with God; in that I could not. In this I might be sepa- 
rated and dissevered from Christ; in that I could not. In this I might 
be a member of the devil ; in that I could not. In this I might be an 
inheritor of hell; in that I could not. In this I might pray out of 
charity, and in vain ; in that I could not. In this my lord and his 
chaplains might manacle me by night; in that they could not. In this 
they might strangle me, and say that I hanged myself; in that they 
could not. In this they might have me to the consistory, and judge 
me after their fashion ; from thence they could not. Therefore I had 
rather to be there than here. For though the fire be called ever so hot, 
yet if the bishop's two fingers can shake away a piece, a friar's cowl 
another part, and ' scali cceli ' altogether, I will never found abbey, 
college, nor chauntry, for that purpose. For seeing there is no pain 
that can break my charity, break my patience, cause me to dishonour 
God, to displease God, to be displeased with God, cause me not to joy 
in God, nor that can bring me to danger of death, or to danger of des- 
peration, or from surety of salvation, that can separate us from Christ, 
or Christ from us, I care the less for it. Chrysostom saith, the greatest 
pain that damned souls have, is to be separate and cut off from Christ 
for ever: which pain the souls in purgatory neither have nor can have. 

"Consider, Mr. Morrice, whether provision for purgatory hath not 
brought thousands to hell. Debts have not been paid ; restitution of 
evil-gotten lands and goods hath not been made; christian people whose 
necessities we see, to whom whatsoever we do Christ reputeth done to 
himself, to whom we are bound under pain of condemnation to do for, 
as we would be done for ourselves, are neglected and suffered to perish; 
last wills unfulfilled and broken ; God's ordinance set aside ; and also 
for purgatory, foundations have been taken for sufficient satisfaction; 
so we have trifled away the ordinances of God and restitutions. Thus 
we have gone to hell with masses, dirges, and ringing of many a bell. 
And who can pill pilgrimages from idolatry, and purge purgatory from 
robbery, but he shall be in peril to come in suspicion of heresy with 
them? so that they may fleece one with pilgrimage, and spoil with pur- 
gatory. And verily the abuse of them cannot be taken away, but 
great lucre and advantage shall fall away from them, who had rather 
have profit with abuse, than lack the same with use; and that is the 
wasp that doth sting them, and maketh them to swell. And if purgatory 
were purged of all that it hath gotten, by setting aside restitution, and 
robbing of Christ, it would be but a poor purgatory; so poor, that it 
should not be able to feed so fat, and trick up so many idle and slothful 
lubbers. 

" I take God to witness, I would hurt no man, but it grieveth rne to 
see such abuse continue without remedy. I cannot understand what 
they mean by the pope's pardoning of purgatory, but by way of suf- 
frage ; and as for suffrage, unless he do his duty, and seek not his own, 



GODLY LETTERS OF HUGH LATIMER. 835 

but Christ's glory, I had rather have the suffrage of Jack of the scullery, 
who in his calling doth exercise both faith and charity ; but for his mass. 
And that is as good of another simple priest as of him. For, as for au- 
thority of keys, it is to loose from guiltiness of sin and eternal pain, due to 
the same, according to Christ's word, and not to his own private will. 
And as for pilgrimage, you would wonder what juggling there is to get 
money withal. I dwell within half a mile of the Foss-way ; and you would 
wonder to see how they come by flocks out of the west country to many 
images, but chiefly to the blood of Hayles. And they believe verily that 
it is the very blood that was in Christ's body, shed upon the mount of 
Calvary for our salvation ; and that the sight of it with their bodily eye 
doth certify them, and putteth them out of doubt, that they be clean in 
life, and in state of salvation without spot of sin, which doth bolden them 
to do many things. For you would wonder if you should commune with 
them both coming and going what faith they have : for, as for forgiving 
their enemies, and reconciling their Christian brethren, they cannot away 
withal ; for the sight of that blood doth requite them for a time. 

" I read in Scripture of two certifications ; one to the Romans : ' We 
being justified by faith have peace with God.' If I see the blood 
of Christ with the eye of my soul, that is true faith, that his blood 
was shed for me, etc. Another in the epistle of St. John : ' We know 
that we are translated from death to life, because we love the brethren." 
But I read not that I have peace with God, or that I am translated from 
death to life, because I see with my bodily eye the blood of Hayles. It 
is very probable, that all the blood that was in the body of Christ, was 
united and knit to his Divinity, and then no part thereof shall return to 
his corruption. And I marvel that Christ shall have two resurrections. 
And if it were that they did violently and injuriously pluck it out of 
his body when they scourged him and nailed him to the cross, did see 
it with their bodily eye, yet they were not in clean life. And we see 
the self-same blood in form of wine, when we have consecrated, and 
may both see it, feel it, and receive it to our damnation, as touching 
bodily receiving. And many do see it at Hayles without confession, as 
they say. God knoweth all, and the devil in our time is not dead. 

" Christ hath left a doctrine behind him, wherein we be taught how to 
believe, and what to believe ; he doth suffer the devil to use his crafti- 
ness, for our trial and probation. It were little thank-worthy to believe 
well and rightly, if nothing should move us to false faith, and to be- 
lieve superstitiously. It was not in vain that Christ said, " Beware of 
false prophets." But we are secure and careless as though false pro- 
phets could not meddle with us, and as if the warning of Christ were no 
more earnest and effectual, than is the warning of mothers when they 
trifle with their children. Lo, Sir, how I run at riot beyond measure. 
When I began, I was minded to have written but half a dozen lines; 
but thus I forget myself, whenever I write to a trusty friend, who will 
take in worth my folly, and keep it from mine enemy. 

"As for Dr. Wilson, I know not what I should say: but I pray God 
endue him with charity. Neither he nor any of his countrymen did 
ever love me, since I did inveigh against their factions, and partiality in 
Cambridge. Before that, who was more favoured of him than I ? that 



83G HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

is the bile that may not be touched. A certain friend showed me, that 
Dr. Wilson is gone now into his country, about Beverley in Holderness, 
and from thence he will go a journey through Yorkshire, Lancashire, 
Cheshire, and so from thence to Bristol. What he intendeth by this 
progress God knoweth, and not I. If he come to Bristol, I shall hear. 

" As for Hubberdin he is a man of no great learning, nor yet of stable 
wit. He is here servus hominum ; for he will preach whatsoever the 
bishops will bid him. Verily in my mind they are more to be blamed 
than he. He doth magnify the pope more than enough. As for our 
Saviour Christ and christian kings, they are little beholden to him. No 
doubt he did miss the cushion in many things. Howbeit, they that did 
send him, men think, will defend him; I pray God amend him and 
them both. They would fain make matter against me, intending so 
either to deliver him by me, or else to rid us both together, and so they 
would think him well bestowed. 

"As touching Dr. Powel, how highly he took upon him in Bristol, and 
how little he regarded the sword, which representeth the king's person, 
many can tell you. I think there is never an earl in this realm that 
knoweth his obedience by Christ's commandment to his prince, and 
knoweth what the sword doth signify, that would have taken upon him 
so stoutly. However, master mayor, as he is a profound wise man, did 
flout him prettily; it were too long to write all. Our pilgrimages are 
not a little beholden to him, in favour of which he alleged this text : 
"Whoever leaveth father, house, wife, kindred, and his own life also 
for me, shall be my disciple." But that you may perceive his hot zeal 
and crooked judgment. Because I am so belied, I could wish that it 
would please the king's grace to command me to preach before his high- 
ness a whole year together every Sunday, that he himself might perceive 
how they belie me, saying, that I have neither learning nor utterance 
worthy thereunto. I pray you pardon me, I cannot make an end." 

Besides his letter to master Morrice, and two epistles in Latin, he also 
wrote other letters, as two to sir Edward Baynton, which contain much 
fruitful matter and worthy to be known, albeit space can here be had only 
for a few extracts. The letter from which these are given was an answer 
to one from Baynton, the purport of which is shown in Latimer's reply : 

" Either I am certain or uncertain that it is truth that I preach. If it be 
truth, why may not I say so, to courage my hearers to receive the same 
more ardently, and ensue it more studiously ? If I be uncertain, why dare 
I be so bold to preach it? And if your friends, in whom ye trust so greatly, 
be preachers themselves, after their sermon I pray you to ask them whether 
they be certain and sure that they taught you the truth or no ; and send 
me word what they say, that I may learn to speak after them. If they say 
they be sure, ye know what followeth : if they say they be unsure, when 
shall you be sure, that have so doubtful teachers and unsure ? And you 
yourselves, whether are you certain or uncertain that Christ is your Saviour? 
And so forth of other articles that ye be bounden to believe. 

" Our knowledge here, you say, is but ' per speculum in senigmate :' what 
then? ergo, it is not certain and sure. I deny your argument; yea, if it be 
by faith, it is much sure, 'because the certainty of faith is the most surest 
certainty;' there is a great discrepance between certain knowledge and clear 



GODLY LETTERS OF HUGH LATIMER. 837 

knowledge, for that may be of things absent that appear not, this re- 
quireth the presence of the object. I mean ot the thing known ; so that 
I certainly and surely know the thing which I perfectly believe, though 
I do not clearly and evidently know it. I know your school subtleties 
as well as you, which dispute as though enigmatical knowledge, that is 
to say. dark and obscure knowledge, might not be certain and sure 
knowledge, because it is not clear, manifest, and evident knowledge; and 
yet there have been which have had a zeal, but not after knowledge. True 
it is there have been such, and yet are too many to the great hindrance 
of Christ's glory, which nothing doth more obscure, than a he: zeal 
accompanied with ^reat authority without right judgment. There have 
been also, which have had knowledge without any zeal of God, who 
holding the verity of God in unrighteousness, shall be beaten with many 
stripes, while they knowing the will of God do nothing thereafter. I 
mean not among Turks and Saracens that be unchristened, but of them 
that be christened. And there have been also, they that have lost the 
spiritual knowledge of God's word which they had before, because they 
have not followed after it. nor promoted the same, but rather with their 
mother's wits have impugned the wisdom of the Father, and hindered 
the knowledge thereof, which therefore hath been taken away from them ; 
that Christ may be justified in his sayings, and overcome when he is 
judged : threatening to him that hath not. that also which he hath 
(that is, that which he seemeth to have) shall be taken from him : be- 
cause to abuse that which a man hath, or not use it well, is as not to 
have it ; and also seeing it is true, that God's wisdom will not dwell in 
a body subject to sin, albeit it abound in carnal wisdom too much : for 
the mere carnal and philosophical understanding of God's Scriptures is 
not the wisdom of God, which is hid from the wise, and is revealed to 
little ones. And if to call this or that truth requireth a deep and pro- 
found knowledge, then every man hath either a deep and profound 
knowledge, or else no man can call this or that truth ; and it behoveth 
every preacher to have this deep and profound knowledge, that he may 
call this or that truth, which this or that he taketh in hand to preach 
for the truth ; and yet he may be ignorant and uncertain in many 
things, as Apollos was ; but which things he will not attempt to preach 
for the truth. As for myself. I trust in God I have mv senses well 
enough exercised to discern good and evil in those things/which (beincr. 
without deep and profound knowledge in many things) I preach not : 
yea, there be many things in Scripture in the which I cannot certainly 
discern • bonum et malum' — I mean, ' verum et fa Is urn ' — not with all 
tiie exercise that I have in Scripture, nor yet with help of all interpreters 
that I have, to content myself and others in all scrupulosity that may 
arise ; but in such I am wont to wade no further into the stream, than 
that I may either go over or else return back again, having ever respect, 
not to the ostentation of my little wit, but to the edification of them 
that hear me, as far forth as I can. neither passing mine own nor vet their 
capacity. 

"And such manner ot^ argumentations might well serve the devil contra 
pusillanimes, to occasion them to wander and waver in the faith, and to 
be uncertain in things in which they ought to be certain : or else it may 



838 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

appear to make and serve against such preachers as will define great 
subtleties and high matters in the pulpit, which no man can be certain 
and sure of by God's word to be truth, unless a man had a superlative 
sense to discern good and evil. — Such arguments might appear to make 
well against such preachers, not against me, which simply and plainly 
utter true faith and the fruits of the same, which be the good works of 
God, that he hath prepared for us to walk in, every man to do the 
thing that pertaineth to his office and duty in his degree and calling, as 
the word appointeth, which thing a man may do with soberness, having 
a sense but indifferently exercised to discern good and evil. For it is 
but foolish humility, willingly to continue always an infant in Christ 
and in infirmity. In reproof of which it was said — " Ye have need of 
milk and not of strong meat." For St. Paul saith not — " Be ye humble, 
so as to deceive yourselves by ignorance." For though he would not that 
we should think arrogantly of ourselves, and above what it becometh 
us to think of ourselves, but so to think of ourselves that we may be 
sober and modest; yet he biddeth us so to think of ourselves, as God 
hath distributed to every one the measure of faith. For he that may 
not with meekness think in himself what God hath done for him, and 
of himself as God hath done for him, how shall he, or when shall he 
give due thanks to God for his gifts? And if your friends will not allow 
the same, I pray you inquire of them, whether they may with sobriety 
and modesty follow St. Paul's advice, where he saith unto us all — " Be 
not children in understanding, but in maliciousness be ye infants." God 
give us all grace to keep the mean, and to think of ourselves neither 
too high nor too low, but so that we may restore unto him who hath 
sent abroad his gifts again, with good use of the same, so that we do 
our part with the same, to the glory of God. 

" I pray you what mean your friends by a Christian congregation? All 
those who have been baptised? But many of those be in a worse con- 
dition, and shall have greater damnation, than many unbaptised. For 
it is not enough to a christian congregation that is of God, to have 
been baptised : but it is to be considered what we promise when we are 
baptised, to renounce satan, his works, his pomps. Which things if we 
busy not ourselves to do, let us not boast that we profess Christ's name 
in a Christian congregation in one baptism. And whereas they add, ' in 
one Lord,' I read in Matt, xvii., ' Not every one that saith Lord, Lord,' etc. 
And in Luke the Lord himself complaineth and rebuketh such professors 
and confessors, saying to them, 'Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do 
not that I bid you?' Even as though it were enough to a Christian man, 
or to a Christian congregation, to say every day, ' Domine, dominus noster,' 
and to salute Christ with a double ' domine.' But I would your friends 
would take the pains to read over Chrysostome, super Matthseum, horn. 49. 
cap. 24, to learn to know a Christian congregation, if it will please them to 
learn at him. And whereas they add, * in one faith.' St. James saith 
boldly, ' Show me thy faith by thy works.' And St. Jerome, ' If we 
believe, we show the truth in working.' And the Scripture saith, ' He that 
believeth God, attendeth to his commandments :' and the devils do believe 
to their little comfort. I pray God to save you and your friends from that 
believing congregation, and from that faithful company ! 



GODLY LETTERS OF HUGH LATIMER. 839 

" But now your friends have learned of St. John, that ' every one that 
confesseth Jesus Christ in flesh, is of God : ' and I have learned of St. Paul, 
that there have been, not among the heathen, but among the Christians, 
which confess Christ with their mouth, and deny him with their acts : so 
that St. Paul should appear to expound St. John, saving that I will not 
affirm anything as of myself, but leave it to your friends to show you, 
1 utrum qui factis negant Christum et vita sint ex Deo necne per solam oris 
confessionem : ' for your friends know well enough by the same St. John, 
1 qui ex Deo est, non peccat : ' and there both have been and be now too 
many, ' which with mouth only confess Christ to be come in the flesh ; ' 
but will not effectually hear the word of God, by consenting to the same, 
notwithstanding that St. John saith— ' He who is of God, heareth God's 
word ; you hear not, because you are not of God/ And many shall hear, 

* I never knew you,' which shall not alonely be christened, but also shall 

* prophetare,' and do puissant things in the name of Christ. St. Paul 
said, there would come ravening wolves, which would not spare the flock : 
meaning of them who should with their lips confess Christ in the flesh, and 
yet usurp the office ; which Christ biddeth us beware of, saying, « They shall 
come in sheep's clothing;' not feeding, but smiting their fellows, eating and 
drinking with the drunken, which shall have their portion with hypocrites. 
They are called servants, I suppose, because they confess Christ in the 
flesh; and naughty they are called, because they deny him in their 
deeds, not giving meat in due season, and exercising mastership over 
the flock. And yet your friends reason as though there could none 
bark and bite at true preachers, but they that be unchristened, notwith- 
standing that St. Augustine, upon the same epistle of St. John, calleth 
such confessors of Christ, antichrist; and so making division, not be- 
tween christened and unchristened, but between christians and anti- 
christians, when neither tongue nor pen can divide the antichristian 
from their blind folly. 

" Sir, I have had more business in my little cure since I spake with you, 
what with sick folks, and what with matrimonies, than I have had since 
I came to it, or than I would have thought a man should have in a great 
cure. I wonder how men can go quietly to bed, who have great and 
many cures, and yet peradventure are in none of them all. But I pray 
you to tell none of your friends that I spake so foolishly, lest I make a 
dissension in a christian congregation, and divide a sweet and peaceable 
union, or as many as may rest with this in such an age. Sir, I had just 
made an end of this scribbling, and was beginning to transcribe it more 
correctly, but there came a man of my lord of Farley's, with a citation 
to appear before my lord of London in haste, to be punished for such 
excesses as I committed at my last being there, so that I could not 
nerform my purpose; I doubt whether you can read it as it is If you 
can, well be it; if not, I pray you send it me again, and that you so 
do, whether you can read it or not. Jesus, mercy, what a world is this, 
that I should be put to so great labour and pains, besides great charges, 
above my power, for preaching a poor simple sermon ! But I think 
our Saviour Christ said true, I must needs suffer: so dangerous a thing 
it is to live virtuously with Christ, yea, in a christian congregation. God 
make us all Christians, after the right fashion, Amen." 



840 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Master Latimer growing in some favour with the king, and seeing the 
great decay of Christ's religion by reason of proclamations forbidding the 
reading of God's holy Scriptures, and touched therefore with the zeal of 
conscience, directed unto king Henry a long letter, thereby intending by 
all means possible to persuade the king's mind to set open again the freedom 
of God's holy word amongst his subjects. The whole letter would well 
repay perusal, but space will only serve to exhibit the following extracts : 

" To the most mighty prince, king of England, Henry the Eighth, grace, 
mercy, and peace from God the Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ. The 
holy doctor, St. Augustine, in an epistle which he wrote to Casalandus, 
saith, that he which for fear of any power hideth the truth, provoketh the 
wrath of God to come upon him, for he feareth men more than God. And 
according to the same, the holy St. John Chrysostom saith, that he is not 
only a traitor to the truth, which openly for truth teacheth a lie ; but he also 
which doth not freely pronounce and show the truth that he knoweth. 
These sentences, most redoubted king, when I read now of late, and 
marked them earnestly in the inward parts of mine heart, they made me 
sore afraid, troubled, and vexed me grievously in my conscience ; and at 
the last drave me to this strait, that either I must show forth such things 
as I have read and learned in Scripture, or else be of that sort who provoke 
the wrath of God upon them, and be traitors unto the truth : the which 
thing, rather than it should happen, I had rather suffer extreme punishment. 

" First, and before all things, I will exhort your grace to mark the life 
and process of our Saviour Christ, and his apostles, in preaching and 
setting-forth of the gospel ; and to note also the words of our master 
Christ, which he said to his disciples when he sent them forth to preach 
his gospel ; and to these have ever in your mind the golden rule of our 
master Christ, ' The tree is known by the fruit :' for by the diligent 
marking of these, your grace shall clearly know and perceive who be the 
true followers of Christ, and teachers of his gospel, and who be not. And 
concerning the first, all Scripture showeth plainly, that our Saviour Jesus 
Christ's life was very poor. 

" But this he did to show us, that his followers and vicars should not 
regard and set by the riches and treasures of this world, but after the saying 
of David we ought to take them, which saith thus : " If riches, promotions, 
and dignity happen to a man, let him not set his affiance, pleasure, trust, 
and heart upon them/ So that it is not against the poverty in spirit, 
which Christ preacheth in the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter v., to be 
rich, to be in dignity and in honour, so that their hearts be not fixed and 
set upon them so much, that they neither care for God nor good men. 
But they be enemies to this poverty in spirit, have they never so little, that 
have greedy and desirous minds to the goods of this world, only because 
they would live after their own pleasures and lusts. And they also be privy 
enemies (and so much the worse) which have professed, as they say, wilful 
poverty, and will not be called worldly men ; and they have lords' lands, 
and kings' riches. Yea, rather than they would lose one jot of that which 
they have, they will set debate between king and king, realm and realm, 
yea, between the king and his subjects, and cause rebellion against the 
temporal power, to the which our Saviour Christ himself obeyed, and paid 
tribute, as the gospel declareth ; unto whom the holy apostle St. Paul 



LATIMER'S LETTER TO KING HENRY. 841 

teacheth every Christian man to obey : yea, and beside all this, they will 
curse and ban, as much as in them lieth, even into the deep pit of hell, all 
that gainsay their appetite, whereby they think their goods, promotions, 
or dignities should decay. — And although I named the spiritualty to be 
corrupt with this unthrifty ambition, yet I mean not all to be faulty therein, 
for there be some good of them : neither will I that your grace should take 
away the goods due to the church, but take away such evil persons from 
the goods, and set better in their stead. 

" The holy apostle St. Paul saith, that ' every man that will live godly 
in Christ Jesus, should suffer persecution.' And also he saith further, in 
the Epistle written to the Philippians, in the first chapter, that ' it is not 
only given to you to believe in the Lord, but also to suffer persecution for 
his sake.' Wherefore take this for a sure conclusion, that there, where 
the word of God is truly preached, there is persecution, as well of the 
hearers as of the teachers : and where is quietness and rest in worldly 
pleasure, there is not the truth. For the world loveth all that are of the 
world, and hateth all things that are contrary to it. And, to be short, St. 
Paul calleth the gospel the word of the cross, the word of punishment. 
And the holy Scripture doth promise nothing to the favourers and followers 
of it in this world, but trouble, vexation, and persecution, which these 
worldly men cannot suffer, nor away withal. Therefore pleaseth it your 
good grace to return to this golden rule of our Master and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, which is this, ' By their fruits you shall know them.' 

" But as concerning this matter, other men have showed your grace their 
minds, how necessary it is to have the Scripture in English. The which 
thing also your grace hath promised by your last proclamation : the which 
promise I pray God that your gracious highness may shortly perform, even 
to-day, before to-morrow. — Seeing that our Saviour Christ hath sent his 
servants, that is to say, his true preachers, and his own word also, to com- 
fort our weak and sick souls, let not these worldly men make your grace 
believe that they will cause insurrections and heresies, and such mischiefs 
as they madly imagine, lest that he be avenged upon you and your realm, as 
he hath ever upon them which have obstinately withstood his word. 

" Wherefore, gracious king, remember yourself, have pity upon your 
soul ; and think that the day is even at hand, when you shall give account 
of your office, and of the blood that hath been shed with your sword. In 
the which day that your grace may stand steadfastly, and not be ashamed, 
but be clear and ready in your reckoning, and to have (as they say) your 
* quietus est' sealed with the blood of our Saviour Christ, which only 
serveth at that day, is my daily prayer to him that suffered death for our 
sins, which also prayeth to his Father for grace for us continually. To 
whom be all honour and praise for ever, Amen. The Spirit of God pre- 
serve your grace. — Anno Domini 1530- Prim, die Decembris." 

In this letter of master Latimer we have to consider his good conscience 
to God, his good-will to the king, the duty of a right pastor unto truth, 
and his tender care to the church of Christ. Further, we may note the 
subtle practices of prelates in abusing the name and authority of kings, to 
set forth their own malignant proceedings ; and also the great boldness of this 
man, who durst, in defence of Christ's gospel, so freely and plainly counsel 



, 



842 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that which no other durst once speak of. And yet God so wrought with 
his servant's bold adventure that no danger nor displeasure rose to him 
thereby, but rather thanks and good-will of his prince, who soon after 
advanced him to the bishopric of Worcester. 

During the time that the said master Latimer was prisoner in Oxford, 
we read not of much that he did write besides his conference with Dr. 
Ridley, and his protestation at the time of his disputation. Otherwise of 
letters we find very few, or none, save only these few lines, which he wrote 
to one Mrs. Wilkinson of London, a godly matron, and an exile afterward 
for the gospel's sake : who, so long as she remained in England, was a 
singular patroness to the good saints of God, and learned bishops, as to 
Hooper, to the bishop of Hereford, to Coverdale, to Latimer, to Cranmer, 
and many others. The copy of his letter to Mrs. Wilkinson here followeth : 

'■' If the gift of a pot of cold water shall not be in oblivion with God, how 
can God forget your manifold and bountiful gifts, when he shall say to you, 
' I was in prison, and you visited me?' God grant us all to do and suffer, 
while we be here, as may be his will and pleasure. — Yours, Hugh Latimer." 

Touching the memorable acts and doings of this worthy man, among 
many others this is not to be neglected, what a bold enterprise he attempted 
in sending to king Henry a present, the manner whereof is this. There 
was then, and remaineth still, an ancient custom received from the old 
Romans, that upon New-year's day, every bishop with some handsome 
New-year's gift should gratify the king; and so they did, some with gold, 
some with silver, some with a purse full of money, and some one thing, 
some another. But master Latimer, being bishop of Worcester then, among 
the rest, presented a New Testament for his New-year's gift, with a napkin 
having this posy about it, " Fornicatores et adulteros judicabit Dominus." 

And thus thou hast, gentle reader, a sketch of the life both of master 
Ridley and of master Latimer severally by themselves set forth and 
described, with their chief proceedings from time to time until this present 
month of October 1 555 : in the which month they were brought forth 
together to their final examination and execution. Wherefore as they were 
together joined both in one cause and martyrdom, we will, by the grace 
of Christ, so prosecute the rest that remaineth concerning their latter 
examination, degrading, and constant suffering. 

First, after the appearing of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, 
before the pope's delegate, and the queen's commissioners, in St. Mary's 
church at Oxford, about the 12th of September, (whereof more shall be 
said, by God's grace, when we come to the death of the said archbishop ;) 
shortly after, on the 28th of the said month, was sent down to Oxford 
another commission from cardinal Pole, legate a latere, to John White, 
bishop of Lincoln, to Dr. Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, and Dr. Holyman, 
bishop of Bristol. The contents and virtue of which commission were, 
that the said bishops should have full power and authority to cite, 
examine, and judge master Latimer and Dr. Ridley, for divers and sundry 
erroneous opinions, which the said Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley did 
hold and maintain in open disputations had in Oxford, in the months of 
May, June, and July, in the year of our Lord 1554, as long before, in the 
time of perdition, and since. Which opinions, if they would now recant, 




RIDLEY BEFORE THE CONVOCATION AT OXFORD. — page 843. 



, 



EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 843 

giving and yielding themselves to the determination of the universal 
and catholic church planted by Peter in the blessed see of Rome, that 
then the deputed judges, by the authority of their commission, should 
have power to receive the penitent persons, and forthwith administer 
unto them the reconciliation of the holy father the pope. But if they 
would stoutly and stubbornly maintain their erroneous opinions, then 
the said lords by their commission should proceed in form of judgment, 
according to the law of heretics; that is, degrade them from their promo- 
tion and dignity of bishops, priests, and all other ecclesiastical orders, 
pronounce them as heretics, cut them off from the church, and deliver 
them up to receive the punishment due to such heresy and schism. 

Wherefore, the last of September, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer 
were cited to appear before the said lords, in the divinity school at Oxford, 
at eight of the clock. At which time thither repaired the lords, placing 
themselves in the high seat made for public lectures and disputations, ac- 
cording to the usage of that school. And after the said lords were placed 
and set, the said Latimer and Ridley were sent for ; and first appeared 
Dr. Ridley, and anon master Latimer. But because it seemed good 
severally to examine them, Latimer was kept back until master Ridley 
was thoroughly examined. Therefore, soon after the coming of Ridley 
into the school, the commission was published by an appointed notary, 
and openly read. Ridley at first stood bareheaded, but as soon as he 
had heard the cardinal named, and the pope's holiness, he put on his 
cap. Wherefore after the commission was published, the conference 
thus proceeded. 

Lincoln. Mr. Ridley, although neither I, nor yet my lords here, in 
respect of our own persons, look for cap or knee, yet because we bear 
and represent such persons as we do, that is, my lord cardinal's grace, 
legate a latere to the pope's holiness, as well in that he is of a noble 
parentage (here Dr. Ridley moved his cap with low obeisance) descend- 
ing from the royal blood, as in that he is a man worthy to be reverenced 
with all humility, for his great knowledge and learning, noble virtues 
and godly life, it would have become you at this name to have unco- 
vered your head. Wherefore except you will of your ownself take the 
pains to put your hand to your head, and at the nomination, as well of 
the said cardinal, as of the pope's holiness, uncover the same, you will 
cause us to oblige some man to pluck off your cap. 

Rid. Respecting what you said, my lord, that you of your own per- 
sons desire no cap or knee, but only require it in consideration of your 
representing the cardinal's grace, I would have you know, that I put 
on my cap at the naming of him, not for any contumacy that I bear 
towards your own persons, nor for any derogation of honour towards 
the lord cardinal. For I know him to be a man worthy of all humility, 
reverence, and honour, in that he came of the most regal blood, and 
in that he is a man endued with manifold graces of learning and virtue ; 
and as touching these virtues and points, I, with all humility (here he 
put off his cap and bowed his knee) and obeisance, reverence, and 
honour his grace. But as he is a legate to the bishop of Rome (and 
therewith put on his cap) whose usurped supremacy and abused autho- 
rity I utterly refuse and renounce, I may in no wise give obeisance or 



844 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

honour unto him, lest my so doing might be prejudicial to mine oath, 
and a derogation to the verity of God's words: therefore that I might 
not only by confession profess the truth, in not reverencing the renounc- 
ed authority, contrary to God's word, but also in gesture, in behaviour, 
and all my doings, express the same, I have put on my cap, and for 
this consideration only, and not for any contumacy to your lordships, 
neither contempt of this worshipful audience, or derogation of honour 
due to the cardinal's grace. 

Lin. Mr. Ridley, you excuse yourself of that with which we pressed 
you not, in that you protest you keep on your cap, neither for any con- 
tumacy towards us, nor for any contempt of this audience; which al- 
though justly they may, yet in this case do not require any such obeis- 
ance of you; neither in derogation of any honour due to my lord cardinal 
for his regal descent (at which word Dr. Ridley moved his cap) and 
excellent qualities; for although in all the premises honour be due, yet 
in these respects we require none of you, but only in that my lord car- 
dinal's grace is here in England, deputy of the pope's holiness, (at which 
word the lords and others put off their caps, and Dr. Ridley put on his) 
and therefore we say unto you the second time, that except you take the 
pains yourself, to put your hand to your head, and put off your cap, 
you shall put us to the pains to cause some man to take it from you, 
except you allege some infirmity and sickness, or other more reason- 
able cause, upon the consideration whereof we may do as we think 
good. 

Rid. The premises I said only for this end, that it might as well appear 
to your lordships, as to this worshipful audience, why and for what con- 
sideration I used such kind of behaviour, in not humbling myself to your 
lordships with cap and knee : and as for my sickness, I thank my Lord 
God, that I am as well at ease as I have been this long time; and there- 
fore I do not pretend that which is not, but only this, that it might 
appear by this my behaviour, that I acknowledge in no point that 
usurped supremacy of Rome, and therefore contemn and utterly despise 
all authority coming from him. 

Then the bishop of Lincoln, after the third admonition, commanded 
one of the beadles to take his cap from his head. Dr. Ridley bowing his 
head to the officer, gently permitted him to take it away. After this 
the bishop of Lincoln, in a long oration, exhorted Ridley to recant, 
and submit himself to the universal faith of Christ, endeavouring to 
prove the right of supremacy in the church of Rome, charging him also, 
with having formerly been favourable to their doctrines and ceremonies. 
Ridley heard him patiently, and when he had concluded, desired his 
patience to suffer him to speak somewhat of the premises, lest the mul- 
titude of things might confound his memory; and having leave granted 
him, he thus spake: 

" I most heartily thank your lordship, as well for your gentleness, as 
for your good and favourable zeal in this learned exhortation, in which 
I have marked especially three points, by which you sought to persuade 
me to leave my doctrine and religion, (which I perfectly know to be 
grounded, not upon man's imaginations and decrees, but upon the infallible 
truth of Christ's gospel,) and to return to the Romish see. First, the first 



EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 845 

point is this, that the see of Rome taking its beginning from Peter, upon 
whom you say Christ hath builded his church, hath in all ages lineally, 
from bishop to bishop, been brought to this time. Second, that even the 
holy fathers have in their writings confessed the same. Third, that I myself 
was of the same opinion, and together with you I did acknowledge the same. 

" First, as touching the saying of Christ, from whence your lordship 
gathereth the foundation of the church upon Peter, truly the place is 
not to be understood as you take it, as the circumstance of the place 
will declare. For after Christ had asked his disciples whom men judged 
him to be, and they answered, that some had said he was a prophet, 
some Elias, some one thing, some another; then he said, 'Whom say ye 
that I am?' Then Peter answered, ' I say that thou art Christ the Son of 
God.' To whom Christ answered, ' I say thou art Peter, and upon this 
stone I will build my church;' that is to say, Upon this stone, not mean- 
ing Peter himself, as though he would have constituted a mortal man, 
so frail and brittle a foundation of his stable and infallible church : but 
upon this rock-stone, that is, this confession of thine, that I am the 
Son of the living God, I will build my church. For this is the founda- 
tion and beginning of all Christianity, with word, heart, and mind, to 
confess that Christ is the Son of God. Here we see upon what founda- 
tion Christ's church is built, not upon the frailty of man, but upon the 
stable and infallible word of God. 

"As touching the lineal descent of the bishops in the see of Rome, 
true it is, that the patriarchs of Rome in the apostles' time, and long 
after, were great maintainers of Christ's glory, in which, above all other 
countries and regions, there especially was preached the true gospel, 
the sacraments were most duly administered ; and as, before Christ's 
coming, it was a city so valiant in prowess, and martial affairs, that all 
the world was in a manner subject to it; and after Christ's passion 
divers of the apostles there suffered persecution for the gospel's sake: so 
after that the emperors, their hearts being illuminated, received the 
gospel, and became christians, the gospel there, as well for the fame 
of the place, flourished most, whereby the bishops of that place were 
had in more reverence and honour, most esteemed in all councils and 
assemblies, not because they acknowledged them to be their head, but 
because the place was most reverenced and spoken of, for the great 
power and strength of the same. As now here in England, the bishop 
of Lincoln, in sessions and sittings, hath the pre-eminence of other 
bishops, not that he is the head and ruler of them; but for the dignity 
of the bishopric. Wherefore the doctors in their writings have spoken 
most reverently of this see of Rome, and in their writings preferred it; 
and this is the prerogative which your lordship did rehearse the ancient 
doctors to give to the see of Rome. In the same manner I cannot nor 
dare but commend, reverence, and honour the see of Rome, so long as 
it continued in the promotion and setting forth of God's glory, and in 
due preaching of the gospel, as it did many years after Christ. But 
after that the bishops of that see, seeking their own pride, and not 
God's honour, began to set themselves above kings and emperors, chal- 
lenging to them the title of God's vicars, the dominion and supremacv 
over all the world, I cannot but with St. Gregory, a bishop of Rome also, 



846 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

confess that place is the very true Antichrist, whereof St. John speaketh 
by name of the whore of Babylon; and say, with Gregory, ' He that 
maketh himself a bishop over all the world, is worse than Antichrist.' 

" Whereas you say St. Augustine should seem not only to give such 
a prerogative, but also supremacy to the see of Rome, in that he saith 
all the christian world is subject to the church of Rome, and therefore 
should give to that see a certain kind of subjection; I am sure that 
your lordship knoweth, that in Augustine's time there were four patriarchs, 
of Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, and Rome, which patriarchs 
had under them certain countries ; as in England the archbishop 
of Canterbury hath under him certain bishoprics in England and 
Wales, to whom he may be said to be their patriarch. Also your lord- 
ship knoweth right well, that at the time Augustine wrote that book he 
was then bishop in Africa. Farther, you are not ignorant, that between 
Europe and Africa lieth the sea called the Mediterranean sea, so that 
all the countries in Europe to him which is in Africa, may be called 
countries beyond the sea. Hereof Augustine saith, ' All the christian 
countries beyond the seas and remote regions, are subject to the see of 
Rome.' If I should say all countries beyond the sea, I do except 
England, which to me now, being in England, is not beyond the sea. 
In this sense, Augustine saith, ' All the countries beyond the sea are 
subject to the see of Rome;' declaring thereby that Rome was one of 
the sees of the four patriarchs, and under it Europe. By what subjection 
I pray you? only for a pre-eminence; as we here in England say, 
that all the bishoprics are subject to the archbishoprics. 

" For this pre-eminence also the other doctors say, that Rome is the 
mother of churches, as the bishopric of Lincoln is mother to the bis- 
hopric of Oxford, because the bishopric of Oxford came from the 
bishopric of Lincoln, and they were once both one; and so is the arch- 
bishopric of Canterbury mother to the other bishoprics which are in her 
province. In like manner the archbishopric of York, is mother to the 
north bishoprics; and yet no man will say, that Lincoln, Canterbury, 
or York, is supreme head to the other bishoprics; neither then ought we 
to confess the see of Rome to be supreme head, because the doctors, in 
their writings, confess the see of Rome to be mother of churches. 

" Where you say, I was once of the same religion as you are of, the 
truth is, I cannot but confess the same. Yet so was St. Paul a perse- 
cutor of Christ. But in that you say, I was one of you not long ago, 
in that I, in doing my message to my lord of Winchester, should desire 
him to stand stout in that gross opinion of the supper of the Lord : 
in very deed I was sent, as your lordship said, from the council to my 
lord of Winchester, to exhort him also to receive the true confession of 
justification; and because he was very refractory, I said to him, ' What 
make you so great a matter herein? you see many anabaptists rise 
against the sacrament of the altar; I pray you, my lord, be diligent in 
confounding of them!' for at that time my lord of Winchester and 
I had to do with two anabaptists in Kent. In this sense I willed my 
lord to be stiff in the defence of the sacraments against the detestable 
errors of anabaptists, and not in the confirmation of that gross and 
carnal opinion now maintained. 



EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 847 

" In like manner, respecting the sermon which I made at St. Paul's 
Cross, you shall understand, that there were at St. Paul's, and divers 
other places, fixed railing bills against the sacrament, terming it Jack 
of the Box, the Sacrament of the Halter, round Robin, with other un- 
seemly terms; for which causes, to rebuke irreverent behaviour of certain 
evil-disposed persons, I preached as reverently of that matter as I might, 
declaring what estimation and reverence ought to be given to it, what 
danger ensued the mishandling thereof; affirming in that sacrament to 
be truly and verily the body and blood of Christ, effectually by grace 
and spirit; which words the unlearned understanding not, supposed 
that I had meant of the gross and carnal being which the Romish decrees 
set forth, that a body having life and motion should be indeed under 
the shapes of bread and wine/' 

Lin. Well, Dr. Ridley, thus you wrest places to your own pleasure. 
I could bring many more places of the fathers for a confirmation of what 
I have advanced ; but we came not hither to dispute with you, but only 
to take your answers to certain articles; and used this in the way of dis- 
putation, in which you interrupted me; wherefore I will return thither 
again. You must, first of all, consider that the church of Christ lieth 
not hid, but is a city on the mountain, and a candle in the candlestick. 
The church of Christ is catholic, and universally spread throughout the 
world. Wherefore, for God's love, be you not singular; acknowledge 
with all the realm the truth, it shall not be prejudicial to the crown ; 
for their majesties the king and queen have renounced that usurped 
power taken of their predecessors, and justly have renounced it. I 
am sure you know there are two powers, the one declared by the sword, 
the other by the keys. The sword is given to kings and rulers of coun- 
tries; the keys w r ere delivered by Christ to Peter, and of him left to all 
the successors. 

Consider your state, remember your former degrees, spare your 
body; especially consider your soul, which Christ so dearly bought 
with his precious blood. Do not rashly cast away that which was precious 
in God's sight; enforce us not to do all that we may do, which is not 
only to publish you to be none of us, but to cut you off from the church. 
We do not, nor can we condemn you to die, (as most untruly hath been 
reported of us) but that is the office of the temporal judges; we only 
declare you to be not of the church, and then you must, according to 
the tenor of them, and pleasure of the rulers, abide their determination, 
so that we, after we have given you up to the temporal rulers, have no 
further to do with you. But I cannot help to hope and trust, Dr. 
Ridley, we shall not have occasion to do what we may. I trust you 
will suffer us to rest in that point of our commission, which we most 
heartily desire, that is, upon recantation and repentance to receive, to 
reconcile you, and again to join you to the unity of the church. 

Rid. My lord, I acknowledge an unspotted church of Christ, in which 
no man can err, without which no man can be saved, which is the con- 
gregation of the faithful ; neither do I bind the same to any one place 
as you said, but confess the same to be universal; and where Christ's 
sacraments are duly administered, his gospel truly preached and followed 
there doth Christ's church shine as a city upon a hill, and as a candle 



848 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

in the candlestick : but rather it is such as you that would have the 
church of Christ bound to a place, who appoint the same to Rome, that 
there and no where else is the foundation of Christ's church. But I am 
fully persuaded that Christ's church is every where founded, in every 
place where his gospel is truly received, and effectually followed. And 
in that the church of God is in doubt, I use herein the counsel of Vincen- 
tius Lyrinensis, whom I am sure you will allow, who giving precepts how 
the catholic church may be in all schisms and heresies known, writeth in 
this manner, " When one part is corrupted with heresies, then prefer the 
whole world before that one part; but if the greatest part be infected, 
then prefer antiquity." In like manner now, when I perceive the 
greatest part of Christianity to be infected with the poison of the see 
of Rome, I repair to the usage of the primitive church, which I find 
quite contrary to the pope's decrees : as in that the priest receiveth alone, 
that it is made unlawful to the laity to receive in both kinds, and such 
like : wherefore it requireth, that I prefer the antiquity of the primitive 
church before the novelty of the Romish. 

Lin. Dr. Ridley, these faults which you charge the see of Rome 
withal, are indeed no faults. For first, it was never forbid the laity, 
but that they might, if they demanded, receive under both kinds. You 
know also, that Christ after his resurrection, at the time he went with his 
apostles to Galilee, opened himself by breaking of bread. — So that the 
church seemeth to have authority by the Holy Ghost, whom Christ said 
he would send after his ascension, which should teach the apostles all 
truth, to have power to alter such points of the scripture, ever reserving 
the foundation. But we came not, as I said before, to reason the 
matter with you, but we have certain instructions ministered unto us, 
according to which we must proceed, proposing certain articles, unto 
which we require your answer directly, either denying or granting them, 
without further disputations, which articles you shall hear now ; and to- 
morrow we will require and take your answers, and then according to the 
same proceed. If you require a copy of them, you shall have it, pen, ink, 
and paper; also such books as you shall demand, if they be to be gotten. 

The articles referred to were then jointly and severally ministered to Dr. 
Ridley and master Latimer, by the pope's deputy : they were these — " In 
the name of God, Amen. We John Lincoln, James Gloucester, and John 
Bristol, bishops : (1.) We do object to thee, Nicholas Ridley, and to thee, 
Hugh Latimer, jointly and severally ; first, that thou Nicholas Ridley, in 
this high university of Oxford, anno 1554, in the months of April, May, 
June, and July, or in some one or more of them, hast affirmed and openly 
defended and maintained, and in many other times and places besides, that 
the true and natural body of Christ, after the consecration of the priest, is 
not really present in the sacrament of the altar. (2.) That in the said 
year and months aforesaid, thou hast publicly affirmed and defended, that 
in the sacrament of the altar remaineth still the substance of b~ead and 
wine. (3.) That in the said year and months thou hast openly affirmed 
and obstinately maintained, that in the mass is no propitiatory sacrifice for 
the quick and the dead. (4.) That in the year, place, and months afore- 
said, these thy foresaid assertions solemnly have been condemned by the 
scholastical censure of this school, as heretical and contrary to the catholic 



EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 849 

faith, by the worshipful Dr. Weston, prolocutor then of the convocation- 
house, as also by other learned men of both the universities. (5.) That 
all and singular the premises be true, notorious, famous, and openly known 
by public fame, as well to them near hand, as also to them far off." 

All these articles I thought good here to place together, that, as often as 
hereafter rehearsal shall be of any of them, the reader may have recourse 
hither, and so not trouble the story with several repetitions thereof. After 
these articles were read, the bishops took counsel together. At the last 
the bishop of Lincoln said, " These are the very same articles which you, 
in open disputation here in the university, did maintain and defend. What 
say you unto the first? I pray you answer affirmatively, or negatively." 

Rid. Why, my lord, I supposed that you would have given me until 
to-morrow, that upon good advice I might bring a determinate answer. 

Lin. Yea, master Ridley, I mean not that your answers now shall be 
prejudicial to your answers to-morrow. I will take your answers at this 
time, and yet notwithstanding it shall be lawful for you to add, diminish, 
alter, and change these answers to-morrow what you will. 

Rid. Seeing you appoint me a time to answer to-morrow, and yet would 
take mine answers out of hand, I require the notaries to take and write 
my protestation, that in no point I acknowledge your authority, or admit 
you to be my judges, in that point that you are authorized from the pope. 
Therefore, whatsoever I shall say or do, I protest I neither say nor do it 
willingly, thereby to admit the authority of the pope; and if your lordship 
will give me leave, I will show the causes which move me thereunto. 

Lin. No, we have instructions to the contrary. We may not suffer you. 

Rid. I will be short : I pray you suffer me to speak but three words. 

Lin. To-morrow you shall speak forty. The time is far past ; therefore 
we require your answer determinately. What say you to the first article ? 

Rid. I answer, that in the sacrament is the very true and natural body 
and blood of Christ, even that which was born of the Virgin Mary, which 
ascended into heaven, which sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, 
which shall come from thence to judge the quick and the dead, only we 
differ in modo, in the way and manner of being : we confess all one thing 
to be in the sacrament, and dissent in the manner of being there. I, being 
fully by God's word persuaded, confess Christ's natural body to be in the 
sacrament indeed by spirit and grace, because that whosoever receiveth 
worthily that bread and wine, receiveth effectuously Christ's body, and 
drinketh his blood, (that is, he is made effectually partaker of his passion ;) 
and you make a grosser kind of being, enclosing a natural, a lively, and a 
moving body, under the shape or form of bread and wine. Now, this 
difference considered, to the question thus I answer, that in the sacrament 
of the altar is the natural body and blood of Christ vere et realiter, indeed 
and really, for spiritually, by grace and efficacy ; for so every worthy 
receiver receiveth the very true body of Christ. But, if you mean really 
and indeed, so as to include a lively and a movable body under the forms 
of bread and wine, then, in that sense, is not Christ's body in the sacrament. 

This answer taken, the bishop of Lincoln proposed the second article. 

Rid. In the sacrament is a certain change, in that, that bread, which 
was before common bread, is now made a lively presentation of Christ's 
body. Notwithstanding this sacramental mutation, the true substance and 

3 i 



850 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

nature of bread and wine remaineth : with the which the body is in like 
sort nourished, as the soul is by grace and Spirit with the body, of Christ. 

Then the notaries penned that he answered affirmatively to the second 
article ; and the bishop recited the third, and required a direct answer. 

Rid. Christ, as St. Paul writeth, made one perfect sacrifice for the sins 
of the whole world, neither can any man reiterate that sacrifice of his, and 
yet is the communion an acceptable sacrifice to God of praise and thanks- 
giving. But to say that thereby sins are taken away (which wholly and 
perfectly was done by Christ's passion, of the which the communion is only 
a memory) that is a great derogation of the merits of Christ's passion : for 
the sacrament was instituted, that we, receiving it, and thereby recognising 
and remembering his passion, should be partakers of the merits of the 
same. For otherwise doth this sacrament take upon it the office of Christ's 
passion, whereby it might follow that Christ died in vain. 

The notaries penned this his answer to be affirmatively. And then 
the bishop of Lincoln recited the fourth article; to the which Ridley 
answered, that in some part it was true, and in some part false : true, in 
that those his assertions were condemned as heresies, although unjustly ; 
false, in that it was said they were condemned scientid scholasticd, in that 
the disputations were in such sort ordered, that it was far from any school act. 
This answer penned of the notaries, the bishop of Lincoln rehearsed the 
fifth article. To the which Ridley answered, that the premises were in 
such sort true, as in these his answers he had declared. Whether that all 
men spake evil of them he knew not, in that he came not much abroad. 
This answer also written, the bishop said: " To-morrow you shall appear 
before us in St. Mary's church ; and because we cannot well agree upon 
your answer to the first article, you may, if it please you, write your answer." 

Now master Latimer, being also brought to the divinity school, there 
tarried till they called him ; and after that Ridley was committed to the 
mayor, the bishop of Lincoln commanded the bailiffs to bring him in, who 
eftsoons as he was placed said to the lords : " My lords, if I appear again, 
I pray you not to send for me until you be ready : for I am an old man, 
and it is great hurt to mine old age to tarry so long gazing upon the cold 
walls." Then said the bishop of Lincoln, " Master Latimer, I am sorry 
you are brought so soon, although it is the bailiff's fault, and not mine : 
but it shall be amended." Then Latimer bowed his knee down to the 
ground, holding his hat in his hand, having a kerchief on his head, and 
upon it a night-cap or two, and a great cap, (such as townsmen use, with 
two broad flaps to button under the chin,) wearing an old threadbare 
Bristol frieze-gown girded to his body with a penny leather girdle, at the 
which hanged by a string of leather his Testament, and his spectacles 
without case, depending about his neck upon his breast. After this the 
bishop of Lincoln began a long oration, in the which, as he had by Dr. 
Ridley, he declared their commission, charged him with his errors; spake of 
the unity and infallibility of their church, entreated him back to the same, 
and if stubbornly perverse, threatened him with the consequences. After 
the bishop had somewhat paused, Latimer lifted up his head, (for before 
he leaned on his elbow;) and asking whether his lordship had done, said, 
" Then will you give me leave to speak a word or two?" 

Lin. Yea, so you use a modest kind of talk, without railing or taunts. 



EXAMINATION OF HUGH LATIMER. 851 

Lat. I beseech your lordship, license me to sit down. 

Lin. At your pleasure, Mr. Latimer, take as much ease as you will. 

Lat. Your lordship gently exhorted me in many words to come to the 
unity of the church. I confess, my lord, a catholic church, spread 
throughout all the world, in which no man may err, without which unity 
of the church no man can be saved ; but I know perfectly by God's 
word, that this church is in all the world, and hath not its foundation in 
Rome only, as you say; and methought your lordship brought a place 
out of the scriptures to confirm the same, that there was a jurisdiction 
given to Peter, in that Christ bade him govern his people. Indeed, my 
lord, St. Peter did his office well and truly, in that he was bid to govern ; 
but since, the bishops of Rome have taken a new kind of government. 
Indeed they ought to govern, but how, my lord? not as they will them- 
selves; but this government must be hedged and ditched in. They 
must rule, only according to the word of God. But the bishops of Rome 
have turned the rule according to the word of God into the rule according 
to their own pleasures, and as it pleaseth them best ; as there is a book 
set forth which hath divers points in it, and, amongst others, this point is one, 
which your lordship went about to prove ; and the argument which he 
bringeth forth for the proof of that matter is taken out of Deuteronomy, 
where it is said, " If there ariseth any controversy among the people, the 
priests of the order of Levi shall decide the matter according to the law 
of God, so it must be taken." This book, perceiving this authority to be 
given to the priests of the old law, taketh occasion to prove the same to 
be given to the bishops and others the clergy of the new law : but, in 
proving this matter, whereas it was said there, as the priests of the order 
of Levi should determine the matter " according to God's law," that 
" according to God's law" is left out, and only is recited, as the priests of 
the order of Levi shall decide the matter so it ought to be taken of the 
people; a large authority I assure you. What gelding of Scripture is 
this? what clipping of God's coin ? This is much like the " ruling" which 
your lordship talked of. Nay, nay, my lords, we may not give such 
authority to the clergy, to rule all things as they will. Let them keep 
themselves within their commission. I trust, my lord, I do not rail yet. 

Lin. No, master Latimer, your talk is more like taunting than railing ; 
but in that I have not read nor know the book, I can say nothing therein. 

Lat. The book is open to be read, my lord; it is by one who is bishop 
of Gloucester, whom I never knew, neither did see to my knowledge. 

With that the people laughed, because the bishop of Gloucester sat 
there in commission. Then the bishop stood up, and said it was his book. 

Lat. Was it yours, my lord ? Indeed I knew not your lordship, neither 
ever did I see you before, nor yet now, through the brightness of the sun 
shining betwixt you and me. (Then the audience laughed again.) Why, 
my masters, this is no laughing matter : I answer upon life and death. 

The bishop of Lincoln commanded silence, and then said, " Master 
Latimer, if you had kept yourself within your bounds, if you had not used 
such scoffs and taunts, this had not been done." After this Gloucester said, 
in excusing his book, " Hereby every man may see what learning you have." 

Lat. Lo, you look for learning at my hands who have gone so long 
to the school of oblivion, making the bare walls my library, keeping 



852 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

me so long in prison without book, or pen and ink; and now you let 
me loose to come and answer to articles. You deal with me as though 
two were appointed to fight for life and death, and over night the one 
through friends and favour, is cherished, and hath good counsel given 
him how to encounter with his enemy. The other, for envy or lack of 
friends, all the whole night is set in the stocks. In the morning when 
they shall meet, the one is in strength and lusty; the other is stiff in 
his limbs, and almost dead for feebleness. Think you, that to run 
through this man with a spear is not a goodly victory? 

Glou. I went not about to recite any places of scripture in that place 
of my book ; for then if I had not recited faithfully, you might have 
had just occasion of reprehension : but I only in that place formed an 
argument a majore, in this sense ; that if in the old law the priests had 
power to decide matters of controversy, much more then ought the au- 
thority to be given to the clergy in the new law : and I pray you, in 
this point what availeth their rehearsal, according to the law of God ? 

Lat. Yes, my lord, very much. For I acknowledge authority to be 
gvien to the spiritualty to decide matters of religion ; and as my lord said 
even now, to rule ; but they must do it according to the word and law of 
God, and not after their own wills, imaginations, and fantasies. 

Then Lincoln said they came not to dispute, but to take his answers ; 
and so began to propose to master Latimer the same articles as proposed 
to Ridley, requiring his answer to the first. Then Latimer, making his 
protestation that notwithstanding his answers it should not be taken that 
thereby he would acknowledge any authority of the bishop of Rome, saying 
that he was their majesties' subject, and not the pope's, neither could 
serve two masters at one time ; required the notaries to take his protesta- 
tion, that whatsoever he should say or do, it should not be taken as though 
he did thereby agree to any authority that came from the bishop of Rome. 

Lin. Your protestation shall be so taken ; and I require you to answer 
briefly, affirmatively or negatively, to the first article. 

Lat. I do not deny, my lord, that in the sacrament by spirit and grace 
is the very body and blood of Christ; because that every man by receiv- 
ing bodily that bread and wine, spiritually receiveth the body and blood 
of Christ, and is made partaker thereby of the merits of Christ's passion : 
but I deny that the body and blood of Christ is in such manner in the 
sacrament as you would have it. 

Lin. Then you answer affirmatively; and what say you, Mr. Latimer 
to the second article ? 

Lat. There is, my lord, a change in the bread and wine, and such a 
change as no power, but the omnipotency of God can make, in that that 
which before was bread, should now have the dignity to exhibit Christ's 
body; and yet the bread is still bread, and the wine still wine ; for the 
change is not in the nature, but the dignity, because now that which 
was common bread hath the dignity to exhibit Christ's body : for where- 
as it was common bread, it is now no more common bread, neither 
ought it to be so taken, but as holy bread sanctified by God's word. 

Lin. Lo, Mr. Latimer, see what steadfastness is in your doctrine. 
That which you abhorred and despised most, you now most establish : 
for whereas you most railed at holy bread, you now make your commu- 



RIDLEY'S WRITTEN ANSWER. 85.3 

nion holy bread. Is not this your answer, that the substance of bread 
and wine remaineth after the words of consecration ? 

Lat. Yes, verily, it must needs be so. For Christ himself calleth it 
bread ; St. Paul calleth it bread ; the doctors confess the same ; the 
nature of a sacrament confirmeth the same; and I call it holy bread: 
not in that I make no difference between your holy bread and this, but 
for the holy office which it beareth, that is, to be a figure of Christ's 
body, and not only a bare figure but effectually to represent the same. 

Lin. What say you to the third question ? 

Lat. Christ made one perfect sacrifice for all the whole world, neither 
can any man offer him again, neither can the priest offer up Christ 
again for the sins of man, which he took away by offering himself once 
for all upon the cross : neither is there any propitiation for our sins 
saving his cross only. 

Lin. What say you to the fourth ? Do you not hear me ? 

Lat. Yes, but I do not understand what you mean thereby. 

Lin. Marry, only this, that these your assertions were condemned by Dr. 
Weston as heresies ; is it not so, master Latimer ? 

Lat. Yes, I think they were condemned. But how unjustly, he that 
si i all be Judge of all knoweth. 

So the notaries took his answer to this article to be affirmatively, as they 
did also to the other three before recited. 

Lin. What say you, master Latimer, to the fifth article? 

Lat. I know not what you mean by these terms. I am no lawyer; 
I wish you would propose the matter plainly. 

Lin. In that we proceed according to the law, we must use their terms 
also. The meaning only is this, that these your assertions are notorious, 
evil spoken of, and yet common and frequent in the mouths of the people. 

Lat. I cannot tell how much, nor what men talk of them. I come 
not so much among them, for I have been secluded a long time. What 
men report of them I know not, and care not. 

Lin. Mr. Latimer, we mean not that these your answers shall be pre- 
judicial to you. To-morrow you shall appear before us again, and then 
it shall be lawful for you to alter and change what you will. We give 
you respite till then, trusting that after you have pondered well all 
things against that time, you will not be ashamed to confess the truth. 

Lat. Now, my lord, I pray you give me license in three words to de- 
clare the causes why I refused the authority of the pope. 

Lin. Nay, Mr. Latimer, to-morrow you shall have license to speak 
forty words. 

Lat. Nay, my lords, I beseech you to do with me now as it shall 
please your lordships. I require no respite, for I am at a point ; you 
shall give me respite in vain : therefore I pray you let me not trouble 
you to-morrow. 

Lin. Y 7 es, for we trust God will work with you against to-morrow. 
There is no remedy, you must needs appear again to-morrow at eight 
o'clock in St. Mary's church. 

And forthwith the bishop charged the mayor with master Latimer, and 

dismissed him : he then brake up their sessions for that day, at one o'clock. 

The next day (the first of October) the said lords repaired to St. Mary's ; 



854 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and after they were set in a high throne, then appeared Ridley, who was set 
at a framed table a good space from the bishop's feet, and the place 
was encompassed about in a quadrate form, partly for gentlemen who 
repaired thither, and for the heads of the university to sit, and partly 
to keep off the press of the audience : for the whole body, as well of 
the university as of the town, came to see the end of these two persons. 
After Dr. Ridley's appearance, and the silence of the audience, the 
bishop of Lincoln commenced speaking. 

Lin. Mr. Ridley, yesterday we took your answers to certain articles, 
which we then proposed unto you : but because we could not be tho- 
roughly satisfied with your answer then to the first article, neither could 
the notaries take any determinate answer of you, we granted you license 
to bring your answer in writing, and thereupon commanded the mayor 
that you should have pen, paper, and ink, yea, any books also that you 
would require, if they were to be got: we licensed you then also to alter 
your former answers this day at your pleasure : therefore we are now 
come hither, to see if you are in the same mind now, that you were yes- 
terday, or contrary, contented to revoke your former assertions, and in 
all points consent to submit yourself to the determination of the uni- 
versal church; and I for my part most earnestly exhort you, not because 
my conscience pricketh me, as you said yesterday, but because I see 
you a rotten member, and in the way of perdition. Now, Dr. Ridley, 
what say you to the first article? If you have brought your answer in 
writing, we will receive it : but if you have written any other matter, we 
will not receive it. 

Then Ridley took a sheet of paper out of his bosom, and began to read 
that he had written: but Lincoln ordered the beadle to take it from him. 

Rid. Why, my lord, will you require my answer, and not suffer me to 
publish it? I beseech you, let the audience bear witness in this matter. 

Lin. Well, Dr. Ridley, we will first see what you have written, and then 
if we shall think it good to be read, you shall have it published ; but, ex- 
cept you will deliver it first, we will take none at all from you. 

With that, master Ridley, seeing no remedy, delivered it to an officer, 
who immediately delivered it to the bishop of Lincoln ; who, after he had 
secretly communicated it to the other two bishops, declared the sense, but 
would not read it as it was written, saying, that it contained words of 
blasphemy ; therefore he would not fill the ears of the audience there- 
withal, and so abuse their patience. Notwithstanding, Ridley desired very 
instantly to have it published; saying that, except a line or two, there was 
nothing contained but the ancient doctors' sayings, for the confirmation of 
his assertions. After the said bishops had secretly perused the whole, then 
the bishop of Lincoln said, " In the first part, master Ridley, is nothing 
contained but your protestation, that you would not have these your 
answers so to be taken as though you seemed thereby to consent to the 
authority or jurisdiction of the pope's holiness." 

Rid. No, my lord : pray read it out, that the audience may hear it. 

This the bishop of Lincoln would in no wise grant; but recited the first 
article, and required Ridley's answer to it. Then Ridley said his answer was 
there in writing, and desired it might be published : but the bishop would 
not read the whole, but here and there a piece of it. And when he had 



RIDLEY'S WRITTEN ANSWER. 855 

read what he pleased, he recited the second article, and required an 
answer. Dr. Ridley again referred him to his answer in writing exhi- 
bited now, and also before at the time of disputation : and like answers 
were taken to all the rest of the articles. The bishop of Gloucester then 
addressed him thus. 

" If you would once empty your stomach, captivate your senses, sub- 
due your reason, and, together with us, consider what a feeble ground 
of your religion you have, I do not doubt but you might easily be brought 
to acknowledge one church with us, to confess one faith with us, and to 
believe one religion with us. For what a weak and feeble stay in reli- 
gion is this, I pray you ? Latimer leaneth to Cranmer, Cranmer to 
Ridley, and Ridley to the singularity of his own wit : so that if you 
overthrow the singularity of Ridley's wit, then must needs the religion 
of Cranmer and Latimer fall also. You remember well, Dr. Ridley, 
that the prophet speaketh most truly, saying — ' Woe be to them which 
are singular and wise in their own conceits.' 

" But you will say here, it is true that the prophet saith ; but how 
know you that I am wise in mine own conceit ? Yes, Dr. Ridley, you 
refuse the determination of the catholic church; you must needs be sin- 
gular and wise in your own conceit, for you bring scripture for the proof 
of your assertions, and we also bring scripture : you understand them 
in one sense, and we in another. How will you know the truth herein? 
If you stand to your own interpretation, then you are singular in your 
own conceit : but if you say you will follow the minds of the doctors 
and ancient fathers, likely you understand them in one meaning, and 
we take them in another: how then will you know the truth herein? 
If you stand to your own judgment, then are you singular in your own 
conceit — then cannot you avoid the woe which the prophet speaketh of. 

"Wherefore if you have no stay but the catholic church in matters of 
controversy, except you will rest upon the singularity and wisdom of 
your own brain, if the prophet most truly saith, 'Woe, woe be to them 
that are wise in their own conceit:' then for God's love, Dr. Ridley, 
stand not singular, be not you wise in your own conceit, please not 
yourself overmuch. How were the Arians, the Manichees, Eutychians, 
with other heretics suppressed and convinced ? By reasoning and disputa- 
tions? No, truly, the Arians had no more places of Scripture for confirming 
their heresy than the catholics for the defence of the truth. How, then, 
were they convinced? Only by the determination of the church. And 
indeed, except we do constitute the church our foundation, stay, and 
judge, we can have no end of controversies, no end of disputations. 
For in that we all bring scriptures and doctors for the proof of our 
assertions, who should be judge of this our controversy? If we our- 
selves be singular and wise in our own conceits, then cannot we 
avoid the woe that the prophet speaketh of." 

To this oration of the bishop of Gloucester, by which he endeavoured 
to persuade Dr. Ridley to turn and forsake his religion, the latter 
answered, That he said most truly with the prophet, " Woe be to him 
that is wise in his own conceit;" but that he acknowledged no such 
singularity, nor knew any cause why he should attribute so much to 
himself. And whereas he said that archbishop Cranmer leaned to him, 



856 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that was most untrue, in that he was but a young scholar in comparison 
of Dr. Cranmer; for when he was but a novice, Mr. Cranmer was then a 
doctor; so that he confessed he might have been his schoolmaster for 
many years. He would have spoke more, but the bishop of Gloucester 
interrupted him, saying: "Why, Dr. Ridley, it is your own confession, for 
Mr. Latimer, at the time of his disputation, confessed his learning to lie in 
Dr. Cranmer's books, and Dr. Cranmer also said that it was your 
doing." 

The bishop of Lincoln likewise with many words, and holding his cap 
in his hand, desired him to turn. But Dr. Ridley made a determinate 
answer — That he was fully persuaded the religion which he defended 
was grounded upon God's word, and therefore without great offence 
towards God, great peril and damage of his soul, he could not forsake 
his God ; but desired the bishop to perform his grant, in that his lord- 
ship said the day before, that he should have license to shew his cause, 
why he could not with a safe conscience admit the authority of the pope. 
But the bishop of Lincoln said, that whereas then he had demanded 
license to speak three words, he was contented then that he should speak 
forty, and that grant he would perform. Then Dr. Weston, who sat 
by, stepped forth and said, "Why, my lord, he hath spoken four hun- 
dred already." Dr. Ridley confessed he had, but they were not of his 
prescribed number, neither of that matter. The bishop of Lincoln bade 
him take his license : but he should speak but forty, and he would tell 
them upon his fingers. And so before Ridley had ended half a sentence, the 
doctors said that his number was out : and with that he was put to silence. 

Lin, You will not suffer us to stay in that point of our commission which 
we most desired : for indeed (I take God to witness) I am sorry for you. 

Rid. I believe it, my lord, for one day it will be burdenous to your soul. 

Lin. Nay, not so, master Ridley, but because I am sorry to see such 
stubbornness in you, that by no means you may be persuaded to acknow- 
ledge your errors, and receive the truth. But seeing it is so, because you 
will not suffer us to persist in the first, we must of necessity proceed to the 
other part of our commission. Therefore I pray you hearken to what I say. 

And forthwith he did read the sentence of condemnation, which was 
written in a long process. The effect of it was as this : " That forasmuch 
as the said Nicholas Ridley did affirm, maintain, and stubbornly defend 
certain opinions, assertions, and heresies, contrary to the word of God 
and the received faith of the church, as in denying the true and natural 
body of Christ, and his natural blood to be in the sacrament of the altar ; 
secondarily, in affirming the substance of bread and wine to remain after 
the words of consecration ; thirdly, in denying the mass to be a lively 
sacrifice of the church for the quick and the dead, and by no means would 
be induced and brought from these his heresies : they therefore (the said 
John of Lincoln, James of Gloucester, John of Bristol) did judge and 
condemn the said Nicholas Ridley as a heretic, and so adjudged him 
presently both by word and also in deed, to be degraded from the degree 
of a bishop, from priesthood, and all ecclesiastical order ; declaring, more- 
over, the said Nicholas Ridley to be no member of the church : and there- 
fore committed him to the secular powers, of them to receive due punish- 
ment; and further excommunicating him by the great excommunication." 



LAST EXAMINATION OF LATIMER. 857 

This sentence being published by the bishop of Lincoln, Ridley was 
committed to the mayor, and Latimer was sent for ; who so soon as he 
appeared laid his hat, which was an old felt, under his elbows, and spake 
immediately to the commissioners, saying : 

Lat. My lords, I beseech you to set a better order here at your entrance : 
for I am an old man, and have a very evil back, so that the press of the 
multitude doth me much harm. 

Lin. I am sorry for your hurt : at your going, we will see to better order. 

With that Latimer thanked his lordship, making a very low courtesy. 
After this the bishop of Lincoln began on this manner : 

Lin. Although yesterday, after we had taken your answers to those 
articles which we proposed, we might have justly proceeded to judg- 
ment against you, especially in that you required the same ; yet having 
a good hope of your returning, desiring not your destruction, but rather 
that you would recant, revoke your errors, and turn to the catholic 
church, deferred farther process till this day; and now according to the 
appointment we have called you before us, to hear whether you are 
content to revoke your heretical assertions, and submit yourself to the 
determination of the church, as we most heartily desire, and for my 
part as I did yesterday, do most earnestly exhort you, or to know 
whether you persevere still the man that you were, for which we would 
be sorry. 

On this Latimer spoke, "Your lord ship doth often repeat the catholic 
church, as though I should deny the same. No, my lord, I confess 
there is a catholic church, to the determination of which I will stand; but 
not the church which you call catholic, which ought rather to be termed 
diabolic. And whereas you join together the Romish and catholic 
church, stay there, I pray you. For it is one thing to say the Romish 
church, and another thing to say catholic church. I must use here in 
this mine answer the counsel of Cyprian, who when cited before certain 
bishops, who gave him leave to take deliberation and counsel, to try 
and examine his opinion, answered them thus, ' In adhering to, and 
persevering in the truth there must no counsel or deliberation be taken.' 
And again, being demanded of them sitting in judgment, which was most 
like to be of the church of Christ, whether he who was persecuted, or 
they who did persecute? 'Christ,' said he, 'hath foreshewed, that he 
that doth follow him, must take up his cross. Christ gave knowledge 
that his disciples should have persecution and trouble.' How think 
you then, my lords, is it likely that the see of Rome, which hath been 
a continual persecutor, is rather the church, or that small flock which 
hath continually been persecuted by it, even to death? Also 'the flock of 
Christ hath been but few in comparison of the residue, and ever in subjec- 
tion :' which he proved, beginning at Noah's time, even to the apostles." 

Lin. Your cause and St. Cyprian's is clean contrary : for he suffered for 
Christ's sake and the gospel. You are in trouble for your errors and false 
assertions, contrary to God's word and the received truth of the church. 

Lat. Yes verily, my cause is as good as St. Cyprian's ; for his was for 
the word of God, and so is mine. 

Lin. Also at the beginning and foundation of the church, it could 
not be but that the apostles should suffer great persecution. Further, 



858 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

before Christ's coming, continually there were few which truly served 
God; but after his coming began the time of grace. Then began the 
church to increase, and was continually augmented, until it came unto 
this perfection, and now hath justly that jurisdiction which the unchris- 
tian princes before by tyranny did resist: there is a diverse considera- 
tion of the state of the church now in the time of grace, and before 
Christ's coming. But, Mr. Latimer, although we had instructions given 
us determinately to take your answer to such articles as we should pro- 
pose, without any reasoning or disputations, yet we hoping by talk 
somewhat to prevail with you, appointed you to appear before us in the 
divinity-school, a place for disputations. And whereas then notwith- 
standing you had license to speak your mind, and were answered to 
every matter, yet you could not be brought from your errors; we think- 
ing that from that time you would with good conversation ponder your 
state, gave you a respite until this time, and now have called you again 
in this place, by your answers to learn whether you are the same man as 
before? Therefore we will propose unto you the same articles which 
we did then, and require of you a determinate answer, without further 
reasoning. 

Lat. Always my protestation saved that, by these mine answers it 
should not be thought that I did condescend and agree to your lord- 
ships' authority, in that you are legaced by the pope, so that thereby 
I might seem to consent to his jurisdiction : To the first article I answer 
as I did yesterday, that in the sacrament the worthy receive the very 
body of Christ, and drink his blood by the Spirit and grace. But 
after a corporeal being, which the Romish church prescribeth, Christ's 
body and blood is not in the sacrament under the forms of bread and wine. 

The notaries took his answer to be affirmatively. For the second article 
he referred himself to his answers made before. After this the bishop of 
Lincoln recited the third article, and required a determinate answer. 

Lat. Christ made one oblation and sacrifice for the sins of the whole 
world, and that a perfect sacrifice ; neither needeth there to be any other, 
nor can there be any other, propitiatory sacrifice. 

The notaries took his answer to be affirmatively. In like manner did he 
answer to the other articles, not varying from his answers made the day 
before. After his answers were penned of the notaries, and the bishop of 
Lincoln had exhorted him in like sort to recant, as he did master Ridley, 
and revoke his errors and false assertions, and Latimer had answered that he 
neither could nor would deny his master Christ and his verity, the bishop 
of Lincoln desired him to hearken to him : and then master Latimer, 
hearkening for some new matter and other talk, the bishop of Lincoln read 
his condemnation ; after the publication of which the said three bishops 
brake up there sessions, and dismissed the audience. Latimer required 
the bishop of Lincoln to perform his promise in saying, the day before, that 
he should have license briefly to declare the cause why he refused the pope's 
authority. But the bishop said that now he could not hear him, neither 
ought to talk with him. Then Latimer asked him, whether it were not 
lawful for him to appeal from this his judgment. And the bishop asked 
him again to whom he would appeal. "To the next general council," 
quoth Latimer, " which shall be truly called in God's name." With that 



DEGRADATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 859 

appellation the bishop was content ; but he said it would be a long season 
before such a convocation as he meant would be called. Then the bishop 
committed master Latimer to the mayor, saying, " Now he is your prisoner, 
master mayor." And because the press of the people was not yet 
diminished, each man looking for further process, the bishop of Lincoln 
commanded avoidance, and desired Latimer to tarry till the press were 
diminished, lest he should take hurt at his egression as he did at his en- 
trance. And so continued bishop Ridley and master Latimer in durance 
till the 16th day of the said month of October. 

In the mean season upon the 15th day of the same month in the morn- 
ing, Dr. Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, and the vice-chancellor of Oxford, 
Dr. Marshal, with divers others of the chief and heads of the same university, 
and many others accompanying them, came unto master Irish's house, 
then mayor of Oxford, where Dr. Ridley, late bishop of London, was close 
prisoner. And when the bishop of Gloucester came into the chamber 
where the said Dr. Ridley did lie, he told him for what purpose their 
coming was unto him, saying, that yet once again the queen's majesty did 
offer unto him, by them, her gracious mercy, if that he would receive the 
same, and come home again to the faith which he was baptized in, and 
revoke his erroneous doctrine that he of late had taught abroad to the 
destruction of many. And further said, that if he would not recant, and 
become one of the catholic church with them, then they must needs (against 
their wills) proceed according to the law, which they would be very loth to 
do, if they might otherwise. " But," saith he, " we have been oftentimes 
with you, and have requested that you would recant this your fantastical 
and devilish opinion, which hitherto you have not, although you might in 
so doing win many, and do much good. Therefore, good master Ridley, 
consider with yourself the danger that shall ensue both of body and soul, 
if you so wilfully cast yourself away in refusing mercy offered unto you at 
this time." " My lord," quoth Dr. Ridley, " you know my mind fully 
herein ; and as for the doctrine which I have taught, my conscience assureth 
me that it was sound, and according to God's word, (to his glory be it 
spoken ;) the which doctrine, the Lord God being my helper, I will main- 
tain so long as my tongue shall wag, and breath is within my body, and in 
confirmation thereof seal the same with my blood." 

Brooks. Well, you were best, master Ridley, not to do so, but to be- 
come one of the church with us : for you know this well enough, that 
whosoever is out of the catholic church cannot be saved. Therefore I say 
once again, that while you have time and mercy offered you, receive it and 
confess with us the pope's holiness to be the chief head of the same church. 

Ridley. I marvel that you will trouble me with any such vain and foolish 
talk. You know my mind concerning the usurped authority of that Romish 
antichrist. As I confessed openly in the schools, so do 1 now, that both 
by my behaviour and talk I do no obedience at all unto the bishop of Rome, 
nor to his usurped authority, and that for good and godly considerations. 

And here Dr. Ridley would have reasoned with the said Brooks of the 
bishop of Rome's authority, but could not be suffered ; and yet he spake 
so earnestly against the pope therein, that the bishop told him if he would 
not hold his peace he should be compelled against his will. " And seeing," 
saith he, " that you will not receive the queen's mercy, now offered unto 



860 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

you, but stubbornly refuse the same, we must, against our wills, proceed 
according to our commission to degrading-, taking from you the dignity 
of priesthood. For we take you for no bishop, and therefore we will the 
sooner have done with you. So, committing you to the secular power, 
you know what doth follow." 

Ridley. Do with me as it shall please God to suffer you, I am well 
content to abide the same with all my heart. 

Brooks. Put off your cap, master Ridley, and put on this surplice. 

Ridley. Not I, truly. 

Brooks. But you must. 

Ridley. I will not. 

Brooks. You must make no more ado, but put this surplice upon you. 

Ridley. Truly if it come upon me, it shall be against my will. 

Brooks. Will you not do it upon you? 

Ridley. No, that I will not. 

Brooks. It shall be put upon you by one or other. 

Ridley. Do therein as it shall please you, I am well contented with 
that, and more than that : " the servant is not above his Master." If 
they dealt so cruelly with our Saviour Christ, as the Scripture saith, and he 
suffered the same patiently, how much more doth it become us his servants ! 

And in saying of these words, they put upon the said Dr. Ridley the 
surplice, with all the trinkets appertaining to the mass. And as they were 
putting on the same, Dr. Ridley did vehemently inveigh against the Romish 
bishop, and all that foolish apparel, calling him antichrist, and the apparel 
foolish and abominable, yea, too fond for a vice in a play, insomuch that 
bishop Brooks was exceeding angry, and said, " Well, you were best to 
hold your peace, lest your mouth be stopped. At which words one Edridge, 
the reader then of the Greek lecture, standing by, said to Dr. Brooks, 
" Sir, the law is he should be gagged ; therefore let him by gagged." At 
which words Dr. Ridley, looking earnestly upon him that so said, shook 
his head at him, but made no answer. When they came to that place 
where Dr. Ridley should hold the chalice and the wafer-cake, called the 
singing-bread, they bade him hold the same in his hands. And Dr. Ridley 
said, "They shall not come in my hands; for, if they do, they shall fall 
to the ground for all me." Then there was one appointed to hold them in 
his hand, while bishop Brooks read a certain thing in Latin, touching the 
degradation of spiritual persons according to the pope's law. 

Afterward they put a book in his hand, and withal read another thing in 
Latin, the effect whereof was : " We do take from you the office of 
preaching the gospel," etc. At which words Dr. Ridley gave a great sigh, 
looking up towards heaven, saying — " O Lord God, forgive them this their 
wickedness !" 

When all this their abominable and ridiculous degradation was ended 
very solemnly, Dr. Ridley said unto Dr. Brooks, " Have you done ? If you 
have done, then give me leave to talk with you a little concerning these 
matters." Brooks answered, " Master Ridley, we may not talk with you; 
you be out of the church ; and our law is, that we may not talk with any 
that be out of the church." Then master Ridley said — " Seeing that you 
will not suffer me to talk, neither will vouchsafe to hear me, what remedy 
but patience? I refer my cause to rav heavenly Father, who will reform 



DEGRADATION OF NICHOLAS RIDLEY. 861 

tilings that be amiss, when it shall please him." At which words they 
would have been gone, but Ridley said, " My lord, I would wish that you 
would vouchsafe to read over and peruse a little book of Bertram's doings, 
concerning the sacrament. I promise you, you shall find much good 
learning therein, if you will read the same with an indifferent judgment." 
Dr. Brooks made no answer, but was going away. Then said Dr. Ridley, 
" Oh, I perceive that you cannot away with this manner of talk. Well ! 
it boots not, I will say no more, I will speak of worldly affairs. I pray 
you therefore, my lord, hear me, and be a mean to the queen's majesty, 
in the behalf of a great many poor men, and especially for my poor sister 
and her husband which standeth there. They had a poor living granted 
unto them by me, whiles I was in the see of London, and the same is taken 
away from them by him that now occupieth the same room, without all 
law or conscience. Here I have a supplication to her majesty in their 
behalfs. You shall hear the same read, so shall you perceive the matter 
the better." Then he read the same ; and when he came to the place in 
the supplication that touched his sister by name, then he wept ; so that 
for a little space he could not speak for weeping. After that he had left off 
weeping, he said, " This is nature that moveth me, but I have now done;" 
and with that read out the rest and delivered the same to his brother, 
commanding him to put it up to the queen's majesty, and to sue, not only 
for himself, but also for such as had any leases or grants by him, and were 
put from the same by Dr. Bonner, then bishop of London. Whereunto 
Brooks said, " Indeed, master Ridley, your request in this supplication 
is very lawful and honest : therefore I must needs in conscience speak to 
the queen's majesty for them." 

Ridley. I pray you, for God's sake, do so. 

Brooks. I think your request will be granted, except one thing let it, 
and that is, I fear, because you do not allow the queen's proceedings, but 
obstinately withstand the same, that it will hardly be granted. 

Ridley. What remedy ? I can do no more but speak and write. I 
trust I have discharged my conscience therein ; and God's will be done. 

Brooks. I will do what lieth in me. 

This degradation being past, and all things finished, Dr. Brooks called 
the bailiffs, delivering to them master Ridley with this charge, to keep him 
safely from any man speaking with him, and that he should be brought to 
the place of execution when they were commanded. Then Ridley, in 
praising God, burst out with these words, " God, I thank thee, and to 
thy praise be it spoken, there is none of you all able to lay to my charge 
any open or notorious crime : for if you could, it should surely be laid in 
my lap, I see very well." Whereunto Brooks said, he played the part of 
a proud Pharisee, exalting and praising himself. But master Ridley said, 
" No, no, no; as I have said before, to God's glory be it spoken. I confess 
myself to be a miserable wretched sinner, and have great need of God's 
help and mercy, and do daily call and cry for the same : therefore, I pray 
you, have no such opinion of me." Then they departed; and in going 
away, a certain warden of a college, of whose name I am not very 
sure, bade Dr. Ridley repent him, and forsake that erroneous opinion. 
Whereunto Ridley said, " Sir, repent you, for you are out of the truth. 
And I pray God (if it be his blessed will) have mercy upon you, and 



862 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

grant you the understanding of his word." Then the warden, being in 
a passion thereat, said, "I trust that I shall never be of your devilish 
opinion, either yet to be in that place whither you shall go : thou art 
the most obstinate and wilful man that I ever heard talk since I was 
born." 

On the night before he suffered, his beard was washed and his legs; 
and as he sat at supper, at the house of Mr. Irish, his keeper, he invited 
his hostess, and the rest at the table, to his marriage: for, said he, to- 
morrow I must be married, and so shewed himself to be as merry as 
ever he had been before. And wishing his sister at his marriage, he asked 
his brother sitting at the table, whether she could find in her heart to be 
there or no. He answered, " Yea, with all her heart." At which word, 
he said he was glad to hear of her so much therein. At this talk Mrs. Irish 
wept. But Dr. Ridley comforted her, saying, "O Mrs. Irish, you love 
me not, I see well enough; for in that you weep, it doth appear you 
will not be at my marriage, neither are content therewith. Indeed you 
are not so much my friend as I thought you had been. But quiet your- 
self, though my breakfast shall be somewhat sharp and painful, yet I am 
sure my supper will be more pleasant and sweet." 

When they arose from the table, his brother offered to stay all night 
with him. But he said, " No, no, that you shall not. For I intend, 
God willing, to go to bed, and to sleep as quietly to night as ever I did." 
On this his brother departed, exhorting him to be of good cheer, and to 
take his cross quietly, for his reward was great in heaven. 

Upon the north side of the town, in the ditch over against Balliol col- 
lege,' 1 the place of execution was appointed : and for fear of any tumult 
that might arise, to let the burning of them, the lord Williams was com- 
manded, by the queen's letters, and the householders of the city, to be 
there assistant, sufficiently appointed. And when everything was in readi- 
ness, the prisoners were brought forth by the mayor and bailiffs. Master 
Ridley had a fair black gown furred, and faced with foins, such as he was 
wont to wear, being bishop, and a tippet of velvet furred likewise about his 
neck, a velvet night-cap upon his head, and a corner cap upon the same, 
going in a pair of slippers to the stake, and going between the mayor and 
an alderman, etc. After him came master Latimer, in a poor Bristol frieze 
frock all worn, with his buttoned cap, and a kerchief on his head, all ready 
to the fire, a new long shroud hanging over his hose down to the feet : 
which at the first sight stirred men's hearts to rue upon them, beholding 
on the one side the honour they sometime had, and on the other the 
calamity whereunto they were fallen. 

Dr. Ridley, as he passed toward Bocardo, looked up where Dr. Cranmer 
did lie, hoping to have seen him at the glass-window, and to have spoken 
to him. But then Cranmer was busy with friar Soto and his fellows, 
disputing together, so that he could not see him, through that occasion. 
Then Ridley looking back, espied master Latimer coming after, unto whom 
he said, " Oh, be ye there?" " Yea," said Latimer, " have after as fast 

a ["Not many weeks since, some workmen, who were employed in making a drain in Broad- 
street, opposite the door of the master of Balliol's lodgings, found, at the depth of about three 
feet from the present surface, such a quantity of ashes and burnt sticks, as plainly indicated that 
they had discovered the spot on which the martyrs suffered." — Christian Obscn^er, June 1838.] 



RIDLEY AND LATIMER AT THE STAKE. 863 

as I can follow. So lie, following a pretty way off, at length they came 
both to the stake, the one after the other, where first Dr. Ridley entering 
the place, marvellous earnestly holding up both his hands, looked towards 
heaven. Then shortly after espying Latimer, with a wonderous cheerful look 
he ran to him, embraced, and kissed him; and, as they that stood near re- 
ported, comforted him, saying, "Be of good heart, brother, for God will 
either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it." 

With that went he to the stake, kneeled down by it, kissed it, and 
effectually prayed ; and behind him master Latimer kneeled, as earnestly 
calling upon God as he. After they arose, the one talked with the other 
a little while, till they which were appointed to see the execution removed 
themselves out of the sun. What they said I can learn of no man. 

Then Dr. Smith (of whose recantation in king Edward's time ye have 
heard) began his sermon to them upon this text of St. Paul, in 1 Cor. xiii., 
" If I yield my body to the fire to be burned, and have not charity, 
I shall gain nothing thereby." Wherein he alleged, that the goodness 
of the cause, and not the order of death, maketh the holiness of the 
person: which he confirmed by the examples of Judas, and of a woman 
in Oxford who of late hanged herself, for that they and such like as he 
recited, might then be adjudged righteous, which desperately separated 
their lives from their bodies, as he feared that those men that stood 
before him would do. But he cried still to the people to beware of 
them, for they were heretics and died out of the church. He ended 
with a very short exhortation to them to recant and come home again to 
the church, and save their lives and souls, which else were condemned. 
His sermon scarcely lasted a quarter of an hour. 

Dr. Ridley said to master Latimer, " Will you begin to answer the ser- 
mon, or shall I?" Latimer said, " Begin you first, I pray you." "I will," 
said Ridley. Then, the wicked sermon being ended, they both kneeled 
down upon their knees towards my lord Williams of Thame, the vice- 
chancellor of Oxford, and divers other commissioners appointed for that 
purpose, who sat upon a form thereby, unto whom master Ridley said, 
" I beseech you, my lord, even for Christ's sake, that I may speak but two 
or three words." And whilst my lord bent his head to the mayor and 
vice-chancellor* to know (as it appeared) whether he might give him leave 
to speak, the bailiffs and Dr. Marshal, vice-chancellor, ran hastily unto 
him, and with their hands stopped his mouth, and said, " Master Ridley, 
if you will revoke your erroneous opinions, and recant the same, you shall 
not only have liberty so to do, but also the benefit of a subject ; that is, 
have your life." "Not otherwise?" asked Ridley. "No," quoth Dr.' 
Marshal. " Therefore if you will not so do, then there is no remedy but 
you must suffer for your deserts." " Well," quoth Ridley, " so long as 
the breath is in my body, I will never deny my Lord Christ, and his known 
truth. God's will be done in me !" And with that he rose up, and said 
with a loud voice, " Well, then, I commit our cause to Almighty God, 
which shall indifferently judge all." To whose saying master Latimer 
added his old posy—" Well ! there is nothing hid but it shall be opened." 
And he said he could answer Smith well enough, if he might be suffered. 

Incontinently they were commanded to make them ready, which they 
with all meekness obeyed. Dr. Ridley took his gown and his tippet, anil 



864 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

gave to his brother-in-law, master Shipside, who all his time of imprison- 
ment, although he might not be suffered to come to him, lay there at his 
own charges to provide him necessaries, which from time to time he sent 
him by the serjeant that kept him. Some other of his apparel he also 
gave away ; other the bailiffs took. He gave away besides, divers other 
small things to gentlemen standing by, and divers of them pitifully weep- 
ing, as to sir Henry Lee he gave a new groat; and to divers of my lord 
Williams's gentlemen, some napkins, some nutmegs, and rases of ginger; 
his dial, and such other things as he had about him, to every one that 
stood next him. Some plucked the points off his hose, and happy was he 
who could get the least trifle of him. 

Master Latimer gave nothing, but very quietly suffered his keeper to 
pull off his hose, and his other array, which was very simple ; and being- 
stripped to his shroud, he seemed as comely a person to them that were 
there present as one could well see. Then master Ridley, standing as yet 
in his truss, said to his brother, " It were best for me to go in my truss 
still." " No," quoth his brother, " it will put you to more pain : and the 
truss will do a poor man good." Whereunto Ridley said, " Be it, in the 
name of God:" and so unlaced himself. Then, being in his shirt, he stood 
upon the foresaid stone, and held up his hand and said, " O heavenly 
Father, I give unto thee most hearty thanks, for that thou hast called me 
to be a professor of thee, even unto death. I beseech thee, Lord God, 
take mercy upon this realm of England, and deliver the same from all her 
enemies." Then the smith took a chain of iron, and brought the same 
about both their middles : and as he was knocking in a staple, Dr. Ridley 
took the chain in his hand, and shaked the same, for it did gird in his 
belly, and looking aside to the smith said, " Good fellow, knock it in hard, 
for the flesh will have its course." Then the smith's brother did bring him 
a bag of gunpowder, and would have tied the same about his neck. Dr. 
Ridley asked what it was ; and on being told it was gunpowder, he said, 
" I will take it to be sent of God. And have you any for my brother?" 
meaning Latimer. " Yea, sir, that I have," said the man. " Then give 
it unto him betime," said Ridley, " lest ye come too late." So the man 
carried of the same gunpowder unto master Latimer. 

In the mean time Dr. Ridley spake unto my lord Williams, and said, 
" My lord, I must be a suitor unto your lordship in the behalf of divers 
poor men, and specially in the cause of my poor sister : I have made a 
supplication to the queen in their behalfs. I beseech your lordship, for 
Christ's sake, to be a mean to her grace for them. My brother here hath 
the supplication, and will resort to your lordship to certify you hereof. 
There is nothing in all the world troubleth my conscience, I praise God, 
this only excepted. Whilst I was in the see of London, divers poor men 
took leases of me, and agreed with me for the same. Now I hear that the 
bishop who occupieth the same room will not allow my grants unto them 
made; but, contrary to all law and conscience, hath taken from them their 
livings, and will not suffer them to enjoy the same. I beseech you, my lord, 
be a mean for them : you shall do a good deed, and God will reward you." 

Then they brought a lighted fagot, and laid the same down at Ridley's 
feet; upon whidri Latimer said, "Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and 
play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in 



BURNING OF RIDLEY AND LATIMER. 865 

England, as I trust shall never be put out." And so the fire being given 
unto them, when Dr. Ridley saw the fire flaming up towards him, he cried 
with a wonderful loud voice, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum 
meum : Domine recipe spiritum meum." And after repeated this latter 
part often in English, " Lord, Lord, receive my spirit ! " Master Latimer 
cried as vehemently, on the other side, " O Father of heaven, receive my 
soul !" who received the flame as it were embracing it. After that he had 
stroked his face with his hands, and as it were bathed them a little in the 
fire, he soon died (as it appeareth) with very little pain or none. And thus 
much concerning the end of this old and blessed servant of God, master 
Latimer, for whose laborious travails, fruitful life, and constant death, the 
whole realm hath cause to give great thanks to Almighty God. 

But Dr. Ridley, by reason of the evil making of the fire unto him, be- 
cause the fagots were laid about the gorse, and overhigh built, the fire 
burned first beneath, being kept down by the wood ; which when he felt 
he desired them, for Christ's sake, to let the fire come unto him. Which 
when his brother-in-law heard, but not well understood, intending to rid 
him out of his pain, (for the which cause he gave attendance,) as one in 
such sorrow not well advised what he did, heaped fagots upon him, so that 
he clean covered him, which made the fire more vehement beneath, that it 
burned all his nether parts before it once touched the upper ; and that 
made him leap up and down under the fagots, and often desire them to let 
the fire come to him, saying, " I cannot burn." Which indeed appeared 
well ; for, after his legs were consumed by reason of his struggling through 
the pain, (whereof he had no release, but only his contentation in God,) 
he showed that side towards us clean, shirt and all untouched with flame. 
Yet in all this torment he forgot not to call upon God, still having in his 
mouth, " Lord have mercy upon me," intermingling his cry, " Let the fire 
come unto me, I cannot burn !" In which pangs he laboured till one of 
the standers by with his bill pulled the fagots off above; and where he saw 
the fire flame up, he wrested himself unto that side. And when the flame 
touched the gunpowder, he was seen to stir no more, but burned on the 
other side, falling down at master Latimer's feet. In beholding of which 
horrible sight hundreds were moved to tears, and signs of sorrow there 
were on every side. 

Some took it grievously to see their deaths, whose lives they held full 
dear. Some pitied their persons, who thought their souls had no need 
thereof. But the sorrow of his brother moved many men, whose attempt 
to put a speedy end to his sufferings had so miserably prolonged them. 
But whoso considered their preferments in time past, the places of honour 
that they some time occupied in this commonwealth, the favour they were 
in with their princes, and the opinion of learning they had in the university 
where they studied, could not choose but sorrow with tears, to see so great 
dignity, honour, and estimation, so necessary members sometimes accounted, 
so many godly virtues, the study of so many years, such excellent learning, 
to be put into the fire, and consumed in one moment. Well ! dead they 
are, and the reward of this world they have already What reward 
remaineth for them in heaven, the day of the Lord's glory, when he 
cometh with his saints, shall shortly, I trust, declare. 

Albeit the same Nicholas Ridley (a man so reverenced for his learning 
*9 3 k 






866 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and knowledge in the Scriptures that even his very enemies report well of 
him) wrote divers treatises, letters, and exhortations, containing fruitful 
admonition and wholesome doctrines, much of which we here pass over for 
want of space ; as a long farewell to all his true and faithful friends in 
God, concluding with a sharp reproof unto the papists, and specially to 
the higher house of parliament, of which he says, " As you have banqueted 
and lain by the whore in the fornication of her whorish dispensations, 
pardons, idolatry, and such like abominations ; so shall ye drink with her, 
except ye repent betimes, of the cup of the Lord's indignation and ever- 
lasting wrath, which is prepared for the beast, his false prophets, and all 
their partakers. For he that is partner with them in their whoredom and 
abominations must also be partner with them in their plagues, and in the 
latter day shall be thrown with them into the burning lake. Thus fare ye 
well, my lords all. I pray God give you understanding of his blessed will 
and pleasure, and make you to believe and embrace the truth. Amen." 

Another farewell of Bishop Ridley to the prisoners in Christ's gospel's 
cause, and to all them which for the same cause are exiled and banished 
out from their own country, choosing rather to leave all worldly commodity 
than their master Christ : — 

" Farewell, my dearly beloved brethren in Christ, both you my fellow- 
prisoners, and you also that be exiled and banished out of your country, 
because you will rather forsake all worldly advantages, than the gospel 
of Christ. Farewell all you together in Christ : for you know that the 
trial of your faith bringeth forth patience, and patience shall make us 
perfect, whole, and sound on every side, and such, after trial, ye know 
shall receive the crown of life, according to the promise of the Lord 
made to his dearly beloved ; let us therefore be patient unto the coming 
of the Lord. As the husbandman abideth patiently the former and latter 
rain for the increase of his crop, so let us be patient, and pluck up our 
hearts, for the coming of the Lord approacheth apace. Let us, my dear 
brethren, take example of patience in tribulation of the prophets, who 
likewise spake God's word truly in his name. Let Job be to us an ex- 
ample of patience, and the end which the Lord suffered, which is full of 
mercy and pity. 

" We know, my brethren, by God's word, that our faith is much more 
precious than any corruptible gold, and yet that is tried by the fire: even 
so our faith is therefore tried likewise in tribulations, that it may be found 
when the Lord shall appear, laudable, glorious, and honourable. For 
if we for Christ's cause do suffer, that is grateful before God; for there- 
unto are we called, that is our state and vocation, wherewith let us be 
content. Christ, we know, suffered for us afflictions, leaving us an 
example that we should follow his footsteps; for he committed no sin, 
neither was there any guile found in his mouth : when he was railed 
upon, and reviled, he railed not again : when he was evil intreated, he 
did not threaten, but committed the punishment thereof to him that 
judgeth aright. 

" Let us ever have in fresh remembrance those wonderful comfortable 
sentences spoken by the mouth of our Saviour Christ — ' Blessed are they 
which suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the king- 



BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER. 867 

dom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men revile you, persecute you, 
and speak evil against you for my sake : rejoice and be glad, for great 
is your reward in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets that 
were before you.' Christ, our master, hath told us beforehand, that the 
brother should put the brother to death, and the father the son, and 
the children should rise against their parents and kill them, and that 
Christ's true apostles should be hated of all men for his name's sake ; 
but he that abideth patiently unto the end shall be saved. Let us then 
endure in all troubles patiently, after the example of our master Christ, 
and be contented therewith, for he suffered, being our Master and 
Lord : how doth it not then become us to suffer ! for the disciple is not 
above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It may suffice the 
disciple to be as his master, and the servant to be as his lord. If they 
have called the Father of the family, the Master of the household, 
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them so of his household? 
Fear them not (saith our Saviour) for all hidden things shall be made 
plain ; there is now nothing secret, but it shall be shewed in light. Of 
Christ's words let us neither be ashamed nor afraid to speak ; for so 
Christ commandeth us, saying — ' What I tell you privily, speak openly 
abroad, and what I tell you in your ear, preach upon the house top. 
And fear not them which kill the body, for the soul they cannot kill ; 
but fear him which can cast both body and soul into hell-fire.' 

" Know ye that our heavenly Father hath ever a gracious eye, and 
respect toward you, and a fatherly providence for you, so that without 
his knowledge and permission nothing can do you harm. Let us there- 
fore cast all our care upon him, he shall provide that which shall be 
best for us. For if of two small sparrows, which both are sold for a 
mite, one of them lighteth not on the ground without your Father, and 
all the hairs of our head are numbered, fear not them (saith our master 
Christ) for you are more worth than many small sparrows. And let 
us not shrink to confess our master Christ for fear of danger, whatsoever 
it shall be, remembering the promise that Christ maketh, saying — < Who- 
soever shall confess me before men, him shall I confess before my 
Father which is in heaven : but whosoever shall deny me, him shall I 
likewise deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Christ came not to 
give us here a carnal amity, and a worldly peace, or to knit his unto 
the world in ease and peace, but rather to separate and divide from the 
world, and to join them unto himself: in whose cause we must, if we 
will be his, forsake father and mother, and stick unto him. If we for- 
sake him or shrink from him for trouble or death sake, which he call- 
eth his cross, he will none of us, we cannot be his. If for his cause 
we shall lose our temporal lives here, we shall find them again, and en- 
joy them for evermore: but if, in this cause, we will not be contented 
to leave nor lose them here, then shall we lose them so, that we shall 
never find them again, but in everlasting death. What though our 
troubles here are painful for the time, and the sting of death bitter and 
unpleasant; yet we know that they shall not last, in comparison of 
eternity, no not the twinkling of an "eye, and that they patiently taken 
in Christ's cause, shall procure and get us unmeasureable heaps of 
heavenly glory, unto which these temporal pains of death and troubles 



868 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

compared, are not to be esteemed, but to be rejoiced upon. ' Wonder 
not' — saith St. Peter — 'as though it were any strange matter that ye 
are tried by the fire,' he meaneth of tribulation, ' which thing 'is* 
done to prove you; nay, rather in that ye are partners of Christ's 
afflictions rejoice, that in his glorious revelation ye may rejoice with 
merry hearts. If ye suffer rebukes in Christ's name, happy are ye, for 
the glory and Spirit of God resteth upon you. Of them God is reviled 
and dishonoured, but of you he is glorified.' 

" Let no man be ashamed of that which he sufFereth as a christian, 
and in Christ's cause : for now is the time that judgment and correction 
must begin at the house of God : and if it begin at us, what shall be the 
end of those which believe not the gospel? And if the righteous shall 
hardly be saved, the wicked and the sinner, where shall they appear ? 
Wherefore they which are afflicted according to the will of God, let 
them lay down and commit their souls to him by well doing, as 
to a trusty and faithful Maker. This, as I said, may not seem 
strange to us, for we know that all the whole fraternity of Christ's con- 
gregation in this world is served with the like, and by the same is made 
perfect. For the fervent love that the apostles had unto their master 
Christ, and for the great advantages and increase of all godliness 
which they felt by their faith to insue of afflictions in Christ's cause, and 
also for the heaps of heavenly joys which the same do get unto the 
godly, which shall endure in heaven for evermore; for these causes 
the apostles did joy of their afflictions, and rejoiced in that they 
were had and accounted worthy to suffer contumelies and rebukes for 
Christ's name. And St. Paul, as he glorieth in the grace and favour of 
God, whereunto he was brought and stood in by faith; so he rejoiced 
in his afflictions for the heavenly and spiritual profits which he num- 
bered to rise upon them : yea, he was so far in love with what the carnal 
man loathed so much, that is, with Christ's cross, that he judged him- 
self to know nothing else but Christ crucified: he will glory, he saith, in 
nothing else but in Christ's cross, yea, and he blesseth all those as the 
only true Israelites, with peace and mercy, which walk after that rule, 
and after no other. 

" O Lord, what a wonderful spirit was that which made St. Paul, in 
setting forth of himself against the vanity of Satan's false apostles, and 
in his claim there, that he, in Christ's cause, did excel and surpass them 
all ! What wonderful spirit was that, I say, that made him to reckon up 
all his troubles, his labours, his beatings, his whippings and scourgings, 
his shipwrecks, his dangers and perils by water and by land, his famine, 
hunger, nakedness, and cold, with many more, and the daily care of all 
the congregations of Christ, among whom every man's pain did pierce 
his heart, and every man's grief was grievous unto him ! O Lord, is 
this Paul's primacy, whereof he thought so much good that he did 
excel others? Is not this Paul's saying unto Timothy his own scholar? 
and doth it not pertain to whosoever will be Christ's true soldiers? Bear 
thou, saith he, affliction, like a true soldier of Jesus Christ. This is 
true; if we die with Christ, we shall live with him; if we suffer with 
him, we shall reign with him; if we deny him, he shall deny us; if we 
be faithless, he remaineth faithful, he cannot deny himself. This, Paul 



BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER. 869 

would have known to every body ; for there is no other way to heaven 
but Christ and his way; and all that will live godly in Christ, shall 
suffer persecution. By this way went to heaven the patriarchs, the 
prophets, Christ our master, his apostles, his martyrs, and all the godly 
since the beginning. And as it hath been of old, that ha which was 
born after the flesh, persecuted him who was born after the Spirit, for so 
it was in Isaac's time, so said St, Paul, it was in his time also. And 
whether it be so now or no, let the spiritual man, the self-same man I 
mean, that is endued with thebpirit of Almighty God, let him be judge. 
Of the cross of the patriarchs, as ye may read in their stories, if ye 
read the book of Genesis, ye shall perceive. Of others St. Paul in a 
few words comprehendeth much matter, speaking in a generality of the 
wonderful afflictions, death, and torments which the men of God in 
God's cause, and for the truth's sake, willingly and gladly did suffer. 
After much particular rehearsal of many, he saith — " Others were 
racked and despised, and would not be delivered, that they might obtain 
a better resurrection. Others were tried with mockings and scourgings, 
and moreover with bonds and imprisonments; they were stoned, hewn 
asunder, tempted, slain upon the edge of the sword; some w T andered to 
and fro in sheep skins, in goatskins, forsaken, oppressed, afflicted, such 
godly men as the world was unworthy of, wandering in wildernesses, in 
mountains, in caves, and in dens, and caves of the earth, destitute, 
afflicted and tormented." And yet they abide for us the servants of 
God, and for those their brethren which are to be slain as they were for 
the word of God's sake, that none be shut out, but that we may all go 
together to meet our master Christ in the air at his coming, and so be in 
bliss with him in body and soul for evermore. 

" Therefore seeing we have so much occasion to suffer, and to take 
afflictions for Christ's name's sake patiently, so many advantages there- 
by, so weighty causes, so many good examples, so great necessity, so 
sure promises of eternal life and heavenly joys of him that cannot lie: 
let us throw away whatever might hinder us, all burden of sin, and all 
kind of carnality, and patiently and constantly let us run the race that 
is set before us, ever having our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the author and 
perfecter of our faith, ' who for the joy that was set before him endured 
the cross, not minding the shame and ignominy thereof, and is set now 
at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider this, that he suffered 
such strife of sinners against himself, that ye should not give over nor 
faint in your minds. As yet we have not withstood unto death fighting 
against sin.' Let us never forget, dear brethren, for Christ's sake, that 
fatherly exhortation of the wise man that speaketh unto us, as unto his 
children, the godly wisdom of God, saying thus — ' My son, despise not 
the correction of the Lord, nor fall from him when thou art rebuked of 
him; for whom the Lord loveth, him doth he correct, and scourgeth 
every child whom he receiveth. What child is he whom the father doth 
not chasten? If ye be free from chastisement, whereof all are par- 
takers, then are ye bastards and no children. Seeing then, when as we 
have had carnal parents which chastened us, we reverenced them, shall 
not we much more be subject unto our spiritual Father that we mi^ht 
live? And thev for a little time have taught us after their own mind, 



870 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

but this Father teacheth us to our own advantage, to give unto us his 
holiness. All chastisement for the present time appeareth not pleasant, 
but painful ; but afterwards it rendereth the fruit of righteousness on 
them which are exercised in it. Wherefore let us be of good cheer, 
good brethren, and let us pluck up our feeble members that were fallen 
or begun to faint, heart, hands, knees, and all the rest, and let us walk 
upright and straight, that no limping nor halting bring us out of the 
way. Let us not look upon the things that be present, but with the eyes 
of our faith let us steadfastly behold the things that be everlasting in 
heaven, and so choose rather in respect of that which is to come, with 
the chosen members of Christ to bear Christ's cross, than for this short 
life-time to enjoy all the riches, honours, and pleasures of the broad 
world. Why should we Christians fear death? Can death deprive us 
of Christ which is all our comfort, our joy and our life? Nay forsooth. 
But contrary, death shall deliver us from this mortal body, which loadeth 
and beareth down the spirit, that it cannot so well perceive heavenly 
things; in which so long as we dwell, we are absent from God. 

" Wherefore understanding our state in that we be Christians, that if 
our mortal body, which is our earthly house, were destroyed, we have 
a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, there- 
fore we are of good cheer, and know that when we are in the body, we 
are absent from God ; for we walk by faith and not by sight. Neverthe- 
less we are bold, and had rather be absent from the body, and present 
with God. Wherefore we strive, whether we be present at home, or 
absent abroad, that we may always please him : and who that hath true 
faith in our Saviour Christ, whereby he knoweth somewhat truly what 
Christ our Saviour is, that he is the eternal Son of God, life, light, the 
wisdom of the Father, all goodness, all righteousness, and whatsoever 
is good that heart can desire, yea infinite plenty of all these, above 
what man's heart can either conceive or think; and also that he is given 
us of the Father, and made of God to be our wisdom, our righteousness, 
our holiness, and our redemption : who then is he that believeth this 
indeed, that would not gladly be with his master Christ? Paul for this 
knowledge coveted to have been loosed from the body, and to have been 
with Christ, for he counted it much better for himself, and had rather 
be loosed than to live. Therefore the words of Christ to the thief on 
the cross, who asked of him mercy, were full of comfort and solace— 
' This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.' To die in the defence of 
Christ's gospel, it is our bounden duty to Christ, and also to our neigh- 
bour. To Christ, because he died for us, and rose again that he might 
be Lord over all. And seeing he died for us, we also should hazard, yea 
give our life for our brethren, and this kind of giving and losing, is 
getting and winning indeed: for he that giveth or loseth his life thus, 
getteth and winneth it for evermore. Blessed are they therefore that 
die in the Lord, and if they die in the Lord's cause, they are most happy 
of all. Let us not then fear death, which can do us no harm, otherwise 
than for a moment to make the flesh to smart; but that our faith, which 
is fastened and fixed upon the word of God, telleth us that we shall be 
anon after death in peace, in the hands of God, in joy, in solace, and 
that from death we shall go straight unto life. For St. John saith, He 



LIFE OF STEPHEN GARDINER. 871 

that liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die. And in ano- 
ther place, He shall depart from death unto life. And therefore 
this death of the christian is not to be called death, but rather a gate 
or entrance into everlasting life. Therefore Paul calleth it but a disso- 
lution and change, and both Peter and Paul, a putting off this taber- 
nacle or dwelling house: meaning thereby the mortal body, as wherein 
the soul or spirit doth dwell here in this world for a small time. Yea, 
this my death may be called, to the christian, an end of all miseries. 
For so long as we live here, we must pass through many tribulations 
before we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. And now, after that 
death hath shot his bolt, all the christian man's enemies have done what 
they can; after that they have no more to do. What could hurt or 
harm poor Lazarus that lay at the rich man's gate? his former penury 
and poverty? his misery, beggary, and horrible wounds and sickness? 
No ; as soon as death had struck him with his dart, so soon came the 
angels, and carried him straight up into Abraham's bosom. What lost 
he by death, who from misery and pain is conducted, by the ministry of 
angels, into a place of joy and felicity? 

" Farewell, dear brethren, farewell; let us comfort our hearts in all 
troubles, and in death, with God's word, for heaven and earth shall 
perish, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Farewell Jesus 
Christ's dearly beloved spouse, here wandering in this world in a strange 
land, encompassed about with deadly enemies, who seek thy destruction. 
Farewell, farewell to you, O ye the whole universal congregation of the 
chosen of God here living upon earth, the true church militant of Christ, 
the true mystical body of Christ, the very household and family of God 
and the sacred temple of the Holy Ghost, farewell. Farewell, O thou 
little flock of the high heavenly pastors of Christ, for to you it hath 
pleased the heavenly Father to give an everlasting and eternal kingdom. 
Farewell thou spiritual house of God, thou holy and royal priesthood, 
thou chosen generation, thou holy nation, thou won spouse. Farewell, 
farewell." 

The next month after the burning of Ridley and Latimer, which was the 
month of November, Stephen Gardiner, bishop and chancellor, a man 
hated of God and all good men, ended his wretched life. He was born in 
the town of Bury in Suffolk, and brought up most part of his youth in 
Cambridge: his wit, capacity, memory, and other endowments of nature 
were not to be complained of, if he had well used and rightly applied the 
same. He profited not a little in such studies as he gave his head unto; 
as in civil law, languages, and such other like, especially in those arts and 
faculties which had the prospect of dignity and preferment. But to those 
gifts were joined great vices, which not so much followed him as overtook 
him, not so much burdened him as made him burdenous to the whole realm. 
He was of a proud stomach and high-minded ; in wit, crafty and subtle ; 
towards his superiors, flattering and fair spoken ; to his inferiors, fierce ; 
against his equals, stout and envious, as appeared between the good lord 
Cromwell and him in the reign of king Henry. Upon his estimation and 
fame he stood too much, more than was meet for a man of his coat and 
calling, whose profession was to be crucified unto the world. 



S72 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

As touching divinity, he was so variable, wavering with time, that no 
constant censure can be given what to make of him. If his doings and 
writings were according to his conscience, no man can rightly say whether 
he was a right protestant or a papist ; and if he wrote otherwise than he 
thought, then was he a double dissembler before God and man. For first 
in the beginning of Anne Boleyn's time, who was so forward or busy in 
the matter of the king's divorce as Stephen Gardiner, who was first sent to 
Rome, and then to the emperor with Edward Foxe, as chief agent in the 
behalf of lady Anne ? by whom also he was preferred to the bishopric of 
Winchester. Again, at the abolishing of the pope, who so ready to swear 
or so vehement to write against the pope as he, as not only by his sermons 
but also by his book " De Obedientia" may appear? in which book, lest 
any should think him drawn thereunto otherwise than by his own consent, 
he plainly declareth how not rashly nor upon a sudden, but in a long 
deliberation and advertisement in himself about the matter, he at length 
uttered his judgment. And moreover so he uttered his judgments in 
writing against the usurped supremacy of the pope, that coming to Louvain 
afterward he was there accounted as excommunicate and schismatic, inso- 
much that he was not permitted in their church to say mass, and in their 
public sermons they openly cried out against him. 

And thus long continued he firm and forward, so that who but Win- 
chester during all the time of queen Anne ? After her fall, by little and 
little he was carried away, till at length the emulation of Cromwell's estate, 
and especially for his so much favouring of Bonner, whom Winchester at 
that time could in no case abide, made him an utter enemy against the 
said Cromwell and also his religion. Again, in king Edward's days, he 
began a little to rebate from certain points of popery, and somewhat to 
smell of the gospel, as appears by his sermon before the king, and also by 
his subscribing to certain articles. This was a half turn of Stephen Gar- 
diner from popery again to the gospel, and no doubt he would have further 
turned had not the unlucky decay of the duke of Somerset clean turned 
him away from true divinity to plain popery, wherein he continued a cruel 
persecutor to his dying day. And thus much concerning the trade and 
profession of Stephen Gardiner. 

Touching the death of the foresaid Stephen Gardiner, and the manner 
thereof, I would they which were present thereat would testify unto us what 
they saw ; notwithstanding I thought not to overpass a certain hearsay 
openly reported in the house of a worthy citizen bearing yet office in this 
city : " The same day, when bishop Ridley and master Latimer suffered at 
Oxford, there came into the house of Stephen Gardiner the duke of Norfolk, 
with his secretary, master Munday. The duke there waiting and tarrying 
for his dinner, the bishop being not yet disposed to dine, deferred the time 
to three or four of the clock at afternoon. At length, about four of the 
clock cometh his servant, posting in all possible speed from Oxford, bring- 
ing intelligence to the bishop what he had heard and seen ; of whom the 
said bishop diligently inquiring the truth of the matter, and hearing by 
his man that fire was most certainly set unto them, cometh out rejoicing 
to the duke — ' Now,' saith he, ' let us go to dinner :' whereupon they 
being set down, meat immediately was brought, and the bishop began 
merrily to eat. But what followed ? The bloody tyrant had not eaten a few 



DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT. 873 

bits, but the sudden stroke of God's terrible hand fell upon him in such 
sort as immediately he was taken from table, and so brought to his bed ; 
where he continued the space of fifteen days in intolerable anguish and 
torments : a spectacle worthy to be noted and beholden of all such bloody 
burning persecutors." 

I could name the man who, being then present, and a great doer about 
the said Winchester, reported to us concerning the said bishop, that 
when Dr. Day, bishop of Chichester, came to him, and began to com- 
fort him with the words of God's promise, and with the free justification 
in the blood of Christ our Saviour, repeating the Scriptures to him, Win- 
chester cried out, " What, my lord, will you open that gap now ? Then 
farewell altogether. To me, and such others in my case, you may speak 
it; but open this window to the people, then fareweil altogether !" Having 
given this brief sketch of Gardiner's story, leaving him to his Judge, we 
shall return, (by the grace and leave of the Lord,) as the course of these 
doleful days shall lead us, to prosecute the residue of Christ's martyrs. 

The political and ecclesiastical state of the realm at this period has 
been summed up by a former editor of this work in the following com- 
prehensive and judicious manner. "The parliament was now assem- 
bled, and it appeared that the nation was much turned in their affec- 
tions. It was proposed to give the queen a subsidy. This was the first 
aid that the queen had asked, though she was now in the third year of 
her reign; and what was now desired, was no more than what she might 
have exacted at her first coming to the crown; and since she had for- 
given so much at her coronation, it seemed unreasonable to deny it 
now: yet great opposition was made to it. Many said, she was impo- 
verishing the crown, and giving away the abbey-lands, and therefore 
she ought to be supplied by the clergy, and not turn to the laity: but 
it was answered, that the convocation had given her 6s. in the pound, 
but that would not serve her present occasions; so the debate grew 
high ; but to prevent further heats, the queen sent a message, declaring 
that she would accept the subsidy, upon which it was granted. The 
queen sent for the speaker of the house of commons, and told him she 
could not with a good conscience exact the first-fruits of the clergy, 
since they were given to her father to support his unlawful dignity, of 
being the supreme head of the church: she also thought that all tithes, 
and impropriations were the patrimony of the church, and therefore 
was resolved to resign such of them as were in her hands. The former 
part passed easily in the house, but great opposition was made to the 
latter part of her motion : for it was looked on as a step to the taking- 
all the impropriations out of the hands of the laity: upon a division of 
the house, one hundred and twenty-six were against it, and one hundred 
and ninety-three were for it; so it was carried by sixty-seven voices. A 
bill was put in against the duchess of Suffolk, and several others that fa- 
voured the reformation, and had gone beyond sea that they might freely 
enjoy their consciences; requiring them to return, under severe penal- 
ties: the lords passed it, but the commons threw it out; for they began 
now to repent of the severe laws they had already consented to, and re- 
solved to add no more. They also rejected another bill, for incapacitating 



874 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

some to be justices of peace who were complained of for their remissness 
in prosecuting heretics. An act was put in for debarring one Bennet 
Smith, who had hired some assassins to commit a most detestable murder, 
from the benefit of the clergy; which, by the course of the common law, 
would have saved him. This was an invention of the priests, that if 
any who was capable of entering into orders, and had not been twice 
married, or had not married a widow, could read, and vow to take 
orders, he was to be saved in many criminal cases. And it was looked 
on as a part of the ecclesiastical immunity ; which made divers of the 
bishops oppose this act; yet it passed, though four of them and five 
temporal lords protested against it. There was such a heat in the house 
of commons in this parliament, that Sir Anthony Kingston called one 
day for the keys of the house; but for this temerity, in the dissolution 
of parliament, he was sent to the Tower: he was, however, soon after 
set at liberty; but next year he and six others were accused of a design 
of robbing the exchequer. Sir Anthony died before he was brought up 
to London ; the other six were executed ; but the evidence against them 
does not appear on record. 

Cardinal Pole, about this time, called a convocation, having first pro- 
cured a licence from the queen, empowering them both to meet and to 
make such canons as they should think fit. This was done to preserve 
the prerogatives of the crown, and to secure the clergy, that they might 
not be afterwards brought under a prsemunire. In it several decrees 
were proposed by Pole, and assented to by the clergy: For observing 
the feast of the reconciliation made with Rome, with great solemnity. 
For condemning all heretical books, and receiving that exposition of 
the faith which pope Eugenius sent from the council of Florence to the 
Armenians. For the decent administration of the sacraments, and the 
putting down the yearly feasts in the dedications of churches. For 
requiring all bishops and priests to lay aside secular cares, and to give 
themselves wholly to the pastoral charge: and all pluralists to resign all 
their benefices except one, within two months, otherwise to forfeit all. 
For bishops to preach often, and to provide good preachers for their 
dioceses, to go over them as their visitors. For the pomp and luxury 
of the tables, servants, and families of the bishops to cease, and the 
money to be laid out on works of charity. For orders to be granted 
only after strict examination. For personal partiality in bestowing 
benefices no longer to prevail. For the abolition of simony. For 
schools to be connected with every cathedral, chargeable on its revenues 
— and for some other inferior purposes. 

In these, the politic temper of cardinal Pole may be well discerned. 
He thought the people were more wrought on by the scandals they saw 
in the clergy, than by the arguments which they heard from the re- 
formers; and therefore reckoned that if pluralities and non-residences, 
and the other abuses of churchmen, could have been removed, and if he 
could have brought the bishops to live better, and labour more, to be 
stricter in giving orders, and more impartial in conferring benefices, and 
if he could have established seminaries in cathedrals, heresy might have 
been driven out of the nation by gentler means than racks and fires. 
In one thing, however, he shewed the meanness of his spirit, namely, 






ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 875 

that though he himself condemned cruel proceedings against heretics, 
yet he both gave commissions to other bishops and archdeacons to try 
them, and suffered a great deal of cruelty to be exercised in his own 
diocese: but he had not courage enough to resist pope Paul IV., who 
thought of no other way for bearing down heresy, than that of setting 
up courts of inquisition every where. He had imprisoned cardinal 
Marone. Pole's great friend, upon suspicion of heresy; and would very 
probably have used himself so, if he had got him at Rome. 

About this time the Jesuits were beginning to grow considerable; they 
were restrained, besides their other vows, by an absolute obedience to 
the see of Rome : and set themselves every where to open free-schools, 
for the education of youth, and to bear down heresy. They were ex- 
cused from the hours of the quire, and were consequently looked on as 
a mongrel order, between the regulars and the seculars. They proposed 
to cardinal Pole, that since the queen was restoring the abbey-lands, it 
would be to little purpose to give them again to the Benedictine order, 
which was now rather a clog than a help to the church : and therefore 
they desired that houses might be assigned to them, for maintaining 
schools and seminaries; and they did not doubt but they should quickly 
drive out heresy and recover the church-lands. Cardinal Pole would not 
listen to this, for which the Jesuits much censured him. It is not certain 
whether he foresaw that disorder which they were likely to bring into the 
church, and that corruption of morals that hath since emanated from their 
schools. 

SECTION XII. 

THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN WEBBE, GEORGE ROPER, GREGORY PAKKE, 
WILLIAM WISEMAN, JAMES GORE, AND JOHN PHILPOT. 

Next after the death of the two most worthy champions and standard- 
bearers of Christ's army, Dr. Nicholas Ridley and master Hugh Latimer, 
followed three other stout and bold soldiers ; that is to say, John Webbe, 
gentleman, George Roper, and Gregory Parke. John Webbe was brought 
before the bishop of Dover and Nicholas Harpsfield, or some other deputed 
in their room, on the 16th of September, and there had propounded unto 
him such articles as were commonly ministered by Bonner to those of his 
jurisdiction. And being willed for that present to depart, and to deliberate 
with himself upon the matter against the next time of his appearance, he 
made answer that he would no otherwise say, by God's grace, than he had 
already said, which was this: "As touching the sacrament of Christ's 
body," said he, "I do believe it to be left unto his church (with thanks- 
giving) in commemoration of his death and passion, until his coming 
again. So that it is left in remembrance of his body ; and not by the words 
of consecration to be made his body really, substantially, and the same 
body that was born of the Virgin Mary — I utterly deny that." 

After this, the 3rd day of October, the said John Webbe, and George 
Roper, and Gregory Parke, were brought all three together before the said 
judges ; who there and then agreeing, and steadfastly allowing the former 
answer made before by master Webbe, were, by the bloody prelates, 
adjudged heretics; and, therefore, about the same month (or else in the 



876 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

latter end of November) they were together brought out of prison to the 
place of martyrdom ; repeating certain psalms in their way. Arriving at 
the stake, and there fastened with a chain, they were burnt altogether in 
one fire at Canterbury, most patiently enduring their torments, and 
accounting themselves happy and blessed of the Lord that they were made 
worthy to suffer for his sake. 

The 13th of December, 1555, in the Lollards' Tower, died William 
Wiseman, a clothworker of London, where he was in prison and bonds for 
the gospel and word of God. How and whereupon he deceased it is not 
fully certain. Some thought that either through famine or ill handling of 
some murdering papists he was made away ; but the truth could not be 
ascertained. After his death the papists cast him out into the fields, as 
was their usual custom to such of the protestants as expired under their 
hands, commanding that no man should bury him. Notwithstanding their 
merciless commands, some good Tobits there were who buried him in the 
evening, as commonly they did all the rest thrown out in like manner, whom 
they were wont privily by night to cover; while many times the archers were 
in the field standing by, and singing psalms together at their burial. In the 
same month deceased also James Gore in the prison at Colchester, laid 
there in bonds for the right and truth of God's word. 

Next followeth the constant martyrdom of master John Philpot, whose 
troubles have been, in part, related in the commencement of the reign 
of Mary. He was of a family highly respectable, his father being a 
knight, and was born in Hampshire. He was brought up at New College, 
Oxford, where he studied civil law and other branches of liberal educa- 
tion, particularly that of languages, and became a great proficient in 
the Hebrew. He was witty, courageous and zealous; ever careful to 
adorn his doctrine by his practice, and his learning is fully evinced by 
what he has left on record. Desirous of travelling he went over to Italy 
and places thereabouts, and coming upon a time from Venice to Padua, 
he was in danger, through a Franciscan friar's accompanying him in his 
journey, who, coming to Padua, sought to accuse him of heresy. At 
length returning into England, as the time permitted more boldness 
unto him in the days of king Edward, he had several conflicts with 
bishop Gardiner in the city of Winchester. 

After that, having an advowson from the bishop, he was made arch- 
deacon of Winchester, under Dr. Poinet, who then succeeded Gardiner 
in that bishopric, and here he continued during the reign of king 
Edward, to the great profit of those parts thereabouts. When that pious 
prince was taken away, and Mary succeeded, her study was wholly bent 
to alter the state of religion in England : and first, she caused a convo- 
cation of the prelates and learned men to be assembled for the accom- 
plishment of her desire. In this convocation Mr. Philpot, according to 
his degree, with a few others, sustained the cause of the gospel against 
the adversary, for which, notwithstanding the liberty the house had pro- 
mised before, he was called to account before the chancellor, then being 
his ordinary, by whom he was first examined, although that examination 
came not to hand. From thence again he was removed to bishop Bonner, 
and other commissioners, with whom he had divers conflicts, as may 
appear by an abstract of his examinations. 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 877 

The first examination took place before the queen's commissioners, master 
Cholmley, master Roper, and Dr. Storey, and one of the Scribes of the 
Arches, at Newgate-Sessions' Hall, Oct. 2, 1555, which he thus relates : 

Dr. Storey, before I was called into an inner parlour, where they sat, 
came out into the hall where I was, to view me among- others that were 
there ; and passing by me said, " Ha ! master Philpot ; " and in returning 
stayed against me, beholding me, and saying that I was well fed indeed. 

Philpot, If I be fat, and in good liking, master doctor, it is no marvel, 
since I have been stalled up in prison this twelve months and a half, in a 
close corner. I am come to know wherefore you have sent for me. 

Storey. We hear thou art a suspected person, and of heretical opinions. 

Phil. I have been in prison thus long, only upon the occasion of dis- 
putation made in the convocation-house, and upon suspicion of setting 
forth the report thereof. 

Storey. If thou wilt revoke the same, thou shalt be set at liberty, and 
do well ; or else thou shalt be committed to the bishop of London. 

Phil. I have already answered in this behalf to mine ordinary. 

Storey. If thou answerest thus when thou comest before us anon, thou 
shalt hear more of our minds. 

And with that he went into the parlour, and I within a little while after 
was called in, when Storey said to the scribe, " This man was archdeacon 
of Winchester, of Dr. Poinet's presentment." 

Phil. I was archdeacon indeed, but none of his presentment ; but by 
virtue of a former advowson, given by my lord chancellor that now is. 

Storey. You maybe assured that my lord chancellor would not make 
any such as he is archdeacon. 

Roper. Come hither to me, Mr. Philpot. We hear that you are out 
of the catholic church, and have been a disturber of the same; out of 
which whoso is, he cannot be the child of salvation. Wherefore if you 
will come into the same, you shall be received and find favour. 

Phil. I am come before your worshipful masterships at your appoint- 
ment, understanding that you are magistrates authorised by the queen's 
majesty, whom I own and will do my due obedience unto the uttermost. 
Wherefore I desire to know what cause I have offended in, for which I 
am now called before you. And if I cannot be charged with any par- 
ticular matter done contrary to the laws of this realm, I desire of you 
that I may have the benefit of a subject, and be delivered out of my 
wrongful imprisonment, where I have lain a year and a half, without 
any calling to answer before now, and my living taken from me with- 
out law. 

Roper. Though we have no particular matter to charge you withal 
yet we may, by our commission and by the law, drive you to answer 
to the suspicion of a slander going on you : and besides this, we have 
statutes to charge you herein withal. 

Phil. If I have offended any statute, charge me therewithal; and if I 
have incurred the penalty thereof, punish me accordingly. And because 
you are magistrates and executors of the queen's laws, by force whereof 
you now sit, I desire that if I be not found a transgressor of any of 
them, I may not be burthened with more than 1 have done. 

Cholm. If the justice do suspect a felon, he may examine him upon 



878 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

suspicion thereof, and commit him to prison though there be no fault 
done. 

Storey. I perceive whereabout this man goeth: he is plain in Card- 
maker's case, for he made the same allegations. But they will not 
serve thee; for thou art a heretic, and holdest against the blessed mass: 
howsayest thou to that? Thou deniest it, but I will prove thee a heretic. 
Whosoever hath held against the blessed mass is a heretic : but thou 
hast held against the same, therefore thou art a heretic. 

Phil. That which I spake, and which you are able to charge me 
withal, was in the convocation, where, by the queen's will and her whole 
council, liberty was given to every man of the house to utter his con- 
science, and to speak his mind freely of such questions in religion as 
there were propounded by the prolocutor; for which now I thought not 
to be molested and imprisoned as I have been, neither now to be com- 
pelled by you to answer for the same. 

Storey. Thou shalt go to Lollards' Tower, and be handled there like 
a heretic as thou art, and answer to the same that thou there didst 
speak, and be judged by the bishop of London. 

Phil. Sir, you know by the law, that I may have "Exceptionem fori;" 
and it is against all equity that I should be twice vexed for one cause, and 
that by such as by the law have nothing to do with me. 

Roper. You cannot deny but that you spoke against the mass in the 
convocation-house. 

Storey. Dost thou deny that which thou spakest there, or no ? 

Phil. I cannot deny that I have spoken there, and if by the law you 
may put me to death for it, I am here ready to suffer whatsoever I shall 
be judged unto. 

Cholm. Play the wise gentleman and be conformable; and be not 
stubborn in your opinion, neither cast yourself away. I would be glad 
to do you good. 

Phil. I desire you, sir, with the rest here, that I be not charged 
further at your hands than the law chargeth me, for what I have done, 
since there was no law directly against that wherewith I am now charged. 
And you, Mr. Doctor, I trust, will shew me some friendship. 

Storey. I tell thee, if thou wouldst be a good catholic I would spend 
my gown to do thee good ; but I will be no friend to a heretic, as thou 
art, but will spend both my gown and my coat, but I will burn thee. 
How sayest thou to the sacrament of the altar? and since thou wilt not 
revoke that thou hast done, thou shalt be had into Lollards' Tower. 

Phil. Sir, since you will needs shew me this extremity, and charge 
me with my conscience, I desire to see your commission, whether you 
have this authority so to do. 

Storey. Shall we let every vile person see our commission? Let him 
lie in the Lollards' Tower; for I will sweep the King's-Bench, and all 
other prisons also, of these heretics : they shall not have that resort as 
they have had, to scatter their heresies. 

Phil. You have power to transfer my body from place to place at your 
pleasure ; but you have no power over my soul. And I pass not whither 
you commit me, for I cannot be worse entreated than I am. 

Roper. Be content to be ruled, and show yourself a catholic man. 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 879 

Phil. Sir, if I should speak otherwise than my conscience is, I should 
but dissemble with you ; and why be you so earnest to have me shew 
myself a dissembler both to God and you, which I cannot do ? If I do 
stand in anything- against that, wherein any man is able to burthen me 
with one jot of the scripture, I shall be content to be counted no catholic 
man, or a heretic, as you please. 

With that Storey rose up, saying, " Who shall be judge, I pray you? 
This man is like his fellow Woodman, which the other day would have 
nothing else but Scripture." And this is the beginning of this tragedy. 

On the 24th of October, Philpot was again brought before the same com- 
missioners, the which second examination is also condensed from his own 
narrative. At his coming, an acquaintance said to him, " God have mercy 
on you, for you are already condemned in this world ; for Dr. Storey said 
that my lord chancellor had commanded to do you away." Philpot again 
desired to see their commission, which the scribe thereupon exhibited to 
Roper, and was about to open the same, when Dr. Cook, now added to 
their number, exclaimed, " No, what will ye do? he shall not see it 1" 

Phil. Then you do me wrong, to call me and vex me, not shewing 
your authority in this behalf. 

Cook. If we do you wrong, complain of us: and in the mean time 
thou shalt lie in the Lollards' Tower. 

Phil. Sir, I am a poor gentleman ; therefore I trust that you will not 
commit me to so vile a place, being no heinous trespasser. 

Cook. A heretic is no gentleman: for he is a gentleman that hath 
gentle conditions. 

Phil. The offence cannot take away the state of a gentleman as long 
as he liveth, although he were a traitor : but I mean not to boast of 
my gentlemanship; but I will put it under my foot, since you do no 
more esteem it. 

Storey. A gentleman, said he? he is a vile heretic knave: for a 
heretic is no gentleman. Let the keeper of the Lollards' Tower come 
in, and have him away. 

Phil. Sir, if I were a dog, you could not appoint me a worse nor 
more vile place : but I must be content with whatsoever injury you do 
offer me. God give you a more merciful heart; you are very cruel 
upon one that hath never offended you. I pray you, Mr. Cholmley, 
shew me some friendship that I may not be carried to so vile a place. 

Mr. Philpot proceeds with his narrative. " After this, I with four 
others was brought to the keeper's house in Paternoster-row, where we 
supped, and after supper I was called up to a chamber by a servant of 
the archdeacon of London, and that in his master's name, who offered 
me a bed for that night. I thanked him, and said, That it would be 
a grief to me to lie one night well, and the next night worse: wherefore 
I would begin as I was likely to continue, to take such part as my 
fellows do. And with that we were brought through Paternoster-row 
to my lord of London's coal-house; unto which was joined a little dark 
house, with a great pair of stocks, both for hand and foot; and there 
we found a minister of Essex, a married priest, a man of godly zeal, 
with one other poor man. The minister at my coming desired to speak 
with me, telling me that he greatly lamented his infirmity, for that 



880 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

through extremity of imprisonment he had been constrained by writing 
to yield to the bishop of London : whereupon he had been set at liberty, 
and afterward felt such a hell in his conscience, that he could scarce 
refrain destroying himself, and never could be at quiet until he went to 
the bishop's register, desiring to see his bill again ; which as soon as he 
had received, he tore it in pieces, after which he was joyful as any man. 
When my lord of London understood this, he sent for him, and fell 
upon him like a lion, and buffeted him, so that he made his face black 
and blue; and plucked away a great piece of his beard. 

" The second night of my imprisonment in this den, the bishop sent 
Mr. Johnson, his register, to me with a mess of meat, a good pot of 
drink, and some bread, saying that he had no knowledge before of my 
being here, for which he was sorry: therefore he had sent me and my 
fellows that meat, not knowing whether I would receive the same. 
I thanked God for his lordship's charity, that it pleased him to remember 
poor prisoners, desiring the Almighty to increase the same in him, and 
in all others; and that 1 would not refuse his beneficence, and there- 
with took the same unto my brethren. 

" The register said — ' My lord would know the cause of your being 
sent hither, and wondereth that he should be troubled with prisoners 
that are not of his own diocese.' On this I declared unto him the whole 
cause. After which he said, that my lord's will was, I should have any 
friendship I would desire, and so departed. In a little time one of my 
lord's gentlemen came for me ; and brought me into his presence, where 
he sat at a table with three or four of his chaplains waiting upon him, 
and his register. He said freely — 'Mr. Philpot, you are welcome; 
give me your hand. I am sorry for your trouble, and promise you that 
till within these two hours, I knew not of your being here. I pray you 
tell me the cause : for I promise you I know nothing thereof as yet, 
and marvel that other men will trouble me with their matters; but I 
must be obedient to my betters, and I fear men speak otherwise of me 
than I deserve.' I told him, that it was for the disputation in the 
convocation-house, for which I was against all right molested." 

Bon. I marvel that you should be troubled for that, if there was no 
other cause. But peradventure you have maintained the same since, 
and some of your friends of late have asked, whether you do stand to 
the same, and you have said, yea; and for this you might be committed 
to prison. 

Phil. If it shall please your lordship I am burdened no otherwise 
than I have told you, by the commissioners who sent me hither, because 
I would not recant the same. 

Bon. A man may speak in the parliament-house, though it be a place 
of free speech, so as he may be imprisoned for it, as in case he speak 
words of high-treason against the king or queen ; and so it might be 
that you spake otherwise than it became you of the church of Christ. 

Phil. I spake nothing which was out of the articles which were 
called in question, and agreed upon to be disputed by the whole house, 
and by permission of the queen and council. 

Bon. Why, may we dispute of our faith? — I think not, by the law. 

Phil. Indeed by the civil law I know it is not lawful, but by God's 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 881 

law we may reason thereof. For St. Peter saith — " Be ye ready to 
render account unto all men of the hope which is in you." 

Bon. Indeed, St. Peter saith so. Why then, I ask of you, what 
your judgment is of the sacrament of the altar? 

Phil. My lord, St. Ambrose saith, that the disputation of faith ought 
to be in the congregation, in the hearing of the people, and that I am 
not bound to render account thereof to every man privately, unless it 
be to edify. But now I cannot shew you my mind, but I must run 
upon the pikes in danger of my life for it. Wherefore, as the said 
doctor said unto Valentinian the emperor, so say I to your lordship : — 
" Take away the law, and I will reason with you." And yet if I come 
in open judgment, where I am bound by the law to answer, I trust I 
shall utter my conscience as freely as any that hath come before you. 

Bon. I perceive you are learned, I would have such as you about me. 
But you must come and be of the church, for there is but one church. 

Phil. God forbid I should be out of the church, I am sure I am 
within the same : for I know as I am taught by the scripture, that there 
is but one catholic church, one dove, one spouse, and one beloved con- 
gregation, out of which there is no salvation. 

Bon. How is it then that you go out of the same, and walk not with us? 

Phil. My lord, I am sure I am within the bounds of the church where- 
upon she is builded, which is the word of God. 

Bon. You are not now of the same faith promised for you in your baptism. 

Phil. Yes, I am; for I was baptized into the faith of Christ I now hold. 

Bon. How can that be ? there is but one faith. 

Phil. I am assured of that by St. Paul, saying that there is but one God, 
one faith, and one baptism, of the which I am. 

Bon. You were twenty years ago of another faith than you are now. 

Phil. I was then of no faith, a neuter, a wicked liver, neither hot nor cold. 

Bon. Why, do you not think that we have now the true faith ? 

Phil. I desire your lordship to hold me excused for answering at this 
time. I am sure that God's word thoroughly, with the primitive church, 
and all the ancient writers, do agree with this faith I am of. 

Bon. Well, I promise you I mean you no hurt. I will not therefore 
burthen you with your conscience now; I marvel that you are so merry 
in prison as you are, singing and rejoicing, as the prophet saith, joying 
in your naughtiness. Methinks you do not well herein ; you should 
rather lament and be sorry. 

Phil. My lord, the mirth that we make is but in singing certain 
psalms, according as we are commanded by St. Paul, willing us to be 
merry in the Lord, singing together in hymns and psalms: and I trust 
your lordship cannot be displeased with that. We are, my lord, in a 
dark comfortless place, and therefore it behoveth us to be merry, lest, 
as Solomon saith, sorrowfulness eat up our heart. 

Bon. I will trouble you no farther now. If I can do you any good, 
I shall be glad. God be with you, good Mr. Philpot, and good night. 
Take him to the cellar, and let him drink a cup of wine. 

The next examination was in the house of the archdeacon, and before 
the bishops of London, Bath, Worcester, and Gloucester. 

Bon. Mr. Philpot, it hath pleased my lords to take pains here to-dav, 

3 l * 



382 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

to dine with my poor archdeacon, and in the dinner-time it chanced us 
to have communication of you, and you were pitied here by many who 
knew you at New College in Oxford. And I also do pity your case, 
because you seem unto me by the talk I had with you the other night, 
to be learned: and therefore now I have sent for you to come before 
them, that it might not be said hereafter, that I had so many learned 
bishops at my house, and yet would not vouchsafe them to talk with 
you, and at my request they are content so to do. Now therefore 
utter your mind freely, and you shall with all favour be satisfied. I 
am sorry to see you lie in so evil a case as you do, and would fain you 
should do better, as you may if you please. 

Bath. My lords here have not sent for you to fawn upon you, but 
for charity sake to exhort you to come into the right catholic church. 

Worces. Before he beginneth to speak, it is best that he call upon 
God for grace, and to pray that it might please God to open his heart, 
that he may conceive the truth. 

With that Philpot fell upon his knees before them, and prayed on this 
manner : " Almighty God, who art the giver of all wisdom and under- 
standing, I beseech thee of thine infinite goodness and mercy in Jesus 
Christ, to give me (most vile sinner in thy sight) the spirit of wisdom to 
speak and make answer in thy cause, that it may be to the satisfaction 
of the hearers before whom I stand, and also to my better under- 
standing if 1 be deceived in any thing." 

Bon. Nay, my lord of Worcester, you did not well to exhort him to 
make any prayer. For this is the thing they have a singular pride in, 
that they can often make their vain prayers, in which they glory much. 
For in this point they are much like to certain arrant heretics, of whom 
Pliny maketh mention, that did daily sing praise unto God before 
dawning of the day. 

Phil. My lord, God make me and all you here present such heretics 
as those were that sung those morning hymns: for they were right 
christians, with whom the tyrants of the world were offended. 

Bon. Say on, Mr. Philpot; my lords will gladly hear you. 

Phil. I have, my lords, been these twelve months and a half in prison 
without any just cause, and my living is taken from me without any 
lawful order, and now I am brought unjustly from my own territory and 
ordinary, into another man's jurisdiction, I know not why. Wherefore, 
if your lordships can burden me with any evil done, I stand here before 
you to purge me of the same. And if no such thing may be justly laid 
to my charge, I desire to be released of this wrongful trouble. 

Bon. There is none here that goeth about to trouble you, but to do you 
good, if we can. For I promise you, you were sent hither to me without 
my knowledge. Therefore speak your conscience without any fear. 

Phil. My lords, it is not unknown to you, that the chief cause why 
you count me, and such as I am, for heretics, is because we be not at 
unity with your church. You say, that whatsoever is out of your church 
is damned : and we think verily on the other side, that if we depart from 
the true church, whereon we are grafted in God's word, we should stand 
in the state of damnation. Wherefore if your lordships can bring any 
better authority for your church than we can for ours, and prove by the 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 883 

scriptures that the church of Rome now is the true catholic church, as 
in all sermons, writings and arguments you uphold ; and that all chris- 
tian persons ought to be ruled by the same, under pain of damnation, 
and that the same church hath authority to interpret the scriptures as it 
seemeth good to her, and that all men are bound to follow such inter- 
pretations only; I shall be as conformable to the same church as you 
may desire, which otherwise I dare not. To this I will stand and refer 
all other controversies wherein I now am against you, and will put my 
hand thereto, if you mistrust my word. 

Bon. I pray you, Mr. Philpot, what faith were you of twenty years 
ago? This man will have every year a new faith. 

Phil. My lord, to tell you plain, I think I was of no faith; for I was 
then a wicked liver, and knew not God then as I ought to do, God for- 
give me. I have declared to you on my conscience what I then was, 
and judge of myself. And what is that to the purpose of the thing I 
desire to be satisfied of you ? 

Cole. WhatAvill you say, if I can prove it was decreed by an universal 
council in Athanasius's time, that all the christian church should follow 
the determination of the church of Rome ? but I do not now remember where. 

Phil. If you, master doctor, can show me the same granted to the see of 
Rome by the authority of Scripture, I will gladly hearken thereto. But I 
think you are not able : for Athanasius was president of the Nicene council, 
and there was no such thing decreed. I desire to see the proof thereof. 

Upon this master Harpsfield, the chancellor to the bishop of London, 
brought in a book of Ireneus, with certain leaves turned in, and laid it 
before the bishops to help them in their perplexity, if it might be; which 
after the bishops of Bath and Gloucester had read together, the latter 
gave me the book, and said — 'Take the book, Mr. Philpot, and look 
upon that place, and there you may see how the church of Rome is to 
be followed of all men.' On this I took the book and read the place, 
after which I said it made nothing against me, but against Arians and 
other heretics, against whom Ireneus wrote. 

Worces. It is to be proved most manifestly by all ancient writers, that 
the see of Rome hath always followed the truth, and never was deceived 
until of late certain heretics had defaced the same. 

PhiL Let that be proved, and I have done. 

Worces. You are of such singularity and vain-glory you will not see it. 

Phil. Ha, my lords, is it now time, think you, for me to follow sin- 
gularity or vain-glory, since it is now upon danger of my life and death 
not only presently, but also before God to come? For I know if I die 
not in the true faith, I shall die everlastingly; and again I know, if I 
do not as you would have me, you will kill me and a great many more : 
yet I had rather perish by your hands, than perish eternally. And at 
this time I have lost all my goods of this world, and lie in a coal-house 
where a man would not lay a dog. 

Cole. Where are you able to prove that the church of Rome hath 
erred at any time? and by what history? Certain it is by Eusebius, that 
the church was established at Rome by Peter and Paul, and that Peter 
was bishop twenty-five years at Rome. 

Phil. I know well that Eusebius so writeth: but if we compare that 



884 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

which St. Paul writeth to the Galatians, the contrary will manifestly 
appear, that he was not half so long there. He lived not past thirty- 
five years after he was called to be an apostle: and St. Paul maketh 
mention of his abiding at Jerusalem after Christ's death more than 
thirteen years. And further, I am able to prove, both by Eusebius and 
other historiographers, that the church of Rome hath manifestly erred, 
and at this present doth err, because she agreeth not with that which 
they wrote. The primitive church did according to the gospel, and 
there needeth none other proof, but to compare the one with the other. 

Bon. I may compare this man to a certain one I read of who fell into 
a desperation, and went into a wood to hang himself, and when he came 
there, he went viewing of every tree, and could find none on which he 
might vouchsafe to hang himself. But I will not apply this as I 
might. I pray you, master doctor, go forth with him. 

Cole. My lord, there is on every side of me, some who are better able 
to answer him, and I love not to fall into disputation : for we now-a- 
days sustain shame and obloquy thereby of the people. I had rather 
shew my mind in writing. 

Phil. And I had rather you should do so than otherwise, for then a 
man may better judge of your words, than by argument, and I beseech 
you so to do. If I were a rich man, I durst wager a hundred pounds 
that you shall not be able to shew what you have said, to be decreed by 
a general council in Athanasius's time. This I am sure of, that it was 
concluded by a general council in Africa, many years after, that none 
of Africa should appeal to Rome: which decree I am sure they would 
not have made, if by the scriptures and by an universal council it had 
been decreed, that all men should follow the determination of the church 
of Rome. You say that they afterwards revoked that error: but I pray 
you shew me where. I have hitherto heard nothing from you to my satis- 
faction, but bare words without any authority. 

Bon. What, I pray you, ought we to dispute with you of our faith? 
Justinian in the law hath a title, De fide Catholica, to the contrary. 

Phil. I am certain the civil law hath such a constitution ; but our 
faith must not depend upon the civil law. For as St. Ambrose saith, 
Not the law, but the gospel hath gathered the church together. 

Worces. Mr. Philpot, you have the spirit of pride wherewith you be 
led, which will not let you yield to the truth: leave it off for shame. 

Phil. Sir, I am sure I have the spirit of faith, by which I speak at 
this present; neither am I ashamed to stand to my faith. 

Glou. What, do you think yourself better learned than so many 
notable learned men as are here? 

Phil. Elias alone had the truth, when there were four hundred priests 
against him. 

Worces. Oh, you would be counted now for Elias! And yet I tell 
thee he was deceived : for he thought there had been none good but 
himself; and yet he was deceived, for there were seven thousand be- 
sides him. 

Phil. Yea, but he was not deceived in doctrine, as the other four 
hundred were. 

Worces. Do you think the universal church may be deceived? 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 885 

Phil. St. Paul to the Thessalonians prophesieth that there should 
come an universal departing from the faith in the latter days before the 
coming of Christ, saying, that "Christ shall not come, till there come 
a departing first." 

Cole. Yea, I pray you, how take you the departing there in St. Paul ? 
It is not meant of faith, but of the departing from the empire : aTroa-raaia. 

Phil. Marry indeed you, master doctor, put me in good remembrance 
of the meaning of St. Paul in that place, for "apostasia" is properly a 
departing from the faith, and thereof cometh " apostata," which properly 
signifieth one that departeth from his faith : and St. Paul in the same 
place after speaketh of the decay of the empire. 

Cole. "Apostasia" doth not only signify a departing from the faith, 
but also from the empire, as I am able to show. 

Phil. I never read it so taken ; and when you shall be able to show it 
(as you say in words) I will believe it, and not before. 

Worces. I am sorry that you should be against the Christian world. 

Phil. The world commonly, and such as be called Christians ; for the 
multitude have hated the truth, and been enemies to the same. 

Glou. Why, Mr. Philpot, do you think that the universal church 
hath erred, and that you only are in the truth? 

Phil. The church that you are of was never universal ; for two parts 
of the world, which are Asia and Africa, never consented to the supre- 
macy of the bishop of Rome, neither did they follow his decrees. It 
was said so by false report, after they of Asia and Africa were gone 
home, that in the Florentine council they did agree : but it was not so 
indeed, as the sequel of them all prove the contrary. 

Glou. I pray you, by whom will you be judged in matters of con- 
troversy which happen daily? 

Phil. By the word of God. For Christ saith in St. John, "The 
word that he spake, shall be judge in the latter day." 

Glou. What if you take the word one way, and I another way, who 
shall be judge then ? 

Phil. The primitive church. I mean the doctors that wrote thereof. 

Glou. What if you take the doctors in one sense, and I in another: 
who shall be judge then? 

Phil. Then let that be taken which is most agreeable to God's word. 

Worces. It is a wonder how he standeth with a few against a multitude. 

Phil. We have almost as many as you : for we have Asia, Africa, 
Germany, Denmark, and a great part of France, and daily the number of 
the gospel doth increase: so that I am credibly informed that for this 
religion in the which I stand, and for the which I am like to die, a great 
multitude doth daily come out of France through persecution, that the 
cities of Germany be scarce able to receive them. And therefore your 
lordship may be sure the word of God will one day take place. 

Worces. They were well occupied to bring you such news, and you 
have been well kept to have such resort unto you. Thou art the arro- 
gantest fellow, and stoutest fond fellow, that ever I knew. 

Phil. I pray your lordship to bear with my hasty speech : for it is part 
of my corrupt nature to speak somewhat hastily ; but, for all that, I mean 
with humility to do my duty to your lordship. 



886 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Bon. Mr. Philpot, my lords will trouble you no further at this time, 
but you shall go whence you came, and have such favour as in the mean 
while I can shew you : and upon Wednesday next you shall be called 
upon again to be heard what you can say for the maintenance of your 
error. 

Phil. My lord, my desire is to be satisfied of you in that I required ; 
and your lordship shall find me as I have said. 

Worces. God send you more grace. 

Phil. And increase the same in you, and open your eyes, that you 
may see to maintain his truth, and his true church. 

Then the bishops rose, and after consulting together, caused a writ- 
ing to be made, in which I think my blood by them was bought and 
sold, and thereto they put their hands ; after which I was carried to my 
coal-house again. Thus endeth the fourth part of this tragedy. 

The fifth examination of John Philpot was before the bishops of London, 
Rochester, Coventry, St. Asaph, and one other, Dr. Storey, Curtop, Dr. 
Saverson, Dr. Pendleton, with divers others, in my lord of London's palace. 

Bon. Master Philpot, come you hither. I have desired my lords here, 
and other learned men, to take some pains once again to do you good ; 
and because I do mind to sit in judgment on you to-morrow, as I am 
commanded, yet I would you should have as much favour as I can shew 
you, if you will be anything conformable; therefore play the wise man, 
and be not singular in your own opinion, but be ruled by these learned 
men. 

Phil. My lord, in that you say you will sit on me in judgment to- 
morrow, I am glad thereof: for I was promised by them which sent me 
unto you, that I should have been judged the next day after: but pro- 
mise hath not been kept with me, to my farther grief. I look for none 
other but death at your hands, and I am as ready to yield my life in 
Christ's cause, as you are to require it. 

St. Asaph. It is most evident that St. Peter did build the catholic 
church at Rome. And Christ said, " Thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock will I build my church." Moreover the succession of bishops in 
the see of Rome can be proved from time to time, as it can be of none 
other place so well, which is a manifest probation of the catholic church 
as divers doctors do write. 

Phil. That which you would have to be undoubted, is most uncertain 
and that by the authority which you allege of Christ, saying unto Peter, 
"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;" unless 
you can prove that rock to signify Rome, as you would now make me 
falsely believe. And although you could prove the successions of 
bishops from Peter, yet this is not sufficient to prove Rome the catholic 
church, unless you can prove the profession of Peter's faith, whereupon 
the catholic church is built, to have continued in his successors at Rome 
and at this present to remain. 

Bon. Are there any more churches than one catholic church? And I 
pray, tell me into what faith were you baptised? 

Phil. I acknowledge one holy catholic and apostolic church, whereof 
I am a member, and am of that catholic faith of Christ whereinto I 
was baptised. 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 887 

Coventry. I pray, can you tell what this word catholic doth signify? 

Phil. Yes, I can, thank God. The catholic faith, or the catholic 
church, is not, as the people are taught, that which is most universal, 
or by most part of men received, whereby you infer our faith to hang 
upon the multitude; but I esteem the catholic church to be as St. 
Augustine defineth, " We judge the catholic faith, of that which hath 
been, is, and shall be." So that if you can be able to prove, that your 
faith and church hath been from the beginning taught, and is and shall 
be, then you may count yourselves catholic, otherwise not. Catholic 
is a Greek word, compounded of Kara, which signifieth after, or according, 
and 6\ov, a sum, or principal, or whole. So that catholic church, or 
catholic faith, is as much as to say, as the first, whole, sound, or chiefest 
faith. 

Bon. Doth St. Augustine say so as he allegeth it? or doth he mean 
as he taketh the same? How say you, Mr. Curtop ? 

Curtop. Indeed, my lord, St. Augustine hath such a saying, speaking 
against the Donatists, that the catholic faith ought to be esteemed of 
things in time past, and as they are practised according to the same, 
and ought to be through all ages, and not after a new manner, as the 
Donatists began to profess. 

Phil. You have said well, Mr. Curtop, and after the meaning of St. 
Augustine, and to confirm that which I have said for the signification 
of catholic. 

Cov. Let the book be seen, my lord. 

Bon. I pray you, my lord, be content, or in good faith I will break 
even off, and let all alone. Do you think that the catholic church 
(until within these few years, in which a few upon singularity have 
swerved from the same) hath ever been in error? 

Phil. I do not think that the catholic church can err in doctrine : 
but I require you to prove this church of Rome to be the catholic 
church. 

Cur. I can prove that Ireneus (which was within a hundred years 
after Christ) came to Victor, then bishop of Rome, to ask his advice 
about the excommunication of certain heretics, which he would not 
have done, if he had not taken him to be supreme head. 

Cov. Mark well this argument. How are you able to answer the 
same? Answer if you can. 

Phil. It is soon answered, my lord, for that is of no force; neither 
doth this fact of Ireneus make any more for the supremacy of the 
bishop of Rome, than mine hath done, who have been at Rome, as well 
as he, and might have spoken with the pope if I had list; and yet I 
would none in England did favour his supremacy more than I. 

St. Asaph. You are more to blame for that you favour the same no 
better, since all the catholic church have taken him to be the supreme 
head of the church, besides this good man Ireneus. 

Phil. It is not likely Ireneus so took him, or the primitive church: 
for I am able to shew seven general councils after lreneus's time, where- 
in he was never taken for supreme head. 

Cov. This man will never be satisfied, say what we can. It is but 
folly to reason any more with him. 



888 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Phil. O, my lords, would you have me satisfied with nothing? Judge, 
I pray you, who hath better authority, he which bringeth the example of 
one man going to Rome, or I that by these many general councils am 
able to prove, that the pope was never so taken in many hundred years 
after Christ, as by Nicene, Ephesine, the first and second Chalcedon, 
Constantinopolitan, Carthaginese, Aquileia. 

Cov. Why will you not admit the church of Rome to be the catholic 
church? Wherein doth it dissent? 

Phil. It followeth not the primitive catholic church, neither agreeth 
with the same. It were too long to recite all, but two things I will 
name, supremacy and transubstantiation. 

Saverson. I wonder you will stand so steadfast in your error to your 
own destruction. 

Phil. I am sure we are in no error, by the promise of Christ made 
to the faithful once, which is, that he will give to his true church such 
a spirit of wisdom, that the adversaries thereof should never be able to 
resist. And by this I know we are of the truth, for that neither by rea- 
soning, neither by writing, your synagogue of Rome is able to answer. 
Where is there one of you all that ever hath been able to answer any of 
the godly ministers of Germany ? Which of you all, at this day, is able 
to answer Calvin's Institutions, who is minister of Geneva? 

Saver. A godly minister indeed, a receiver of cut-purses and runagate 
traitors! And of late, I can tell you, there is such contention fallen 
between him and his own sects, that he was obliged to fly the town 
about predestination. I tell you truth, for I came by Geneva here. 

Phil. I am sure you blaspheme him and that church where he is 
minister. It is your church's disposition, when you cannot answer men 
by learning, to oppress them with blasphemies and false reports. For in 
the matter of predestination he is in no other opinion than all the 
doctors of the church be, agreeing to the scriptures. 

Saver. Men are able to answer him if they will. And I pray which 
of you has answered bishop Fisher's book? 

Phil. Yes, Mr. Doctor, that book is answered, and answered again : 
you, if you like to seek what hath been written against him, may do so. 
Dr. Storey, you have done me great injury, and without law have straitly 
imprisoned me, more like a dog than a man. And besides this you have 
not kept promise with me, for you promised that I should be judged the 
next day after. 

Storey. I am come now to keep promise with thee. Was there ever 
such a fantastical man as this is? These heretics be worse than brute 
beasts; for they will upon a vain singularity take upon them to be wiser 
than all men, being indeed very fools, not able to maintain that which 
of an arrogant obstinacy they do stand in. 

Phil. I am content to abide your railing judgment of me now. Say 
what you will, I am content, for I am under your feet to be trodden on 
as you like. God forgive it you; yet I am no heretic. Neither you 
nor any other shall be able to prove that I hold one jot against the word 
of God otherwise than a christian man ought. 

Storey. The word of God, forsooth ! It is but folly to reason with these 
heretics, for they are incurable and desperate. But yet I may reason 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 889 

with thee, not that I have any hope to win thee. Whom wilt thou 
appoint to judge of the word whereto thou standest ? 

Phil. Verily the word itself. 

Storey. Do you not see the ignorance of this beastly heretic? he willeth 
the word to be judged of the word. Can the word speak? Let us hear 
what wise authority thou canst bring in ? 

Phil. It is the word of Christ in St. John, " The word which I have 
spoken, shall judge in the last day." If the word shall judge in the 
last day, how much more ought it to judge of our doings now? and 1 
am sure I have my judge on my side, who will absolve and justify me 
in another world. Howsoever now it shall please you by authority 
unrighteously to judge of me and others, sure I am in another world to 
judge you. 

Storey. Well, sir, you are like to go after your fathers, Latimer the 
sophister, and Ridley, who had nothing to allege for himself but that 
he learned his heresy of Cranmer. But I dispatched them; and I tell 
thee that there never yet hath been one burnt, but I have spoken with 
him, and have been a cause of his dispatch. 

Phil. You will have the more to answer for, Mr. Doctor, as you 
shall feel in another world, how much soever you now triumph. 

Storey. I tell thee I will never be confessed thereof. And because I 
cannot now tarry, I pray one of you tell my lord, that my coming was to 
signify to his lordship that he must out of hand put this heretic away. 

Phil. I thank you there-for with all my heart, and God forgive it you. 

Storey. What, dost thou thank me? If I had thee in my study half 
an hour, I think I should make thee sing another song. 

Phil. No, I stand upon too sure ground to be overcome by you now. 

And thus they departed all away from me, until I was left alone. After- 
wards with my keeper going to my coal-house, I met my lord of London, 
who spake unto me gently, saying, " Philpot, if there be any pleasure I 
may show you in my house, I pray you require it, and you shall have it." 

Phil. My lord, the pleasure that I will require of your lordship is to 
hasten my judgment which is committed unto you, and so to despatch me 
forth of this miserable world, unto my eternal rest. 

And for all his fair speech I cannot attain hitherto, this fortnight's space, 
neither fire nor candle, nor good lodging. But it is good for a man to be 
brought low in this world, and to be counted amongst the vilest, that he 
may in time of reward receive exaltation and glory. Therefore praised be 
God that hath humbled me, and given me grace to be content therewithal. 

The sixth examination of John Philpot took place on the 6th of Novem- 
ber, before the lord Chamberlain, viscount Hereford, lords Rich, St. John, 
Windsor, and Chandos, sir John Bridges, lieutenant of the Tower, and 
two more, with the bishop of London and Dr. Chedsey. 

Before that I was called afore the lords, and whiles they were in sitting 
down, the bishop of London whispered in mine ear, willing me to use myself 
before the lords of the queen's council prudently. And after that the lords 
were set, he placed himself at the end of the table; where I kneeling down, 
the lords commanded me to stand up, and the bishop spake to me thus: 

" Master Philpot, I have heretofore both privately myself, and openly 
before the lords of the clergy, more times than once, caused you to be 



890 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

conversed with, to reform you of your errors, but I have not yet found 
you so tractable as 1 could wish : wherefore now I have desired these 
honourable lords of the temporalty, and of the queen's majesty's coun- 
cil, who have taken pains with me this day, I thank them for it, to hear 
you and what you can say, that they may be judges whether I have 
sought all means to do you good or not : and I dare be bold to say in 
their behalf, that if you shew yourself conformable to the queen's pro- 
ceedings, you shall find as much favour for your deliverance as you can 
wish. I speak not this to fawn upon you, but to bring you home unto 
the church. Now let them hear what you have to say." 

Philpot. I thank God that I have this day such an honourable audience 
to declare my mind before. And I cannot but commend your lordship's 
equity in this behalf, which agreeth with the order of the primitive church ; 
which was, if anybody had been suspected of heresy, as I am now, he should 
be called before the archbishop or bishop of the diocese where he was 
suspected, in the presence of others his fellow-bishops and learned elders, 
and in hearing of the laity : where, after the judgment of God's word de- 
clared, with the assent of other bishops and consent of the people, he was 
condemned to exile for a heretic, or absolved. The second point of that 
good order I have found at your lordship's hands already, in being call- 
ed before you and your fellow bishops ; and now I have the third sort 
of men, at whose hands I trust to find more righteousness in my cause 
than I have found with the clergy. God grant that I may have at last 
the judgment of God's word concerning the same." 

Bonner. Mr. Philpot, I pray you ere you go any further, tell my lords 
here plainly, whether you were by me or by my procurement committed 
to prison or not, and whether I have shewn you any cruelty since you 
have been committed to my prison. 

Phil. If it shall please your lordship to give me leave to declare forth 
my matter, I will touch that afterward. 

Lord Rich. Answer first of all to my lord's two questions, and then 
proceed to the matter. How say you ? Were you imprisoned by my 
lord or not ? Can you find any fault since with his cruel using of you? 

Phil. I cannot lay to my lord's charge the cause of my imprisonment, 
neither may I say that he hath used me cruelly ; but rather for my part 
I may say, that I have found more gentleness at his hands than I did 
at my own ordinary's, for the time I have been within his prison, because 
he hath called me three or four times to mine answer, to which I was 
not called in a year and a half before. 

Rich. Well, now go to your matter. 

Phil. The matter is, that I am imprisoned, for the disputations held 
by me in the convocation-house against the sacrament of the altar, which 
matter was not moved principally by me, but by the prolocutor, with 
the consent of the queen's majesty and of the whole house, and that 
house, being a member of the parliament-house, which ought to be a 
place of free speech for all men of the house, by the ancient and laud- 
able custom of this realm. Wherefore I think myself to have sustained 
hitherto great injury for speaking my conscience freely in such a place 
as I might lawfully do it: and I desire your honourable lordships' judg- 
ment who are of the parliament, whether of right I ought to be im- 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 891 

peached for the same, and sustain the loss of my living, and moreover 
of my life, as it is sought. 

Rich. You are deceived herein, for the convocation-house is no part of 
the parliament-house. 

Phil. My lord, I have always understood the contrary by such as 
are more expert men in things of this realm than I : and again, the 
title of every act leadeth me to think otherwise, which allegeth the 
agreement of the spiritualty and temporalty assembled together. 

Rich. That is meant of the spiritual lords of the upper house. The 
convocation-house is called together by one writ of the summons of the 
parliament of an old custom : notwithstanding that house is no part 
of the parliament-house. 

Phil. My lords, I must be contented to abide your judgment in this 
behalf. 

Rich. We have told you the truth. And yet we would not that you 
should be troubled for any thing that there was spoken, so that you 
having spoken amiss, do declare now that you are sorry for what you 
have said. 

Bon. My lords, he hath spoken there manifest heresy, yea, and there 
stoutly maintained the same against the blessed sacrament of the altar, 
and would not allow the real presence of the body and blood of Christ 
in the same : yet, my lords, God forbid that I should endeavour to shew 
him extremity for so doing, in case he will repent and revoke his wicked 
sayings; and if in faith he will so do, with your lordships' consent, he 
shall be released by and by; if he will not, he shall have the extremity 
of the law, and that shortly. 

Chamberlain. My lord speaketh reasonably unto you. Take it whiles 
it is offered you. 

Rich. How say you, will you acknowledge the real presence of the body 
and blood of Christ, as all learned men of this realm do, in the mass, and 
as I do, and will believe as long as I live, I do protest it? 

Phil. My lord, I acknowledge in the sacrament of the body and blood 
of Christ such a presence as the word of God doth allow and teach me. 

Bon. A sacrament is the sign of a holy thing; so that there is both 
the sign, which is the accident (as the whiteness, roundness, and shape 
of bread,) and there is also the thing itself, as very Christ both God 
and man. But these heretics will have the sacrament to be but bare 
signs. How say you? declare unto my lords here whether you allow 
the thing itself in the sacrament, or no. 

Phil. I do confess that in the Lord's supper there are in due respects 
both the sign and the thing signified, when it is duly administered after 
the institution of Christ. If I have not plainly declared my judgment 
unto you, it is because I cannot speak without the danger of my life. 

Rich. There is none of us here who seek thy life, or mean to take 
any advantage of that thou shalt speak. 

Phil. Although I mistrust not your lordships that be here of the 
temporalty; yet here is one that sitteth against me that will lay it to my 
charge even to death. Notwithstanding, seeing you require me to 
declare my mind of the presence of Christ in the sacrament, that ye may 
perceive I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, neither do main- 



892 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tain any opinion without probable and sufficient authority of Scripture, I 
will show you frankly my mind, whatsoever shall ensue unto me there- 
for. There are two things principally, by which the clergy at this day 
deceive the whole realm; that is the sacrament of the body and blood 
of Christ, and the name of the catholic church : which they do both 
usurp, having indeed neither of them. And as touching their sacrament 
which they term of the altar, I say that it is not the sacrament of Christ 
neither in the same is there any manner of Christ's presence. Where- 
fore they deceive the queen, and you, the nobility of this realm, in 
making you to believe that to be a sacrament which is none, and cause 
you to commit manifest idolatry in worshipping that for God, which is 
no God. And in testimony of this to be true, besides manifest proof, 
which I am able to make, I will yield my life; which to do, if it were 
not upon sure ground, it were to my utter damnation. And where they 
take on them the name of the catholic church, they are nothing so, 
calling you from the true religion which was revealed and taught in 
king Edward's time, unto vain superstition. And this I will say for the 
trial hereof, that if they can prove themselves to be the catholic church, 
I will never be against their doings, but revoke all that I have said. 
And I shall desire you, my lords, to be a means for me to the queen's 
majesty, that I may be brought to the just trial hereof. Yea, I will not 
refuse to stand against any ten of the best of them in this realm : and it 
they be able to prove otherwise than I have said, I will here promise to 
recant whatsoever I have said, and to consent to them in all points. 

Rich. All heretics boast of the Spirit of God, and every one would have 
a church by himself; as Joan of Kent, and the Anabaptists. I had myself 
Joan of Kent a week in my house after the writ was out for her being 
burnt, where my lord of Canterbury and bishop Ridley resorted almost 
daily unto her : but she was so high in the Spirit that they could do 
nothing with her for all their learning. But she went wilfully into the 
fire, as you do now. 

Phil. As for Joan of Kent she was a vain woman — I knew her well, and 
a heretic indeed, well worthy to be burnt, because she stood against one 
of the manifest articles of our faith, contrary to the Scriptures. And such 
vain spirits be soon known from the true Spirit of God and his church, for 
the same abideth within the limits of God's word, and will not go out of it. 

Bon. I pray you, how will you join me these two scriptures together : 
" The Father is greater than 1 ; " and, " I and the Father are one." Now 
show your cunning, and join these two scriptures by the word, if you can. 

Phil. Yes, that I can right well. For we must understand that in 
Christ there be two natures, the divinity and humanity ; and in respect of 
his humanity it is spoken of Christ, " The Father is greater than I." But 
in respect of his deity, he said again, " The Father and I are one." I have 
sufficient scripture for the proof of that I have said. For the first, it is 
written of Christ in the Psalms, " Thou hast made him a little lesser than 
angels." And the second scripture itself declareth, that notwithstanding 
Christ did abase himself in our human nature, yet he is still one in deity 
with the Father. And this Paul to the Hebrews doth more at large set forth. 

Bon. How can that be, seeing St. Paul saith that " the letter killeth, 
but it is the spirit that giveth life ?" 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 893 

Phil. St. Paul meaneth not that the word of God written in itself killetli, 
which is the word of life, and faithful testimony of the Lord ; but that the 
word is unprofitable, and killetli him that is void of the Spirit of God, 
although he be the wisest man of the world. And therefore Paul said that 
the gospel to some was a savour of life unto life, and to some other a savour 
of death unto death. Also an example hereof we have in John vi. of them 
who hearing the word of God without the Spirit were offended thereby : 
wherefore Christ said, "The flesh profiteth nothing; it is the Spirit that 
quickeneth." 

Bon. You see, my lords, that this man will have his own mind ; and 
will wilfully east himself away. I am sorry for him. 

Phil. The words that I have spoken are none of mine, but the gospel, 
whereon I ought to stand. And if you, my lord of London, can bring better 
authority for the faith you would draw me unto, than that which I stand 
upon, I will gladly hear the same, by you or by any other in this realm. 

Rich. What countryman be you? Are you of the Philpots of Hampshire? 

Phil. Yea, my lord ; I was sir P. Philpot's son of Hampshire. 

Rich. He is my near kinsman ; wherefore I am the more sorry for him. 

Phil. I thank your lordship that it pleaseth you to challenge kindred 
of a poor prisoner. 

Rich. In faith I would go a hundred miles on my bare feet, to do you 
good. You said even now, that you would desire to maintain your belief 
before ten of the best in the realm. — I dare be bold to procure for you of 
the queen's majesty that you shall have ten learned men to reason with 
you, and twenty or forty of the nobility to hear, so you will promise to 
abide their judgment. How say you, will you promise here, afore my 
lords, so to do ? 

Phil. There are causes why I may not so do, unless I were sure they 
would judge according to the word of God. 

Rich. O, I perceive you will have no man judge but yourself, and 
think yourself wiser than all the learned men in this realm. 

Phil. My lord, I seek not to be mine own judge, but am willing to 
be judged by others, so that the order of judgment in matters of religion 
be kept as it was in the primitive church, which is, that God's will by his 
word was sought; and therefore both the spiritualty and temporalty 
were gathered together, and gave their consents and judgment, and such 
kind of judgment I will stand to. 

Rich. I marvel why you do deny the express words of Christ in the 
sacrament, saying, "This is my body :" and yet you will continue to 
say it is not his body. Is not God omnipotent? And is not he able as 
well by his omnipotency to make it his body, as he was to make man 
flesh of a piece of clay? Did not he say, " This is my body which shall 
be betrayed for you!" And was not his very body betrayed for us? 
Therefore it must needs be his body. 

Bon. My lord Rich, you have said wonderful well and learnedly. 
But you might have begun with him before also, in the sixth of John, 
where Christ promised to give his body in the sacrament of the altar, 
saying, "The bread which I will give is my flesh." How can you 
answer to that? 

Phil. You may be soon answered : that saying of St. John is, that 



894 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the humanity of Christ, which he took upon him for the redemption of 
man, is the bread of life whereby our souls and bodies are sustained to 
eternal life, of which the sacrament bread is a lively representation, to 
all such as believe on his passion. And as Christ saith in the same 
sixth of John, "I am the bread that came down from Heaven;" but 
yet he is not material, neither natural bread: likewise the bread is his 
flesh, not natural or substantial, but by signification, and by grace in 
the sacrament. 

And now to my lord Rich's argument. I do not deny the express 
words of Christ in the sacrament, "This is my body:" but I deny that 
they are naturally and corporeally to be taken : they must be taken 
spiritually, according to the express declaration of Christ, saying that 
the words of the sacrament which the Capernaumites took carnally, as 
the Papists now do, ought to be taken spiritually and not carnally, as 
they falsely imagine, not weighing what interpretation Christ hath made 
in this behalf, neither following the institution of Christ, neither the use 
of the apostles and of the primitive church. 

Bon. What say you to the omnipotency of God? Is not he able to 
perform that which he spake, as my lord Rich hath very well said ? 
I tell thee, that God by his omnipotency, may make himself to be this 
carpet if he will. 

Phil. As concerning the omnipotency of God, I say, that God is able 
to do whatsoever he willeth; but he willeth nothing that is not agree- 
able to his word; that is blasphemy which my lord of London 
hath spoken, that God may become a carpet. For, God cannot 
do that which is contrary to his nature, and it is contrary to the nature 
of God to be a carpet. A carpet is a creature; and God is the 
creator; and the creator cannot be the creature: wherefore, unless 
you can declare by the word, that Christ is otherwise present with us 
than spiritually and sacramentally by grace, as he hath taught us, 
you pretend the omnipotency of God in vain. 

Bon. Why, wilt thou not say that Christ is really present in the sacra- 
ment? Or do you deny it? 

Phil. I deny not that Christ is really present in the sacrament to the 
receiver thereof according to Christ's institution. I mean by really 
present, present indeed. 

Bon. Is God really present every where? 

Phil. He is so. The prophet Isaiah saith that God filleth all places: 
and Christ saith that wheresoever there be two or three gathered together 
in his name, there is he in the midst of them. Not his humanity, but 
the Deity, according to that you demanded. 

Rich. My lord of London, I pray you let Dr. Chedsey reason with 
him, and let us see how he can answer him, for I tell thee he is a 
learned man indeed, and one that I do credit before a great many of 
you, whose doctrine the queen's majesty and the whole realm doth well 
allow, therefore hear him. 

Ched. You have of the scriptures the four evangelists for the proba- 
tion of Christ's real presence to be in the sacrament after the words of 
consecration, with St. Paul to the Corinthians; which all say, "This 
is my body." They say not, as you would have me believe, this is not 



EXAMINATION OF MR PHILPOT. 895 

the body. But especially the 6th of John proveth this most manifestly, 
where Christ promised to give his body, which he performed in his last 
supper, as it appeareth by these words — "The bread which I will give 
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 

Phil. My lord Rich, with your leave I must needs interrupt him a 
little, because he speaketh open blasphemy against the death of Christ : 
for if that promise, brought in by St. John, was performed by Christ in 
his last supper, then he needed not to have died after he had given the 
sacrament. 

Windsor. There were never any that denied the words of Christ as 
you do. Did he not say, " This is my body?" 

Phil. My lord, I pray you be not deceived. We do not deny the 
words of Christ: but we say, these words are of none effect, being 
spoken otherwise than Christ did institute them in his last supper. For 
example : Christ biddeth the church to baptise in the name of the Father, 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. If a priest say these words over 
the water, and there be no child to be baptised, these words only pro- 
nounced do not make baptism. And again, baptism is only baptism to 
such as be baptised, and to none other standing by. 

Lord Chamberlain. My lord, let me ask him one question. "What 
kind of presence in the sacrament, when it is duly administered accord- 
ing to Christ's ordinance, do you allow? 

Phil. If any come worthily to receive, then do I confess the presence 
of Christ wholly to be with all the fruits of his passion, unto the said 
worthy receiver, by the Spirit of God, and that Christ is thereby joined 
to him, and he to Christ. 

Bon. My lords, take no heed of him, for he goeth about to deceive 
you. His similitude that he bringeth in of baptism, is nothing like to 
the sacrament of the altar. For if I should say to Sir John Bridges, 
being with me at supper, and having a fat capon, " Take, eat, this is 
a capon," although he eat not thereof, is it not a capon still? And 
likewise of a piece of beef, or of a cup of wine, if I say, " Drink, this 
is a cup of wine," is it not so, even when he drinketh not thereof? 

Phil. My lord, your similitudes are too gross for so high mysteries as 
we have in hand, Like must be compared to like, and spiritual things 
with spiritual, and not spiritual things with corporeal things. The 
sacraments are to be considered according to the word which Christ 
spake of them, of which — " Take ye, and eat ye," be some of the chief 
concurrent to the making of the same, without which there can be no 
sacraments. And, therefore, the sacrament of the body and blood of 
Christ is called communion. 

Bon. My lords, I am sorry I have troubled you so long with this obstinate 
man, with whom we can do no good ; I will trouble you no longer now. 

Thus endeth the sixth examination. The seventh took place on the 
19th of November, before the bishops of London and Rochester, the 
chancellor of Lichfield, Dr. Chedsey, and master Dee, bachelor of divinity. 

Bon. Sirrah, come hither. How chance you came no sooner? Is it 
well done of you to make master chancellor and me to tarry for you this 
hour ? By the faith of my body, half an hour before mass, and half an 
hour even at mass looking- for vour coming ! 



896 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Phil. My lord, it is well known to you that I am a prisoner, and that 
the doors be shut upon me, and I cannot come when I please ; but as 
soon as the doors of my prison were open, I came immediately. 

Bon. We sent for thee to the intent that thou shouldst have come to 
mass. How say you, would you have come to mass or no, if the doors 
had been sooner opened? 

Phil. My lord, that is another manner of question, which I need not 
answer, because I was confined till now. 

Bon. Lo, master chancellor, I told you we should have a froward 
fellow of him; he will answer directly to nothing. I have had him 
before the spiritual lords and the temporal, thus he fareth still; yet he 
reckoneth himself better learned than all the realm. Yea, before the 
temporal lords the other day, he was so foolish as to challenge the 
best: he would make himself learned, and is a very ignorant fool 
indeed. 

Phil. I reckon I answered your lordship before the lords plain enough ; 
so that the lord chamberlain himself acknowledged that he was well 
answered. 

Bon. Why answerest thou not directly, whether thou wouldst have 
gone to mass or not if thou hadst come in time ? 

Phil. Mine answer shall be thus, that if your lordship can prove 
your mass, whereunto you would have me to come, to be the true service 
of God, whereunto a christian ought to come, I will afterwards come 
with a good will. 

Bon. Look, I pray you; the king and queen, and all the nobility of 
the realm do come to mass, and yet he will not. By my faith, thou art 
too well handled ; thou shalt be worse handled hereafter, I warrant thee. 

Phil. If to lie in a blind coal-house may be counted good handling, 
both without fire and candle, then may it be said I am well handled. Your 
lordship hath power to entreat my body as you list. 

Bon. Thou art a very ignorant fool. Master chancellor, in good faith 
1 have handled him and his fellows with as much gentleness as they can 
desire. I did let their friends come unto them to relieve them. And wot 
you what? the other day they had gotten themselves up into the top of 
the leads, with a number of apprentices, gazing abroad as though they 
had been at liberty. But I will cut off your resort: and as for the appren- 
tices, they were as good not to come to you, if I take them. 

Phil. My Lord, we have no such resort to us, as your lordship 
imagineth, and there come very few unto us. And of apprentices I 
know not one, neither have we any leads to walk on over our coal-house, 
that I know of: wherefore your lordship hath mistaken your mark. 

Bon. Nay, now you think because my lord chancellor is gone, that 
we will burn no more ; yes, I warrant thee, I will dispatch you shortly, 
unless you recant. 

After much further discussion, my lord chancellor said to Dr. Chedsey, 
" Well, master doctor, you see we can do no good in persuading of him. Let 
us minister the articles which my lord hath left us unto him. How say you, 
master Philpot, to these articles? Master Johnson, write his answers. 

Phil. Master chancellor, you have no authority to inquire of me my 
belief in such articles as you go about, for I am not of my lord of 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 897 

London's diocese; and, to be brief with you, I will make no further 
answer herein than I have already to the bishop. 

" Why then," said my lord chancellor, " let us go our ways, and let his 
keeper take him away." Thus endeth the seventh part of this tragedy. 

The next day in the morning betimes, the bishop sent for master Philpot ; 
and the day after, an hour before day, he sent for him again by the keeper. 

Philpot. I wonder what my lord meaneth, that he sendeth for me thus 
early. I fear he will use some violence towards me, wherefore I pray you 
make him this answer, that if he did send for me by an order of law, I will 
come and answer ; otherwise, since I am not of his diocese, neither is he 
mine ordinary, I will not come, unless I be violently constrained. 

The keeper went away to the bishop, and returned with two others, say- 
ing I must come, whether I would or no ; and therewith one of them took 
me with force by the arm, and I was led up into the bishop's gallery. 

Bonner. What ! thou wilt not come without thou be fetched and forced. 

Phil. I am brought indeed, my lord, by violence unto you, and your 
cruelty is such, that I am afraid to come before you; I would your lord- 
ship would gently proceed against me by the law. 

Bon. I am blamed by the lords the bishops, that I have not dispatched 
thee ere this; and am commanded to take a further order with thee, 
and in good faith if thou wilt not relent, I will make no further delay. 
Marry, if thou wilt yet be conformable, I will forgive thee all that is 
past, and thou shalt have no hurt for any thing that is already spoken 
or done. 

Phil. My lord, I have answered you already in this behalf, what I 
will do. 

Bon. Hadst thou not a pig brought thee the other day with a knife 
in it? Wherefore was it but to kill thyself? or, as it is told me, to kill 
me? But I fear thee not; I think I am able to tread thee under my feet 
do the best thou canst. 

Phil. My lord, I cannot deny but that there was a knife in the pig 
that was brought me. But who put it in, or for what purpose, I know 
not, unless it were because he that sent the meat, thought I was without 
a knife. But other things your lordship needeth not to fear; for I was 
never without a knife, since I came to prison. And touching your own 
person, you shall live long if you should live till I go about to kill you; 
and I confess, by violence your lordship is able to overcome me. 

Bon. I charge thee to answer to mine articles. Hold him a book. 
Thou shalt swear to answer truly to all such articles as I shall demand. 

Phil. I refuse to swear in these causes before your lordship, because you 
are not mine ordinary. 

Bon. I am thine ordinary, and here do pronounce by sentence peremp- 
tory, that I am thine ordinary, and that thou art of my diocese. And I 
make thee [taking one of his servants by the arm] to be my notary. And 
now hearken to my articles. 

When he had read them, he monished me to make answer ; and said to 
the keeper, " Fetch me his fellows, and I shall make them to be witnesses 
against him." In the meanwhile came in one of the sheriffs of London, 
whom the bishop placed by him, saying, " Master sheriff, I would you should 
understand how I do proceed against this man. You shall hear what 

3 M 



898 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

articles this man doth maintain ; " and so he read a rabblement of feigned 
articles : that I should deny baptism to be necessary to them that were 
born of Christian parents ; that I denied fasting and prayer, and all other 
good deeds ; and I maintained only bare faith to be sufficient to salvation, 
whatsoever a man did besides ; and I maintained God to be the author of 
all sin and wickedness. 

Phil. Hah, my lord ! have you nothing of truth to charge me withal, 
but you must be fain to imagine these blasphemous lies against me ! You 
might as well have said I had killed your father. The Scriptures say, 
" God will destroy all men that speak lies." And is not your lordship 
ashamed to say, before this gentleman, (who is unknown to me,) that I 
maintain what you have rehearsed? which if I did I were well worthy 
to be counted a heretic, and to be burnt to ashes. Before I answer 
you I will first know you to be my ordinary, and that you may lawfully 
charge me with such things. 

Bon. Well, then, I will make thy fellows to be witnesses herein against 
thee: where are they? Come hither, sirs, you shall swear by the contents 
of that book, that you shall say the truth of all such articles as shall 
be demanded of you concerning this man here present, and tak? you 
heed of him that he doth not deceive you, as I am afraid he doth and 
strengtheneth you in your errors. 

Prisoners. My lord, we will not swear, except we know whereto; we 
can accuse him of no evil, we have been but a while acquainted with 
him. 

Phil. I wonder your lordship, knowing the law, will go about, con- 
trary to the same, for your lordship doth take them to be heretics, and 
by the law a heretic cannot be a witness. 

Bon. Yes, one heretic against another may be well enough. And, 
master sheriff, I will make one of them to be witness against another. 

Prisoners. No, my lord. 

Bon. No, you will not? I will make you swear, whether you will or 
no. I ween they be Anabaptists, master sheriff: they think it not lawful 
to swear before a judge. 

Phil. We think it lawful to swear for a man judicially called, as we 
are not now, but in a blind corner. 

Bon Why, then, seeing you will not swear against your fellow, you 
shall swear for yourselves; and I do here in the presence of the sheriff 
object the same articles unto you, as I have done unto him, and require 
you, under pain of excommunication, to answer particularly unto every 
one of them when you shall be examined, as you shall be soon, by my 
register and some of my chaplains. 

Prisoners. My lord, we will not accuse ourselves. If any man can 
lay any thing against us, we are here ready to answer thereto : otherwise 
we pray your lordship not to burthen us ; for some of us are here before 
you, we know no just cause why. 

Here Bonner turning to master sheriff, said, " I will trouble you no 
longer with these froward men." And so he rose up, and was going away, 
talking with the sheriff; when Philpot said, " Master sheriff, I pray you 
record how my lord proceedeth against us in corners, without all order of 
law, having no just cause to lay against us." 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 899 

And after this we were all commanded to the stocks, in which we 
were confined the whole of the day, and only released at night by 
special and secret favour from the keeper. 

The Sunday after, the bishop came into the coal-house at night, with 
the keeper, and viewed the house, saying that he was never there before : 
whereby a man may guess how he kept God's commandment in visiting 
the prisoners. Between eight and nine he sent for me. 

Bon. Sir, I have great displeasure of the queen and council for keep- 
ing you so long, and letting you have so much liberty; and besides 
that, you strengthen the other prisoners in their errors, as I have laid 
wait for your doings, and am certified of you well enough : I will 
sequester you therefore from them, and you shall hurt them no more as 
you have done, and I will out of hand dispatch you as I am commanded 
unless you will be a conformable man. 

Phil. My lord, you have my body in your custody, you may transport 
it whither you please, I am content. And I wish you would make as 
quick expedition in my judgment, as you say; I long for it: and as for 
conformity, I am ready to yield to all truth, if any can bring better 
than I. 

Bon. Why, will you believe no man but yourself, whatsoever they say? 

Phil. My belief must not hang upon men's sayings, without sure 
authority of God's word, which if they can shew me, I will be pliant to 
the same ; otherwise I cannot go from my certain faith to that which is 
uncertain. 

Bon. Have you then the truth only ? Are you the man of wisdom, 
and must it die with you ? 

Phil. My lord, I will speak my mind freely unto you, and upon no 
malice that I bear to you, before God. You have not the truth, neither 
are you of the church of God ; but you persecute both the truth and 
the true church of God, for which cause you cannot prosper long. 

You see God doth not prosper your doings according to your expecta- 
tions: he hath of late shewed his just judgment against one of your 
greatest doers, who by report died miserably. f I envy not the autho- 
rity you are in. You that have learning, should know best how to rule. 
And seeing God hath restored you to your dignity and living again, use 
the same to God's glory, and to the setting forth of his true religion ; 
otherwise it will not continue, do what you can. 

Bon. That good man was punished for such as thou art. Where is 
the keeper? Come, let him have him to the place that is provided for 
him. Go your way before : keep all men from him, and narrowly search 
him: also let two of your men watch him. 

" I afterwards passed through St. Paul's up to Lollards' Tower, and 
after that turned along the west-side of St. Paul's through the wall, and 
passing through six or seven doors, came to my lodging through many 
straits; where I called to remembrance that strait is the way to heaven. 
And I was confined in a tower, right on the other side of Lollards' Tower, 
as high almost as the battlements of St. Paul's, eight feet in breadth, 

f Gardiner, bishop of Winchester ; of whose miserable death, as well as evil life, a sketch 
is given in a preceding page. 




900 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and thirteen in length, and almost over the prison where I was before, 
having a window opening towards the east, by which I could look over 
the tops of a great many houses, but saw no man passing into them. 
When I came to my place, the keeper took off my gown, searched me 
very narrowly, and took away a pen-case, ink-horn, girdle, and knife, 
but I had an inkling a little before I was called, of my removal, and 
thereupon made an errand to the stool, where I cast away many a 
friendly letter ; but that which I had written of my last examination 
before, I thrust into my hose, thinking the next day to have made an 
end thereof, and with walking it was fallen down to my leg, which he 
by feeling soon found out, and asked what that was. I said, they were 
certain letters ; and with that he was very busy to have them out. 

" Then he went away, and as he was going, one of them that came 
with him, said, that I did not deliver the writing I had in my hose, but 
two other letters I had in my hand before. ' No did ? ' quoth he, * I will 
go search him better :' the which I hearing, conveyed my examination I 
had written into another place near my bed, and took all the letters I had 
in my purse, and was tearing them when he came again ; and as he came 
I threw the same out of the window, saying that I heard what he said." 

The eighth examination took place before the bishops of London and 
St. David's, master Mordant, and others, in the bishop's chapel. The 
ninth and tenth examinations were before Bonner and his chaplains. The 
eleventh was on St. Andrew's day, before the bishops of London, Durham, 
Chichester, and Bath, Dr. Chedsey, the prolocutor, and several others. 
The twelfth took place, on the 4th of December, before the bishops of 
London, Worcester, and Bangor. The thirtheenth took place the day 
after, before the archbishop of York, and divers other bishops. To relate 
the whole of these would be tedious repetition of points already discussed. 
We therefore proceed to his fourteenth and final examination. 

The bishop having sufficiently taken his pleasure with master Philpot in 
his private talks, and seeing his zealous, learned, and immutable constancy, 
thought it now high time to rid his hands of him ; and therefore on the 
13th, 14th, and 16th of December, sitting judicially in the consistory at 
Paul's, he caused him to be brought thither before him and others, as it 
seemeth more for order's sake than for any good affection to justice and 
right judgment. The bishop first speaking to master Philpot, said : 

Bon. Master Philpot, amongst other things that were laid and objected 
unto you, these three things ye were especially chargecL and burdened 
withal. The first is, that you being fallen from the unity of Christ's catholic 
church, do refuse and will not come to be reconciled thereunto. The second 
is, that you have blasphemously spoken against the sacrifice of the mass, 
calling it idolatry. And that you have spoken against the sacrament of the 
altar, denying the real presence of Christ's body and blood to be in the 
same. According to the will and pleasure of the synod legative, ye have 
been oft by me invited and required to go from your said errors and heresies, 
and to return to the unity of the catholic church, which if ye will now 
willingly do, ye shall be mercifully and gladly received, charitably used, 
and have all the favour I can show you. And now, to tell you true, it 
is assigned and appointed me to give sentence against you, if you stand 
herein, and will not return. Wherefore, if ye so refuse, I do ask of 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 901 

you whether you have any cause that you can shew why I now should 
not give sentence against you, 

To this Mr. Philpot answered. " Under protestation, not to go from 
my appeal that I have made, and also not to consent to you as my com- 
petent judge, I say, respecting your first objection concerning the 
catholic church, I neither was nor am out of the same. And as to the 
sacrifice of the mass, and the sacrament of the altar, I never spoke 
against the same. 3 And as concerning the pleasure of the synod, I say 
that these twenty years I have been brought up in the faith of the true 
catholic church, which is contrary to your church, whereunto you 
would have me come: and in that time I have been many times sworn 
both in the reign of king Henry VIII. and of Edward his son, against 
the usurped power of the bishop of Rome, which oath I am bound in 
my conscience to keep, because I must perform unto the Lord my vow. 
But if you, or any of the synod, can by God's word persuade me that 
my oath was unlawful, and that I am bound by his law to come to 
your church, I will gladly yield unto you, otherwise not." 

Bonner, not able with all his learned doctors to accomplish this 
offered condition, had recourse as usual to promises and threats; to 
which Mr. Philpot answered — " You and others of your sort are hypo- 
crites, and I wish all the world knew your hypocrisy, your tyranny, 
ignorance, and idolatry." On this the bishop for that time dismissed 
him, commanding that on Monday the 16th of the same month, he 
should again be brought there to have the definitive sentence of con- 
demnation pronounced against him, if he then remained resolved. 

The day being come, Mr. Philpot was accordingly presented before 
the bishops of London, Bath, Worcester, and Litchfield, when the former 
thus began. " My lords, my predecessor, when he went to give sentence 
against a heretic, used to make this prayer — Deus qui errantibus, ut 
in viam possint redire,justitice veritatisque tuce lumen ostendis,da cunctis 
qui Christiana professione censentur, et ilia respuere quce huic inimica sint 
nomini, et ea quce sint apta sectari per Christum Dominum nostrum, 
Amen. This example I will follow. And so he repeated it with a loud 
voice in Latin. Then Mr. Philpot said, " I wish you would speak in 
English, that all men might understand you: for St. Paul willeth that 
all things spoken in the congregation to edify, should be spoken in a 
tongue that all men might understand." 

Whereupon the bishop did read it in English : and when he came to 
these words, " To refuse those things which are foes to his name," Philpot 
said, " Then they all must turn away from you ; for you are enemies to 
that name, (meaning Christ's name;) and God save us from such hypocrites 
as would have things in a tongue that men cannot understand. I am sorry 
to see you sit in the place that you now sit in, pretending to execute 
justice, and to do nothing less but deceive all men in this realm." And 
turning to the people, he said, "Oh! all you gentlemen, beware of these 
men, (the bishops,) and all their doings, contrary to the primitive church. 
I would know of you, my lord, by what authority you proceed against me?" 

Bon. Because I am bishop of London. 

a Here either the registrar belieth Philpot, or else he meant as not offending the law, thereby 
to be accused : lor his former examinations do declare that he spake against the sacrament. 



902 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Phil. Well, then you are not my bishop, nor have I offended in your 
diocese: and, moreover, I have appealed from you, and therefore by 
your own law you ought not to proceed against me, especially being 
brought hither from another place by violence. Is it not enough, my 
lord, for you to worry your own sheep, but you must also meddle with 
those of other men? 

Then the bishop delivered two books to Mr. Philpot, one of the civil, 
and the other of the canon law, out of which he would have proved that 
he had authority to proceed against him as he did. Mr. Philpot perus- 
ing them, and seeing the small and slender proof that was there alleged, 
said to the bishop — "I perceive that your law and divinity is all 
one ; for you have knowledge in neither of them; and I wish you knew 
your own ignorance : but you. dance in a net, and think that no man 
doth see you." Hereupon they had much talk: Bonner said, u Philpot, as con- 
cerning your objections against my jurisdiction, you shall understand 
that both the civil and canon laws make against you : and as for your 
appeal, it is not allowed in this case : for it is concluded in the law, 
that there is no appeal from a judge executing the sentence of the law." 
Mr. Philpot, undaunted by this speech, replied, " My lord, it appeareth 
by your interpretation of the law, that you have no knowledge therein, 
and that you do not understand the law; for if you did, you would not 
bring in that passage. You profess Christ, and maintain antichrist; 
you profess the gospel, and maintain superstition, and you are able to 
charge me with nothing. You are foes to all truth, and all your doings 
are full of idolatry, saving the article of the Trinity. 

Whilst they were thus debating, there came thither Sir William 
Garret, then mayor of London, Sir Martin Bowes, and Thomas Leigh, 
then sheriff of the city, and sat down with the bishops in the consistory. 
No sooner were they seated than Bonner again addressed Mr. Philpot 
with the prayer, and again repeated the charge against him; after 
which he addressed him in a formal exhortation, which he had no sooner 
ended than Mr. Philpot turned himself to the lord-mayor, and said — 
"I am glad, my lord, now to stand before that authority, that hath 
defended the gospel and the truth of God's word : but I am sorry to see 
that that authority, which representeth the king and queen's persons, 
should now be changed, and be at the command of antichrist; and I 
am glad that God hath given me power to stand here this day, to declare 
and defend my faith, which is founded on Christ. 

" As touching your first objection, I say, that I am of the catholic 
church, whereof I never was out, and that your church is the church of 
Rome, and so the Babylonian , and not the catholic church ; of that church 
I am not. As touching your second objection, that I should speak against 
the sacrifice of the mass, I do say, that I have not spoken against the 
true sacrifice, but I have spoken against your private masses that you 
use in corners, which is blasphemy to the true sacrifice; for your daily 
sacrifice is reiterated blasphemy against Christ's death, and it is a lie 
of your own invention ; and that abominable sacrifice which you set 
upon the altar, and use in your private masses, instead of the living 
sacrifice, is idolatry. And wherein you lay to my charge, that I deny 
the body and blood of Christ to be in the sacrament of the altar, I can- 
not tell what altar you mean, whether it be the altar of the cross, or the 



EXAMINATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 903 

altar of stone : and if you call it the sacrament of the altar in respect of 
the altar of stone, then I deny your Christ, for it is a false one. 

"And as touching your transubstantiation, I utterly deny it, for it 
was first brought in by a pope. As concerning your offer made from the 
synod, which is gathered together in antichrist's name; prove to me 
that you be of the catholic church, and I will follow you, and do as 
you would have me. But you are idolaters, and traitors ; for in your 
pulpits ye rail against good kings, as king Henry and king Edward his 
son, who have stood against the usurped power of the pope of Rome; 
against whom I have also taken an oath, which, if you can shew me by 
God's law that I have taken unjustly, I will then yield unto you : but 
I pray God turn the king and queen's heart from your church." 

Here the bishop of Coventry began, saying : In our true catholic church 
are the apostles, evangelists, and martyrs ; but before Martin Luther there 
was no apostle, evangelist, or martyr of your church. 

Phil. Will you know the cause why ? Christ did prophesy that in the 
latter days there should come false prophets and hypocrites, as you be. 

Cov. Your church of Geneva is that which Christ prophesied of. 

Phil. I allow the church of Geneva, and the doctrine of the same ; for 
it is una, catholica, et apostolica, and doth follow the apostles' doctrine. 

And after this they had great conference together ; but when Bonner 
saw that by learning they were not able to convince master Philpot, he 
brought forth a knife and a bladder full of powder, and turning himself unto 
the mayor, said ; " My lord, this man had a roasted pig brought to him, and 
this knife was put secretly between the skin and flesh thereof. And also 
this powder under pretence that it was good and comfortable for him 
to eat and drink; which powder was only to make ink to write withal. 
For when his keeper perceived it, he took it and brought it unto me : 
which when I saw I thought it had been gunpowder, and thereupon put 
fire to it, but it would not burn. Then I took it for poison, and so gave 
it to a dog, but it was not so. I then took a little water, and made as 
good ink as ever I did write withal. Therefore, my lord, you may un- 
derstand what a naughty fellow this is." 

Phil. Ah, my lord, have you nothing else to charge me withal, but 
these trifles, seeing I stand upon life and death ? Doth the knife in the 
pig prove the church of Rome to be the catholic church ? Doth the ink 
powder certify transubstantiation and purgatory? 

Then the bishop brought forth a certain instrument, containing 
articles and questions, agreed upon both in Oxford and Cambridge. 
Also he exhibited two books in print : the one was the catechism com- 
posed in king Edward's days, in the year 1552, the other concerning 
the report of the disputation in the convocation-house, mention whereof 
is above expressed. Moreover he brought forth two letters, and laid 
them to Mr. Philpot's charge : the one was addressed to him by a friend, 
complaining of the bishop's ill usage of a young man named Bartlet 
Green ; the other was a consolatory letter from Lady Vane. Besides 
these, was produced a memorial drawn up by Mr. Philpot to the queen 
and parliament, stating the irregularity of his being brought to bishop 
Bonner, he not being of his diocese; also complaining of the severity 
of his treatment. These various documents having been read, the bishop 
demanded of him, if the book intitled — " The true report of the dispu- 



904 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tation,' were of his penning or not? To this Mr. Philpot answered in 
the affirmative. 

The bishops growing weary, and not being able by any sufficient 
ground, either of God's word, or of the true ancient catholic fathers, 
to convince and overcome him, began with flattering speech to per- 
suade him; promising, that if he would revoke his opinions, and return 
to their Romish and Babylonian church, he would not only be pardoned 
that which was past, but also they would, with all favour and cheer- 
fulness of heart, receive him again as a true member thereof. But when 
Bonner found that it would take no effect, he demanded of Mr. Philpot, 
whether he had any just cause to allege why he should not condemn 
him as a heretic? In answer, he again disowned and denounced the 
papal church; and in the end the bishop, seeing his steadfastness in the 
truth, openly pronounced the sentence of condemnation against him. 
In the reading whereof, when he came to these words — " And you an 
obstinate, pernicious, and impenitent heretic," Mr. Philpot said — " I 
thank God that I am a heretic out of your cursed church ; I am no 
heretic before God. But God bless you, and give you grace to repent 
your wicked doings ; and let all men beware of your bloody church." 

Moreover, while Bonner was about the midst of the sentence, the bishop 
of Bath pulled him by the sleeve, and said, " My lord, my lord, know of 
him first whether he will recant or not." Then Bonner said, " O let him 
alone," and so read forth the sentence. And when he had ended, he de- 
livered him to the sheriffs ; and so two officers brought him through the 
bishop's house into Paternoster-row, and there his servant met him, and 
when he saw him, he said, " Ah ! dear master." Then Philpot said to his 
man, " Content thyself, I shall do well enough ; for thou shalt see me again." 
The officers then thrust the servant away, and took the master to 
Newgate, where they delivered him to the keeper. Then his man 
strove to go in after him, and one of the officers said unto him, Hence, 
fellow, what wouldst thou have? And he said — " I would speak with 
my master." Mr. Philpot then turned about, and said to him — " To 
morrow thou shalt speak with me." 

When the under keeper understood it to be his servant, he gave 
him leave to go in with him. And Mr. Philpot and his man were 
turned into a little chamber on the right hand, and there remained a 
short time, when Alexander, the chief keeper, came unto him; who 
said — "Ah, hast thou not done well to bring thyself hither?" The 
martyr replied — " I must be content, for it is God's appointment; and 
I shall desire you to let me have your gentle favour, for you and I have 
been of old acquaintance." The keeper now attempted to change his 
views. (t If you will recant," said he, " I will shew you any pleasure 
I can." Mr. Philpot answered — " I will never recant that which I 
have spoken, whilst I have my life, for it is most certain truth, and in 
witness hereof I will seal it with my blood." Then Alexander said, — 
"This is the saying of the whole pack of you heretics." Whereupon 
he commanded him to be set upon the block, and as many irons to be 
put upon his legs as he could bear! Well might it be said to the 
keeper — " Is this thy kindness to a friend?" 

Then the clerk told Alexander in his ear, that Mr. Philpot had given 



CONDEMNATION OF MR. PHILPOT. 905 

his man money. Alexander asked what money had his master given 
him? He answered, none: upon which Alexander determined to search 
him and seize it. 

" Do with me as you like, and search me all you can," quoth his 
servant: " he hath given me a token or two to send to his friends, to 
his brothers and sisters. Then said Alexander unto Mr. Philpot, "Thou 
art a maintainer of heretics, thy man should have gone to some of thine 
affinity, but he shall be known well enough." " Nay," said Mr. Philpot, 
" I do send it to my friends; there he is, let him make answer to it. 
But, good Mr. Alexander, be so much my friend, that these irons may 
be taken off." Alexander said, " Give me my fees, and I will take 
them off; if not, thou shalt wear them still." Then said Philpot, " Sir, 
what is your fee?" He said four pound was his fees. "Ah," said Philpot, 
" I have not so much ; I am but a poor man, and have been long a prisoner." 
" What wilt thou give me then ?" asked Alexander. " Sir," said he, " I 
will give you twenty shillings, and that I will send my man for ; or else 
I will lay down my gown to gage. For the time is not long, I am sure, 
that I shall be with you : for the bishop said I should be soon dispatched." 
Then said the gaoler, "What is that to me?" And with that he de- 
parted from him, and commanded him to be had into limbo. 

Then one Witterence, steward of the house, took him on his back, 
and carried him down, his man knew not whither. Wherefore Mr. 
Philpot told his servant, to go to the sheriff, and shew him how he was 
used, and desire him to be good to him. So his servant went, and took 
another person with him. When they came to the sheriff, and shewed 
him how Mr. Philpot was treated in Newgate, he took his ring from off 
his finger, and delivered it to the person that came with Mr. Philpot's 
man, and bade him go unto Alexander, the keeper, and commanded 
him to take off his irons, and to handle him more gently, and to give 
his man again that which he had taken from him. They went to Alex- 
ander, and delivered their message from the sheriff. He took the ring 
and said — " Ah, I perceive that Mr. Sheriff is a bearer with him, and 
all such heretics as he is, therefore to-morrow I will shew it to his 
betters." He went however in to Mr. Philpot where he lay, and took off 
his irons, and gave him such things as he had before taken from his 
servant. 

On Tuesday, the 17th of December, while he was at supper, there 
came a messenger from the sheriffs, and bade Mr. Philpot make ready, 
for the next day he should suffer, and be burned at the stake. Mr. 
Philpot answered — "I am ready; God grant me strength, and a joyful 
resurrection." And so he went into his chamber, and poured out his 
spirit unto the Lord God, giving him most hearty thanks, that he had 
made him worthy to suffer for his truth. In the morning the sheriffs 
came according to order, about eight o'clock, and calling for him, he 
most joyfully came down to them. And there his man met him, and 
said, "Dear master farewell." His master answered, " Serve God, and 
he will help thee." And so he went with the sheriffs to the place of 
execution; and when he was entering into Smithfield, the way was foul, 
and two officers took him up to bear him to the stake. Then lie said 
merrily, " What, will you make me a pope? I am 



906 HISTORY OF" CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

my journey's end on foot." But on entering into Smithfield, he kneeled 
down, and said, " I will pay my vows in thee, O Smithfield." 

On arriving at the place of suffering, he kissed the stake, and said, 
" Shall I disdain to suffer at this stake, seeing my Redeemer did not 
refuse to suffer the most vile death upon the cross for me?" And then 
with an obedient heart he repeated the cvi. cvii. and cviii. Psalms: and 
when he had made an end of his prayers, he said to the officers, " What 
have you done for me?" And every one of them declared what they had 
done; and he gave to every one of them money. Then they bound him 
to the stake, and set fire unto that constant martyr, who on the 18th day 
of December, in the midst of the fiery flames, yielded his soul into the 
hands of Almighty God, and full like a lamb gave up his breath. 

Thus hast thou, gentle reader, the life and doings of this learned and 
worthy soldier of the Lord, John Philpot ; with the greater part of his ex- 
aminations, first penned and written with his own hand, being marvellously 
preserved from the sight and hand of his enemies ; who, by all manner of 
means, sought not only to stop him from all writing, but also to spoil and 
deprive him of that which he had written. For the which cause he was 
many times stripped and searched in the prison by his keeper : but yet so 
happily these his writings were conveyed and hid in places about him, or 
else his keeper's eyes so blinded, that, notwithstanding all this malicious 
purpose of the bishops, they are yet remaining and come to light. 

There are also numerous letters extant of this excellent man's ; but the 
limits of our work will not admit their insertion. The chief are addressed 
to the lady Vane, to his own sister, to his fellow-prisoner, to John Careless, 
to master Robert Harrington, and to certain godly brethren whose names 
do not appear. One addressed to a dear friend, prisoner with him at the 
same time in Newgate, and who afterwards died in the faith as this letter 
did persuade him, concludes with the following exhortation : — 

" I beseech thee, dear brother in the gospel, follow the steps of the 
glorious in the primitive church, and of such as at this day follow the 
same; decline from them neither to the right hand nor to the left. Then 
shall death, be it ever so bitter, be more sweet than this life: then shall 
Christ, with all the heavenly Jerusalem, triumphantly embrace your 
spirit with unspeakable gladness and exultation, who in this earth was 
content to join your spirit with their spirits, according as it is com- 
manded by the word, that the spirit of the prophets should be subject 
to the prophets. One thing ask with David ere you depart, and require 
the same, that you may dwell with a full accord in his house, for there 
are glory and worship : and so with Simeon in the temple embracing 
Christ, depart in peace : to which peace Christ bring both you and me, 
and all our loving brethren that love God in the unity of faith, by such 
ways as shall please him, to his glory. Let the bitter passion of Christ, 
which he suffered for your sake, and the horrible torments which the 
godly martyrs of Christ have endured before us, and also the inesti- 
mable reward of your life to come, which is hidden yet a little while from 
you with Christ, strengthen, comfort, and encourage you to the end of 
that glorious race which you are in, Amen. 

"Your yoke-fellow in captivity for the verity of Christ's gospel, to 
live and die with you in the unity of faith — John Philpot." 



907 



SECTION XIII. 

THE STORY OF SEVEN MARTYRS SUFFERING TOGETHER AT LONDON — ■ 
FIVE OTHER MARTYRS BURNED TOGETHER AT CANTERBURY. 

The catholic prelates of the pope's band, being as yet not satisfied with 
this their one year's murdering of the members of Christ's church, continued 
still this next year also in no less cruelty. Wherefore, as the first-fruits 
thereof, about the 27th of January, 1556, were burned in Smithfield these 
seven persons hereafter following, to wit : Thomas Whittle, priest ; Bartlet 
Green, gentleman; John Tudson, artificer; John Went, artificer; Thomas 
Browne; Isabel Foster; and Joan Warne, alias Lashford. The articles 
exhibited against them, and their answers, are here briefly set forth :— - 

(1.) That they believed that there is in earth a catholic church, in the 
which the faith and religion of Christ is truly professed. (2.) That there 
were seven sacraments, instituted and ordained by God, and by the con- 
sent of the holy church allowed and received. (3.) That they were in times 
past baptized in the faith of the said catholic church. (4.) That coming 
to the age of fourteen years, and so to the age of discretion, they did not 
depart from the said profession and faith. (5.) That, notwithstanding the 
premises, they had of late spoken against the mass, the sacrament of the altar, 
and the unity of the church, maligning the authority of the see of Rome. 
(6.) That they had refused, and did still refuse, to be reconciled to the said 
see of Rome. (7.) That they had refused to come to their parish church 
to hear mass, and to receive the said sacrament : but had openly said that 
in the sacrament of the altar there is not the very body and blood of our 
Saviour Christ ; that the mass was idolatry and abomination ; and that in 
the sacrament there was none other substance but only material bread and 
wine, which were tokens of Christ's body and blood. (8.) That being 
convented before certain judges, and being found obstinate, wilful, and 
heady, they were sent to be examined by the said Bonner. (9.) That all 
and singular the premises have been and be true and manifest, and that 
they were of the jurisdiction of Edmund bishop of London. 

To the first article they all agreed. To the second they said, they ac- 
knowledged but two sacraments — baptism and the supper of the Lord. The 
third they confessed to be true, that they were baptized in the faith of 
Christ. To the fourth they agreed: John Went, John Tudson, and Isabel 
Foster adding, that when they came to years of mature discretion they 
began to mislike the ministration of the sacrament of the altar, and the 
ceremonies of the church. Concerning the fifth, they answered the same 
to be true, according to the contents thereof: Thomas Whittle, Joan Lash- 
ford, and Bartlet Green adding, that they had not swerved from the catholic 
faith, but only from the church of Rome. The sixth they confessed to be 
true. To the seventh, they confessed the contents thereof to be true, giving 
the reason and cause of their so doing. Concerning the eighth, they granted 
the same to be so. And to the ninth, that as they believed the premises 
before by them confessed to be true, so they denied not the same to be 
manifest. — Having briefly expressed their articles and answers, it remaineth 
more fully to discourse the stories of the seven foresaid martyrs as follow. 



908 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Mention has been made, in Mr. Philpot's story, of a married priest, 
whom he found in bishop Bonner's coal house at his first going thither, 
in heaviness of mind and great sorrow, for recanting the doctrine which 
he had taught in king Edward's days. This was Thomas Whittle a curate 
of Essex. After he had been expelled from the place in Essex where 
he served, he went abroad, where he might, now here and there, as 
occasion offered, preach the gospel of Christ. At length being appre- 
hended by one Edmund Alablaster, in hope of reward and promotion, 
which he miserably gaped after, he was brought first as prisoner before 
the bishop of Winchester, who was lately fallen sick of his disease, 
whereof not long after he died. But the apprehender for this proffered 
service was highly checked by the bishop, who asked if there were no 
man unto whom he might bring such rascals, but to him? The greedy 
cormorant being thus defeated of his desired prey, yet thinking to seek 
and to hunt further, carried his prisoner to the bishop of London, with 
whom what ill-usage this Whittle had, and how he was by the bishop 
beaten and buffetted about the face, by this his own narration, in a 
letter sent to his friend, manifestly may appear. 

"Upon Thursday, the tenth of January, the bishop of London sent 
for me out of the porter's lodge, where I had been all night, lying on 
the earth, on a little low bed, where I had as painful a night of sickness 
as ever I endured. When I came before him, he talked with me upon 
many things of the sacrament so grossly, as is not worthy to be re- 
hearsed. Amongst other things, he asked me, if I would have come 
to mass that morning if he had sent for me. I answered, that 1 
would have come to him at his commandment, but to his mass I 
had small affection. At which answer he was sore displeased, and 
said, I should be fed with bread and water. And as I followed him 
through the great hall, he turned back, and beat me with his fist, first 
on the one cheek, and then on the other, and the sign of my beating 
did many days appear. And then he led me to a little salt-house, where 
I had neither straw nor bed, but lay two nights on a table, and slept 
soundly. 

"On the Friday after, I was brought to my lord, when he gave me 
many fair words, and said he would be good to me. And so he going 
to Fulham committed me to Dr. Harpsfield, that he and I that afternoon 
should commune together, and draw out certain articles, whereunto, if 
I would subscribe, I should be dismissed. But Dr. Harpsfield sent not 
for me till night, and then persuaded me very much to forsake my 
opinions. I answered, I held nothing but the truth, and therefore I 
could not so lightly turn therefrom. So I thought I should at that time 
have had no more ado: but he had made a certain bill, which the re- 
gister pulled out of his bosom and read. The bill indeed was very easily 
made, and therefore more dangerous; for the effect thereof was to 
detest all errors and heresies against the sacrament of the altar, and 
other sacraments, and to believe the faith of the catholic church, and 
live accordingly. 

"To this bill I did set my hand, being much desired and counselled 
so to do ; and the flesh being always desirous to have liberty, I considered 






MARTYRDOM OF MR. WHITTLE. 909 

not thoroughly the inconvenience that might come therefrom : speedy- 
respite I desired to have and very earnestly they desired me to subscribe. 
But when I had done so, I had little joy thereof; for by and by my 
mind and conscience told me by God's word that I had done evil, by 
such a slight means to shake off the sweet cross of Christ ; and yet it 
was not my seeking, as God knoweth, but altogether came of them. 
Well, the night after I had subscribed I was sore grieved, and for sorrow 
of conscience could not sleep. For in the deliverance of my body out 
of bonds, which I might have had, I could find no joy nor comfort, but 
still was in my conscience tormented more and more, being assured, by 
God's Spirit and his word, that through evil counsel and advice, I had 
done amiss. And both with disquietude of mind, and with my other 
cruel handling, I was sick; lying upon the ground when the keeper 
came: and I desired him to pray Dr. Harpsfield to come to me, and 
he did so. 

" And when he came, and the register with him, I told him that I was 
not well at ease, but that I was grieved very much in my conscience 
and mind because I had subscribed. I said that my conscience had so 
accused me, through the just judgment of God and his word, that I 
felt hell in my conscience, and Satan ready to devour me ; and therefore 
I prayed Mr. Harpsfield to let me have the bill again, for I would not 
stand to it. So he gently commanded it to be fetched, and gave it me 
and suffered me to put out my name, whereof I was right glad when I 
had so done, although death should follow. And hereby I had experience 
of God's providence and mercy towards me, who trieth his people, and 
suffereth them to fall, but not to be lost : for in the midst of this temp- 
tation and trouble, he gave me warning of my deed, and also delivered 
me; his name be praised for evermore, Amen. Neither devil nor evil 
man, life nor death can pluck any of Christ's sheep out of his hand. 
Of which flock of Christ's sheep I trust undoubtedly I am one, by 
means of his death and blood-shedding, and shall at the last day stand 
at his right hand, and receive with others his blessed benediction. And 
now being condemned to die, my conscience and mind, I praise God, 
were quiet in Christ, and I by his grace was very willing and content 
to give over this body to the death,. for the testimony of his truth and 
pure religion, against Antichrist and all his false religion and doctrine. 

" By me, Thomas Whittle, minister." 

Upon the 14th day of January, Bonner, with other his fellow Bonner- 
lings, sitting in his consistory at the afternoon, first called forth Thomas 
Whittle, with whom he began in effect as folio weth : " Because you be a 
priest, as I and other bishops here be, and did receive the order of priest- 
hood after the right and form of the catholic church, ye shall not think but 
I will minister justice as well unto you as unto others." And then the said 
Bonner proceeded to rehearse the several charges against him, and after- 
ward to unpriest him of all his priestly trinkets and clerkly habit. To make 
short, Whittle, strengthened with the grace of the Lord, stood strong and 
immovable in that he had affirmed. Wherefore the sentence being read, 
the next day following he was committed to the secular power ; and so, in 
few days after, brought to the fire with the other six aforenamed, sealing 
up the testimony of his doctrine with his blood, as witness for the truth. 



910 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Next followeth in order to speak of Bartlet Green, who the next day 
after was likewise condemned. This Green was of a good house, and had 
such parents as favoured learning. After some entrance in inferior schools, 
he was sent unto the university of Oxford, where through his diligence 
he made great advances in his studies: but was, for a time, so far from 
feeling any interest in eternal things, that he was utterly averse to the 
subject. At length, by attending the lectures of Peter Martyr, then 
reader of the divinity-lecture, his mind was struck with the importance 
of religion. Having once tasted of divine grace, it became unto him 
as the fountain of living water that our Saviour Christ spake of to the 
woman of Samaria. Insomuch that when he was called by his friends 
from the university, and was placed in the Temple at London, there to 
study the common laws of the realm, he still continued, with great ear- 
nestness, to read and search the scriptures. 

But, such is the frailty of our corrupt nature without the special assist- 
ance of God's Holy Spirit, he sadly declined, through the continual 
accompanying and fellowship of such worldly youths as are commonly 
in that and the like places. He became by little and little a partner in 
their follies, as well in his apparel as also in banquetings, and other 
superfluous excesses ; which he afterwards bewailed sorely, as appeareth 
by his own testimony left in a book belonging to Mr. Bartram Calthorp, 
one of his friends, written a little before his death. He there remarks, 
"Two things very much troubled me while I was in the Temple, pride 
and gluttony ; which under the colour of glory and good-fellowship, 
drew me almost from God. Against both there is one remedy, by 
earnest prayer, and without ceasing. And forasmuch as vainglory is so 
subtle an adversary, that almost it woundeth deadly ere ever a man can 
perceive himself to be smitten, therefore we ought so much the rather by 
continual prayer to labour for humbleness of mind. Truly, gluttony 
beginneth under a charitable pretence of mutual love and society, and 
hath in it most uncharitableness. When we seek to refresh our bodies, 
that they may be more apt to serve Gocl, and perform our duties toward 
our neighbours, then it stealeth in as a privy thief, and murdereth both 
body and soul, that now it is not apt to pray, or serve God, apt to study 
or labour for our neighbour. Let us therefore watch and be sober : for 
our adversary the devil walketh about like a roaring lion, seeking whom 
he may devour." 

Thus we see the fatherly kindness of our most gracious and merciful 
God, never sufFereth his children so to fall, that they lie still in security 
of sin, but oftentimes quickeneth them up by such means as perhaps 
they think least of. For the better maintenance of himself in his studies 
and other affairs, Green had a large exhibition of his grandfather, Dr. 
Bartlet, who, during the time of his imprisonment, made him large offers 
of great livings, if he would recant and return to the church of Rome. 
But his persuasions took small effect in his faithful heart. He was a 
man beloved of all, and so he well deserved ; for he was of a meek, 
humble, discreet, and gentle behaviour to all ; injurious to none, bene- 
ficial to many, especially to those who were of the household of faith. 

The cause of Mr. Green's sufferings originated from a letter of his 
being intercepted. This letter was written to an exiled friend, who having 



MARTYRDOM OF BARTLET GREEN. 911 

in a letter to the said Green, required to have the certainty of the report 
spread amongst them on the other side of the seas, that the queen was dead, 
he had answered simply, and as the truth then was, that she was not dead ; 
with certain questions abroad in London. This letter, with others to divers 
of the godly exiles, by their friends in England, being delivered to a 
messenger to carry over, came, by the apprehension of the bearer, into 
the hands of the king and queen's council ; who at their leisure perused 
the whole number of the letters, and amongst them espied that of Mr. 
Green, written to his friend, Christopher Goodman ; in the contents 
whereof they found these words — " The queen is not dead." These 
words were only written as a simple answer. Howbeit they seemed very' 
heinous words, yea treason they would have made them, if the law would 
have suffered. Which when they could not do, they then examined the 
writer upon his faith in religion, but upon what points it is certainly not 
known. It was clear, however, that his answers displeased them ; for 
he was committed to prison, and after being confined for some time, was 
at length sent to bishop Bonner. 

Many other conferences and examinations they brought him to. But 
in the end, seeing his steadiness of faith to be such that neither their 
threatenings nor their flattering promises could prevail against it, the 
bishop caused him, with the rest before mentioned, to be brought into 
the consistory of St. Paul's ; where being set in his judgment seat, ac- 
companied by Mr. Fecknam, then dean of the same church, and others 
his chaplains, after he had condemned the other six, he called for Bart- 
let Green, and again repeated the articles to him. After which Dr. 
Fecknam disputed with him upon the real presence of Christ in the 
sacrament, and other points. At length, impatient of longer delay, 
bishop Bonner demanded if he would recant and return to his Romish 
mother ; and on his answering in the negative, he pronounced the defi- 
nitive sentence against him, and then committed him to the sheriffs of 
London, who sent him to Newgate. 

As he was going thither, there met him two gentlemen, particular 
friends, minding to comfort this their persecuted brother : but their 
hearts not being able to contain their sorrow, they wept. " Ah," said 
the martyr, " is this the comfort you are come to give me, in this my 
occasion of heaviness ? Must I, who needed to have consolation minis- 
tered to me, become now a comforter to you \ " And thus declaring his 
most quiet and peaceable mind and conscience, he cheerfully spake to 
them and others until he came to the prison door, into which he joyfully 
entered, and there remained always either in prayer, or else in some other 
godly meditations and exercises, unto the 27th day of January, when he, 
with his other above-mentioned brethren, went most cheerfully to the 
place of their torments, often repeating, as well by the way as also at the 
stake, these Latin verses following — 

Christe Dens, sine te spes est mihi nulla salutis: 
Te duce vera sequor, te duce falsa nego. 

The third of this martyred company was Thomas Browne, a man of 
great firmness and courage. He was born in the parish of Histon, within 
the diocese of Ely, and came afterwards to London, where he dwelt in 



912 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

the parish of St. Bride's in Fleet-street. He was a married man aged 
thirty-seven, and his troubles first arose because he came not to his 
parish-church, for which neglect he was presented by the constable of 
the parish to bishop Bonner. Being brought to Fulham with the others 
to be examined, he was required to come into the chapel to hear mass, 
which he refusing to do, went into the warren, and there kneeled 
among the trees. For this he was greatly charged by the bishop as for 
a heinous matter, because he said it was done in despite and contempt 
of their mass. At length being produced to his last examination before 
the bishop, the 15th day of January, there to hear the definitive sentence 
against him, he was required, with many fair words and glossing promises, 
to revoke his doctrine. But he resisted with steadfast faith, and told the 
bishop he was a blood-thirsty man, saying : " You condemn me because I 
will not confess and believe the bread in the sacrament of the altar (as you 
call it) to be the body of Christ." After this Bonner read his sentence, 
and so committed him to the sheriffs to be burned the 27th of January. 

The same day and time was also produced John Tudson, with the rest 
of the company, unto the like condemnation. This John Tudson was born 
in Ipswich, and apprenticed to George Goodyear, of St. Mary Botolph, within 
the diocese of London. Being complained of to Sir Richard Cholmley 
and Dr. Storey, he was by them sent to Bonner, and was divers time's 
before him in examination. On his last examination, when the bishop 
promised, on condition of his recanting, to forgive him all his offences, 
he demanded wherein he had offended. Then said the bishop, " In your 
answers." Tudson denied this and said, I have not therein offended; 
and you, my lord, pretend charity, but nothing thereof appeareth in 
your works. Thus after a few words, the bishop pronounced against 
him sentence of condemnation ; which being read, the martyr was com- 
mitted to the secular power, and so with much patience finished his life 
with his fellow-sufferers. 

John Went is the fifth individual of this class to whose life as well as 
death some reference should be made. He was born at Langham, in 
Essex, within the diocese of London, was of the age of twenty-seven, 
and was a shearman by occupation. He was first examined, as is partly 
mentioned before, by Dr. Storey, upon the sacrament of the altar; and 
because the poor man did not accord with him thoroughly in the real 
presence of the body and blood of Christ, Storey sent him up to Bonner, 
who likewise, after various examinations upon the articles in the con- 
sistory, attempted the like manner of persuasions with him as he did 
with the others, to recant and return. To whom, in very few words, 
Went answered again, he would not ; but that by the leave of God, he 
would stand firm and constant in what he had said. Whereupon being 
condemned by the bishop's sentence, he was committed unto the sheriffs 
and so brought to his martyrdom, which he with no less constancy suf- 
fered to the end, with the rest of that blessed society. 

The last two of these six martyrs were of the weaker sex ; but were 
both strong in faith, giving glory unto God. Isabel Foster was born in 
Greystock, in the diocese of Carlisle, and was married to John Foster, 
cutler, of the parish of St. Bride's, in Fleet-street, being of the age of 
fifty-five years. She likewise, for not coming to church, was sent to 



ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 913 

bishop Bonner, who put her in prison, and examined her sundry times, 
but she would never be removed from the constant confession of Christ's 
gospel. At length coming unto her final examination before the bishop, 
she was tried again whether she would yet go from her former answers ? 
Whereunto she gave this resolute answer ; that she would not go from 
them, by God's grace. The bishop promising both life and liberty if 
she would associate herself in the unity of the catholic church, she said 
again, that she trusted she was never out of the catholic church ; and 
so persisting in the same, continued constant till the sentence was pro- 
nounced, when she was committed, by command of the bishop, to the 
secular power, and brought a few days after to the stake. 

Mention has already been made of one Elizabeth Warne, who with her 
husband John Warne, in the beginning of queen Mary's reign, was appre- 
hended in Bow Church-yard, for being there at a communion ; and both 
suffered for the same, first the man in the month of May, then the wife in 
July after ; and now the daughter, in the month of January, followed her 
parents in the same martyrdom. This Joan Lashford was the daughter of 
one Robert Lashford, cutler, and of the foresaid Elizabeth, who afterward 
was married to the said John Warne, upholsterer. Ministering to her mother 
and father-in-law in prison, suspected and known to be of the same doc- 
trine and religion, she was sent to Bonner by Dr. Storey, and so committed 
to the Compter in the Poultry, where she remained five weeks ; and from 
thence was had to Newgate, where she continued the space of certain months. 

After that, remaining prisoner in Bonner's custody, and being examined, 
her confession was, that for above a twelvemonth before she came not 
to the popish mass service in the church, neither would, either to receive 
the sacrament of the altar or to be confessed, because her conscience 
would not allow her so to do; protesting against the real presence of 
Christ's body and blood ; and denying that auricular confession or ab- 
solution, after the popish sort, was necessary; but said, that these sacra- 
ments, confessions and absolutions, and the mass, with all their other 
superfluous sacraments, ceremonies, and divine service, as then used in 
this realm of England, were most vile, and contrary to Christ's word and 
institution ; so that they were neither at the beginning, nor shall be at 
the latter end. This resolute maid, feeble in constitution and tender in 
age, yet strong by grace in her confession and faith, stood so firm that 
neither the promises nor threats of the bishops could move her ; and on 
being exhorted by the bishop to return to the catholic unity of the church, 
she boldly said, " If you will leave off your abomination, 1 will return, 
and otherwise I will not. Do as it pleaseth you, and I pray God that 
you may do that which may please him." Thus she, constantly perse- 
vering in the truth, was condemned and committed to the sheriffs, by 
whom she with the rest was brought to the stake, and there washed her 
soul in the blood of the Lamb, dying most constantly for his word and 
truth. And thus much concerning the life, story, and condemnation of 
these seven martyrs above specified. 

Shortly after, in the same month, followed another like fellowship of 

godly martyrs at Canterbury. John Lomas of Tenterden, was detected to 

be of that religion the papists call heresy, and cited to appear at Canterbury, 

where he was examined of the first article, whether he believed the ca~ 

20 3 N 



914 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tholic church or not ? he answered, that he believed so much as was 
contained in God's book, and no more. Then being assigned to appear 
again under the pain of the law the following Wednesday, which was 
the 17th day of January, he was examined whether he would be confess- 
ed by a priest or not; he said, that he found it not written that he should 
be confessed to any priest in God's book, neither would he be confessed, 
unless he were accused by some man of sin. Again, being examined 
whether he believed the body of Christ to be in the sacrament of the 
altar really under the forms of bread and wine after the consecration, he 
answered, that he believed no reality of Christ's body to be in the sacra- 
ment ; neither found he it written, that he is there under form, but he 
believed so much as was written. Being then demanded whether he be- 
lieved that there was a catholic church or no, and whether he would be 
content to be a member of the same, he answered, that he believed so 
much as was written in God's book, and other answer than this he re- 
fused to give. Whereupon the sentence was given and read against 
him on the 18th of January, and he was committed to the secular 
power, and afterwards constantly suffered for the conscience of a true 
faith, with the four women here following. 

Agnes Snoth comes next in this record, and first of the female majo- 
rity of this company. She was a widow, of the parish of Smarden, and 
was likewise cited and accused for her faith. She was divers times ex- 
amined, and being compelled to answer to such articles and interroga- 
tories as should be administered unto her, she first denied to be confessed 
to a priest. And as touching the sacrament of the altar, she protested 
that if she or any other did receive the sacrament so as Christ and his 
apostles after him did deliver it, then she and they did receive it to their 
comfort: but as it is now used in the church, she said that no man could 
otherwise receive it than to his damnation, as she thought. Afterwards 
sentence being read, she was committed to the sheriffs, and suffered witli 
the rest, as a witness of Christ and of his truth, the 31st day of January. 
Against Anne Albright, likewise appearing before the judge and his col- 
leagues, it was also objected concerning the same matter of confession : 
whereunto she answered in these words, " that she would not be confessed 
of a priest;" and added moreover, speaking unto the priests, "You 
priests," said she, " are the children of perdition, and can do no good by 
your confession." She was condemned with the other four, and with them 
also suffered quietly, and with great comfort, for Christ's religion. 

In like manner Joan Sole, of the parish of Horton, was condemned of 
the same Pharisees and priests, for not allowing confession auricular, and 
for denying the real presence and substance of Christ to be in the sacra- 
ment: who, after their pharisaical sentence being promulgated, was brought 
to the stake with the other four, and sustained the like martyrdom. 

The fifth and last of this heavenly company of martyrs was Joan Catmer, 
of Hythe, wife of George Catmer, burned before. Being asked what she 
said to confession, she denied to be confessed. And the judge speaking of 
the sacrament of the altar, she affirmed that as then used it was a very idol. 
In this her confession remaining and persisting, she was by the like sentence 
cruelly of them condemned ; and so suffered with the aforesaid, ratifying 
and confessing the true knowledge and doctrine of Christ Jesus our Saviour. 



915 



SECTION XIV. 

THE LIFE, STATE, AND MARTYRDOM OF THE REVEREND PASTOR AND 
PRELATE, THOMAS CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 

As concerning the life and estate of Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of 
Canterbury, it is first to be noted and considered that the same Thomas 
Cranmer, coming of an ancient parentage, from the conquest to be deducted, 
was born in a village called Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire. Being from his 
infancy kept at school, and brought up not without much good civility, he 
came in process of time unto the university of Cambridge ; and there pros- 
pering in right good knowledge amongst the better sort of students, was 
chosen fellow of Jesus college in Cambridge. It was at that time, when 
all good authors and fine writers being neglected, filthy barbarousness was 
embraced in all schools and universities. The names and numbers of 
liberal arts did only remain, the arts themselves were clean lost; and 
divinity was fallen into the state, that being laden with articles and distinc- 
tions, it served rather for the gain of a few than for the edification of many. 
At length the tongues and other good learning began, by little and little, to 
spring up again, and the books of Faber and Erasmus began to be much 
occupied and had in good estimation, with a number of good authors be- 
sides : in whom the said Cranmer took no small pleasure. At length, when 
Martin Luther was risen up, the more bright and happy days of God's 
knowledge did waken men's minds to truth ; at which time, he being about 
thirty years old, gave his whole mind to discuss matters of religion. 

So Cranmer, being master of arts, and fellow of Jesus college, it chanced 
that he married a gentleman's daughter, by which he lost his fellowship, and 
became a reader in Buckingham college. In order that he might with 
the more diligence apply himself to his office of reading, he placed his 
wife at an inn, in Cambridge, the mistress of which was a relation of 
hers. On account of his frequent visits he was much noticed by some 
popish merchants: on this arose the slanderous noise and report against 
him, after he was preferred to the archbishopric of Canterbury. He 
continued reader in Buckingham college till his wife died in child 
birth. After this the masters and fellows of Jesus college, desirous of 
their old companion, for his eminent learning, chose him again fellow of 
the same college. Remaining at his study, he became in a few years 
reader of the divinity lecture, and in such estimation was he held by the 
whole university, that when doctor of divinity, he was commonly ap- 
pointed to examine such as yearly proceed in commencement, either 
bachelors or doctors, and by whose approbation the whole university 
licensed them to proceed unto their degree, or by whose non-approbatioi) 
the university retained them until they were better furnished with know- 
ledge and qualified for advancement. 

Dr. Cranmer, ever favouring the knowledge of the scripture, would 
not permit any to proceed in divinity, unless they were substantially 
versed in the history of the Bible: by which certain friars and other 
religious persons, who were principally brought up in the study of 



916 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

school-authors, without regard to the authority of the scriptures, were 
commonly rejected by him, so that he was greatly hated; yet it came 
to pass in the end, that many of them, thus compelled to study the 
scriptures, became afterwards very learned ; insomuch, that when they 
became doctors of divinity, they could not too much extol Cranmer's 
goodness towards them, who for a time had put them back, to initiate 
them in better knowledge. His merit soon spreading abroad, he was 
much solicited by Dr. Capon, to be one of the fellows in the founda- 
tion of Cardinal Wolsey's college in Oxford, which he refused, not 
without danger of offending. While he continued in Cambridge, the 
important cause of Henry's divorce with the lady Katherine came into 
question; which being many ways, for the space of two or three years 
amongst the canonists, civilians, and other learned men, diversely dis- 
puted and debated, it came to pass that Dr. Cranmer, on account of 
the plague being in Cambridge, resorted to Waltham-Abbey, to the 
house of Mr. Cressey, whose wife was his relation, and whose two sons 
he brought with him from Cambridge, they being his pupils. 

During this summer, cardinals Campeius and Wolsey, being in commis- 
sion from the pope, to hear and determine the great cause in controversy 
between the king and queen, delayed until the month of August in hear- 
ing the cause debated. "When August was come, the cardinals little 
caring to proceed to give sentence, took occasion to finish their commis- 
sion, and to determine no further therein, pretending that it was not 
permitted by the laws to keep courts of ecclesiastical matters in harvest 
time. This sudden interruption so much enraged the king, that taking 
it as a mock at the cardinals' hands, he commanded the dukes of Nor- 
folk and Suffolk to dispatch immediately to Rome cardinal Campeius : 
and in haste removed himself to Waltham for a night or two, while his 
household removed to Greenwich: by which means it happened that the 
harbingers, Dr. Stephen Gardiner, secretary, and Dr. Foxe, almoner, 
came to lodge in the house of Mr. Cressey, where Dr. Cranmer resided. 
When supper-time came, the three doctors met together ; Gardiner and 
Foxe were very much surprised at Cranmer being there. He declared 
the cause, namely, because the plague was in Cambridge : and as they 
were old acquaintance, the secretary and the almoner very well enter- 
tained Dr. Cranmer, intending to learn his opinion concerning the great 
business they had in hand. And as this occasion served, while they 
were at supper, they conferred with Dr. Cranmer concerning the king's 
cause, requesting him to give his opinion of it. 

Cranmer answered, That he could say little to the matter, as he had 
not studied nor looked for it. Notwithstanding, in his opinion they 
made more ado in prosecuting the ecclesiastical law than needed. It 
were better, he thought, that the question — Whether a man may marry 
his brother's wife, or no? were discussed by the divines, and by the 
authority of the word of God, whereby the conscience of the prince 
might be better satisfied and quieted, than thus from year to year, by 
unnecessary delays, to prolong the time, leaving the very truth of the 
matter unsettled. There was but one truth in it, which the scripture 
will soon make manifest, being by learned men well handled, and that 
may be as well done in England in the universities here, as at Rome, 



ACCOUNT OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 917 

or elsewhere in any foreign nation, the authority whereof will soon 
compel any judge to come to definitive sentence : and therefore as he 
took it, they might that way have made an end of the matter long 
since. When Dr. Cranmer had thus ended his tale, the other two 
liked well his device and wished they had proceeded so before, and 
thereupon conceived some matter of council to instruct the king with, 
who was then thinking to send to Rome again for a new commission. 

Now the next day, when the king removed to Greenwich, recollecting 
in himself, how he had been used by the cardinals, in thus deferring his 
cause, his mind was very uneasy, and desirous to see an end of this 
long and tedious suit, he called unto him the two principal managers of 
his cause, Gardiner and Foxe, who related their conference with Dr. 
Cranmer, and told the king the plan he had suggested for a more speedy 
termination of the affair. The king accordingly sent for Dr. Cranmer, 
approved and adopted his scheme, received him into favour, and advanced 
him, on the death of archbishop Warharn, to the see of Canterbury, 
anno 1530. 

Although the said Cranmer was now exalted to so great dignity and 
honour, still was he compassed about by mighty enemies, and by many 
crafty trains impugned; yet, through God's mighty providence working in 
the king's heart to favour him, he rubbed out all king Henry's time ; and 
under the government and protection of his son king Edward (to whom 
Cranmer was godfather) his state was rather more advanced. Afterward, 
this king Edward falling sick, and perceiving that his death was at hand, 
and knowing that his sister Mary was wholly wedded unto popish religion, 
bequeathed the succession of the realm to the lady Jane Grey, by consent 
of all his council and lawyers. When all the nobles of the realm, states 
and judges, had subscribed to this testament, they sent for the archbishop, 
and required that he also would subscribe. Cranmer refused at the first ; 
but after that he had spake with the king, and when they all agreed that by 
law of the realm it might be so, with much ado he subscribed. Well, not 
long after this king Edward died, a.d. 1553, being almost sixteen years 
of age, to the great sorrow but greater calamity of the whole realm. 

At the oppression of the good lord Cromwell, in king Henry's time, it 
was fully determined that Cranmer also should be committed to prison ; 
but he privily obtaining speech of the king, there upon his knees declared 
his innocence in the matter of which he was accused ; and the king 
delivered him his signet, saying, " Go thy ways ! if thou deceive me, I will 
never trust thy bald pate again while I live." And thus he escaped that 
present danger. Here also may be noted the saying which is constantly 
affirmed of divers persons, that the said archbishop, with the lord Wriothes- 
ley, saved the life of queen Mary, the king being determined to have off 
her head for certain causes of stubbornness ; whereupon the king afterward 
said that Cranmer made intercession for her, which would his destruction, 
and would trouble them all. 

After king Edward's decease immediately it was commanded that the lady 
Jane should be proclaimed queen ; but Mary, hearing of the death of her 
brother, was established in the possession of the realm by the assistance of 
the commons as ye heard before. This queen Mary, coming to London, 
caused the duke of Northumberland and the duke of Suffolk to be executed, 



918 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

and likewise the lady Jane, together with her husband. The rest of the 
nobles, paying fines, were forgiven, the archbishop of Canterbury only 
excepted ; for as yet the old grudge against Cranmer, for the divorcement 
of her mother, remained hid in the bottom of her heart ; and besides she 
remembered the state of religion changed, the cause whereof was imputed 
to him. 

Not long after Cranmer was condemned of treason, and committed to 
the Tower ; and when the queen could not honestly deny him his pardon, 
seeing all the rest were discharged, she released to him his action of 
treason, and accused him only of heresy. Thus stood the cause of Cran- 
mer, till at length it was determined by the queen and the council that he 
should be removed from the Tower to Oxford, there to dispute with the 
doctors and divines, to whom word was sent privily to prepare themselves. 
After these said disputations were finished in Oxford, between the doctors 
of both universities, and the three worthy bishops, Cranmer, Ridley, and 
Latimer, ye heard then how sentence condemnatory was ministered against 
them by Dr. Weston and others of the university ; whereby they were 
judged to be heretics, and so committed to the mayor and sheriffs of Oxford. 
But forasmuch as the sentence given against them was void in law, (for, at 
that time, the authority of the pope was not yet received into the land,) 
therefore was a new commission sent from Rome, and a new process framed 
for the conviction of these reverend and learned men aforesaid. 

At the coming down of the said commissioners, which was upon Thurs- 
day the 12th of September, 1555, there was erected a solemn scaffold in 
the east end of the church of St. Mary, over against the high altar, with 
cloth of state very richly and sumptuously adorned, for bishop Brooks as 
pope's legate, apparelled in pontificalibus, representing the pope's person. 
On the right hand beneath him sat Dr. Martin, and on the left hand Dr. 
Storey, the king and queen's commissioners, which were both doctors of 
the civil law ; and underneath them other doctors, scribes, and pharisees 
also, with the pope's collector, and a rabblement of such other like. 

And thus these bishops being placed in their pontificalibus, the bishop 
of Canterbury was sent for to come before them. He came forth of the 
prison to the church of St. Mary, set round with bills and glaves for fear 
he should start away, being clothed in a fair black gown, with his hood on 
both shoulders, such as doctors of divinity in the university use to wear, 
and in his hand a white staff. After he was come into the church, and 
did see them sit in their pontificalibus, he did not put off his cap to any 
of them, but stood still till that he was called. And anon one of the 
proctors for the pope, or else his doctor, called, ''Thomas archbishop of 
Canterbury ! appear here, and make answer to that shall be laid to thy 
charge ; that is to say, for blasphemy, incontinency, and heresy ; and make 
answer here to the bishop of Gloucester, representing the pope's person !" 

Upon this, Cranmer being brought more near unto the scaffold, where the 
foresaid bishop sat, he first well viewed the place of judgment, and spying 
where the king and queen's majesties' proctors were, putting off his cap, 
he (first humbly bowing his knee to the ground) made reverence to the 
one, and after to the other. That done, beholding the bishop in the face, 
he put on his bonnet again; making no manner of token of obedience to- 
wards him at all : whereat the bishop, being offended, said that it might 



ACCOUNT OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 919 

beseem him right well, weighing the authority he did represent, to do his 
duty unto him. Whereunto Dr. Cranmer answered, that he had once 
taken a solemn oath, never to consent to the admitting of the bishop of 
Rome's authority into this realm of England again ; that he had done it 
advisedly, and meant by God's grace to keep it ; and therefore would 
commit nothing either by sign or token which might argue his consent to 
the receiving of the same; and so he desired the said bishop to judge of 
him. He did it, he said, not for any contempt to his person, which he 
could have been content to have honoured as well as any of the others, if 
his commission had come from as good an authority as theirs. When, 
after many means used, they perceived that the archbishop would not 
move his bonnet, the bishop of Gloucester proceeded with studied elo- 
quence and painted art in his oration ; and after he had finished, Dr. 
Martin took the matter in hand. 

After that Dr. Martin had ended his oration, the archbishop said, u My 
lord, I do not acknowledge this session of yours, nor yet you, my mislawful 
judge ; neither would I have appeared this day before you, but that I was 
brought hither as a prisoner. And therefore I openly here renounce you 
as my judge, protesting that my meaning is not to make any answer, as in 
a lawful judgment, (for then would I be silent,) but only for that I am 
bound in conscience to answer every man of that hope which I have in 
Jesus Christ, by the counsel of St. Peter ; and lest by my silence many of 
those who are weak, here present, might be offended. And so I desire 
that my answers may be accepted as extra judicialia." When he had 
ended his protestation he said, " Shall I then make my answer ? " To whom 
Dr. Martin answered, " As you think good ; no man shall let you." And 
here the archbishop, kneeling down on both knees towards the west, said 
first the Lord's Prayer; then, rising up, he reciteth the articles of the creed ; 
which done he entereth on his profession of faith. 

Toward the close of the session, Dr. Martin demanded of Dr. Cranmer, 
who was supreme head of the church of England ? " Marry," quoth my 
lord of Canterbury, " Christ is head of this member, as he is of the whole 
body of the universal church." " Why," quoth Dr. Martin, " you made 
king Henry the eighth supreme head of the church." " Yea," said the 
archbishop, " of all the people of England, as well ecclesiastical as tem- 
poral." " And not of the church ?" said Martin. " No," said he ; " for 
Christ only is the head of his church, and of the faith and religion of the 
same. The king is head and governor of his people, which are the visible 
church." " What," quoth Martin, " you never durst tell the king so." 
" Yes, that I durst," quoth he; " and in the publication of his style, wherein 
he was named supreme head of the church, there was never other thing 
meant." A number of other fond and foolish objections were made, with 
repetition whereof I thought not to trouble the reader. 

After that they had received his answers to all their objections, they 
cited him to appear at Rome within fourscore days, to make there his per- 
sonal answers; which he said, if the king and queen would send him, he 
would be content to do. And so thence he was carried to prison again, 
where he continually remained, notwithstanding that he was commanded 
to appear at Rome. Furthermore, though the said archbishop was detained 
in strait prison, so that he could not appear, (as was notorious both in 



920 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

England and also in the Romish court,) yet in the end of the said fourscore 
days was that worthy martyr decreed " contumax," that is, sturdily, fro- 
wardly, and wilfully absent, and in pain of the same his absence con- 
demned and put to death. 

And as touching the said executory letters of the pope sent to the king 
and queen, by virtue of that commission, the bishop of Ely, and Bonner 
bishop of London, were assigned by the king and queen to proceed in the 
execution thereof upon the 14th day of February. These two coming to 
Oxford upon St. Valentine's day, as the pope's delegates with a new com- 
mission from Rome, by the virtue thereof commanded the archbishop afore- 
said to come before them, in the choir of Christ's church, before the high 
altar ; where they sitting (according to their manner) in their pontificalibus, 
first began to read their commission, the which came from the pope, 
" plenitudine potestatis;" supplying all manner of defects in law or pro- 
cess committed in dealing with the archbishop, and giving them full 
authority to proceed to deprivation and degradation of him, and so upon 
excommunication to deliver him up to the secular power, " omni appella- 
tione remota." When the commission was read they proceeded thereupon 
to his degradation ; and when they would have taken his crosier-staff out of 
his hand, he held it fast, and refused to deliver the same ; and withal, imitat- 
ing the example of Martin Luther, pulled an appeal out of his left sleeve, 
which he there and then delivered unto them, saying, li I appeal to the 
next general coilncil ; and herein I have comprehended my cause and form 
of it, which I desire to be admitted;" and prayed divers of the standers 
by, by name to be witnesses, and especially master Curtop. 

This appeal being put up to Thirleby the bishop of Ely, he said, " My 
lord, our commission is to proceed against you, ' omni appellatione remota,' 
and therefore we cannot admit it. But," he added, "if it may be ad- 
mitted, it shall," and so received it of him. Then began he to persuade 
earnestly with the archbishop to consider his state, promising to become a 
suitor to the king and queen for him. Afterward, they proceeded with 
his degradations; and whilst they were thus doing Cranmer said, " All 
this needed not ; I had myself done with this gear long ago." Last of all 
they stripped him out of his gown into his jacket, and put upon him a 
poor yeoman-beadle's gown, full bare and nearly worn, a townsman's cap 
on his head, and so delivered him to the secular power. 

While the archbishop was thus remaining in durance, (whom they had 
kept now in prison almost three years,) the doctors and divines of Oxford 
busied themselves all that ever they could, to have him recant, essaying 
by all crafty practices and allurements they might devise how to bring their 
purpose to pass, specially Henry Sydal and John de Villa Garcia. First, 
they set forth how acceptable it would be both to the king and queen, and 
especially how gainful to him, and for his soul's health. They added how 
the council and noble men bare him good will ; and put him in hope that 
he should not only have his life, but also be restored to his ancient dignity, 
saying, it was but a small matter and so easy that they required him to do, 
only that he would subscribe to a few words with his own hands ; which, if 
he did, there should be nothing in the whole realm that the queen would 
not easily grant him, whether he would have riches or dignity ; or else if 
lie had rather live a private life in quiet rest, in whatsoever place he listed, 



ACCOUNT OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 921 

without all public ministry, only that he would set his name in two words to 
a little leaf of paper. But if he refused there was no hope of health and 
pardon, for the queen was so purposed that she would have Cranmer a 
catholic, or else no Cranmer at all. Moreover, they exhorted him that he 
would look to his wealth, his estimation and quietness, saying that he was 
not so old but that many years yet remained in this his so lusty age ; and 
if he would not do it in respect of the queen, yet he should do it for respect 
of his life, and not suffer that other men should be more careful for his 
health than he was himself. Finally, if the desire of life did nothing move 
him, yet he should remember that to die is grievous in all ages, and espe- 
cially in these his years and flower of dignity it were more grievous ; but 
to die in the fire and such torments is most grievous of all. 

With these and like provocations, these fair flatterers ceased not to 
solicit and urge to their side ; whose force his manly constancy did a great 
while resist. But at last, when they made no end of calling and crying 
upon him, the archbishop being overcome, whether through their impor- 
tunity, or by his own imbecility, or of what mind I cannot tell, at length 
gave his hand, though it was against his conscience. But so it pleaseth 
God, that so great virtues in this archbishop should not be had in too 
much admiration of us without some blemish, or else that the falsehood of 
the popish generation by this means might be made more evident, or 
else to minish the confidence of our own strength, that in him should appear 
an example of man's weak imbecility. 

This recantation was soon caused by the doctors and prelates to be im- 
printed, and set abroad in all men's hands. All this while Cranmer was 
in uncertain assurance of his life, although the same was faithfully promised 
to him by the doctors; but after that they had their purpose, the rest they 
committed to all adventure, as became men of that religion to do. The 
queen received his recantation very gladly, but of her purpose to put him 
to death she would nothing relent. And now was Cranmer's cause in a 
miserable taking, who neither inwardly had any quietness in his own con- 
science, nor yet outwardly any help in his adversaries. 

In the meantime, while these things were adoing in the prison among the 
doctors, the queen taking secret counsel how to dispatch Cranmer out of the 
way, appointed Dr. Cole, and secretly gave him in commandment, that 
against the 21st of March he should prepare a funeral sermon for Cran- 
mer's burning. Soon after, the lord Williams of Thame, and the lord 
Chandos, sir Thomas Bridges, and sir John Brown were sent for, with other 
worshipful men and justices, and commanded in the queen's name to be 
at Oxford at the same day, with their servants and retinue, lest Cranmer's 
death should raise there any tumult. 

Cole the doctor, having this lesson given him before, and charged by her 
commandment, returned to Oxford ready to play his part ; who, two days 
before the execution, came into the prison to Cranmer, to try whether he 
abode in the catholic faith wherein before he had left him. To whom, 
when Cranmer had answered, that by God's grace he would daily be more 
confirmed in the catholic faith ; Cole, departing for that time, the next 
day repaired to the archbishop again, giving no signification as yet of his 
death that was prepared. In the morning appointed for his execution, the 
said Cole, coming to him, asked him if he had any money ; to whom 



922 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

when Cranmer answered that he had none, he delivered him fifteen crowns 
to give to the poor to whom he would ; and so exhorting him so much as 
he could to constancy in faith, departed thence about his business. 

By this partly, and other like arguments, Cranmer began more and more 
to surmise what they went about. Then there came to him the Spanish 
friar, John de Villa Garcia, witness of his recantation, bringing a paper with 
articles which Cranmer should openly profess in his recantation before the 
people. But the archbishop, thinking that the time was at hand in which 
he could no longer dissemble the profession of his faith with Christ's peo- 
ple, put secretly into his bosom his prayer with his exhortation, which he 
minded to recite to the people, before he should make the last profession 
of his faith, fearing lest, if they had heard the confession of his faith first, 
they would not afterward have suffered him to exhort the people. 

Soon after, about nine of the o'clock, the lord Williams, sir Thomas 
Bridges, sir John Brown, and the other justices, with certain other noble- 
men that were sent of the queen's council, came to Oxford with a great 
train of waiting men. Also of the multitude on every side (as is wont in 
such a matter) was made a great concourse, and greater expectation. 
Cranmer at length cometh from the prison of Bocardo into St. Mary's 
church, (the chief church in the university,) with the mayor and aldermen, 
walking between two friars. There was a stage set over against the pulpit, 
where Cranmer had his standing, waiting until Cole made him ready to 
his sermon. He that was late archbishop, metropolitan, and primate of 
all England, and the king's privy councillor, being now in bare and ragged 
gown, and ill-favouredly clothed, with an old square cap, exposed to the 
contempt of all men, did admonish men not only of his own calamity, but 
also of their state and fortune. In this habit, when he had stood a good 
space upon the stage, turning to a pillar near adjoining thereunto, he 
lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed unto God once or twice, till 
at the length Dr. Cole coming into the pulpit began his sermon. Pro- 
ceeding a little from the beginning, he took occasion by and by to turn his 
tale to Cranmer, and with many hot words reproved him, that once he, 
being indued with the favour and feeling of wholesome and catholic doc- 
trines, fell into the contrary opinion of pernicious error. 

All this meantime, with the greatest grief, Cranmer stood hearing his 
sermon: one while lifting up his hands and eyes unto heaven, and then 
again for shame letting them down to the earth, while the tears gushed 
from his eyes. Great commiseration and pity moved all men's hearts, 
that beheld so heavy a countenance, and such abundance of tears in an 
old man of so reverend dignity. Cole having ended his sermon, he 
called back the people that were ready to depart. " Brethren," said 
he, " lest any man should doubt of this man's earnest conversion and 
repentance, you shall hear him speak before you; and therefore I pray 
you, Mr. Cranmer, to perform that now which you promised not long 
ago; namely, that you would openly express the true and undoubted 
profession of your faith, that you may take away all suspicion from men 
and that all men may understand that you are a catholic indeed." 

To this Cranmer, rising up and uncovering his head, replied thus: 
" I will do it, and that with a good will. Good people, my dearly 
beloved brethren in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray for me 



ACCOUNT OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 923 

to Almighty God, that he will forgive me all my sins and offences, 
which are without number, and great above measure. But yet one 
thing grieveth my conscience more than all the rest, whereof, God 
willing, I intend to speak more hereafter. But how great and how many 
soever my sins be, I beseech you to pray to God of his mercy to pardon 
and forgive them all." And here kneeling down he said the following 
prayer. 

" O Father of heaven, O Son of God, Redeemer of the world, O 
Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, have mercy upon me, most 
wretched caitiff and miserable sinner. I have offended both against 
heaven and earth, more than my tongue can express. Whither then 
may I go, or whither shall I flee; to heaven I may be ashamed to lift 
up mine eyes, and in earth I find no place of refuge or succour. To 
thee, therefore, O Lord, do I run ; to thee do I humble myself. O Lord 
my God, my sins be great, but yet have mercy upon me for thy great 
mercy. The great mystery that God became man was not wrought for 
little or few offences. Thou didst not give thy Son, O heavenly Father, 
unto death for small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of the 
world, so that the sinner return to thee with his whole heart, as I do at 
this present. Wherefore have mercy on me, O God, whose property 
is always to have mercy; have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great 
mercy. I crave nothing for mine own merits, but for thy name's sake, 
that it may be allowed thereby, and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. 
And now, therefore, our Father of heaven, hallowed be thy name," etc. 

Rising he said — "Everyman, good people, desireth at the time of his 
death to give some good exhortation, that others may remember the 
same before their death, and be the better thereby: so I beseech God 
grant me grace that I may speak something at this my departing, whereby 
God may be glorified, and you edified. It is a heavy cause to see that 
so many folk so much dote upon the love of this false world, and be so 
careful for it, that of the love of God, or the world to come, they seem 
to care very little or nothing. Therefore this shall be my first exhorta- 
tion, that you set not your minds overmuch upon this deceitful world, 
Out upon God, and upon the world to come, and to learn to know what 
this lesson meaneth which St. John teacheth, that the love of this world 
is hatred against God. 

" Next unto God, you obey your king and queen willingly and gladly 
without murmuring or grudging; not for fear of them only, but much 
more for the fear of God ; knowing that they be God's ministers, appointed 
by God to rule and govern you : and, therefore, whosoever resisteth them, 
re sisteth the ordinance of God. Then I further entreat that you love alto- 
gether like brethren and sisters. For, alas ! pity it is to see what contention 
and hatred one christian man beareth to another, not taking each other as 
brother and sister, but rather as strangers and mortal enemies. But I 
pray you learn and bear well away this one lesson, to do good unto all 
men, as much as in you lieth, and to hurt no man, no more than you 
would hurt your own natural loving brother or sister. For this you may 
be sure of, that whosoever hateth any person, and goeth about mali- 
ciously to hinder or hurt him, surely, and without all doubt, God is not 
with that man, although he think himself ever so much in God's favour. 



924 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

" I exhort them that have great substance and riches of this world, 
that they will well consider and weigh three sayings of the scripture: 
one is of our Saviour himself, who saith, ' It is hard for a rich man to 
enter into the kingdom of heaven.' A sore saying, and yet spoken by 
him who knoweth the truth. Another is of St. John, whose saying is 
this — 'He that hath the substance of this world, and seeth his brother 
in necessity, and shutteth up his mercy from him, how can he say that 
he loveth God?' One more saying I wish you to remember is of St. 
James, who speaketh to the covetous rich man, after this manner — 
'Weep you and howl for the misery that shall come upon you : your 
riches do rot, your clothes be moth-eaten, your gold and silver doth 
canker and rust, and their rust shall bear witness against you, and con- 
sume you like fire; you gather a hoard or treasure of God's indigna- 
tion against the last day.' Let them that be rich ponder well these 
three sentences: for if they ever had occasion to shew their charity, 
they have it now at this present, the poor people being so many, and 
victuals so dear. 

"And now forasmuch as I am come to the end of my life, whereupon 
hangeth all my life past, and all my life to come, either to live with my 
Master Christ for ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked 
devils in hell, and I see before mine eyes presently either heaven ready 
to receive me, or else hell ready to swallow me up : I shall therefore 
declare unto you my very faith how I believe, without any colour of dissi- 
mulation; for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or 
written in times past." He then recited the creed, and added — " I believe 
every article of the catholic faith, every word and sentence taught by 
our Saviour Christ, his apostles and prophets, in the New and Old 
Testament. 

" And now I come to the great thing which so much troubleth my con- 
science, more than any thing that ever I did or said in my whole life, and 
that is the setting abroad of a writing contrary to the truth ; which now 
I here renounce and refuse, as things written with my hand contrary to 
the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, 
and to save my life if it might be ; and that is, all such bills and papers 
which I have written or signed with my hand since my degradation, 
wherein I have written many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand 
hath offended, writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall 
first be punished ; for when I come to the fire, it shall be first burned. 
As for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist, with all 
his false doctrine. As for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in 
my book against the bishop of Winchester, which my book teacheth so 
true a doctrine of the sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before 
the judgment of God, where the papistical doctrine contrary thereto 
shall be ashamed to shew her face." 

Here the standers-by were all astonished and amazed, and looked 
upon one another, whose expectation he had so notably deceived. Some 
began to admonish him of his recantation, and to accuse him of false- 
hood. Briefly, it was a world to see the doctors beguiled of so great a 
hope; for they looked for a glorious victory by this man's retractation. As 
soon as they heard these things they began to rage, fret, and fume: and so 



MARTYRDOM OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 925 

much the more, because they could not revenge their grief; for they 
could no longer threaten or hurt him. For the most miserable man in 
the world can die but once ; whereas of necessity he must needs die 
that day. And so when they could do nothing else to him, yet lest they 
should say nothing, they ceased not to object unto him his falsehood 
and dissimulation. To this he replied — " Ah, my masters, do not you 
take it so. Always since I lived hitherto, I have been a hater of false- 
hood, and a lover of simplicity, and never before this time have I dis- 
sembled." In saying this he wept bitterly. And when he began to speak 
more of the sacrament and of the papacy, some of them began to cry 
out and bawl, especially Cole, who cried out, "Stop the heretic's mouth 
and take him away ! " 

Then Cranmer being pulled down from the stage, was led to the fire, 
accompanied by those friars, vexing, troubling, and threatening him 
most cruelly. "What madness," say they, "has brought thee again 
into this error, by which thou wilt draw innumerable souls with thee into 
hell ? " To whom he answered nothing, but directed all his talk to the 
people, saving that to one troubling him in the way he spake, and ex- 
horted him to get home to his study, and apply to his book diligently ; 
saying, if he did earnestly call upon God, by reading more, he should 
get knowledge. But the other, raging and foaming was almost out of 
his wits, always having this in his mouth, Non fecisti ? Didst thou it not? 

When he came to the place where the holy bishops and martyrs of 
God, Latimer and Ridley, were burnt before him for a confession of the 
truth, kneeling down he prayed to God; and not long tarrying in his 
prayers, putting offhis garments to his shirt, he prepared himself to death. 
His shirt was made long, down to his feet, which were bare; likewise his 
head, when both his caps were off, was so bare that one hair could not 
be seen upon it. His beard was so long and thick, that it covered his 
face, and his reverend countenance moved the hearts both of his friends 
and enemies. Then the Spanish friars, John and Richard, began to 
exhort him, and play their parts with him afresh ; but Cranmer, with 
steadfast purpose, abiding in the profession of his doctrine, gave his 
hand to certain old men and others that stood by, bidding them farewell. 
When he had thought to have done so likewise to Mr. Ely, the latter 
drew back his hand and refused, saying, it was not lawful to salute he- 
retics, and especially such an one as falsely returned to the opinions he 
had forsworn. And if he had known before that he would have done so, 
he would never have used his company so familiarly, and chid those 
Serjeants and citizens who had not refused to give him their hands. This 
Mr. Ely was a student in divinity, and had been lately made a priest, 
being then one of the fellows in Brazen-nose college. 

Then was an iron chain tied about Cranmer, whom when they perceived 
to be more steadfast than that he could be moved from his sentence, they 
commanded the fire to be set unto him. And when the wood was kindled 
and the fire began to burn near him, stretching out his arm, he put his 
right hand into the flame, which he held so steadfast and immovable, 
(saving that once with the same hand lie wiped his face,) that all men might 
see his hand burned before his body was touched. His body did so abide 
the burning of the flame with such constancy and steadfastness, that standing 



926 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

always in one place without moving his body, he seemed to move no more 
than the stake to which he was bound; his eyes were lifted up into heaven, 
and oftentimes he repeated " his unworthy right hand," so long as his 
voice would suffer him ; and using often the words of Stephen, " Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit," in the greatness of the flames he gave up the 
ghost, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. 

And this was the end of this learned archbishop, whom, lest by evil 
subscribing he should have perished, by well recanting God preserved ; 
and lest he should have lived longer with shame and reproof, it pleased 
God rather to take him away, to the glory of his name and profit of his 
church. So good was the Lord to his church, in fortifying the same with the 
blood and testimony of such a martyr ; and so good also to the man with this 
cross of tribulation, to purge his offences in this world, not only of his re- 
cantation, but also of his standing against John Lambert and master Allen, 
or if there were any other with whose burning and blood his hands had 
been before anything polluted. Thus have you the story of the life and 
death of this reverend archbishop and martyr of God, and also of divers 
other the learned sort of Christ's martyrs burned in queen Mary's time, of 
whom Cranmer was the last, being burned about the very middle time of 
the reign of that queen, and almost the very middle man of all the martyrs 
which were burned in all her reign besides. 

Divers books, treatises, and letters the said Thomas Cranmer wrote, 
both in prison and out of prison, the which we have no space here to in- 
sert, saving an extract from a letter to queen Mary, which here followeth : 

" I learned by Dr. Martin, that on the day of your majesty's corona- 
tion, you took an oath of obedience to the pope of Rome, and at the 
same time you took another oath to this realm, to maintain the laws, 
liberties, and customs of the same. And if your majesty did make an 
oath to the pope, I think it was according to the other oaths which he 
useth to administer to princes; which is, to be obedient to him, to defend 
his person, to maintain his authority, honour, laws, lands, and privileges. 
And if it be so, then I beseech your majesty to look upon your oath made 
to the crown and realm, and to compare and weigh the two oaths to- 
gether, to see how they do agree, and then do as your majesty's conscience 
shall direct you : for I am surely persuaded, that willingly your majesty 
will not offend, nor do against your conscience for any thing. 

"Butlfear there are contradictions in your oaths, and that those who 
should have informed your grace thoroughly, did not their duties therein. 
And if your majesty ponder the two oaths diligently, I think you shall 
perceive you were deceived ; and then your highness may use the mat- 
ter as God shall put in your heart. Furthermore, I am kept here from 
the company of learned men, from books, from counsel, from pen and 
ink, except at this time, to write unto your majesty, which were all ne- 
cessary for a man in my case. Wherefore I beseech your majesty that 
I may have such of these as may stand with your majesty's pleasure. 
And as for my appearance at Rome, if your majesty will give me leave, 
I will appear there. And I trust that God shall put in my mouth to 
defend his truth there as well as here. But I refer it wholly to your 
majesty's pleasure." 



9-27 



SECTION XV. 

CONTINUATION OF FAITHFUL MARTYRS TOR THE CAUSE OF CHRIST 
WHO SUFFERED BETWEEN MARCH AND SEPTEMBER 1556. 

About the same time that archbishop Cranmer was burned at Oxford, 
suffered likewise in Ipswich, Agnes the wife of Robert Potten, and Joan 
wife of Michael Trunchfield, a shoemaker. Their opinion was that in the 
sacrament was the memorial only of Christ's death and passion. For this 
they were burned. In whose suffering their constancy worthily was to be 
wondered at, who, being so simple women, so manfully stood to the con- 
fession and testimony of God's word and verity ; insomuch that when they 
had prepared themselves ready to the fire, with comfortable words of the 
Scripture they earnestly required the people to credit and to lay hold on 
the word of God, and not upon man's devices and inventions. Albeit both 
of them did so joyfully suffer, as it was marvelled at of those that knew 
them, and did behold their end. The Lord grant we may do the like. Amen. 

After these two women of Ipswich succeeded three men, which were 
burnt the same month in one fire at Salisbury. Their names were John 
Spicer, freemason ; William Coberley, tailor ; John Maundrel, husband- 
man. These three on a certain Sunday agreed together to go to their 
parish church called Keevil, where the said Maundrel and the other two, 
seeing the parishioners in the procession to follow and worship the idol 
there carried, advertised them to leave the same, and return to the living- 
God. After this the vicar came into the pulpit, who there being about to 
read his bead-roll, and to pray for the souls in purgatory, the said John 
Maundrel cried, " That was the pope's pinfold," the other two affirming 
the same. After which words, by commandment of the priest, they were 
had to the stocks, where they remained till their service was done. They 
were then brought before a justice ; and so the next day carried to 
Salisbury, and presented before bishop Capon, W. Geffrey being chancelloi 
of the diocese; by whom they were imprisoned, and oftentimes examined 
of their faith in their houses, but seldom openly. 

At their last examination in the parish church of Fisherton Anger, the 
chancellor read their condemnation, and so delivered them to the sheriff; 
and the next day after, being the 24th of March 1556, they were carried 
out of the common gaol to a place betsvixt Salisbury and Wilton, where 
were two posts set for them to be burnt at. Coming to the place, they 
kneeled down, and made their prayers secretly together ; and then being 
disclothed to their shirts, John Maundrel spake with a loud voice, " Not 
for all Salisbury !" which words men judged to be an answer to the sheriff, 
which offered him the queen's pardon if he would recant. And after that, 
in like manner spake John Spicer, saying : " This is the joyfullest day 
that ever I saw." Thus they most constantly gave their bodies to the fire 
and their souls to the Lord, for the testimony of his truth. 

About the 23rd day of April, 1556, were burned in Smithrield in one 
fire, these six constant martyrs of Christ, suffering for the profession of the 
gospel, namely, Robert Drakes, minister; William Tyms, curate; Richard 
Spurge, shearman; Thomas Spurge, fuller; John Cave], weaver; and 



928 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

George Ambrose, fuller. These were all inhabitants of Essex, and so of 
the diocese of London, and were sent up, some by the lord Rich, and 
some by others, at different times, to Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, 
then lord chancellor of England, about the 22nd day of March, 1555 ; 
who, after a short examination, sent them, some unto the King's-bench, 
and others unto the Marshalsea ; where they remained almost the whole 
year, until the death of the bishop, and had during that time nothing 
said unto them. Whereupon, after that Dr. Heath, archbishop of York, 
was chosen to the office of lord chancellor, four of these persecuted 
brethren, weary of their long imprisonment, made their supplication to 
Dr. Heath, requiring his aid for their deliverance. Accordingly they 
were examined, first by Sir Richard Reed, an officer in the court of 
chancery, and afterwards brought before Bonner. 

Robert Drakes was parson of Thundersley, in Essex, and had there 
remained for three years. He was first made deacon by Dr. Taylor, of 
Hadley, at the command of Dr. Cranmer. And within one year after, 
he was, by the archbishop and Dr. Ridley, admitted minister of God's 
holy word and sacraments, and was presented to the benefice of Thun- 
dersley. On his coming to the bishop of Winchester, he was by him 
demanded whether he could conform himself like a subject to the laws 
of this realm then in force. To whom he said he would abide all laws 
that stood with the laws of God; thereupon he was committed to prison, 
where he and the rest above named did remain ever since. 

William Tyms, curate of Hockley in Essex, was brought into his troubles 
by justice Tyrrel, in whose woods he had preached twice, by whom he 
was sent to London to the bishop, and from him to the bishop of Win- 
chester, and so from him to the King's Bench. On the 21st of March 
the said William Tyms and Thomas Drakes, with the other four, were 
brought before bishop Bonner, who inquired of them their faith upon the 
sacrament of the altar. To whom they answered, that the body of Christ 
was not in the sacrament of the altar really and corporally, after the words 
of consecration by the priest : of which opinion they had been long time. 
About the 28th of the same month they were again brought before Bonner ; 
when, on adhering to the articles objected against them, they were con- 
demned, committed to the custody of the sheriffs of London, and sealed 
their faith with the shedding of their blood the 14th day of April. 

John Harpole, of Rochester, and Joan Beach, a widow of Tunbridge, 
suffered martyrdom at this time ; having been condemned by Maurice, 
bishop of Rochester. John Hullier, a clergyman educated in Eton 
school, from whence he went to King's college, in Cambridge suffered 
also under doctor Thirleby, bishop of Ely, and his chancellor, for the 
sincere preaching of the gospel. By certain letters which he left behind, 
it appeareththathewas zealous in the doctrine of truth, which every true 
christian ought to embrace. His martyrdom was on the second day of 
April, 1556. Six faithful brethren also suffered for their confession at 
Colchester, on the 28th of the same month. Their names were, 
Christopher Lyster, of Dagenham, husbandman; John Mace, of Col- 
chester, apothecary; John Spencer, of Colchester, weaver; Simon 
Joyne, sawyer; Richard Nichols, of Colchester, weaver; John Ham- 
mond, of Colchester, tanner. 



ACCOUNT OF THOMAS DUO WRY. 929 

Hugh Laverock, a lame old man, of the parish of Barking, and John 
Apprice, a blind man, were burned at Stratford-le-Bow the 15th day of 
May. Being had before Bonner, in the consistory of Paul's, the 9th day 
of the same month, the bishop asked Apprice what he would say. To 
whom he answered, " Your doctrine that ye set forth and teach is so 
agreeable with the world, and embraced of the same, that it cannot be 
agreeable with the scripture of God. And ye are not of the catholic 
church ; for ye make laws to kill men, and make the queen your hang- 
man." At which words, the bishop being very loth to delay their con- 
demnation, commanded that they should be brought after him to Fulham, 
whither he before dinner did go : and there in the afternoon, after his 
solemn manner, in the open church, he pronounced the definitive sentence 
against them. At their death, Hugh Laverock, after he was chained, cast 
away his crutch ; and comforting John Apprice, his fellow-martyr, said to 
him, " Be of good comfort, my brother, for my lord of London is our good 
physician. He will heal us both shortly ; thee of thy blindness, and me of 
my lameness." And so patiently these two saints of God together suffered. 

The next day after were brought to the fire three women, with whom 
also was adjoined another. The names of these were : Katherine Hut of 
Bocking, widow ; Joan Horns of Billericay, maid ; Elizabeth Thackvel of 
Great Burstead, maid ; Margaret Ellis of Billericay, maid ; who, with 
divers others, were persecuted and sent up to Bonner by sir John Mor- 
daunt and Edmund Tyrrel, esquire, justices of peace. Katherine Hut, 
being required of the sacrament to say her mind, openly protested, saying, 
" I deny it to be God ; because it is a dumb God, and made with men's 
hands." They all persisting in the like constancy were condemned of 
Bonner to the fire ; but as touching Margaret Ellis, before the time of her 
burning came, she was prevented by death in Newgate prison. The other 
three were had to Smithfield, and there gave their bodies to the tormentors 
and their spirits to God, for whose glory they were willing to suffer. 

Ye heard a little before of two men, the one blind, and the other lame. 
And here is not to be forgotten another as godly a couple, which suffered 
for the same cause at Gloucester : of the which two, the one was a blind 
boy, named Thomas Drowry, and the other a bricklayer, named Thomas 
Croker. Concerning the blind boy, how long he was in prison, and in 
what year he suffered, I am not certain. Of this, credible intelligence I 
have received by the testimony of the registrar then of Gloucester, that the 
said blind boy at his last examination was brought by the officers before 
Dr. Williams, then chancellor, sitting judicially with the said registrar in 
the consistory in the church of Gloucester. The chancellor having minis- 
tered unto the boy such articles as were accustomed in such cases, asked 
him — " Dost thou not believe, that after the words of consecration spoken 
by the priest, there remaineth the very real body of Christ in the sacrament 
of the altar?" To whom the blind boy answered, " No, that I do not." 

Chan. Then thou art a heretic, and shalt be burned. But who hath 
taught thee this heresy ? 

Drowry. You, master chancellor ; even in yonder place, [pointing with 
his hand towards the pulpit, standing upon the north side of the church :] 
when you preached there [naming the day] a sermon to all men, as well 
as to me, upon the sacrament. You said, the sacrament was to be received 

3 o 



i 



930 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

spiritually by faith, and not carnally and really, as the papists have 
heretofore taught. 

Chan. Then do as I have done, and thou shalt live as I do, and 
escape burning. 

Drowry. Though you can so easily dispense with yourself, and mock 
with God, the world, and your own conscience, yet will I not so do. 1 
will not recant. 

Chan. Then the Lord have mercy upon thee, for I will read the con- 
demnation sentence against thee. 
Drowry. God's will be fulfilled. 

The registrar being herewith somewhat moved, stood up, and said to 
the chancellor : " Fie for shame, man ! will you read the sentence against 
him, and condemn yourself? Away, away, and substitute some other to 
give sentence and judgment." To whom the chancellor replied, " No, 
registrar, I will obey the law, and give sentence myself, according to mine 
office." And so he read the sentence condemnatory against the boy, (with 
an unhappy tongue, and a more unhappy conscience,) delivering him over 
to the secular power; who on the 15th of May brought the blind boy to 
the place of execution, at Gloucester; together with Thomas Croker, con- 
demned also for the like testimony of the truth, where both, in one fire, most 
constantly and joyfully yielded their souls to the hands of the Lord Jesus. 
After the death of these above rehearsed, were three men burnt at 
Beccles in Suffolk, in one fire, about the 21st of May, anno 1556, whose 
names are here specified : Thomas Spicer of Winston, labourer ; John 
Denny, and Edmund Poole. They were condemned by Dr. Dunning, com- 
mitted to the secular power, and the next day after were all burnt together. 
Whereupon it is thought, that the writ was not yet come down, nor could 
be, the lord chancellor bishop Heath being the same time at London. 

By the procurement of sir John Tyrrel and others of his colleagues, many 
persons were driven from their homes in Suffolk. Among whom was 
Mrs. Twaites, a iady of upwards of 60 years of age. The following 
June, about the 6th of the month, four martyrs suffered together at 
Lewes; their names were, Thomas Harland, John Oswald, Thomas 
Avington and Thomas Reed, who had all suffered a long imprisonment 
in the King's-Bench. Soon after, in the same town, were burned 
Thomas Whood, minister, and Thomas Milles, for resisting the erroneous 
doctrine of the church of Rome. And in a few days William Adderhall, 
minister, died in the prison of the King's-Bench, and was buried in the 
prison-yard : also John Clement, wheelwright, who was buried upon the 
dunghill. There was also about that time a young man, a merchant's 
servant, who for the like godliness suffered cruel persecution from the 
papists, and was burnt at Leicester. And not long after the death of 
this youth, there were burned in one fire at Stratford le Bow, by London, 
eleven men and two women! These were named, Henry Adlington, 
Laurence Parnam, Henry Wye, William Hallywel, Thomas Bowyer, 
George Searles, Edmund Hurst, Lyon Cawch, Ralph Jackson, John 
Derifall, John Routh, Elizabeth Pepper, Agnes George. Unto these 
Dr. Darbyshire, Bonner's chancellor, in form of law, ministered the 
same articles that were pronounced unto Thomas Whittle and his com- 
panions, mentioned before. 



CONDEMNATION OF JULIUS PALMER AND OTHERS. 931 

When these thirteen were condemned, and the day had arrived on 
which they should suffer, which was the 27th of June, 1556, they were 
carried from Newgate in London, to Stratford, and there divided into 
two classes and placed in two several chambers. Afterwards the sheriff, 
who there attended upon them, came to the one part, and told them 
that the other had recanted, that their lives would therefore be saved, 
exhorting them to do the like, and not to cast themselves away. Unto 
whom they answered, that their faith was not built upon man, but on 
Christ crucified. Then the sheriff perceiving no good to be done with 
them, went to the other part, and said the like to them, that they with 
whom they had been before, had recanted, and should therefore not 
suffer death, counselling them to the like, and not wilfully to kill them- 
selves, but be wise. Unto whom they also answered as their brethren 
had done before, that their faith was not built on man, but on Christ 
and his word. He then led them to the place where they should suffer, 
and being there altogether, they most earnestly prayed unto the Lord, 
and then joyfully went to the stake and kissed it, and embraced it very 
heartily. The eleven men were tied to three stakes, and the two women 
loose in the middle without any stake, and thus they were all burnt in 
one fire. 

About the same time were burned in one fire, at Bury in Suffolk, 
Roger Bernard, Adam Foster, and Robert Lawson. In an early part 
of July died in the King's Bench, where he had suffered a long impri- 
sonment, Mr. John Careless, of Coventry, a weaver. He was a young 
man, had a wife and a young family. He left behind him several letters, 
which discovered a considerable knowledge of scripture and great firm- 
ness and piety. 

About July 16 suffered Julius Palmer, John Gwin, and Thomas Askin. 
Palmer was a young man of respectable family, his father having been 
mayor of Coventry, at which town Julius was born. He had been 
placed at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he had made unusual pro- 
gress in his studies, and was remarked for the sharpness of his wit and 
for his powers of disputation. During the reign of Edward, he was a 
zealous advocate for the Romish church, and for the contumacy he 
shewed to the protestant teachers, and his hostile disposition towards 
them, he was expelled the college. Soon after the accession of Mary, 
however, he was restored to his living, when, happening to read with 
attention Calvin's Institutes, he was convinced of the truth, renounced 
the errors of popery, openly avowed the protestant doctrines, and con- 
sequently became a subject of persecution. In his distress he applied 
to his mother for aid ; but he got nothing but curses from her for his 
heresy, as she termed it, telling him, that she would give him nothing 
but fagots to burn him with. In return for this, the follower of Christ 
blessed her and departed. He was seized at Reading in his bed, having 
been betrayed by a confidant to whom he had related his story. He 
was soon brought to trial before Dr. Jeffrey, who acted for the bishop of 
Sarum, and the sheriff of the county. After two examinations, the said 
Dr. Jeffrey proceeded to read the popish sentence of his cruel condemna- 
tion ; and so was he delivered to the charge of the secular power, and was 
burnt the same day in the afternoon, together with the other two. 



932 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Within an hour before they went to the place of execution, Palmer, in 
the presence of many people, comforted his fellows with these words : 
" Brethren," saith he, " be of good cheer in the Lord, and faint not. 
Remember the words of our Saviour Christ, where he saith, ' Happy are 
you when men revile you and persecute you for righteousness' sake. Rejoice 
and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Fear not them that kill 
the body, and be not able to touch the soul. God is faithful, and will not 
suffer us to be tempted further than we shall be able to bear it.' We shall 
not end our lives in the fire, but make a change for a better life. Yea, for 
coals, we shall receive pearls : for God's Holy Spirit certifieth our spirit, 
that he hath even now prepared for us a sweet supper in heaven, for his 
sake who suffered for us." 

When they were come to the place appointed for their suffering, they 
all three fell to the ground, and Palmer, with an audible voice, pro- 
nounced the 31st psalm, while the other two made their prayers secretly 
to Almighty God. And as Palmer began to rise, there came behind, 
him two popish priests, exhorting him to recant and save his soul. 
Palmer answered and said — "Away, away, tempt me no longer! Away, 
I say, from me all you that work iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the 
voice of my tears !" And so forthwith they put off their raiment, and 
went to the stake and kissed it. And when they were bound to the post, 
Palmer said, " Good people, pray for us, that we may persevere to the 
end. And for Christ's sake beware of popish teachers, for they deceive 
you." As he spake this, a servant of one of the bailiffs threw a fagot at 
his face, that the blood gushed out in divers places : for the which fact 
the sheriff reviled him, calling him cruel tormentor, and with his walking- 
staff break his head, that the blood likewise ran about his ears. When 
the fire was kindled, and began to take hold upon their bodies, they lifted 
up their hands towards heaven, and quietly and cheerily, as though they 
had felt no smart, they cried — " Lord Jesus, strengthen us; Lord Jesus, 
assist us ; Lord Jesus, receive our souls !" And so they continued without 
any struggling, holding up their hands, and knocking their hearts, and 
calling upon Jesus until they had ended their mortal lives. 

Among other things this is also to be noted, that after their three heads, 
by force of the raging and devouring flames of fire, were fallen together in 
a lump or cluster, which was marvellous to behold, and that they all were 
judged already to have given up the ghost, suddenly Palmer, as a man 
waked out of sleep, moved his tongue and jaws, and was heard to pro- 
nounce this word " Jesus!" So, being resolved into ashes, he yielded to 
God as joyful a soul (confirmed with the sweet promises of Christ) as any 
one that ever was called beside to suffer for his blessed name. God grant 
us all to be moved with the like spirit, working in our hearts constantly to 
stand in confession of Christ's holy gospel, to the end. Amen. 

Amongst all and singular histories touched in this book before, as there 
be many pitiful, divers lamentable, some horrible and tragical ; so is there 
none almost either in cruelty to be compared, or so far off from all com- 
passion and sense of humanity, as this merciless fact of the papists, done 
in the Isle of Guernsey upon three women and an infant, whose names 
were Katherine Cawches, the mother; Guillemine G.lbert, the daughter; 
Perotine Massey, the other daughter ; and an infant, the son of Perotine. 



TRIAL OF THREE WOMEX AT GCI? 933 



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the castle the 1st of July. 

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again into prison. On the 14th day of the said month of Jury was de- 

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934 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The time arriving when these three innocents should suffer, in the 
place where they should consummate their martyrdom were three stakes 
set up. At the middle post was the mother, the eldest daughter on the 
right hand, the youngest on the other. They were first strangled, but the 
rope brake before they were dead, and so the poor women fell into the 
fire. Perotine, who was then great with child, did fall on her side, where 
happened a rueful sight, not only to the eyes of all that there stood, but 
also to the ears of all true-hearted Christians that shall read this history. 
For as the belly of the woman burst asunder by the vehemency of the 
flame, the infant, being a fair man-child, fell into the fire, and eftsoons 
being taken out of the fire by one W. House, was laid upon the grass. 
Then was the child had to the provost, and from him to the bailiff, who 
gave censure, that it should be carried back again, and cast into the fire, 
where it was burnt with the silly mother, grandmother, and aunt, very 
pitiful to behold. And so the infant baptised in his own blood, to fill up 
the number of God's innocent saints, was both born and died a martyr, 
leaving behind to the world, which it never saw, a spectacle wherein the 
whole world may see the Herodian cruelty of this graceless generation of 
popish tormentors, ad perpetuam rei infamiam. 

Now forsomuch as this story percase, for the horrible strangeness 
of the fact, will be hardly believed by some, but rather be thought to 
be forged, or else more amplified than truth will bear out, therefore, to 
discharge my credit herein, I have not only foretold a little before, how 
I received this story by the faithful relation both of the French and 
English, of them which were there present witnesses and lookers on, 
but also have hereto annexed the true supplication of the inhabitants 
of Guernsey, and of the brother of Katherine Cawches, complaining to 
Queen Elizabeth and her commissioners, concerning the horribleness of 
the act. The petition, after stating the cruelty of the case, solicits the 
restoration of the property of the martyrs, which had been confiscated, 
to him, as the rightful heir. This being presented to the queen's com- 
missioners, in the year 1562, such order therein was taken, that the 
matter being returned again down to the said country, further to be 
examined, the dean, who had been instrumental in the tragical event, 
was 'committed to prison, and dispossessed of all his livings. So that, 
in conclusion, both he and all other partakers of that bloody murder, 
whether of conscience, or for fear of the law, were driven to acknow- 
ledge their trespass, and to submit themselves to the queen's mercy. 

As the rage of this persecution spared neither man, woman, nor child, 
wife nor maid, lame, blind, nor cripple ; so neither was there any condition 
or quality respected of any person ; but whosoever he were that held not 
as they did on the pope, and sacrament of the altar, were he learned or 
unlearned, wise or simple, all went to the fire. Thomas Moor, a simple 
poor creature and innocent soul, was apprehended for saying that his 
Maker was in heaven, and not in the pix. Coming before his ordinary, 
he was first asked, whether he did not believe his Maker there to be, 
(pointing to the high altar:) which he denied. Then asked the bishop, 
" How dost thou believe?" The young man answered again, As his creed 
did teach him. To whom the bishop said, " And what is yonder that thou 
seest above the altar?" He answering said, " Forsooth I cannot tell what 






BURNING OF JOAN WASTE AND OTHERS. 935 

you would have me to see. I see there fine clothes, with golden tassels, 
and other gay gear hanging about the pix : what is within I cannot see." 
■' Why, dost thou not believe," said the bishop, " Christ to be there, flesh, 
blood, and bone?" " No, that I do not," said he. Whereupon the bishop 
read the sentence in St. Margaret's church in Leicester ; in which town he 
suffered a joyful and glorious martyrdom about the 26th of June 1556. 

Thomas Dungate, John Foreman, and Mother Tree, suffered at Grin- 
stead in Sussex, patiently abiding what the furious rage of man could work 
against them, on the 18th of July, in the year aforesaid. 

On the 1st day of August suffered likewise at Derby a certain poor 
honest godly woman, being blind from her birth, and unmarried, about 
the age of twenty-two, named Joan Waste, of the parish of All-hallows. 
This poor woman had by her labour gotten and saved so much money as 
bought her a New Testament; and though she was unlearned, and by 
reason of her blindness unable to read, yet for the great desire she had to 
understand the holy Scriptures, she acquainted herself chiefly with one John 
Hurt, a sober grave man of the age of three score and ten years, who did 
for his exercise daily read unto her some one chapter of the New Testament. 

Not long after, through the fatal death of blessed king Edward, followed 
the woeful ruin of religion ; and this poor blind woman, continuing in a 
constant conscience, was soon called before Ralph Banes, bishop of the 
diocese, and others, when sentence was pronounced against her. On the 
day that she should suffer, she was first led into the parish church of All- 
Saints, where Dr. Draicot declared unto the people that she was condemned 
for denying the blessed sacrament of the altar ; and said that as her body 
should be presently consumed with material fire, so her soul should be 
burnt in hell with everlasting fire, saying it was not lawful to pray for her. 
Afterwards, this poor blind creature was carried to a place called Windmill- 
pit, where she cried upon Christ to have mercy upon her while life served. 

About the beginning of September, a certain godly, devout person, 
and zealous of the Lord's glorv, born in Wiltshire, named Edward Sharpe, 
of the age of forty or thereabouts, was condemned at Bristol to the like 
martyrdom; in whose death, as in the death of all his other saints, the 
Lord be glorified and thanked for his great grace of constancy. 

Next after Edward Sharpe, followed four which suffered at Mayfield in 
Sussex, the 24th of September : namely, John Hart, Thomas Ravensdale, 
a shoemaker, and a currier ; which said four, being at the place where 
they should suffer, after they had made their prayer, and were at the stake 
ready to abide the force of the fire, they constantly and joyfully yielded 
their lives for the testimony of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The day after the martyrdom of these foresaid at Mayfield, a young man, 
a carpenter, whose name we have not, was put to death for the like testimony 
at Bristol. And not long after the death of this young man, were two more 
godly martyrs consumed by fire at Wootton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire ; 
namely, one John Horn and a woman. They died in a constant faith : so 
gloriously did the Lord work in them, that death unto them was life, and 
life with a blotted conscience was death. 

When I had finished the story of the Guernsey martyrs, and also had 
passed the burning of the poor blind woman at Derby, I well hoped I 
should have found no more such stories of unmerciful crueltv; but now I 



936 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

find another showed against a woman in child-bed, as far from all charity 
and humanity as hath been any other story rehearsed. At Wootton-under- 
Edge, near Bristol, was dwelling one William Dangerfield, who by Joan 
Dangerfield his wife had nine children, and she now lying in child-bed of 
the tenth. This William, after he had been abroad a certain space for 
fear of persecution, hearing that his wife was brought to bed, repaired 
home to visit her, as natural duty required, and to see his children, she 
being now delivered four days. His return was no sooner known to some 
of his unkind and uncharitable neighbours, but they, incensed with the 
spirit of papistry, eftsoons beset the house, and there took the said William 
Dangerfield and carried him to prison ; and so at length he was brought 
to the bishop, being then Brooks, in whose cruel handling he remained so 
long that his legs almost were fretted off with the irons. 

After the apprehension of the husband, the wife likewise was taken, with 
her young-born child, being but fourteen days old, and carried into the 
common jail; where both she and her poor innocent found so small charity 
amongst the catholic men, that she never could come to any fire, but was 
driven to warm the clothes she should put about the child in her bosom. 
While they lay thus enclosed in several prisons, the bishop began with the 
husband, falsely persuading him that his wife had recanted, and asking 
him wherefore he should more stand in his own conceit than she ; and so 
subtilely drew out a form of recantation, wherewith he deceived the simple 
soul : whereunto after that he had once granted that he would consent, 
they suffered him to go to his wife. Then they with melting hearts open- 
ing their minds one to another, when he saw his wife not released, he de- 
clared unto her the whole matter, how falsely he was circumvented by the 
subtle Batterings of the bishop, bearing him in hand that certainly she had 
recanted : " And thus deceiving me," said he, " brought this unto me;" 
and so plucked out of his bosom the copy of the recantation, whereunto 
he had granted his promise. At sight whereof the wife's heart clave asunder, 
say ing, "Alack ! thus long have we continued one, and hath Satan so prevailed 
to cause you to break your first vow made to Christ in baptism?" And 
so they parted, with what hearts the Lord knoweth. Then began the said 
William to bewail his promise, and to make his prayer to Almighty God, 
desiring that he might not live ; and so departed toward his house, where 
by the way (as it is affirmed) he took his death, and shortly after departed, 
according to his prayer. Joan his wife still continued in prison, with her 
tender babe so long as her milk served ; till at length the child, starved 
for cold and famine, was sent away when past all remedy, and so shortly 
after died ; and not long after the mother also followed. Besides, the old 
woman, mother of the husband, upwards of eighty years of age, being left 
in the house after their apprehension, for lack of comfort perished also. 

John Kurde, a shoemaker, late of Syresham, in Northamptonshire, was 
imprisoned in Northampton castle for denying transubstantiation. The sen- 
tence was pronounced against him by the archdeacon of Northampton, in 
the church of All Saints ; and in September he was led without the north 
gate, and in the stone-pits was burnt. In October died three godly con- 
fessors in the castle of Chichester. In November were fifteen innocent 
martyrs together in Canterbury castle, of which number five were famished 
in strait prison, and the other ten afterwards burnt. 



937 



SECTION XVI. 

THE VISITATION OF THE UNIVERSITIES — BURNING OF THE DEAD BODIES 
OF BCCER AND PHAGIUS — WITH THE CRUEL HANDLING OF GOD'S SAINTS 
IN OTHER PARTS OF THIS REALM, IN THE TEAR 1557. 

Cardinal Pole, three years after his return into England, having some- 
what withdrawn his mind from other affairs of the realm, and having in all 
points established the Romish religion, began to have an eye to the univer- 
sity of Cambridge, which place among others specially seemed to need 
reformation. To perform this charge were chosen Cuthbert Scot, not long 
before consecrated bishop of Chester ; Nicholas Ormanet, an Italian, arch- 
priest of the people of Bozolo, in Verona, professed in both the laws, and 
bearing the name of the pope's datary ; Thomas Watson, bishop of Lincoln; 
John Christopherson, bishop of Chichester ; and Henry Cole, provost of 
the college of Eton. These persons thus appointed sent their letters, with 
the cardinal's citation, before to Dr. Andrew Perne, vice-chancellor then of 
Cambridge, with the other commissioners associate, commanding him to 
warn all the graduates of the university, in their name, to be in readiness 
against the 11th day of January, betwixt eight and ten of the clock, in the 
church of St. Mary the Virgin ; willing him especially to be there himself 
in presence, and also to set forward all the residue, to whose charge it 
belonged, that they should search out all statutes, books, privileges, and 
monuments appertaining to the university, or to any of the colleges, or 
finally to any of themselves ; and these to present before them at the day 
appointed, and every man to appear there personally. 

After this, upon the 24th of December, the vice-chancellor with the 
heads of the houses, meeting together in the schools, it was there concluded 
that the visitors' charges should be borne by the university and colleges, 
(which then cost the university a hundred pounds thick,) and also that no 
master of any college should suffer any of the fellows, scholars, or ministers 
to go forth of the town, but to return before the visitation. The inquisitors 
arrived at Cambridge on the 9th of January ; and the day after they in- 
terdicted the two churches, namely, St. Mary's, where Bueer, and St. 
Michael's, where Paulus Phagius lay buried. On the 11th, being the day 
appointed, the vice-chancellor of the university, with the masters and presi- 
dents of the colleges, and all the graduates of every house, were commanded 
to appear before the said commissioners. They assembled in great number 
to Trinity college, having the university cross borne before them ; and in 
the Gatehouse a form was set and covered with cushions, and carpet on 
the ground, for the visitors. Master John Stokes, common orator of the 
university, one of the popish superstition, (for none but such, in those days, 
might be promoted to any worship,) made an oration in the name of all 
the rest; and when he had ended, the bishop of Chester answered thereto. 

These things being finished, they were brought processionaliter to King's 
college, by all the graduates of the university, where was sung a mass of 
the Holy Ghost with great solemnity, nothing wanting in that behalf that 
might make to the setting forth of the same. From thence they attended 
all upon the legates to St. Mary's church, which we declared before to 



938 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

have been interdicted ; in the which place, forsomuch as it was suspended, 
although no mass might be sung, yet there was a sermon made in open 
audience by master Peacock in the Latin tongue, preaching against heresies 
and heretics, as Bilney, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, etc. The which being 
ended, they proceeded eftsoons to the visitation, where first Dr. Harvy 
did, in the cardinal's name, exhibit the commission to the bishop of Chester, 
with a few words in Latin. Which being accepted, and by master clerk 
openly read to the end, then the vice-chancellor with an oration did exhibit 
the certificate under his seal of office, with the cardinal's citation annexed, 
containing every man's name in the university and colleges, with the 
officers and all the masters of houses. After the formal solemnity of 
these things thus accomplished, all the masters of the houses only being 
cited, every man for awhile departed home to his own house, with com- 
mandment to be at the common schools of the said university at one of 
the clock the same day. 

The next day being the 12th of January, they resorted to the King's 
college to make inquisition, either because the same was chief and sovereign 
of all the residue, or else because that that house had been counted, time 
out of mind, never to be without a heretic (as they termed them) or twain: 
and at that present time, albeit many of late had withdrawn themselves 
from thence, yet they judged there were some remaining still. 

The order and manner how they would be entertained of every college, 
when they should come to make inquisition, they themselves appointed, 
which was in this sort. They commanded the master of every house, 
together with the residue, as well fellows as scholars, appareled in priest- 
like garments, (which they call habits,) to meet them at the uttermost 
gate of their house towards the town : the master himself to be dressed in 
like apparel as the priest when he harnesseth himself to mass ; saving that 
he should put on uppermost his habit, as the rest did. The order of their 
going they appointed to be in this wise : the master of the house to go 
foremost; next unto him, every man in his order as he was of degree, 
seniority, or of years. Before the master should be carried a cross and 
holy water to sprinkle the commissioners withal ; and then, after that, the 
said commissioners to be censed. And so after this meeting and mumbling 
of a few devotions, they determined with this pomp and solemnity to be 
brought to the chapel. 

Three days long lasted the inquisition there. This was now the third 
day of their coming, and it was thought that the case of Bucer and Phagius 
was delayed longer than needed. The vice-chancellor and the masters of 
the colleges assembled at the common schools, where every man gave his 
verdict what he thought meet to be done in this matter of Bucer. After 
much debating, they agreed altogether in this determination : that foras- 
much as Martin Bucer, while he lived, had not only sowed pernicious and 
erroneous doctrine among them, but also himself had been a sectary and 
famous heretic, erring from the catholic church, and giving others occasion 
to fall from the same likewise, a supplication should be made to the lords 
commissioners, in the name of the whole university, that his dead carcase 
might forthwith be digged up, (for so it was needful to be done,) to the 
intent that inquisition might be made as touching his doctrine, etc. They 
gave the same verdict, by common assent, upon Phagius also. 



THE BONES OF BUCER AND PHAGIUS BURNED. 939 

The day after, the vice-chancellor, Andrew Perne, waited upon the com- 
missioners, according to the appointment, about seven of the clock in the 
morning. He had scarce declared the cause of his coming-, but he had not 
only obtained his suit, but also even at the very same time received the 
sentence of condemnation, for taking up of Bucer and Phagius, fair copied 
out by Ormanet the datary himself, which was soon after signed with the 
common seal of the university. 

This condemnation being openly read, then Dr. Perne desired to send 
out process to cite Bucer and Phagius to appear, or any others that would 
take upon them to plead their cause, and to stand to the order of the 
court against the next Monday. The commissioners condescended to his 
request, and the next day process went out to cite the offenders. This 
citation Vincent of Noally, their common notary, having first read it over 
before certain witnesses appointed for the same purpose, caused to be fixed 
up in places convenient, to wit, upon St. Mary's church-door, the door of 
the common schools, and the cross in the market-stead. In this was 
specified, that whosoever would maintain Bucer and Phagius, or stand in 
defence of their doctrine, should, at the eighteenth day of the same month, 
stand forth before the lord commissioners in St. Mary's church, and there 
every man should be sufficiently heard what he could say. 

When the day came, and that neither Bucer nor Phagius would appear 
at their call in the court, nor that any put forth himself to defend them, 
the commissioners put off the judgment day unto the 26th of the same 
month. Upon this day the vice-chancellor was sent for to their lodging, 
with whom they agreed concerning the order of publishing the sentence. 
And because there should want no solemnity in the matter, they com- 
manded him further to warn the mayor of the town to be there at the day 
appointed with all his burgesses. 

On the day aforesaid all met together in St. Mary's church, where, after 
reciting the process, Dr. Scot, one of the inquisitors, made a long ora- 
tion ; after which he read the sentence condemning Bucer and Phagius of 
heresy. He then commanded their bodies to be digged out of their graves, 
and being degraded from holy orders, delivered them to the secular power : 
for it was not lawful for such innocent persons as they were, abhorring from 
all bloodshed, and detesting all desire of murder, to put any man to death ! 

Upon the 6th day of February, their dead bodies were borne into the 
market-place, (Bucer in the chest that he was buried, and Phagius in a 
new,) with a great train of people following them. This place was pre- 
pared before, and a great post was set fast in the ground to bind the car- 
cases to, and a great heap of wood was laid ready to burn them withal. 
The chests were set up on end, with the dead bodies in them, and fastened 
on both sides with stakes, and bound to the post with a long iron chain as 
if they had been alive. Fire being forthwith put to, as soon as it began 
to flame round about, a great sort of books that were condemned with 
them were cast into the same. 

In the mean time that they were roasting in the fire, Watson went into 
the pulpit in St. Mary's church, and there, before his audience, railed upon 
their doctrine, as wicked and erroneous, saying that it was the ground of 
all mischief that had happened of a long time in the commonweal. Many 
things he slanderously and falsely alleged against Bucer, whose doctrine 



940 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

either he would not understand, or else he was minded to slander. And 
yet he was not ignorant that Bucer taught none other things than the 
very same whereunto he and Scot, in the reign of king Edward the sixth, 
had subscribed to with their own hands. 

The next day following, the aforesaid Scot, bishop of Chester, with 
much ceremonial solemnity, reconciled the two churches of St. Mary and 
St. Michael, which we declared to have been interdicted before. After 
this they bestowed a few days in punishing and amercing such as they 
thought had deserved it. Some they suspended from giving voices either 
to their own preferment or that of any other; some they forbade to have 
the charge of pupils; others they chastised wrongfully without any desert, 
punishing contrary to all right and reason ; and last of all they set forth cer- 
tain statutes by the which they would have the university hereafter ordered. 

The commissioners were now ready to go their ways; and the university, 
coveting to show some token of courtesy to them for so great benefits, 
dignified Ormanet and Cole with the degree of doctorship, for all the 
residue had received that order before. Thus, at length, were sent away 
these peacemakers, that came to pacify strifes and quarrels, who, through 
provoking every man to accuse one another, left such gaps and breaches 
in men's hearts at their departure, that to this day they could never be 
closed nor joined together again ! 

Having thus considered the doings of these iniquisitors at Cambridge, 
we will proceed to discourse of the despiteful handling of Peter Martyr's wife 
at Oxford. For because the one university should not mock the other, like 
cruelty was also declared upon the dead body of the said Peter Martyr's wife, 
an honest, grave, and sober matron, while she lived, and of poor people a 
great helper, who departed this life in the year of our Lord 1,552. Brooks, 
bishop of Gloucester, Nicholas Ormanet, datary, Robert Morewen, presi- 
dent of Corpus-Christi college, Cole and Wright, doctors of the civil 
law, came thither as the cardinal's visitors; and, among other things, had 
in commission to take up this good woman again out of her grave, and to 
consume her carcase with fire, not doubting but that she was of the same 
religion that her husband had professed before. 

To be short, after these visitors had sped the business they came for, they 
gat them to the cardinal again, certifying him that, upon due inquisition 
made, they could learn nothing upon which by the law they might burn 
her. Notwithstanding the cardinal, a good while after, wrote to Marshal, 
then dean of Frideswide's, that he should dig her up, and lay her out of 
Christian burial, because she was interred nigh unto St. Frideswide's relics, 
sometime had in great reverence in that college. Dr. Marshal, like a 
pretty man, calling his spades and mattocks together in the evening, 
caused her to be taken up and buried in a dunghill. 

Howbeit, when it pleased God under good queen Elizabeth to give 
quietness to his church, Dr. Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund 
Grindal, bishop of London, Richard Goodrick, with divers others, her 
majesty's high commissioners in matters of religion, willed certain of that 
college to take her out of that unclean and dishonest place where she lay, 
and solemnly, in the face of the whole town, to bury her again in a more 
decent and honest monument. Wherefore master James Calfield, then 
sub-dean of the college, diligently provided that from Marshal's dunghill 



TWENTY-TWO PRISONERS SENT TO BONNER. 941 

she was restored and translated to her proper place again, yea, and withal 
coupled her with Frideswide's bones, that in case any cardinal will be so 
mad hereafter to remove this woman's bones again, it shall be hard for 
them to discern the bones of her from the other. 

Moreover, the commissioners under good queen Elizabeth, having also 
received commission to make reformation of religion in the university of 
Cambridge and other parts of the realm, decreed that the aforesaid Bucer 
and Phagius should be set in their places again. For the performance 
whereof they addressed their letters to the vice-chancellor and the graduates 
of the university, when by the verdict and open consent of the whole 
university they were fully restored, and all acts done against them and 
their doctrine repealed and disannulled, about the twenty-second day of 
July, in the year of our Lord 1560. 

In January 1557, ten godly and Christian martyrs were committed unto 
the fire, and there consumed to ashes, by Thornton, suffragan of Dover, 
and Nicholas Harpsfield, archdeacon of the said province. Their names 
were John Philpot, Matthew Bradbridge, and Nicholas Final, of Tenterden ; 
William Waterer and Thomas Stephens, of Biddenden ; Stephen Kempe 
of Norgate; William Hay of Hythe; Thomas Hudson of Selling ; William 
Lowick of Cranbrooke ; William Prowting of Thorn ham. Of these, six 
were burned at Canterbury, about the 15th of January; two at Ashford 
the day following ; and other two at Wye, about the same month. 

On the 8th of the next month following, which was February, came out 
another bloody commission from the king and queen, to kindle up the fire 
of persecution, as though it were not hot enough already. After this 
commission was given out at London, the new r inquisitors, especially some 
of them, began to ruffle, and to take upon them not a little; so that all 
quarters were full of persecution, and prisons almost full of prisoners, 
namely, in the diocese of Canterbury, whereof (by leave of Christ) we will 
say more anon. 

In the mean time, about the town of Colchester, the wind of persecution 
began fiercely to rise ; insomuch that three-and-twenty together, fifteen 
men and eight women, were apprehended at one clap, of the which one 
escaped. The other twenty-two were driven like a flock of Christian 
lambs to London, with two or three leaders with them at most, ready to 
give their skins to be plucked off for the gospel's sake. When they entered 
into the towns their keepers called them into array, to go two and two 
together, having a band or line going between them, they holding the same 
in their hands, having another cord every one about his arm, as though 
they were tied. And so were they carried up to London, the people by 
the way praying to God for them, to give them strength. Notwithstanding 
the bishops, afraid belike of the numbers to put so many at once to death, 
sought means to deliver them; and so they did, drawing out a very easy 
submission for them, or rather suffering them to draw it out themselves : 
notwithstanding divers of them afterward were taken again and suffered, 
as hereafter ye shall hear (God willing) declared. 

In this story of persecuted martyrs, next in order follow five others 
burned at London, in Smithfield, on the 12th of April. Their names were, 
Thomas Loseby, Henry Ramsey, Thomas Thirtel, Margaret Hide, and 



942 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Agnes Stanley ; who being, some by the lord Riche, some by other 
justices of peace, and constables (their own neighbours) at the first accused, 
and apprehended for not coming to their parish churches, were in the end 
sent unto Bonner, bishop of London ; and, by his commandment, the 27th 
day of January were examined before Dr. Darby shire, then chancellor to 
the said bishop. In their answers they confessed there was one true and 
catholic church, whereof they steadfastly believed, and thought the church 
of Rome to be no part or member thereof; so in the same church they 
believed there were but two sacraments, that is to say, baptism and the 
supper of the Lord. 

After this, the 1st day of April, they were again convented before the 
bishop in his palace at London, where little appeareth to be done, except 
it were to know whether they would stand to their answers, and whether 
they would recant or no. But when they refused to recant and deny the 
received and infallible truth, the bishop caused them to be brought into 
the open consistory, the 3rd day of the same month of April, where, first 
understanding by them their immutable constancy and steadfastness, he 
pronounced the sentence of condemnation against them, and charged the 
sheriff of London with them ; who being thereunto commanded, the 12th 
day of the same month, brought them into Smithfield, where altogether 
in one fire most joyfully and constantly they ended their temporal lives, 
receiving there-for the life eternal. 

After these, moreover, in the month of May, followed three others that 
suffered in St. George's-fields in Southwark : William Morant, Stephen 
Gratwick, with one King. Among other histories of the persecuted and 
condemned saints of God, I find the condemnation of none more strange 
nor unlawful than of this Stephen Gratwick : who first was condemned by 
the bishops of Winchester and Rochester, which were not his ordinaries. 
Secondly, when he did appeal from those incompetent judges to his right 
ordinary, his appeal could not be admitted. Thirdly, when they had no 
other shift to colour their inordinate proceedings withal, they suborned 
one of the priests to come in for a counterfeit and false ordinary, and sit 
upon him. Fourthly, being openly convinced and overturned in his own 
arguments, yet the said bishop of Winchester, Dr. White, neither would 
yield to the force of truth, nor suffer any of the audience assistant once to 
say, God strengthen him. Fifthly, as they brought in a false ordinary to 
sit upon him, so they pretended false articles against him which were no 
part of his examinations, but of their devising, to have his blood. Sixthly 
and lastly, having no other ground nor just matters against him, but only 
for saying these words, "That which I said, I have said," they read the 
sentence against him. 

I showed a little before, how after the universal proclamation was sent 
and set forth by the king and queen in the month of February last, the 
storm of persecution began in all places to rise, but yet in no place more 
than in the country and diocese of Canterbury, especially by reason of 
Richard Thornton suffragan of Dover, and Harpsfield archdeacon of 
Canterbury, who of their own nature were so furious and fiery against the 
harmless flock of Christ, that there was no need of any proclamation to 
stir up the coals of their burning cruelty, by reason whereof many a godly 
saint lyeth slain under the altar, as in divers places of this book appear. 



TEN FAITHFUL MARTYRS BURNED AT LEWES. 943 

On the 18th of June were seven Christian and true faithful martyrs of 
Christ burned at Maidstone, whose names here follow : Joan Bradbridge 
of Staplehurst; Walter Appleby of Maidstone; Petronil, his wife; Edmund 
Allin of Frittenden, and Katherine, his wife ; John Manning's wife, of Maid- 
stone ; and Elizabeth, a blind maiden. As concerning the general articles 
commonly objected to them in the public consistory, and the order of their 
condemnation, it differeth not much from the usual manner expressed be- 
fore, neither did their answers in effect much differ from the others that suffered 
under the same ordinary, in the foresaid diocese of Canterbury. 

On the 19th of the said month of June, four women and three men were 
burrjt together at Canterbury : namely, John Fishcock, Nicholas White, 
Nicholas Pardue, Barbara Final, widow ; Bradbridge's widow, who was 
thought to be with child ; Wilson's wife, and Benden's wife. The latter 
was accused of her own husband, and kept in prison nine weeks upon 
bread and water, lying upon a little short straw between a pair of stocks 
and a stone wall, during all which time she never changed her apparel, 
whereby she became at the last a most piteous and loathsome creature to 
behold. Being brought to the place where they should suffer for the 
Lord's cause, they undressed themselves joyfully to the fire ; and being 
ready thereto, they all (like the communion of saints) kneeled down and 
made their humble prayers unto the Lord, with such zeal and affection as 
even the enemies of the cross of Christ could not but like it. When they 
had made invocation together, they rose and went to the stake, where, 
being compassed with horrible flames of fire, they yielded their souls and 
lives gloriously into the hand of the Lord, unto whose eternity the Son of 
God bring us all. Amen. 

Matthew Plaise, a weaver, of the same county of Kent, and a faithful 
Christian, was apprehended and imprisoned likewise for the testimony of 
a good conscience, in the castle of Canterbury. He was brought to ex- 
amination before the bishop of Dover, and Harpsfield the archdeacon ; 
but what became of him after, whether he died in prison, or was executed, 
or delivered, I have as yet no certain knowledge. 

In the town of Lewes were ten faithful servants of God put in one fire 
the 22nd day of June, whose names follow : Richard Woodman ; George 
Stevens; W. Mainard ; Alexander Hosman, his servant; Thomasin a 
Wood, Mainard's maid ; Margery Moris ; James Moris, her son ; Dennis 
Burgis ; Ashdon's wife ; and Grove's wife. Of the which number, Richard 
Woodman was the first. He was by his occupation an iron-maker, in the 
parish of Warbleton, Sussex, in the diocese of Chichester, about the age 
of thirty years. The occasion of his first apprehension was this : There 
was a man named Fairebanke, who sometime had been a married priest, 
and served the cure of Warbleton, where he had often persuaded the people 
not to credit any other doctrine but that which he preached in king 
Edward's days. But in the beginning of queen Mary's reign, this Fairebanke 
preached contrary to that which he had before taught. Whereupon 
Richard Woodman, hearing him so to preach contrary to himself, ad 
monished him of his inconstancy, how beforetiine he had taught them 
one thing, and now another, and desired him to teach them the truth. 
For the which words he was apprehended, and brought before mastei 
John Ashbornham, mastei Tonston, master Culpepper, and master Roberts, 



944 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

justices of peace in the county of Sussex, and by them committed to the 
King's Bench, where he continued from June, the space almost of a year 
and a half; and from thence was transferred by Dr. Storey into Bonner's 
coal-house, where he remained a month before he came to examination. 

At length, the same day when master Philpot was burned, which was 
the 18th of December, he with four other prisoners was set at liberty by 
Bonner himself. Notwithstanding, shortly after he was sought for again, 
and at last found out and taken by means of his father, brother, and 
certain other friends, and so was sent up again to London to bishop 
Bonner, where he remained in the coal-house for the space of eight weeks. 
He was there six times examined, and twenty-six times before, so that 
his examinations were in all thirty-two, from his first apprehension to his 
condemnation. With Woodman also were burnt the nine others ; of 
which number the eight last were apprehended (as is said) either the same 
day or the second or third day before, and so with the said Woodman and 
Stevens were together committed to the fire ; in which space no writ 
could come down from London to the justices for their burning. Where- 
fore what is to be said to such justices, or what reckoning they will make 
to God and to the laws of this realm, I refer that to them that have to do 
in the matter. 

After these ten above-named, about the same time and month, one 
Ambrose died in Maidstone prison, who else should have been burnt in the 
like cause and quarrel as the others were. 

In the registers of Gilbert, bishop of Bath and Wells, I find a certificate 
made to king Philip and queen Mary, of one Richard Lush, there con- 
demned and given to the secular power to be burnt for the cause of 
heresy ; and also a certificate directed by the bishop aforesaid to the king 
and queen, whereby we have apparently to understand that the said 
Richard Lush, thus condemned bv bishop Bourne, was there burnt and 
executed, unless peradventure in the mean season he died, or was made 
away in the prison, whereof I have no certainty to express. 

In the month of July next ensued the martyrdom of Simon Miller, of 
Lynn, and Elizabeth Cooper, of Norwich. They were condemned by the 
bishop of Norwich and his chancellor, about the 13th day of July. Being 
at the stake to be burnt, when the fire came unto the good woman she a 
little shrank thereat, crying, " Hah !" which, when the said Simon heard, 
he willed her to be strong and of good cheer ; " for, good sister," said he, 
"we shall have a joyful and sweet supper:" whereat she being as it 
seemed thereby strengthened, stood as still and as quiet as one most glad 
to finish that good work which before most happily she had begun. So, 
in fine, she ended her life with her companion joyfully, committing her 
soul into the hands of Almighty God. 

Mention was made a little before of twenty-two which were sent up 
prisoners together from Colchester to London, the which through a gentle 
submission put unto them were afterwards released and delivered. In the 
number of these was one William Mount of Much-Bentley, in Essex, 
husbandman, with Alice his wife, and Rose Allin, maid, the daughter of 
the said Alice Mount ; which coming home again to their house refrained 
themselves from the unsavoury service of the popish church, and frequented 
the company of good men and women, which gave themselves diligently 



BURNING OF ROSE ALLIN'S HAND. 945 

to reading, invocating and calling upon the name of God through Christ ; 
whereby they so fretted the wicked priest of the town, called sir Thomas 
Tye, and others like unto him, that casting their heads together, they 
made a pestilent supplication to the lord Darcy, in the name of the whole 
parish, praying his lordship to award a warrant for the said William 
Mount, his wife, and Rose her daughter. 

When Judasly this wicked priest had thus wrought his malice against 
the people of God, within awhile after the storms began to arise against 
these poor persecuted, William Mount and his company, whereby they 
were enforced to hide themselves. At last, on the 7th day of March, 
being the first Sunday in Lent, by two of the clock in the morning, one 
master Edmund Tyrrel (who came of the house of those Tyrrels who 
murdered king Edward the fifth and his brother) took with him the bailiff 
of the hundred, called William Simuel, dwelling in Colchester, and the two 
constables of Much-Bentley, with divers others a great number ; and be- 
setting the house of the said William Mount round about, called to them 
at length to open the door : which being done, master Tyrrel with certain 
of his company went into the chamber where the husband and wife lay, 
willing them to rise ; " for," said he, -' you must go with us to Colchester 
castle." Mother Mount hearing that, being very sick, desired that her 
daughter might first fetch her some drink. Then Tyrrel gave her leave, 
and bade her go. So the daughter, Rose Allin, took a stone pot in one 
hand, and a candle in the other, and went to draw drink for her mother : 
and as she came back again through the house, Tyrrel met her, and 
willed her to give her father and mother good counsel, and advertise them 
to be better catholic people. 

Rose. Sir, they have a better instructor than I ; for the Holy Ghost 
doth teach them, I hope, which I trust will not suffer them to err. 

Tyrrel. Why, art thou still in that mind, thou naughty housewife? 
Marry, it is time to look upon such heretics indeed. 

Rose. Sir, with that which you call heresy do I worship my Lord God; 
I tell you truth. 

Tyrrel. Then I perceive you will burn, gossip, with the rest, for com- 
pany's sake. 

Rose. No, sir, not for company's sake, but for my Christ's sake, if so I 
be compelled ; and I hope in his mercies if he call me to it, he will enable 
me to bear it. 

So Tyrrel, turning to his company, said, " Sirs, this gossip will burn : 
do you not think it?" " Marry, sir," quoth one, " prove her, and you 
shall see what she will do by and by." Then that cruel Tyrrel, taking the 
candle from her, held her wrist, and the burning candle under her hand, 
burning crosswise over the back thereof so long till the very sinews cracked 
asunder, as witnessed by William Candler, then dwelling in Much-Bentley, 
who was there present and saw it. In which time of his tyranny, he said 
often to her, "Why, whore! wilt thou not cry? Thou young whore! 
wilt thou not cry?" Unto which she always answered, that she had no 
cause, she thanked God, but rather to rejoice. He had (she said) more 
cause to weep than she, if he considered the matter well. In the end, 
when the sinews (as I said) brake, that all the house heard them, he then 
thrust her from him violently, and said, " Ah ! strong whore ; thou shame- 

3 p 



946 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

less beast ! thou beastly whore !" etc., with such like vile words. But she, 
quietly suffering his rage for the time, at the last said, " Sir, have ye done 
what ye will do ? " And he said, " Yea ; and if thou think it be not well, 
then mend it." " Mend it ! " said Rose ; " nay, the Lord mend you, and 
give you repentance, if it be his will. And now if you think it good, begin 
at the feet and burn to the head also : for he that set you a work shall 
pay you your wages one day, I warrant you." And so she went and 
carried her mother drink, as she was commanded. 

With the said William Mount and his family was joined also in the same 
prison at Colchester another faithful brother, named John Johnson, of 
Thorpe, in Essex, labourer. Other six prisoners lay in Mote-hall, in the 
said town of Colchester, whose names were William Bongeor, glazier ; 
Thomas Benold, tallow chandler ; William Purcas, fuller; Agnes Silver- 
side ; Helen Ewring, wife of John Ewring, miller, who was one of the 
twenty-two prisoners mentioned before sent up in bands from Colchester 
to London. All these poor condemned lambs were delivered into the 
hands of the secular power ; and on the 2nd day of August, 1557, betwixt 
six and seven of the clock in the morning, the last-named six were brought 
from Mote-hall unto a plat of ground hard by the town- wall of Colchester. 
All things being prepared for their martyrdom, these constant martyrs 
kneeled down and made their humble prayers to God ; and when they had 
ended they rose and made them ready to the fire. When they were 
nailed at their stakes, and the fire about them, they clapped their hands 
for joy in the fire, that the standers-by, which were, by estimation, thou- 
sands, cried generally almost, " The Lord strengthen them; the Lord 
comfort them ; the Lord pour his mercies upon them !" Thus yielded they 
up their souls and bodies into the Lord's hands, for the true testimony of 
his truth. The Lord grant we may imitate the same in the like quarrel (if 
he so vouch us worthy) for his mercy's sake. Amen. 

In like manner the said day in the afternoon, were brought forth into 
the castle-yard, to a place appointed, William Mount, John Johnson, Alice 
Mount, and Rose Allin aforesaid : which godly constant persons, after they 
had made their prayers, and were joyfully tied to the stakes, calling upon 
the name of God, and exhorting the people earnestly to flee from idolatry, 
suffered their martyrdom with such triumph and joy that the people did 
no less shout thereat to see it than at the others that were burnt the same 
day in the morning. 

At the taking of William Mount and his family, the said Tyrrel searched 
the house for more company, and at last found one John Thurston and 
Margaret his wife there also, whom they carried with the rest to Colchester 
castle immediately. This John Thurston afterward, about the month of 
May, died in the said castle, a constant confessor of Jesus Christ. 

Among other martyrs of singular virtue and constancy, one George 
Eagles deserveth not the least admiration, but is so much the more to be 
commended, for that he, having little learning or none, most manfully 
served and fought under the banner of Christ's church. For he, wander- 
ing abroad into divers and far countries where he could find any of his 
brethren, did there most earnestly encourage and comfort them, now tarry- 
ing in this town, and sometime abiding in that, certain months together, 
as occasion served, lodging sometimes in the country, and sometimes, for 



ACCOUNT OF GEORGE EAGLES. 947 

fear, living in fields and woods. Oftentimes he did lie abroad in the night 
without covert, spending the most part thereof in devout and earnest prayer. 
His diet was so above measure spare and slender, that for three years he 
used for the most to drink nothing but very water ; and after, when he per- 
ceived that his body, by God's providence, proved well enough with this 
diet, he thought best to mure himself therewithal against all necessities. 

Now when the said Eagles had profited Christ's church in this sort, by 
going about and preaching the gospel a year or two, and especially in 
Colchester and the quarters thereabout, a grievous edict was proclaimed 
in the queen's name throughout four shires, Essex, Suffolk, Kent, and 
Norfolk, promising the party that took him twenty pounds for his pains, 
doubtless a worthy hire to entice any Jew to treachery. At length it came 
to pass that this George, being seen by chance at Colchester upon Mary 
Magdalen's day, at which time they kept a fair in the town, should have 
forthwith been delivered to his adversaries, if he perceiving the same (as 
God would have it) had not conveyed himself away as fast as he could, a 
great multitude pursuing after, and seeking diligently for him. He first 
hid himself in a grove, and from thence stole into a cornfield, and so lay 
secretly couched that all his pursuers, saving one, past hope of taking him, 
were ready to depart their way. This one, having more subtlety and 
wicked craft in his head, climbed up into a high tree, there to view and 
espy if he might see Eagles anywhere stir or move. The poor man, think- 
ing all sure enough by reason that he heard no noise abroad, rose up on 
his knees, and lifting up his hands, prayed unto God. And whether it 
were for that his head was above the corn, or because his voice was heard, 
the lurker, perceiving his desired prey that he hunted after, forthwith came 
down, and suddenly laying hands on him, brought him as prisoner to 
Colchester. 

This George Eagles, not without great lamentation of divers good men, 
and great lack unto the church of God, (of which to his power he was a 
worthy instrument,) was committed to prison there ; and from thence, 
within four days after, conveyed to Chelmsford, where he abode all that 
night in devout prayer, and would not sleep, neither would eat or drink 
but bread and water. The next day he was carried to London to the 
bishop or the council, and there remained a certain time; and then was 
brought down to Chelmsford to the sessions, and there was indicted and 
accused of treason, because he had assembled companies together, contrary 
to the law and statutes of the realm in that case provided. For so it was 
ordained a little before to avoid sedition, that if men should flock secretly 
together above the number of six, they should be attached of treason : 
which strait law was the casting away of the good duke of Somerset before 
mentioned. His indictment did run much after this fashion: " George 
Eagles, thou art indicted for that thou didst such a day make thy prayer, 
that God should turn queen Mary's heart, or else take her away." He 
denied that he prayed that God should take her away, but he confessed 
he prayed that God would turn her heart in his prayer. Well, notwith- 
standing he was condemned for a traitor, although the meaning thereof 
was for religion. 

This thing done, he was carried to the new inn, called the sign of the 
Crown, in Chelmsford. In process of time, he was laid upon a sledge, with 



948 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

a hurdle on it, and drawn to the place of execution, being fast bound, 
having in his hand a Psalm-book, of the which he read very devoutly all 
the way with a loud voice, till he came there. With him were cast certain 
thieves also the day before ; and now when they were brought out to be 
executed with him, there happened a thing that did much set forth and 
declare the innocency and godliness of this man. For being led between 
two thieves to the place where he should suffer, when as he exhorted both 
them and all others to stand steadfastly to the truth, one of these turned 
the counsel he gave into a jesting matter, and made but a flout of it. 
" Why should we doubt to obtain heaven," saith he, " forasmuch as this 
holy man shall go before us, as captain and leader unto us in the way ? 
We shall flee thither straight, as soon as he hath once made us the entry." 
In this George Eagles and that other did greatly reprove him ; who, on 
the other side gave good heed to George's exhortation, earnestly bewailing 
his own wickedness, and calling to Christ for mercy. But the more that 
the first was bid to be still, and to leave off his scoffing, the more perverse 
he did continue in his foolishness and his wicked behaviour. At length he 
came to the gallows where they should be hanged ; but George was carried 
to another place there-by, to suffer. Between the two, it was the godlier's 
chance to go the foremost, who being upon the ladder, after he had ex- 
horted the people to beware and to take heed to themselves, how they did 
transgress the commandments of God, and then had committed his soul 
into God's hands, he ended his life after a godly and quiet manner. The 
mocker's turn cometh next, which would have said likewise somewhat, 
but his tongue did fumble and faulter in his head, that he was not able to 
speak a word. Then did the under-sheriff bid him say the Lord's prayer, 
which he could not say neither, but stutteringly, as a man would say, one 
word to-day, and another to-morrow. Then did one begin to say it, and 
so bade him say after. Such as were there, and saw it, were very much 
astonished, especially those that did behold the just punishment of God 
against him that had mocked so earnest a matter. 

George Eagles in the meanwhile, after he had hanged a small time, 
having a great check with the halter, immediately one of the bailiffs cut 
the halter asunder, and he fell to the ground being still alive, although 
much amazed with the check he had off the ladder. Then one William 
Swallow of Chelmsford, a bailiff, did draw him to the sled that he was 
drawn thither on, and laid his neck thereon, and with a cleaver (such as 
is occupied in many men's kitchens, and blunt) did hackle off his head, 
and sometimes hit his neck and sometimes his chin, and did foully mangle 
him, and so opened him. Notwithstanding this blessed martyr of Christ 
abode steadfast and constant in the very midst of his torments, till such 
time as his tormentor William Swallow did pluck the heart out of his 
body. The body being divided in four parts, and his bowels burnt, was 
brought to the foresaid Swallow's door, and there laid upon the fish-stalls 
before his door, till they made ready a horse to carry his quarters, one to 
Colchester, and the rest to Harwich, Chelmsford, and St. Osyth's. His 
head was set up at Chelmsford on the market-cross, on a long pole, and 
there stood till the wind did blow it down ; and lying certain days in the 
street tumbled about, one caused it to be buried in the churchyard in the 
night. 



ACCOUNT OF MISTRESS JOYCE LEWES. 949 

About this time suffered at Norwich a godly man and a constant martyr 
of Christ, called Richard Crashfield. He was examined and condemned by the 
chancellor Dunning 1 , and brought to the stake the 5th of August. About 
the same time and month, one named Frier, with a woman accompanying 
him, who was the sister of George Eagles, in the like cause of righteous- 
ness suffered the like martyrdom by the unrighteous papists. 

Mistress Joyce Lewes, a gentlewoman born, and delicately brought up 
in the pleasures of the world, was married first to one called Appleby, and 
afterward to Thomas Lewes of Manchester. In the beginning of queen 
Mary's time she went to the church, and heard mass as the others; but 
when she heard of the burning of that most godly and learned martyr, 
Laurence Saunders, who suffered in Coventry, she began to take more 
heed to the matter, and inquired earnestly of such as she knew feared God 
the cause of his death. When she perceived it was because he refused to 
receive the mass, she began to be troubled in conscience, and waxed very 
unquiet ; and because her house was even hard by master John Glover's, 
of whom mention was made before, she did oftentimes resort to him, and 
desire him to tell her the faults that were in the mass, and other things 
that at that time were urged as necessary to salvation. At a time when 
she was compelled by the furiousness of her husband to come to the church, 
when the holy water was cast, she turned her back towards it, and showed 
herself to be displeased with their blasphemous holy water, injurious to 
the blood of Christ; whereupon she was accused before the bishop for 
the despising of their sacramentals. 

Immediately a citation was sent for her to her husband's house, to appear 
before the bishop incontinently. The sumner that brought the citation 
delivered it to her husband, who perceiving what it was, was moved with 
anger, willing the sumner to take the citation with him again, or else he 
would make him to eat it. The sumner refused to take it again, and in 
the end Lewes compelled him to eat the citation indeed, by setting a dagger 
to his heart ; and when he had eaten it he caused him to drink to it, and 
so sent him away. But immediately after the said Lewes with his wife 
were commanded to appear before the bishop, where he by and by sub- 
mitted, and desiring the bishop to be good to him, excused himself after the 
best fashion he could. Whereupon the bishop was content to receive his 
submission, with condition that his wife should submit herself also. But 
she stoutly told the bishop that by refusing of the holy water she had 
neither offended God nor any part of his laws. The bishop gave her one 
month's respite, binding her husband in a hundred pounds to bring her 
again unto him at the month's end : and so were they both let go. 

When they came to their own house, the said mistress Joyce Lewes gave 
herself to most diligent prayer, resorting continually to the above-named 
John Glover, who did most diligently instruct her with God's word, willing 
her in any case not to meddle in that matter in respect of vain-glory, or 
to get her a name, showing her the great danger she was like to cast herself 
in, if she should meddle in God's matters otherwise than Christ doth teach. 
When the month was almost expired, her husband was advertised by 
the said John Glover and others not to carry her to the bishop, but to 
seek some ways to save her, or if the worst should come to be content to 
forfeit so much money, rather than to cast his own wife into the fire. He 



950 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



answered he would not lose or forfeit anything for her sake ; and so he 
carried her to the bishop, where she was examined, and found more stout 
than she was before. After examination, she was sent to such a stinking 
prison, that a certain maid which was appointed to keep her company did 
swoon in the same prison. 

Being thus kept in prison, oftentimes examined, and ever found stout, 
at the length she was brought in judgment, and pronounced a heretic 
worthy to be burnt. When the bishop reasoned with her, why she could 
not come to the mass, and receive the sacraments and sacramentals of the 
Holy Ghost: she answered, " Because I find not these things in God's 
word, which you so urge and magnify as things most needful for men's 
salvation. If these things were in the same word of God commanded, I 
would with all my heart receive, esteem, and believe them." The bishop 
answered, " If thou wilt believe no more than is in the Scriptures, concern- 
ing matters of religion, thou art in a damnable case." At which words 
she was wonderfully amazed, and being moved by the Spirit of God, told 
the bishop that his words were ungodly and wicked. 

After her condemnation she continued a whole twelvemonth in prison, 
because she was committed to the sheriff that was of late chosen, who 
could not be compelled to put her to death in his time, as he affirmed : 
for the which thing, after her death, he was sore troubled, and in danger 
of his life. When the time drew near, the writ being brought down from 
London, she desired certain of her friends to come to her, with whom she 
consulted how she might behave herself that her death might be more 
glorious to the name of God, comfortable to his people, and discomfortable 
unto the enemies of God. " As for death," said she, " I do not greatly 
pass. When I behold the amiable countenance of Christ, my dear Saviour, 
the uglisome face of death doth not greatly trouble me." In the which 
time also she reasoned most comfortably out of God's word, of God's 
election and reprobation. 

In the evening before the day of her suffering, two of the priests of 
Lichfield came to the under-sheriff's house where she lay, and sent word 
to her that they were come to hear her confession : for they would be 
sorry she should die without. She sent them word again, she had made 
her confession to Christ her Saviour, at whose hands she was sure to have 
forgiveness of her sins. As concerning the cause for the which she should 
die, she had no cause to confess that, but rather to give unto God most 
humble praise; and as concerning that absolution that they were able to 
give unto her, being authorized by the pope, she did defy the same even 
from the bottom of her heart. The which thing when the priests heard, 
they said to the sheriff, " Well, to-morrow her stoutness will be proved 
and tried : for although perhaps she hath now some friends that whisper 
her in her ears, to-morrow we will see who dare be so hardy as to come 
near her." And so they went their ways with anger, that their confession 
and absolution was nought set by. 

The next morning she was brought through the town to the place of 
execution, with a number of bill-men, a great multitude of people being 
present, led by two of her friends, Michael Reniger and Augustine Bernher. 
And because the place was far off, and the throng of the people great, one 
oi her friends sent a messenger to the sheriff's house for some drink ; and 



*»t/KNING OF TWO WOMEN AT COLCHESTER. 951 

after she had prayed three several times, in the which prayer she desired 
God most instantly to abolish the idolatrous mass, and to deliver this 
realm from papistry, she took the cup into her hands, saying, " I drink to 
all them that unfeignedly love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and wish for the 
abolishment of papistry." When she had drank, they that were her friends 
drank also. After that a great number, specially the women of the town, 
did drink with her ; which afterward were put to open penance in the 
church by the cruel papists, for drinking with her. 

When she was tied to the stake with the chain, she showed such a 
cheerfulness that it passed man's reason, being so well coloured in her face, 
and being so patient, that the most part of them that had honest hearts 
did lament, and even with tears bewail the tyranny of the papists. When 
the fire was set upon her, she neither struggled nor stirred, but only lifted 
up her hands towards heaven, being dead very speedily : for the under- 
sheriff, at the request of her friends, had provided such stuff by the which 
she was suddenly despatched out of this miserable world. 

In searching out the certain number of the faithful martyrs of God that 
suffered within the time and reign of queen Mary, I find that about the 
17th day of September were burned at Islington, nigh unto London, these 
four constant professors of Christ — Ralph Allerton, James Austoo, Margery 
Austoo, his wife, and Richard Roth. They were condemned by the cruel 
Bonner, delivered unto the sheriff, and most joyfully ended their lives in 
one fire at Islington, as before is declared. 

A little before, gentle reader, was mention made of ten that suffered 
martyrdom at Colchester ; at which time there were two other also, one 
called Margaret Thurston, and the other Agnes Bongeor, that should have 
suffered with them, being condemned at the same time, and for the like 
cause. On the morning that the four were taken from the castle, Margaret 
Thurston went aside to pray. And whilst she was praying came in the 
gaoler and his company, and took the other prisoners and left her alone. 
Shortly after she was removed out of the castle, and put into the town- 
prison, where she continued until Friday sevennight after her company 
were burnt. That day, not two hours before her death, she was brought 
to the castle again, where she declared thus much to one Joan Cook. 

The other, Agnes Bongeor, who should have suffered with the six that 
went out of Mote-hall, was kept back at that time because her name was 
wrong written within the writ. The morning that the said six were called 
out to go to their martyrdom, she also was called with them by name of 
Agnes Bower. Wherefore the bailiffs, understanding her to be wrong 
named within the writ, commanded her to prison again, and so from Mote- 
hall that day sent her to the castle, where she remained until her death. 

When these foresaid good women were brought to the place in Colchester, 
where they should suffer, the 17th day of September, they fell down upon 
both their knees, and made their humble prayers unto the Lord : which 
thing being done, they rose and went to the stake joyfully, and were im- 
mediately thereto chaiued ; and after the fire had compassed them about, 
they with great joy and glorious triumph gave up their souls, spirits, and 
lives into the hands of the Lord : under whose government and protection, 
for Christ's, sake we beseech him to grant us his holy defence and help for 
evermore. Amen ! 



952 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

In the month of September this present year 1557, or (as some report) 
in the year past, suffered the blessed martyr John Noyes. He was con- 
demned at Norwich, and from thence sent to Eye-prison ; and upon the 
21st day of September, about midnight, was brought from Eye to Laxfield 
to be burnt. On the next day morning he was brought to the stake, where 
were ready against his coming, master justice Thurston, master Waller, 
then being under-sheriff, and master Thomas Lovel, high constable ; the 
which commanded men to make ready all things meet for that sinful 
purpose. Now the fire in most places of the street was put out, saving 
a smoke was espied by the said Lovel proceeding out from the top of a 
chimney, to the which house the sheriff and his man went, and brake 
open the door, and thereby got fire, and brought the same to the place of 
execution. 

When John Noyes came to the place, he kneeled down and said the 
50th Psalm, with other prayers; and then they, making haste, bound him 
to the stake. And being bound, Noyes said, " Fear not them that can kill 
the body, but fear Him that can kill both body and soul, and cast it into 
everlasting fire." When he saw his sister weeping, he bade her that she 
should not weep for him, but weep for her sins ; and when one brought a 
fagot and set it against him, he took it up and kissed it, and said, " Blessed 
be the time that ever I was born to come to this." Then he delivered his 
Psalter to the under-sheriff, desiring him to be good to his wife and chil- 
dren, and to deliver to her that same book. After that he said to the 
people, " They say they can make God of a piece of bread; believe them 
not ! Good people, bear witness that I do believe to be saved by the 
merits and passion of Jesus Christ, and not by mine own deeds." And so 
the fire was kindled, and burnt about him. Then he said, " Lord have 
mercy upon me! Christ have mercy upon me! Son of David have mercy 
upon me !" And so he yielded up his life; and when his body was burnt, 
they made a pit to bury the coals and ashes, and amongst the same they 
found one of his feet that was unburnt, whole up to the ankle, with the 
hose on ; and that they buried with the rest. 

About the 23rd day of the said month of September, next after the 
above-mentioned, suffered at Norwich, Cicely Ormes, wife of Edmund 
Ormes, worsted -weaver, dwelling in St. Laurence's parish in Norwich. 
She was taken at the death of Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper above- 
mentioned, in a place called the Lollards'-pit without Bishop's-gate, at 
Norwich, for that she said she would pledge them of the same cup that 
they drank on. For so saying she was sent to the chancellor, who asked 
her what she said unto the sacrament of Christ's body; and she said, that 
she did believe it was the sacrament of the body of Christ. " Yea," said 
the chancellor, " but what is that that the priest holdeth over his head ?" 
She said, " It is bread : and if you make it any better, it is worse." At 
which words the chancellor sent her to the bishop's prison, with many 
threatening and hot words, as a man being in a great chafe. 

The 23rd of July she was called before the chancellor again, who sat in 
judgment with master Bridges and others. The chancellor offered her, if 
she would go to the church and keep her tongue, she should be at liberty, 
and believe as she would. But she told him she would not consent to his 
wicked desire therein, do with her what he would: and soon after he read 



BURNINGS IN THE DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER. 953 

the bloody sentence of condemnation against her ; and so delivered her to 
the secular power of the sheriffs, who immediately carried her to the Guild- 
hall in Norwich, where she remained until her death. 

She was burnt the 23rd day of September, between seven and eight of 
the clock in the morning-, the two sheriffs and about two hundred people 
being present. When she came to the stake, which was the same that 
Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper were burnt at, she kneeled down and 
made her prayers to God : that being done, she rose up and said, "Good 
people ! I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
Ghost, three persons and one God. This do I not, nor will I recant : but I 
recant utterly from the bottom of my heart the doings of the pope of 
Rome, and all his popish priests and shavelings. I utterly refuse and 
never will have to do with them again, by God's grace. And good people ! 
I would you should not think of me that I believe to be saved in that I 
offer myself here unto death for the Lord's cause, but I believe to be saved 
by the death and passion of Christ ; and this my death is and shall be a 
witness of my faith unto you all here present. Good people ! as many of 
you as believe as I believe, pray for me." Then she laid her hand on the 
stake and said, "Welcome the sweet cross of Christ!" and so gave herself 
to be bound thereto. After the tormentors had kindled the fire to her, 
she said, " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God 
my Saviour." And in so saying she set her hands together right against 
her breast, casting her eyes and head upward ; and so stood heaving up 
her hands by little and little, till the very sinews of her arm did break 
asunder, and then they fell. But she yielded her life unto the Lord as 
quietly as if she had been in a slumber, or as one feeling no pain ; so 
wonderfully did the Lord work with her : his name therefore be praised 
for evermore. Amen ! 

What place was there almost in all the realm where the pope's ministers 
did not bestir them, murdering some or other, as in the Acts of this Eccle- 
siastical History may appear ? In the diocese of Chichester, although we 
have little to report thereof, for lack of certain relation and records of that 
country, yet divers there were condemned and martyred for the true testi- 
mony of righteousness, within the compass of queen Mary's reign, in the 
number of whom were these : — John Foreman, of East Grinstead; John 
Warner, of Bourne; Christian Grover, of Lewes ; Thomas Athoth, priest; 
Thomas Avington, of Ardingly; Dennis Burgis, of Buxted ; Thomas 
Ravensdale, of Rye; John Milles, of Hellingley ; Nicholas Holden, of 
Withyam ; John Hart, of Withy am ; Margery Morice, of Heathfield ; 
Anne Try, of East Grinstead ; John Oseward, of Woodmancott ; Thomas 
Harland, of Woodmancott ; James Morice, of Heathfield ; Thomas Dou- 
gate, of East Grinstead ; John Ashedon, of Cattesfield. The greatest doers 
against these godly and true faithful martyrs, and setters upon their con- 
demnation, were these : Christopherson, bishop of Chichester ; Richard 
Briesley, doctor of law, and chancellor of Chichester ; Robert Tailor, 
bachelor of law, his deputy; Thomas Paccard, civilian ; Anthony Clarke; 
Albane Longdale, bachelor of divinity, etc. 

Thomas Spurdance, one of queen Mary's servants, was taken by two of 
his fellow-servants, named John Haman and George Looson, both dwelling 
in Coddenham, in Suffolk, who carried him to one master Gosnall, in the 



954 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

same town, and by him he was sent to Bury, where he remained in prison. 
He was afterwards burnt in the month of November, being condemned by 
the bishop of Norwich. 

Not long after the martyrdom of the two good women at Colchester 
above-named, were three faithful witnesses of the Lord's testament tor- 
mented and put to death in Smithfield, at London, the 18th of November, 
whose names were John Hallingdale, William Sparrow, and Richard Gib- 
son. They were condemned by Bonner and his chancellor, and committed 
to the secular power. Being brought to the stake, after their prayer made, 
they were bound thereunto with chains, and wood set unto them; and, 
after wood, fire; in the which being compassed about, and the fiery flames 
consuming their flesh, at the last they yielded gloriously and joyfully their 
souls and lives into the holy hands of the Lord, to whose tuition and 
government I commend thee, good reader. 

In this furious time of persecution were also burned these two constant 
and faithful martyrs of Christ, John Rough, a minister, and Margaret 
Mearing. This Rough was born in Scotland, and at the age of seventeen 
did profess himself into the order of Black Friars at Stirling. Here he 
remained sixteen years, when he was dispensed of his habit and order at 
the suit of the lord Hamilton, governor of Scotland, who wished him to 
serve as his chaplain. He continued in his service one whole year, during 
which time it pleased God to open his eyes, and to give him some know- 
ledge of his truth ; and thereupon was by the said governor sent to preach 
in the freedom of Ayr, where he continued four years. After the death of 
the cardinal of Scotland he was appointed to abide at St. Andrew's, and 
there had assigned unto him a yearly pension of twenty pounds from king 
Henry the eighth. Howbeit, at last, weighing with himself his own danger, 
and also abhorring the idolatry and superstition of his country, and hearing 
of the freedom of the gospel in England, he soon after came unto Carlisle, 
and from thence unto the duke of Somerset, then lord protector ; and by 
his assignment had appointed unto him out of the king's treasury twenty 
pounds of yearly stipend, being sent as a preacher to serve at Carlisle, 
Berwick, and Newcastle, where he took a country-woman of his to wife. 
From hence he was called by the archbishop of York unto a benefice nigh, 
in the town of Hull, where he continued until the death of that blessed and 
good king Edward the sixth. 

In the beginning of the reign of queen Mary, (perceiving the alteration 
of religion, and the persecution that would thereupon arise, and feeling his 
own weakness,) he fled with his wife into Friesland, where he laboured for 
his living, knitting of caps, hose, and such like things, till about the end 
of October last before his death. At which time, lacking yarn and other 
necessary provision for his occupation, he came over again unto England, 
here to provide for the same. He arrived in London on the 10th day of 
November, where he joined himself unto the holy congregation of God's 
children ; and afterwards, being elected their minister, continued in that 
godly fellowship, teaching and confirming them in the truth of the gospel 
of Christ. But in the end, on the 12th day of December, he, with Cutbert 
Symson and others, through the crafty and traitorous suggestion of a dis- 
sembling brother, was apprehended by the vice-chamberlain of the queen's 
house, at the Saracen's Head in Islington. Rough and Symson were 



JOHN ROUGH AND CUTBERT SYMSON. 955 

carried before the council, who charged them to have assembled together 
to celebrate the communion or supper of the Lord ; and therefore, after 
sundry examinations and answers, they sent the said Rough unto Newgate; 
but his examinations they sent unto the bishop of London, with a letter 
signed with their hands. 

Bonner, minding to make quick despatch, did within three days after 
the receipt of the letter send for this Rough out of Newgate, and in his 
palace at London ministered unto him twelve articles which were chiefly 
objected against the martyrs and saints of God. After his answers to these 
he was dismissed ; and the next day, being the 19th of December, he was 
again brought before the said bishop and others; who, when they perceived 
his constantness, determined the next day after to bring him openly into 
the consistory, there to adjudge and condemn him as a heretic. He was 
degraded by Bonner, and his body committed to the secular power, who 
carried him unto Newgate. 

It is before declared, that in the company of John Rough was burnt 
one Margaret Mearing, (being one of the congregation of which he was 
chief pastor.) At her last examination, when Bonner demanded if she 
would stand to her answers, she said, " I will stand to them unto the 
death ; for the very angels of heaven do laugh you to scorn, to see your 
abomination that you use in your church." After the which words, the 
bishop pronounced the sentence of condemnation against her ; and then 
delivering her unto the sheriffs, she was, with the forenamed John Rough, 
carried unto Newgate ; from whence they were both together led unto 
Smithfield the 22nd day of December, and there most joyfully gave their 
lives for the profession of Christ's gospel. 

Next after the martyrdom of master Rough, minister of the congregation 
above-mentioned, succeeded in like martyrdom the deacon also of that 
godly company, named Cutbert Symson. This Symson was a man of a 
faithful and zealous heart to Christ and his true flock, insomuch that he 
never ceased labouring and studying most earnestly to preserve them with- 
out corruption of the popish religion, and to keep them together without 
peril or danger of persecution. The pains, travail, zeal, patience, and 
fidelity of this man, in caring and providing for this congregation, as it is 
not lightly to be expressed, so is it wonderful to behold the providence of 
the Lord by vision, concerning the troubles of this faithful minister and 
godly deacon, as in this here following may appear : — 

The Friday at night before master Rough, minister of the congregation, 
(of whom mention is made before) was taken, being in his bed, he dreamed 
that he saw two of the guard leading Cutbert Symson, deacon of the said 
congregation ; and that he had the book about him, wherein were written 
the names of all them which were of the congregation. Whereupon being 
sore troubled, he awaked, and called his wife, saying, " Kate, strike a 
light, for I am much troubled with my brother Cutbert this night." When 
she had so done, he gave himself to read in his book awhile, and then 
feeling sleep to come upon him, he put out the candle, and so gave himself 
again to rest. Being asleep, he dreamed the like dream again; and, 
awaking therewith, he said, " O Kate ! my brother Cutbert is gone." 
So they lighted a candle again, and rose. And as the said master Rough 
was making him ready to go to Cutbert, to see how he did, in the mean 



956 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

time the said Cutbert came in with the book containing the names and 
accounts of the congregation : whom when master Rough had seen, he 
said, " Brother Cutbert, ye are welcome; for I have been sore troubled 
with you this night;" and so told him his dream. After he had so done, 
he willed him to lay the book away from him, and to carry it no more 
about him. Unto which Cutbert answered, he would not so do : for 
dreams, he said, were but fantasies, and not to be credited. Then master 
Rough straitly charged him, in the name of the Lord, to do it. Where- 
upon the said Cutbert took such notes out of the book, as he had willed 
him to do, and immediately left the book with master Rough's wife. The 
next day following, in the night, the said master Rough had another dream 
in his sleep concerning his own trouble ; the matter whereof was this. He 
thought in his dream, that he was carried himself forcibly to the bishop, 
and that the bishop plucked off his beard, and cast it into the fire, saying 
these words, " Now I may say that I have had a piece of a heretic burned 
in my house : " and so accordingly it came to pass. 

To return to Cutbert again, it remaineth to story also of his pains and 
sufferings upon the rack, and otherwise, as he wrote it with his own hand 
in a letter to certain of his friends : — 

" A true report how I was used in the Tower of London, being sent 
thither by the council, the 13th day of December. — On the Thursday after 
I was called into the warehouse, before the constable of the Tower and the 
recorder of London, master Cholmley : they commanded me to tell whom 
I did will to come to the English service. I answered, I would declare 
nothing. Whereupon I was set in a rack of iron, the space of three hours 
as I judged. Then they asked me if I would tell them. I answered as 
before. Then was I loosed, and carried to my lodging again. On the 
Sunday after I was brought into the same place again before the lieutenant 
and the recorder of London, and they examined me. As before I had said, 
I answered. Then the lieutenant did swear by God I should tell. Then 
did they bind my two fore-fingers together, and put a small arrow betwixt 
them, and drew it through so fast that the blood followed, and the arrow 
brake. Then they racked me twice. Then was I carried to my lodging 
again ; and ten days after the lieutenant asked me, if I would not confess 
that which before they had asked me. I said, I had said as much as I 
would. Then, five weeks after, he sent me unto the high priest, where I 
was greatly assaulted, and at whose hand I received the pope's curse, for 
bearing witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. — And thus I commend 
you unto God, and to the word of his grace, with all them that unfeign- 
edly call upon the name of Jesus, desiring God of his endless mercy, 
through the merits of his dear Son Jesus Christ, to bring us all to his 
everlasting kingdom, Amen. I praise God for his great mercy showed 
upon us. Sing ' Hosanna unto the highest,' with me Cutbert Symson. 
God forgive me my sins ! I ask all the world forgiveness, and I do forgive 
all the world ; and thus I leave this world, in hope of a joyful resurrection." 

With Cutbert likewise was apprehended and also suffered Hugh Foxe 
and John Devenish ; who being brought to their examinations with the said 
Cutbert, before Bonner, the 19th day of March, had articles and inter- 
rogatories to them ministered by the said officer, albeit not all at one time. 
For first to the said Cutbert several articles were propounded ; then other 



THREE MEN CONDEMNED AT NORWICH. 957 

articles in general were ministered to them altogether ; and after their an- 
swers given, the bishop calling them all together objected to them other 
positions and articles. These three above-named persons, being condemned, 
suffered in Smithfield about the 28th day of March, 1558, in whose perfect 
constancy the same Lord in whose cause and quarrel they suffered, (Giver 
of grace and Governor of all things,) be exalted for ever. Amen. 

We find in all ages from the beginning, that Satan hath not ceased at 
all times to molest the church of Christ with one affliction or other, to the 
trial of their faith ; but yet never at any time so apparently as when the 
Lord hath permitted him power over the bodies of his saints : as in these 
latter days of queen Mary, we have felt, heard, and seen practised upon 
God's people. Among whom we find recorded one William Nichol, an 
honest poor man, who was apprehended by the champions of the pope, for 
speaking certain words against the cruel kingdom of Antichrist, and the 
9th day of April, anno 1558, was butcherly burnt and tormented at Haver- 
ford- west in Wales, where he ended his life in a most blessed and happy 
state, and gloriously gave his soul into the hands of the Lord. 

Immediately after William Nichol succeeded in that honourable and 
glorious vocation of martyrdom, three constant godly men at Norwich, 
who were cruelly and tyrannically put to death for the true testimony of 
Jesus Christ, the 19th day of May, whose names be these : William Sea- 
man, Thomas Carman, and Thomas Hudson. The said Seaman was a 
husbandman of the age of twenty-six years, dwelling in Mendlesham, in 
Suffolk, who was sundry times sought for by the commandment of sir 
John Tyrrel, and at last he himself in the night searched his house and 
other places for him ; notwithstanding he somewhat missed of his purpose, 
God be thanked. Then he gave charge to two of his servants to seek for 
him ; who, having no officer, went in the evening to his house, where he 
being at home, they took him and carried him to their master. When he 
came, Tyrrel asked him why he would not go to mass, and receive the 
sacrament, and so to worship it? Unto which William Seaman answered, 
denying it to be a sacrament, but said it was an idol, and therefore would 
not receive it. After which words spoken, sir John Tyrrel shortly sent 
him to Norwich, to Dr. Hopton, then bishop ; and there, after con- 
ference and examination had with him, the bishop read his bloody sentence 
of condemnation against him ; and afterward delivered him to the secular 
power, who kept him unto the day of martyrdom. This Seaman left be- 
hind him a wife and three children very young, who was also persecuted 
out of the said town of Mendlesham, because that she would not go to hear 
mass ; and all her goods and corn seized and taken away by master 
Christopher Coles's officers, he being lord of the said town. 

Thomas Carman, (who, as is said, pledged Richard Crashfield at his 
burning, and thereupon was apprehended,) being prisoner in Norwich, was 
about one time with the rest, examined and brought before the said bishop, 
who answered no less in his Master's cause than the other, and therefore 
had the like reward, being delivered to the secular power, who kept him 
with the other until the day of slaughter. 

Thomas Hudson was of Aylsham in Norfolk, by occupation a glover, a 
very honest poor man, having a wife and three children. He bare so good 
will to the gospel, that, in the days of king Edward the sixth, he learned to 



958 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

read English of Anthony and Thomas Norgate of the same town, wherein 
he greatly profited about the time of alteration of religion. For when 
queen Mary came to reign, and had changed the service in the church — 
putting in for wheat draft and darnel, and for good preaching blasphem- 
ous crying out against truth and godliness — he absented himself from his 
house, and went into Suffolk a long time, travelling from one place to 
another as occasion offered. At the last he returned back again to Norfolk , 
to his house at Aylsham, to comfort his wife and children, being heavy 
and troubled with his absence. 

Now when he came home, and perceived his continuance there would 
be dangerous, he and his wife devised to make him a place among his 
fagots to hide himself in, where he remained all the day, reading and pray- 
ing continually, for the space of half a year ; and his wife, like an honest 
woman being careful for him, used herself faithfully and diligently towards 
him. In the mean time came the vicar of the town, named Berry, (who 
was one of the bishop's commissaries, a very evil man,) and inquired of 
his wife for her husband : unto whom she answered, as not knowing where 
he was. Then the said Berry rated her, and threatened to burn her, for 
that she would not bewray her husband. After that, when Hudson un- 
derstood it, he waxed every day more zealous, and continually read and 
sang psalms to the wonder of many, the people openly resorting to him, 
to hear his exhortations and vehement prayers. At the last he walked 
abroad for certain days in the town, crying out continually against the 
mass and all their trumpery; and in the end coming home he sat him down 
upon his knees, having his book by him, reading and singing psalms con- 
tinually without ceasing for three days and three nights together, refusing 
meat and other talk. 

Then one John Crouch, his next neighbour, went to the constables in 
the night to certify them thereof; for Berry commanded openly to watch 
him : and the constables, understanding the same, went cruelly to catch 
him in the break of the day, the 22nd of April, 1558. When Hudson 
saw them come in, he said, " Now mine hour is come. Welcome friends, 
welcome ! You be they that shall lead me to life in Christ. I thank God 
there-for, and the Lord enable me thereto for his mercy's sake." For his 
desire was, and ever he prayed, (if it were the Lord's will,) that he might 
suffer for the gospel of Christ. Then they took him, and led him to Berry 
the commissary, who among other matters asked him, " Dost thou not be- 
lieve in the sacrament of the altar? What is it?" " It is worms' meat," 
quoth Hudson : " my belief is Christ crucified." " Doth thou not believe 
the mass to put away sins ?" " No, God forbid ! it is a patched monster, 
and a disguised puppet ; more longer a piecing than ever was Solomon's 
temple." At which words Berry stamped, fumed, and showed himself as 
a madman, and said, " Well, thou villain, thou ! I will write to the 
bishop, my good lord : and, trust unto it, thou shalt be handled according 
to thy deserts." Then he asked the said Hudson whether he would recant 
or no; unto which he said, "The Lord forbid! I had rather die many 
deaths than do so." 

Then, after long talk, the said Berry, seeing it booted not to persuade 
with him, took his pen and ink, and wrote letters to the bishop thereof, 
and sent this Hudson to Norwich, bound like a thief, which was eight 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE TOWN OF MENDLESHAM. 959 

miles from thence, who with joy and singing cheer went thither as merry 
as ever he was at any time before. In prison he was a month, where he 
did continually read and invocate the name of God. These three Chris- 
tians and constant martyrs, after they were condemned the 19th day of 
May, were carried out of prison to the place where they should suffer, 
which was without Bishop's-gate at Norwich, called Lollards'-pit ; and 
being all there they made their humble petitions unto the Lord. That 
being done, they rose and went to the stake; and standing all there with 
their chains about them, immediately this said Thomas Hudson cometh 
forth from them under the chain, to the great wonder of many ; whereby 
divers feared and greatly doubted of him. For some thought he would 
have recanted ; others judged rather that he went to ask further day, and 
to desire conference ; and some thought he came forth to ask some of his 
parents' blessing. So some thought one thing, and some another : but his 
two companions at the stake cried out to comfort him what they could, 
exhorting him in the bowels of Christ to be of good cheer, etc. But this 
sweet Hudson felt more in his heart and conscience than they could con- 
ceive in him : for, alas, good soul ! lie was compassed (God knoweth) with 
great dolour and grief of mind, not for his death, but for lack of feeling of 
his Christ : and therefore, being very careful, he humbly fell down upon 
his knees, and prayed vehemently and earnestly unto the Lord, who at 
the last (according to his old mercies) sent him comfort ; and then rose he 
with great joy, as a man new changed even from death to life, and said : 
" Now, I thank God, I am strong, and pass not what man can do unto 
me." So, going to the stake to his fellows again, in the end they all 
suffered most joyfully, constantly, and manfully the death together, and 
were consumed in fire, to the terror of the wicked, the comfort of God's 
children, and the magnifying of the Lord's name, to whom be praise for ever. 

After this, the foresaid commissary Berry made great stir about others 
which were suspected within the said town of Aylsham, and caused two 
hundred to creep to the cross at Pentecost, besides other punishments 
which they sustained. On the Sunday after queen Mary was dead, being 
the 19th of November, 1558, the said Berry went to church ; and in going 
from church homeward after evensong, he fell down suddenly with a heavy 
groan, and never stirred after, neither showed any one token of repentance. 
The Lord grant we may observe his judgments ! 

About this time, or somewhat before, was one Joan Seaman, mother to 
the foresaid William Seaman, being of the age of threescore and six years, 
persecuted of the said sir John Tyrrel also out of the town of Mendlesham, 
because she would not go to mass, and receive against her conscience ; 
which good old woman being from her house, was glad sometimes to lie 
in bushes, groves, and fields, and sometime in her neighbour's house. Her 
husband being at home, about the age of eighty years, fell sick ; and she hear- 
ing thereof, with speed returned home, not regarding her life, but consider- 
ing her duty ; and showed her diligence to her husband most faithfully, 
until God took him away by death. Then by God's providence she fell 
sick also, and departed this life within her own house shortly after. And 
when Symonds the commissary heard of it, dwelling thereby, he commanded 
that she should be buried in no Christian burial, (as they call it,) where- 
through her friends were compelled to lay her in a pit, under a moat's side. 



960 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

In the town of Wetheringset by Mendlesham, aforesaid, a very honest 
woman called mother Benet, a widow, was persecuted out of the same 
town because she would not go to mass ; but, at the last, she returned 
home again secretly, and there departed this life joyfully. But sir John 
Tyrrel and master Symonds would not let her be buried in the church- 
yard : so was she laid in a grave by the highway side. 

Thou hast heard, good reader, of the forenamed three that were burner 1 
at Norwich, whose blood quenched not the persecuting thirst of the papists : 
for immediately after, even the 26th of the same month, was seen the like 
murder at Colchester in Essex, of two good men and a woman, lying there 
in prison appointed ready to the slaughter, whose names were William 
Harris, Richard Day, and Christian George. These three good souls were 
brought unto the stake the day appointed, and there fervently and joyfully 
made their prayers unto the Lord. At the last, being settled in their 
places, and chained unto their posts, with the fire flaming fiercely round 
about them, they triumphantly praised God within the same, and offered 
up their bodies a lively sacrifice unto his holy Majesty ; in whose habita- 
tion they have now their everlasting tabernacles : his name therefore be 
praised for evermore. Amen. 

The said Christian George's husband had another wife burnt before, whose 
name was Agnes George, which suffered, as you have heard, with the thir- 
teen at Stratford-le-Bow. And, after the death of the said Christian, he 
married an honest godly woman again; and so they both (I mean the said 
Richard George and his last wife) in the end were taken also, and laid in 
prison, where they remained till the death of queen Mary ; and at last 
were delivered by our most gracious sovereign lady queen Elizabeth, whom 
the Lord grant long to reign among us, for his mercies' sake. Amen. 

In the month of June, 1558, came out a certain proclamation, short but 
sharp, from the king and queen, against wholesome and godly books, which, 
under the false title of heresy and sedition, there in the said proclamation 
were wrongfully condemned. 

In a back close in a field by Islington, were gathered together a com- 
pany of innocent persons, to the number of forty men and women. As 
they were sitting together at prayer, and virtuously occupied in the 
meditation of God's holy word, first cometh a certain man to them un- 
known, who looking over unto them, stayed and saluted them, saying, 
that they looked like men that meant no hurt. Then one of the com- 
pany asked the man if he could tell whose close that was, and whether 
they might be so bold to sit there. He answered yes, because they 
seemed to be such persons as intended no harm; and so departed. 
Within a quarter of an hour after, came the constable of Islington, 
named King, with six or seven more, one with a bow, another with a 
bill, and the rest with weapons. The constable, and one with him, went 
before to view them ; and going a little forward, and returning back 
again, ordered them to deliver their books. They understanding that he 
was a constable, refused not so to do. Then came up the rest of the 
gang, who bade them stand and not depart. They answered again, they 
would be obedient and go whithersoever they would have them. They 
accordingly carried them before Sir Roger Cholmley. But some of the 
women had escaped ; for they were carried in such a manner as it was 



EXAMINATION OF SEVEN MARTYRS. 961 

not difficult for them to escape that would. In fine, they that were carried 
to sir Roger Cholmley were twenty-seven ; which sir Roger Cholmley and 
the recorder taking their names in a bill, and calling them one by one, so 
many as answered to their names he sent to Newgate, which were twenty- 
two. These were in the said prison seven weeks before they were examined, 
to whom word was sent by Alexander the keeper, that if they would hear 
mass, they should be delivered. Of these foresaid two-and-twenty were 
burnt thirteen: in Smithfield seven, at Brentford six. Two died in prison 
in Whitsun week ; and the other seven escaped with their lives, although 
not without much trouble, (one of them, named Hinshawe, being scourged 
by Bonner himself, so long as the fat-paunched bishop could endure with 
breath ;) yet, as God would, without burning. 

The first seven were brought to examination before Bonner in his consistory 
on the 14th of June, to make answer to such articles and interrogatories 
as by the said bishop should be ministered unto them. The names of these 
seven were, Henry Pond, Reinald Eastland, Robert Southam, Matthew 
Ricarby, John Floyd, John Holiday, and Roger Holland. After the articles 
were ministered unto them, and they had again given their answers, they 
were assigned by the bishop to appear before him on the 17th day of June. 
Being there present as they were commanded, the articles were again re- 
cited, and they all declared they would stand to their answers made to the 
same. Whereupon the bishop dissevering them apart one from another, 
proceeded with them severally, first beginning with Reinald Eastland, who 
there declared that he had been uncharitably handled and talked withal 
since his first imprisonment. Then being required to reconcile himself 
again to the catholic faith, and go from his opinions, he said that he knew 
nothing why he should recant ; and therefore would not conform himself. 
And so the sentence was read against him , and he given to the secular power. 

After him was called in John Holiday, who likewise being advertised to 
renounce his heresies, (as they called them,) and to return to the unity of 
their church, said, that he was no heretic, nor did hold any heresy, neither 
any opinion contrary to the catholic faith, and so would offer himself to be 
judged therein. Whereupon he likewise persisting in the same, the sen- 
tence was" pronounced against him, condemning him to be burnt. 

Next to him was condemned, with the like sentence, Henry Pond, be- 
cause he would not submit to the Romish church, saying to Bonner, that 
lie had done or spoken nothing whereof he was or would be sorry ; but 
that he did hold the truth of God, and no heresy, etc. After whom next 
followed John Floyd, who likewise denied to be of the pope's church, and 
said his mind of the Latin service, that the prayers made to saints are 
idolatry, and that the service in Latin is profitable to none, but only to 
such as understand the Latin. Moreover, being charged by Bonner of 
heresy, and saying, that whatsoever he and such others now-a-days do, all is 
heresy; for this he was condemned with the same butcherly sentence. 

Then Robert Southam, after him Matthew Ricarby, and last of all 
Roger Holland, were severally produced. This Roger Holland with his 
fellows (as ye heard) standing to their answers, and refusing to acknowledge 
the doctrine of the Romish church, were altogether condemned, the sen- 
tence being read against them; and so all seven, by secular magistrates 
beins: sent away to Newgate the 17th of June, not long after, about the 
21 3q 



962 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

27th day of the said month, were had to Smithfield, and there ended their 
lives in the glorious cause of Christ's gospel. The day they suffered, a 
proclamation was made that none should be so bold to speak or talk any 
word unto them, or receive anything of them, or to touch them upon pain 
of imprisonment, without either bail or mainprize ; with divers other cruel 
threatening words, contained in the same proclamation. Notwithstanding 
the people cried out, desiring God to strengthen them ; and they likewise 
still prayed for the people, and the restoring of his word. 

Not long after the death of the fo renamed, were the six other faithful 
witnesses of the Lord's true testament martyred at Brentford, seven 
miles from London, the 14th day of July, in this same year 1558. Their 
names were Robert Mills, Stephen Cotton, Robert Dynes, Stephen Wight, 
John Slade, and William Pikas or Pikes. These six had their articles 
ministered unto them by Thomas Darbyshire, Bonner's chancellor, at 
sundry times ; and though they were several times examined, yet had they 
all one manner of articles administered unto them, yea and the selfsame 
that were ministered unto the other seven aforesaid. In the end, the 
chancellor commanded them to appear before him again the 11th of July 
after, in the said place at Paul's. Where when they came, he required of 
them whether they would turn from their opinions to mother holy church ; 
and if not, that then whether there were any cause to the contrary, but 
that he might proceed with the sentence of condemnation. Whereunto 
they all answered, that they would not go from the truth, nor relent from 
any part of the same while they lived. 

Then he charged them to appear before him again the next day in the 
afternoon to hear the definitive sentence read against them, according to 
the ecclesiastical laws then in force. At which time, he sitting in judgment 
talking with these godly and virtuous men, at last came into the said place 
sir Edward Hastings and sir Thomas Cornwallis, knights, two of queen 
Mary's officers of her house; and being there, they sat them down over 
against the chancellor, in whose presence the said chancellor condemned 
those good poor lambs, and delivered them over to the secular power, who 
received and carried them to prison immediately, and there kept them in 
safety till the day of their death. 

In the mean time this naughty chancellor slept not, I warrant you, but 
that day in which they were condemned, he made certificate into the lord 
chancellor's office, from whence the next day after was sent a writ to burn 
them at Brentford aforesaid, which accordingly was accomplished in the 
same place, the said 14th day of July ; whereunto they being brought, 
made their humble prayers unto the Lord Jesus, undressed themselves, 
went joyfully to the stake, (whereunto they were bound,) and the fire 
flaming about them, they yielded their souls, bodies, and lives into the 
hands of the omnipotent Lord, for whose cause they did suffer, and to 
whose protection I commend thee, gentle reader. Amen. 

Among these six was one William Pikes, (as ye have heard,) who some- 
time dwelt in Ipswich in Suffolk, by his occupation a tanner, a very honest 
godly man, and of a virtuous disposition, a good keeper of hospitality, and 
beneficial to the persecuted in queen Mary's days. This said William Pikes, - 
in the third year of queen Mary's reign, a little after Midsummer, being 
then at liberty, went into his garden, and took with him a Bible of Rogers's 



ACCOUNT OF RICHARD YEOMAN. 963 

translation, where he, sitting- with his face towards the south, reading on 
the said Bible, suddenly fell down upon his book, between eleven and 
twelve o'clock of the day, four drops of fresh blood, and he knew not from 
whence it came. Then he, seeing the same, was sore astonished, and 
could by no means learn (as I said) from whence it should fall : and wiping 
out one of the drops with his finger, he called his wife and said, " In the 
virtue of God, wife, what meaneth this ? will the Lord have four sacrifices ? 
I see well enough the Lord will have blood : his will be done, and give me 
grace to abide the trial ! Wife, let us pray," said he, "for I fear the day 
draweth nigh," Afterward, he daily looked to be apprehended of the 
papists; and it came to pass accordingly, as ye have heard. Thus much 
thought I good to write thereof, to stir up our dull senses in considering 
the Lord's works, and reverently to honour the same. His name there-for 
be praised for evermore ! Amen. 

After the story of these twenty-two taken at Islington, proceeding now, 
(the Lord willing,) we will prosecute likewise the taking and cruel handling 
of Richard Yeoman, minister; which Yeoman had been, before, Dr. 
Taylor's curate, a godly devout old man of seventy years, which had many 
years dwelt in Hadley, well seen in the Scriptures, and giving godly ex- 
hortations to the people. With him Dr. Taylor left his cure at his depar- 
ture : but as soon as master Newall had gotten the benefice, he drove away 
good Yeoman, as is before said, and set in a popish curate to maintain 
and continue their Romish religion, which now they thoughtfully stablished. 
Then wandered he long time from place to place, moving and exhorting 
all men to stand faithfully by God's word, earnestly to give themselves unto 
prayer, with patience to bear the cross now laid upon them for their trial, 
with boldness to confess the truth before the adversaries, and with an un- 
doubted hope to wait for the crown and reward of eternal felicity. But 
when he perceived his adversaries to lie in wait for him, he went into Kent, 
and with a little packet of laces, pins, and points, and such like things, he 
travelled from village to village, selling such things ; and by that poor shift 
got himself somewhat to the sustaining of himself, his wife, and children. 

At the last, a justice of Kent, called master Moyle, took poor Yeoman, 
and set him in the stocks a day and a night ; but having no evident matter 
to charge him with, he let him go again. So came he again to Hadley, 
and tarried with his poor wife, who kept him secretly in a chamber of the 
town-house, commonly called the Guildhall, more than a year; all the 
which time the good old father abode in a chamber, locked up all the day, 
and spent his time in devout prayer, and reading the Scriptures, and in 
carding of wool, which his wife did spin. His wife also did go and beg 
bread and meat for herself and her children, and by such poor means sus- 
tained they themselves. Thus the saints of God sustained hunger and 
misery, while the prophets of Baal lived in jollity, and were costly pampered 
at Jezebel's table. 

At the last parson Newall (I know not by what means) perceived that 
Richard Yeoman was so kept by his poor wife, and, taking with him the 
bailiff's deputies and servants, came in the night-time, and brake up five 
doors upon Yeoman, whom he found in a bed with his poor wife and 
children : whom when he had so found, he irefully cried, saying, " I 
thought I should find a harlot and a whore together." And he would 



964 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

have plucked the clothes off from them ; but Yeoman held fast the clothes, 
and said unto his wife, " Wife, arise, and put on thy clothes." And unto 
the parson he said, " Nay parson, no harlot, nor whore, but a married 
man and his wife, according unto God's ordinance ; and blessed be God 
for lawful matrimony. I thank God for this great grace, and I defy the 
pope and all his popery." Then led they Richard Yeoman unto the cage, 
and set him in the stocks until it was day. 

There was then also in the cage an old man named John Dale, who had 
sitten there three or four days, because when the said parson Newall with 
his curate executed the Romish service in the church, he spake openly 
unto him, and said, " O miserable and blind guides, will ye ever be blind 
leaders of the blind ? will ye never amend ? will ye never see the truth of 
God's word? will neither God's threats nor promises enter into your 
hearts ? will the blood of martyrs nothing mollify your stony stomach ? O 
indurate, hard-hearted, perverse, and crooked generation ! O damnable 
sort, whom nothing can do good unto ! " 

These and like words he spake in ferventness of spirit against the super- 
stitious religion of Rome. Wherefore, parson Newall caused him forthwith 
to be attached, and set in the stocks in the cage. So was he there kept 
till sir Henry Doyle, a justice, came to Hadley. 

Now when poor Yeoman was taken, the parson called earnestly upon 
sir Henry Doyle to send them both to prison. Sir Henry Doyle earnestly 
laboured and entreated the parson, to consider the age of the men, and 
their poor estate : they were persons of no reputation, nor preachers ; 
wherefore he would desire him to let them be punished a day or two, and 
so to let them go — at the least John Dale, who was no priest ; and there- 
fore, seeing he had so long sitten in the cage, he thought it punishment 
enough for this time. When the parson heard this, he was exceeding mad, 
and in a great rage called them pestilent heretics, unfit to live in the com- 
monwealth of Christians. " Wherefore I beseech you, sir," quoth he, 
" according to your office, defend holy church, and help to suppress these 
sects of heresies, which are false to God, and thus boldly set themselves, 
to the evil example of others, against the queen's gracious proceedings." 
Sir Henry Doyle, seeing he could do no good in the matter, and fearing 
also his peril, if he should too much meddle in this matter, made out the 
writ, and caused the constables to carry them forth to Bury gaol. For 
now were all the justices, were they never so mighty, afraid of every shaven 
crown, and stood in as much awe of them as Pilate did stand in fear of 
Annas and Caiaphas, and of the Pharisaical brood, which cried, "Crucify 
him, Crucify him! If thou let him go, thou art not Csesar's friend." 
Wherefore, whatsoever their consciences were, yet, if they would escape 
danger, they must needs be the popish bishops' slaves and vassals. So 
they took Richard Yeoman and John Dale, pinioned ; and bound them 
like thieves, set them on horseback, and bound their legs under the horses' 
bellies, and so carried them to the gaol at Bury, where they were tied in 
irons ; and for that they continually rebuked popery, they were thrown 
into the lowest dungeon, where John Dale, through sickness of the prison, 
and evil keeping, died in prison, whose body, when he was dead, was thrown 
out and buried in the fields. He was a man of forty-six years of age, a 
weaver by his occupation, well learned in the holy Scriptures, faithful and 



STORY OF JOHN ALCOCK. 965 

honest in all his conversation, steadfast in confession of the true doctrine of 
Christ set forth in king Edward's time ; for the which he joyfully suffered 
prison and chains, and from this worldly dungeon he departed in Christ to 
eternal glory, and the blessed paradise of everlasting felicity. 

After that John Dale was dead, Richard Yeoman was removed to 
Norwich prison, where, after strait and evil keeping, he was examined of 
his faith and religion. Then he boldly and constantly confessed himself to 
be of the faith and confession that was set forth by the late king of blessed 
memory, holy king Edward the sixth ; and from that he would in no wise 
vary. Being required to submit himself to the holy father the pope, " I 
defy him," quoth he, " and all his detestable abominations : I will in no 
wise have to do with him, nor anything that appertaineth to him." The 
chief articles objected to him, were his marriage and the mass-sacrifice. 
Wherefore when he continued steadfast in confession of the truth, he was 
condemned, degraded, and not only burnt, but most cruelly tormented in 
the fire. So ended he his poor and miserable life, and entered into the 
blessed bosom of Abraham, enjoying with Lazarus the comfortable quiet- 
ness that God hath prepared for his elect saints. 

There was also in Hadley a young man, named John Alcock, which 
came to Hadley seeking work, for he was a shearman by his occupation. 
This young man after the martyrdom of Dr. Taylor, and taking of 
Richard Yeoman, used first in the church of Hadley to read the service in 
English, as partly is above touched. At length, after the coming of parson 
Newall, he, being in Hadley church upon a Sunday, when the parson 
came by with procession, would not once move his cap, nor show any sign 
of reverence, but stood behind the font. Newall, perceiving this, when he 
was almost out of the church door, ran back again, and caught him, and 
called for the constable. Then came Robert Rolfe, with whom this young 
man wrought, and asked, " Master parson ! what hath he done, that ye 
are in such a rage with him?" " He is a heretic and a traitor," quoth 
the parson, " and despiseth the queen's proceedings. Wherefore I com- 
mand you in the queen's name, move him to the stocks, and see he be 
forthcoming." " Well," quoth Rolfe, " he shall be forthcoming : proceed 
you in your business, and be quiet." " Have him to the stocks," quoth 
the parson. " I am constable," quoth Rolfe, " and may bail him, and 
will bail him; he shall not come in the stocks, but he shall be forthcoming." 
So went the good parson forth with his holy procession, and so to mass. 

At afternoon Rolfe said to this young man, " I am sorry for thee, for 
truly the parson will seek thy destruction, if thou take not good heed what 
thou answerest him." The young man answered, " Sir, I am sorry that 
it is my hap to be a trouble to you. As for myself, I am not sorry, but I 
do commit myself into God's hands, and I trust he will give me mouth 
and wisdom to answer according to right." " Well," quoth Rolfe, "yet 
beware of him ; for he is malicious and a blood-sucker, and beareth an 
old hatred against me ; and he will handle you the more cruelly, because 
of displeasure against me." " I fear not," quoth the young man. " He 
shall do no more to me than God will give him leave ; and happy shall I 
be if God will call me to die for his truth's sake." 

After this talk, they then went to the parson, who at the first asked him, 
" Fellow, what sayest thou to the sacrament of the altar?" " I say," 



966 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

quoth he, "as ye use the matter, ye make a shameful idol of it ; and ye 
are false idolatrous priests all the sort of you." " I told you," quoth the 
parson, " he was a stout heretic." So after long talk, the parson com- 
mitted him to ward, and the next day rode he up to London, and carried 
the young man with him. And so came the young man no more again to 
Hadley ; but, after long imprisonment in Newgate, where, after many ex- 
aminations and troubles, for that he would not submit himself to ask for- 
giveness of the pope, and to be reconciled to the Romish religion, he was 
cast into the lower dungeon, where with evil keeping and sickness of the 
house, he died in prison. Thus died he a martyr for Christ's verity, which 
he heartily loved and constantly confessed, and received the garland of a 
well-foughten battle at the hand of the Lord. His body was cast out, and 
buried in a dunghill ; for the papists would in all things be like themselves. 
Therefore would they not so much as suffer the dead bodies to have honest 
and convenient sepulture. 

Thomas Benbridge, a gentleman, single and unmarried, in the diocese 
of Winchester, although he might have lived a pleasant life in the posses- 
sions of this world, yet to follow Christ had rather enter into the strait gate 
of persecution, to the heavenly possession of life in the Lord's kingdom, 
than here to enjoy pleasures present, with unquietness of conscience. 
Wherefore manfully standing against the papists for the defence of the sin- 
cere doctrine of Christ's gospel, he spared not himself to confirm the doc- 
trine of the gospel. For the which cause he being apprehended for an 
adversary of the Romish religion, was forthwith had to examination before 
Dr. White, bishop of Winchester, where he sustained sundry conflicts for 
the truth against the said bishop and his colleagues. 

The articles being ministered unto him, and he continuing steadfast in 
his answers, the said bishop proceeded to his condemnation. After which 
he was brought to the place of martyrdom by the sheriff, sir Richard 
Pecksal ; where he, standing at the stake, began to untie his points, and 
to prepare himself. Then he gave his gown to the keeper, being belike 
his fee. His jerkin was laid on with gold lace, fair and brave, which he 
gave to sir Richard Pecksal, the high sheriff. His cap of velvet he took 
off from his head, and threw it away. Then lifting his mind to the Lord, 
he made his prayers. That done, being now fastened to the stake, Dr. 
Seaton willed him to recant, and he should have his pardon. But when 
he saw it prevailed not to speak, the said dreaming and doltish doctor 
willed the people not to pray for him unless he would recant, no more than 
they would pray for a dog. 

Master Benbridge, standing at the stake with his hands together in such 
manner as the priest holdeth his hands in his memento, the said Dr. Seaton 
came to him again, and exhorted him to recant : unto whom he said, 
"Away, Babylonian, away!" Then said one that stood by, " Sir, cut 
out his tongue;" and another, being a temporal man, railed on him worse 
than Dr. Seaton did a great deal, who, as is thought, was set on by some 
other. Then when they saw he would not yield, they bade the tormentors 
to set to fire ; and yet he was nothing like covered with fagots. First, the 
fire took away a piece of his beard, whereat he nothing shrank at all. 
Then it came on the other side, and took his legs ; and the nether stock- 
ings of his hose being leather, made the fire to pierce the sharper, so that 



ALEXANDER GOUCH AND ALICE DRIVER. 967 

the intolerable heat thereof made him to cry, "I recant." And suddenly 
therewith he thrust the fire from him ; and having two or three of his 
friends by, that wished his life, they stepped to the fire, and helped to take 
it from him also ; who for their labour were sent to prison. The sheriff 
also of his own authority took him from the stake, and sent him to prison 
again, for the which he was sent unto the Fleet, and there lay a certain 
time. But before he was taken from the stake, the said Seaton wrote 
articles to have him to subscribe unto them, as touching the pope, the 
sacrament, and such other trash. But the said master Benbridge made 
much ado ere he would subscribe them, insomuch that Dr. Seaton willed 
them to set to fire again. Then with much pain and grief of heart he 
subscribed to them upon a man's back. That being done, he had his 
gown given him again, and so was led to prison. Being in prison he wrote 
a letter to Dr. Seaton, and recanted those words he spake at the stake, 
unto which he had subscribed ; for he was grieved that ever he did sub- 
scribe unto them. Whereupon expressing his conscience, he was, the same 
day seven-night after, burnt indeed, where the vile tormentors did rather 
broil him than burn him. The Lord give his enemies repentance ! 

In the last year of queen Mary's reign, Dr. Hopton being bishop of 
Norwich, and Dr. Spenser bearing the room of his chancellor, about St. 
James's tide, at St. Edmund's Bury were wrongfully put to death four 
Christian martyrs : to wit, John Cooke, a sawyer ; Robert Milles, alias 
Plummer, shearman; Alexander Lane, wheelwright; and James Ashley. 

Master Noone, a justice in Suffolk, dwelling in Martlesham, hunting 
after good men to apprehend them, at the length had understanding of 
one Gouch of Woodbridge, and Driver's wife of Grundisburgh, to be at 
Grundisburgh together, a little from his house ; and immediately took his 
men with him, and went thither, and made diligent search for them, where 
the poor man and woman were compelled to step into an hay-golph, to 
hide themselves from their cruelty. At the last they came to search the hay 
for them, and by gauging thereof with pitchforks at the last found them : 
so they took them, and led them to Melton gaol, where they, remaining a 
time, at the length were carried to Bury, against the assizes at St. James's 
tide ; and being there examined of matters of faith, did boldly stand to 
confess Christ crucified, defying the pope, with all his papistical trash. 
Among other things, Driver's wife likened queen Mary in her persecution 
to Jezebel; for which cause sir Clement Higham, being chief judge there, 
adjudged her ears immediately to be cut off, which was accomplished ac- 
cordingly; and she joyfully yielded herself to the punishment, and thought 
herself happy that she was counted worthy to suffer anything for the name 
of Christ. 

After the assize at Bury, they were carried to Melton gaol again, where 
they remained a time. From thence they were carried to Ipswich ; and 
there examined before Dr. Spenser, the chancellor of Norwich, chiefly of 
the sacrament and other ceremonies of the popish church. They were both 
condemned, committed to the secular power, and burnt at Ipswich the 4th 
day of November. Being come to the place where the stake was set, by 
seven of the clock in the morning, (notwithstanding they came the self- 
same morning from Melton gaol, which is six miles from Ipswich,) being 
in their prayers, and singing of psalms both of them together, sir Henry 



968 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Dowell then being sheriff, was very much offended with them, and willed 
the bailiffs to bid them make an end of their prayers, (they kneeling upon a 
broom fagot.) Then one of the bailiffs commanded them to make an end, 
saying, " On, on, have done ; make an end; nail them to the stake:" 
yet they continued in prayer. 

Then sir Henry sent one of his men, that they should make an end. 
Then Gouch stood up and said unto the sheriff, " I pray you, master 
sheriff, let us pray a little while, for we have but a little time to live here;" 
and the sheriff said, "Come off, have them to the fire!" Then the said 
Gouch and Alice Driver said, " Why, master sheriff and master bailiff, will 
you not suffer us to pray ?" " Away," said sir Henry ; " to the stake 
with them !" Gouch answered, " Take heed, master sheriff. If you forbid 
prayer, the vengeance of God hamgeth over your heads." Then they being 
tied to the stake, and the iron chain being put about Alice Driver's neck, 
" Oh !" said she, " here is a goodly neckerchief; blessed be God for it." 
Then divers came and took them by the hand as they were bound, standing 
at the stake. The sheriff cried, " Lay hands on them, lay hands on them !" 
With that a great number ran to the stake ; and the sheriff, seeing that, 
let them all alone, so that there was not one taken. 

Although our history hasteth apace (the Lord be praised) to the happy 
death of queen Mary, yet she died not so soon, but some there were burnt 
before, and more should have been burnt soon after them, if God's provi- 
dence had not prevented her with death. In the number of them which 
suffered in the same month when queen Mary died, were three that were 
burnt at Bury, whose names were Philip Humfrey, John David, and 
Henry David, his brother. 

Although in such an innumerable company of godly martyrs, which in 
sundry quarters of this realm were put to torments of fire in queen Mary's 
time, it be hard so exactly to recite every particular person that suffered, but 
that some escape us, either unknown or omitted ; yet I cannot pass over 
a certain poor woman, the wife of one Prest, dwelling not far from Laun- 
ceston, burnt under the said reign in the city of Exeter. She dwelt some- 
time about Cornwall, having a husband and children there much addicted 
to the superstitious sect of popery, who many times drove her to the church, 
to their idols and ceremonies, to shrift, to follow the cross in procession, to 
give thanks to God for restoring antichrist again in this realm, etc.; which, 
when her spirit could not longer abide to do, she departed from them, 
seeking her living by labour and spinning as well as she could, here and 
there for a time. At length she was brought home to her husband, where 
she was accused by her neighbours, and so brought to Exeter to be pre- 
sented before the bishop and his clergy. The name of the bishop was 
Turberville : his chancellor (as I gather) was Blackstone. The chiefest 
matter whereupon she was charged and condemned was for the sacrament 
(which they call of the altar,) and for speaking against idols. 

Blackstone and others persuaded the bishop that she was a mazed crea- 
ture, and not in her perfect wit, (which is no new thing for the wisdom of 
God to appear foolishness to carnal men of this world ;) and therefore they 
consulted together that she should have liberty. So the keeper of the 
bishop's prison had her home to his house, where she fell to spinning and 
carding, and did all other work as a servant in the said keeper's house, 



THE BURNING OF PREST'S WIFE. 969 

and went about the city, when and whither she would, and divers had 
delight to talk with her. And ever she continued talking of the sacrament 
of the altar, which of all things they could least abide. Then was her 
husband sent for, but she refused to go home with him. 

After that, divers of the priests had her in handling, persuading her to 
leave her wicked opinion about the sacrament of the altar, the natural 
body and blood of our Saviour Christ. But she made them answer, that 
it was nothing but very bread and wine, and that they might be ashamed 
to say that a piece of bread should be turned by a man into the natural 
body of Christ, which bread doth vinow [grow musty], and mice oftentimes 
do eat it, and it doth mould and is burned : " And," said she, " God's own 
body will not be so handled, nor kept in prison, or boxes, or aumbries. 
Let it be your God, it shall not be mine; for my Saviour sitteth on the 
right hand,of God, and doth pray for me. And to make that sacramental 
or significative bread, instituted for a remembrance, the very body of Christ, 
and to worship it, it is very foolishness and devilish deceit." " Now 
truly," said they, " the devil hath deceived thee." " No," said she, " I 
trust the living God hath opened mine eyes, and caused me to understand 
the right use of the blessed sacrament, which the true church doth use, 
but the false church doth abuse." Much other talk there was between 
her and them, which here were two tedious to be expressed. 

In the mean time, during this her month's liberty granted to her by the 
bishop, it happened that she entering into St. Peter's church, beheld there 
a cunning Dutchman, how he made new noses to certain fine images which 
were disfigured in king Edward's time: " What a mad man art thou," 
said she, " to make them new noses, which within a few days shall all lose 
their heads." The Dutchman accused her, and laid it hard to her charge; 
and then was she sent for, and clapped fast ; and after that time she had 
no more liberty. 

During the time of her imprisonment divers resorted to her, some sent 
of the bishop, some of their own voluntary will ; and albeit she was of 
such simplicity, and without learning, yet you could declare no place of 
Scripture but she would tell you the chapter; yea, she would recite you 
the names of all the books in the Bible. 

At the last, when they perceived her to be past remedy, and had con- 
sumed all their threatenings, that neither by prisonment nor liberty, by 
menaces nor flattery, they could bring her to sing any other song, nor 
win her to their vanities and superstitious doings, then they cried out, " An 
Anabaptist, an Anabaptist !" Then, at a day, they brought her from the 
bishop's prison to the Guildhall ; and after that delivered her to the tem- 
poral power, according to their custom, where she was by the gentlemen 
of the country exhorted yet to call for grace, and to leave her foul opinions. 
In fine, when they had played the part of the cat with the mouse, they at 
length condemned her, and delivered her over to the secular power. Then 
the indictment being given and read, which was, that she should go to the 
place whence she came, and from thence be led to the place of execution, 
then and there to be burned with flames till she should be consumed, she 
lifted up her voice, and thanked God, saying, " I thank thee, my Lord, 
my God ; this day have I found that which I have long sought. But such 
outcries as there were again, and such mockings, were never seen upon a 



970 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

poor silly woman ; all which she most patiently took. Then was she de- 
livered to the sheriff; and innumerable people beholding her, she was led 
by the officers to the place of execution, without the walls of Exeter, 
called Southernhay, where again these superstitious priests assaulted her ; 
and she prayed them to have no more talk with her, but cried still, " God 
be merciful to me a sinner, God be merciful to me a sinner ! " And so, 
while they were tying her to the stake, thus still she erred, and would give 
no answer to them ; but with much patience took her cruel death, and was 
with the flames and fire consumed. Thus was the mortal life ended of as 
constant a woman in the faith of Christ as ever was upon earth ; for whose 
constancy God be everlastingly praised. Amen. 

In writing of the blessed saints which suffered in the bloody days of 
queen Mary, I had almost overpassed the names and story of three godly 
martyrs, which with their blood gave testimony likewise to the gospel of 
Christ, being condemned and burnt in the town of Bristol : Richard Sharp, 
Thomas Benion, and Thomas Hale. 

First, Richard Sharp, weaver, of Bristol, was brought the 9th day of 
March, anno 1556, before master Dalby, chancellor of the town or city of 
Bristol; and, after examination, concerning the sacrament of the altar, 
was persuaded by the said Dalby and others to recant ; and the 29th of the 
same month was enjoined to make his recantation before the parishioners 
in his parish church. Which when he had done, he felt in his conscience 
such a tormenting hell, that he was not able quietly to work in his occupa- 
tion, but decayed and changed both in colour and liking of his body ; who 
shortly after, upon Sunday, came into his parish church, called Temple, 
and after high mass, came to the choir-door, and said with a loud voice, 
" Neighbours ! bear me record that yonder idol," and pointed to the altar, 
" is the greatest and most abominable that ever was ; and I am sorry that 
ever I denied my Lord God." Then the constables were commanded to 
apprehend him ; but none stepped forth, but suffered him to go out of the 
church. After, by night, he was apprehended and carried to Newgate ; 
and shortly after he was brought before the lord chancellor, denying the 
sacrament of the altar to be the body and blood of Christ; and said, it 
was an idol ; and therefore was condemned to be burnt, by the said Dalby. 
He was burnt the 7th of May, 1557 ; and died godly, patiently, and con- 
stantly, confessing the articles of our faith. 

The Thursday, in the night, before Easter, anno 1557, came one master 
David Herris, alderman, and John Stone, to the house of one Thomas 
Hale, a shoemaker of Bristol, and caused him to rise out of his bed, and 
brought him forth of his door. To whom the said Thomas Hale said, 
" You have sought my blood these two years, and now much good do you 
with it :" who, being committed to the watchman, was carried to Newgate 
the 24th of April, the year aforesaid, was brought before master Dalby 
the chancellor, committed by him to prison, and after by him condemned 
to be burnt, for saying the sacrament of the altar to be an idol. He was 
burned the 7th of May with the foresaid Richard Sharp; and godly, 
patiently, and constantly embraced the fire with his arms. Richard 
Sharp and Thomas Hale were bound back to back. 

Thomas Benion, a weaver, at the commandment of the commissioners, 
was brought by a constable the 13th day of August, anno 1557, before 



FIVE MARTYRS BURNT AT CANTERBURY. 971 

master Dalby, chancellor of Bristol, who committed him to prison for 
saying there was nothing but bread in the sacrament, as they used it. 
Wherefore, the 20th day of the said August, he was condemned to be 
burnt by the said Dalby, for denying five of their sacraments, and affirm- 
ing "two, that is, the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and the 
sacrament of baptism. He was burnt the 27th of the said month and 
year; and died godly, constantly, and patiently, with confessing the articles 
of our Christian faith. 

The last that suffered in queen Mary's time, were five at Canterbury, 
burnt about six days before the death of queen Mary, whose names follow 
hereunder written : John Corneford, of Wrotham ; Christopher Brown, of 
Maidstone ; John Herst, of Ashford ; Alice Snoth ; and Katherine Knight, 
otherwise called Katherine Tynley, an aged woman. These five (to close 
up the final rage of queen Mary's persecution,) for the testimony of that 
word for which so many had died before, gave up their lives meekly and 
patiently, suffering the violent malice of the papists ; which papists, 
although they then might have either well spared them, or else deferred 
their death, knowing of the sickness of queen Mary ; yet such was the 
implacable despite of that generation, that some there be that say, the 
archdeacon of Canterbury the same time being at London, and understand- 
ing the danger of the queen, incontinently made all post-haste home to 
despatch these, whom, before then, he had in his cruel custody. 

The matter why they were judged to the fire was for confessing that an 
evil man doth not receive Christ's body, " Because no man hath the Son 
except it be given him of the Father/' That it is idolatry to creep to the 
cross; and St. John forbidding it, saith, " Beware of images." For con- 
fessing that we should not pray to our Lady, and other saints, because 
they be not omnipotent. For these and other such articles of Christian 
doctrine were these five condemned. Against whom when the sentence 
should be read, and they excommunicate, after the manner of the papists, 
John Corneford, stirred with a vehement spirit of the zeal of God, pro- 
ceeding in a more true excommunication against the papists, in the name 
of them all, pronounced sentence against them in these words as follow : 
" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the most mighty 
God, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, and the authority of his holy 
catholic and apostolic church, we do here give into the hands of Satan, to 
be destroyed, the bodies of all those blasphemers and heretics that do 
maintain any error against his most holy word, or do condemn his most 
holy truth for heresy, to the maintenance of any false church or feigned 
religion ; so that by this thy just judgment, O most mighty God, against 
thy adversaries, thy true religion may be known to thy great glory and our 
comfort, and to the edifying of all our nation. Good Lord, so be it." 
These godly martyrs, in their prayers which they made before their 
martyrdom, desired God that their blood might be the last that should be 
shed, and so it was. 

If bloody torments and cruel death of a poor innocent, suffering for no 
cause of his own, but in the truth of Christ and his religion, do make a 
martyr, no less deserveth the child of one John Fetty to be reputed in the 
catalogue, who in the house of bishop Bonner unmercifully was scourged 
to death, as by the sequel of this story here following may appear. 



972 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Amongst the persecuted for the gospel, and yet delivered by the in- 
terposing Providence of God, was John Fetty, a poor man dwelling in 
Clerkenwell. He was accused unto one Brokenbury, a parson of the 
same parish, by his own wife, because he would not come to the church, 
and be partaker of their idolatry ; and therefore, through the said priest's 
procurement, he was apprehended. However, immediately upon his 
apprehension, his wife, apparently by the just judgment of God, was 
stricken mad, which declared a dreadful example of the justice of God 
against such unnatural treachery. And although this example little 
moved the consciences of these men to cease their persecution, yet na- 
tural pity towards that ungrateful woman so wrought in their hearts, that 
for the preservation and support of her and her two children, they for 
the present let her husband alone, and would not carry him to prison, 
but suffered him to remain quietly in his house. During this time, 
forgetting the unkind fact of his wife, he did yet so cherish and provide 
for her, that within the space of three weeks she had recovered some 
stay of her wit and sense. But such was the power of Satan in the ma- 
licious heart of the woman, that so soon as she had recovered her health 
she did again accuse her husband ; whereupon he was the second time 
apprehended, and carried before Sir John Mordaunt, one of the queen's 
commissioners, and he upon examination sent him unto the Lollards' 
Tower ; where he was put into the stocks. 

After Fetty had thus lain in prison for fifteen days, hanging in the 
stocks, sometimes by one leg and one arm, sometimes by the other, and 
sometimes by both, it happened that one of his children, a boy of the 
age of eight or nine years, came unto the bishop's house to speak with 
his father. At his coming thither, one of the bishop's chaplains met 
with him, and asked him what he would have. The child answered, that 
he came to see his father; the chaplain asked again who was his father. 
The boy then told him, and pointing towards Lollards' Tower, shewed 
him that his father was there in prison. " Why," said the priest, " thy 
father is a heretic !" The child being of a bold and quick spirit, answered, 
" My father is no heretic; for you have Balaam's mark !" On that the 
priest took the child by the hand, and carried him into the bishop's 
house, where amongst them they did most shamefully, and without pity, 
so whip and scourge this tender child, that he was in one gore of blood. 
They then caused Cluny, having his coat upon his arm, to carry the 
child in his shirt unto his father in prison. 

On his coming to his father the child fell upon his knees and asked 

his blessing. The poor man, seeing him so cruelly arrayed, cried out 

for sorrow, and said, "Alas, who hath done this to thee?" The boy 

then explained; and while his father was condoling with him, Cluny 

violently plucked him out of his hands, and carried him back into the 

bishop's house, where they kept him three days after. At the three days 

end, Bonner (minding to make the matter whole, and somewhat to appease 

the poor man for this their horrible fact) determined to release him ; and 

therefore caused him early in a morning to be brought out of Lollards' Tower 

into his bed-chamber. While this Fetty was there waiting, he espied 

hanging about the bishop's bed a great pair of black beads : whereupon 

he said, " My lord, I think the hangman is not far off; for the halter" 



EXAMINATION OF ELIZABETH YOUNG. 973 

(pointing to the beads) " is here already." At which words the bishop 
was in a marvellous rage. Then, immediately after, Fetty espied a little 
crucifix, and asked the bishop what it was ; and he answered that it was 
Christ. "Was he handled so cruelly as he is here pictured?" quoth 
Fetty. " Yea, that he was," said the bishop. " And even so cruelly," 
replied the other, " will you handle such as come before you. For you 
are unto God's people as Caiaphas was unto Christ." The bishop being 
in a great fury, said, " Thou art a vile heretic; and I will burn thee, or 
else I will spend all that I have, unto my gown." " Nay, my lord," said 
Fetty, " ye were better to give it a poor body, that he may pray for you." 

But yet Bonner, bethinking in himself of the danger that the child was 
in by their whipping, and what peril might ensue thereupon, thought 
better to discharge him. Whereupon, after this and such like talk, the 
bishop at last willed him to go home, and carry his child with him ; which 
he so did, and that with a heavy heart, to see his poor boy in such extreme 
pain and grief. But within fourteen days after, the child died, whether 
through this cruel scourging or other infirmity, I know not. But howso- 
ever it was, the Lord yet used their cruel and detestable fact as a means 
of his providence for the delivery of this good poor man and faithful 
Christian : his name be ever praised there-for. Amen. 

Among those who were persecuted, and yet escaped and passed through 
the pikes,* (being yet, as I hear say, alive,) was one Elizabeth Young, 
who, coming from Embden to England, brought with her divers books, 
and dispersed them abroad in London : for the which she being at length 
espied and laid fast, was brought to examination thirteen times before the 
catholic inquisitors of heretical pravity. Her first examination was before 
one master Hussy, who examined her of many things : first, where she 
was born, who was her father and mother. 

Young. Sir, all this is but vain talk, and very superfluous. It is to 
fill my head with fantasies, that I should not be able to answer such 
things as I came for. You have not, I think, put me in prison to 
know who is my father and mother. But, I pray you, go to the matter 
I came hither for. 

Hussy. AVherefore wen test thou out of the realm? and when wast 
thou at mass? 

Young. To keep my conscience clean, I departed; and have not been 
at mass these three years. 

Hussy. Then wast thou not there three years before that? How old 
art thou? 

Young. No, Sir, nor yet three years before that: for if I were I 
had evil luck. I am forty years old and upwards. 

Hussy. Twenty of those years you went to mass: why not go now? 

* In the goodly company of those persecuted in divers ways for the cause of Christ's gosptd, 
in the cruel reign of queen Mary, who also escaped the fire, may be numbered the following : 
John Hunt, Richard White, John Willes, Robert Willes, Thomas Hinshaw, R. Bailey, Hudlejs, 
T. Coast, Roger Sandy, Richard Wilmot, Thomas Fairfax, Thomas Green, James Harris, Robert 
Williams, William and Julian Living, John Lithal, Edward Grew, William Brown, Elizabeth 
Lawson, Thomas Christenmass, William Wats, John Glover, Alexander Wimshurst, Dabney, 
lady Knevet, John Davis, mistress Roberts, mistress Ann Lacy, one Crossuian's wife, Edward 
Benet, Jeffrey Hurst, William Wood, the duchess of Suffolk, Thomas Horton, Thomas Sprat, 
John Cornet, Thomas Bryce, Gertrude Crokhay, William Maldon, Robert Horneby, mistress 
Sands, Thomas Rose, doctor Sands or Sandys, etc. 



974 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Young. Yea, and twenty more I may, and yet come home as wise as 
I went thither first, for I understand it not. My conscience will not 
suffer me : for I had rather all the world should accuse me than mine 
own conscience. 

Hussy. What if an insect stick upon thy skin, and bite thy flesh? 
thou must make a conscience in taking her off, is there not a conscience 
in it? 

Young. That is but a sorry argument to displace the scriptures, and 
especially in such a part as my salvation dependeth upon; for it is but 
an easy conscience that a man can make. 

Hussy. But why wilt thou not swear upon the evangelists before a 
judge? 

Young. Because I know not what a book- oath is. 

Then lie began to teach her the book-oath. 

Young. Sir, I do not understand it, and therefore I will not learn it. 

" Thou wilt not understand it," said he; and with that he went his way. 

At her second examination before Dr. Martin, he said to her, " Thou 
rebel and traitorly whore, thou shalt be so racked and handled, that thou 
shalt be an example to all such traitorly whores and heretics ; and thou 
shalt be made to swear by the holy evangelists, and confess to whom thou 
hast sold all and every one of these heretical books that thou hast sold : 
for we know what number thou hast sold and to whom; but thou shalt be 
made to confess it in spite of thy blood." 

Young. Here is my carcase: do with it what you will. And more than 
that you cannot have, master Martin : ye can have no more but my blood. 

Then said he, " Martin ! why callest thou me Martin?" 

Young. Sir, I know well enough : for I have been before you ere now. 
Ye delivered me once at Westminster. 

Martin. Where didst thou dwell then ? 

Young. I dwelt in the Minories. 

Martin. I delivered thee and thy husband both ; and I thought then, 
that thou wouldest have done otherwise than thou dost now. For if thou 
hadst been before any bishop in England, and said the words that thou 
didst before me, thou hadst fried a fagot: and though thou didst not burn 
then, thou art like to burn or hang now." 

Young. Sir, I promised you then, that I would never be fed with an 
unknown tongue, and no more will I yet. 

Martin. I shall feed thee well enough. Thou shalt be fed with that (I 
warrant thee) which shall be smally to thine ease. 

Young. Do what God shall suffer you to do : for more ye shall not. 

And then he arose, and so departed, and went to the keeper's house, 
and said to the wife, " Whom hast thou suffered to come to this vile trai- 
torly whore and heretic, to speak with her?" Then said she, "As God 
receive my soul, here came neither man, woman, nor child to ask for her." 

Martin. If any man, woman, or child come to ask for her, I charge 
thee, in pain of death, that they be laid fast; and give her one day bread, 
and another day water. 

Young. If ye take away my meat, I trust God will take away my hunger. 

And so he departed and said, " that was too good for her :" and then 
was she shut up under two locks in the Clink, where she was before, unto 



EXAMINATION OF ELIZABETH YOUNG. 975 

the time of further examinations: for she was brought before the bishop, 
the dean, and the chancellor, and other commissioners, first and last, thir- 
teen times. In her fifth examination before the bishop's chancellor, he 
asked her, "When thou receivest the sacrament of the altar, dost thou not 
believe that thou dost receive Christ's body?" 

Young. Sir, when I do receive the sacrament which Christ instituted the 
night before he was betrayed, and left to his disciples, I believe that spi- 
ritually and by faith I receive Christ. And of this sacrament, I know 
Christ himself to be the author, and none but he. And this same 
sacrament is an establishment to my conscience, and an augmenting to 
my faith. 

Chan. Why, did not Christ take bread, and give thanks, and brake 
it, and gave it to his disciples, saying — " Take, eat, this is my body that 
is given for you?" Did he give them his body, or no? 

Young. He also took the cup, and gave thanks to his Father, and 
gave it to his disciples, saying — "Drink ye all hereof: for this is the 
cup of the new Testament in my blood, which shall be shed for many." 
Now, I pray you, sir, let me ask you one question : Did he give the 
cup the name of his blood, or the wine that was in the cup? 

Chan. Dost thou think that thou hast a hedge-priest in hand? 

Young. No, sir, I take you not to be a hedge-priest; I take you for 
a doctor. 

Chan. So I think. Thou wilt take upon thee to teach me. 

Young. No, sir, but I let you know what I know ; and by argument 
one shall know more. Christ said — " As oft as ye do this, do it in re- 
membrance of me;" but a remembrance is not of a thing present, but 
absent.- Likewise St. Paul saith — " So oft as ye shall eat of this bread 
and drink of this cup, ye shall shew forth the Lord's death till he come ;" 
then we must not look for him here, until his coming again at the latter 
day. Again, is not this article of our belief true — " He sitteth at the 
right hand of God the Father Almighty ; from thence he shall come 
to judge both the quick and the dead?" But if he come not before 
he come to judgment, how then is he present in your sacrament of the 
altar ? Wherefore I believe that the human body of Christ occupieth no 
more than one place at once: for when he was here, he was not there. 

In this year, 1558, thirty-nine persons were brought to tne stake: and 
the whole number burnt during the reign of Mary, amounted to two 
hundred and eighty-four; and near four hundred fell a sacrifice on these 
sad occasions, including those who died by imprisonment and famine. 
There were burnt, five bishops, twenty-one divines, eight gentlemen, 
eighty-four artificers, one hundred husbandmen, servants, and labourers, 
twenty-six wives, twenty widows, nine virgins, two boys, and two infants. 
Sixty-four more were persecuted for their religion, whereof seven were 
whipped, sixteen perished in prison, and twelve were buried in dunghills. 
It is to be observed, that the persecution raged most in Bonner's diocese 
(London) and in Kent. Several protestant books printed on the con- 
tinent, were secretly conveyed to England ; upon which a proclamation 
was issued, enacting, that any person who might receive such books, and 
did not instantly burn them, without either reading, or shewing them to 
any person, should be forthwith executed by martial law. 



976 



SECTION XVII. 

GOD'S PROVIDENCE IN PRESERVING THE LADY ELIZABETH— UNPROSPER- 
OUSNESS OF QUEEN MARY's REIGN DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON PERSE- 
CUTORS CONCLUSION. 

When all hath been said and told touching the admirable working of 
God's present hand in defending and delivering any one person out of 
thraldom, never was there since the memory of our fathers any example 
wherein the Lord's mighty power hath more admirably and blessedly 
showed itself than in the miraculous custody and outscape of the lady Eliza- 
beth, in the strait time of queen Mary her sister. The princess Elizabeth 
was born at Greenwich anno 1533, being the daughter of Henry the eighth 
and his queen Anne Boleyn. She was baptized in the Grey Friars' church 
at Greenwich, having to her godfather Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of 
Canterbury. After that, she was committed to godly tutors and governors, 
under whom she increased in all manner of virtue and knowledge of learn- 
ing. One of her schoolmasters reported of her to a friend, that he learned 
every day more of her than she of him : " I teach her words," quoth he, 
" and she me things. I think she is best inclined and disposed of any in 
all Europe." Likewise an Italian, which taught her his tongue, said once, 
that he found in her two qualities which are never, lightly, yokefellows in 
one woman ; which were, a singular wit, and a marvellous meek stomach. 
When Mary was first queen, before she was crowned, she would go no 
whither but would have the lady Elizabeth by the hand, and send for her 
to dinner and supper; but, after she was crowned, she never dined nor 
supped with her, but kept her aloof from her. After this it happened upon 
the rising of sir Thomas Wyat, that the lady Elizabeth, at that time lying 
in queen Mary's house at Ashridge, and the lord Courteney were charged 
with false suspicion. Whereupon the queen, whether for that surmise, or 
for what other cause I know not, the next day after sent to her three of 
her councillors ; and howbeit she was then very sick, they willed her to 
prepare against the next morning, at nine of the clock, to go with them to 
London. On the next morrow, at the time prescribed, they had her forth 
as she was, very faint and feeble, and in such case that she was ready to 
swoon three or four times between them. Proceeding in her journey from 
Ashridge, all sick in the litter, she came to Redbourn, where she was 
guarded all night. From thence to St. Alban's, to sir Ralph Rowlet's 
house, where she tarried that night, both feeble in body and comfortless 
in mind. From that place they passed to master Dodde's house at 
Mimms, where also they remained that night : and so from thence she 
came to Highgate, where she, being very sick, tarried that night and the 
next day ; during which time there came many pursuivants and messengers 
from the court, but for what purpose I cannot tell. From that place she 
was conveyed to the court, where by the way came to meet her many 
gentlemen, accompanying her highness, which were very sorry to see her 
in that case. But especially a great multitude of people by the way, 
nocking about her litter, lamented and bewailed greatly. 



PRESERVATION OF THE LADY ELIZABETH. 977 

Now when she came to the court, her grace was straightways shut up, 
and kept as close prisoner a fortnight, seeing neither king nor queen, nor 
lord nor friend, all that time; but only the lord chamberlain, sir John 
Gage, and the vice-chamberlain, which were attendant unto the doors. 
The Friday before Palm Sunday, the bishop of Winchester, with nineteen 
other of the council, came unto her from the queen, and burdened her with 
Wyat's conspiracy, which she utterly denied, affirming that she was alto- 
gether guiltless therein. They, being not contented with this, charged her 
with business made by sir Peter Carew, and the rest of the gentlemen of the 
west country : which also she utterly denying, cleared her innocency therein. 

In conclusion, after long debating of matters, they declared unto her 
that it was the queen's will and pleasure that she should go unto the 
Tower, while the matter was further tried and examined. Whereat she, 
being aghast, said that she trusted the queen's majesty would be a more 
gracious lady unto her, and that her highness would not otherwise conceive 
of her but that she was a true woman : declaring furthermore to the lords, 
that she was innocent in all those matters wherein they had burdened her, 
and desired them therefore to be a further mean to the queen her sister, 
that she might not be committed to so notorious and doleful a place; pro- 
testing that she would request no favour at her hand if she should be 
proved to have consented unto any such kind of matter as they laid unto 
her charge. W hereunto the lords answered again, that there was no 
remedy, for that the queen's majesty was fully determined that she should 
go unto the Tower : wherewith the lords departed with their caps hanging 
over their eyes. 

Within the space of an hour or little more, came the lord treasurer, the 
bishop of Winchester, the lord steward, and the earl of Sussex, with the 
guard ; who, warding the next chamber to her, secluded all her gentlemen 
and yeomen, ladies and gentlewomen ; saving that for one gentleman- 
usher, three gentlewomen, and two grooms of her chamber, were appointed, 
in their rooms, three other men of the queen's, and three waiting-women 
to give attendance upon her, that none should have access unto her grace. 
Upon Saturday following, the earl of Sussex and one other lord of the 
council came and certified that forthwith she must go unto the Tower, the 
barge being prepared for her, and the tide now ready, which tarrieth for 
nobody. In heavy mood her grace requested the lords that she might 
tarry another tide, trusting that the next would be better and more com- 
fortable ; but one of them replied, that neither time nor tide was to be 
delayed. And when she requested that she might be suffered to write to 
the queen's majesty, he answered that he durst not permit that; adding, 
that in his judgment it would rather hurt than profit her grace in so doing. 
But the other lord, more courteous and favourable, (who was the earl of 
(Sussex,) kneeling down, told her grace that she should have liberty to 
I write, and, as he was a true man, he would deliver it to the queen's high- 
Iness, and bring an answer of the same, whatsoever came thereof. Where- 
lupon she wrote : albeit she could in no case be suffered to speak with the 
[queen, to her great discomfort. And thus the time and tide passing away 
[that season, they privily appointed all things ready that she should go the 
lext tide, which fell about midnight ; but for fear she should be taken by the 
r ay, they durst not. So they stayed till the next day, being Palm Sundav, 

3 it 



978 HTSTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

when about nine of the clock these two returned again, declaring it was 
time for her grace to depart. She answered, " If there be no remedy, I 
must be contented ;" willing the lords to go on before. Being come forth 
into the garden, she cast her eyes towards the window, thinking to have 
seen the queen, which she could not. In the mean time, commandment 
was given in all London, that every one should keep the church, and carry 
their palms ; while in the mean season she might be conveyed, without all 
recourse of people, into the Tower. 

After this she took her barge, with the two foresaid lords, three of the 
queen's gentlewomen, and three of her own, her gentleman-usher, and two 
of her grooms. At landing she first stayed, and denied to land at those 
stairs where all traitors and offenders customably used to land, neither well 
could she, unless she should go over her shoes. The lords were gone out 
of the boat before, and asked why she came not. One of the lords went 
back again to her, and brought word she would not come. Then said one 
of the lords, which shall be nameless, that she should not choose : and 
because it did then rain, he offered to her his cloak, which she, putting it 
back with her hand with a good dash, refused. So she coming out, having 
one foot upon the stair, said, " Here landeth as true a subject, being 
prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs ; and before thee, O God ! I speak 
it, having no other friends but thee alone." To whom the same lord an- 
swered again, that if it were so, it was the better for her. 

At her landing there was a great multitude of their servants and warders 
standing in their order. " What needed all this?" said she. " It is the 
use," said some, " so to be, when any prisoner comes thither." " And if 
it be," quoth she, " for my cause, I beseech you that they may be dis- 
missed." Whereat the poor men kneeled down, and with one voice 
desired God to preserve her grace ; who the next day were released of 
their cold coats. After this, passing a little further, she sat down upon a 
cold stone, and there rested herself. To whom the lieutenant then being 
said, " Madam, you were best to come out of the rain ; for you sit un- 
wholesomely." She then replying, answered again, "It is better sitting 
here than in a worse place ; for God knoweth, I know not whither you will 
bring me." With that her gentleman-usher wept : she demanding of him 
what he meant so uncomfortably to use her, seeing she took him to be her 
comforter, and not to dismay her ; especially for that she knew her truth 
to be such, that no man should have cause to weep for her. But forth 
she went into the prison. The doors were locked and bolted upon her, 
which did not a little discomfort and dismay her grace : at what time she 
called to her gentlewoman for her book, desiring God not to suffer her to 
build her foundation upon the sands, but upon the rock, whereby all blasts 
of blustering weather should have no power against her. The doors being 
thus locked, and she close shut up, the lords had great conference how to 
keep ward and watch, every man declaring his own opinion in that behalf, 
agreeing straitly and circumspectly to keep her. 

Then one of them, which was the lord of Sussex, swearing said, " My 
lords, let us take heed, and do no more than our commission will bear us 
out in, whatsoever shall happen hereafter. And further, let us consider 
that she was the king our master's daughter : and therefore let us use 
such dealing, that we may answer it hereafter, if it shall so happen : for 






PRESERVATION OF THE LADY ELIZABETH. 979 

just dealing," quoth he, " is always answerable." Whereunto the other 
lords agreed that it was well said of him, and thereupon departed. Being 
in the Tower, within two days commandment was, that she should have 
mass within her house. One master Young was then her chaplain, and 
because there were none of her men so well learned to help the priest to 
say mass, the mass stayed for that day. 

Within five days after, the bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, 
with divers others of the council came unto her, and examined her of the 
talk that was at Ashridge, betwixt her and sir James Croft, concerning 
her removing from thence to Donnington-castle, requiring her to declare 
what she meant thereby. At the first she, being so suddenly asked, did 
not well remember any such house ; but within awhile, well advising her- 
self, she said, " Indeed, I do now remember that I have such a place, but 
I never lay in it in all my life. And as for any that hath moved me there- 
unto, I do not remember." 

Then to force the matter, they brought forth sir James Croft. The 
bishop of Winchester demanded of her, what she said to that man. She 
answered, that she had little to say to him, or to the rest that were then 
prisoners in the Tower. " But my lords," quoth she, " you do examine 
every mean prisoner of me, wherein, methinks, you do me great injury. 
If they have done evil, and offended the queen's majesty, let them answer 
to it accordingly. I beseech you, my lords, join not me, in this sort, with 
any of these offenders. And as concerning my going unto Donnington- 
castle, I do remember that master Hobby and mine officers, and you sir 
James Croft, had such talk ; but what is that to the purpose, my lords, 
but that I may go to mine own houses at all times?" The lord of 
Arundel kneeling down, said, " Your grace saith true, and certainly we are 
very sorry that we have so troubled you about so vain matters." She then 
said, " My lords, you do sift me very narrowly: but well I am assured, 
you shall not do more to me than God hath appointed ; and so God for- 
give you all." At their departure sir James Croft kneeled down, declaring 
that he was sorry to see the day in which he should be brought as a wit- 
ness against her grace. " But I assure your grace," said he, " I have been 
marvellously tossed and examined touching your highness, which (the 
Lord knoweth) is very strange to me : for, I take God to record before all 
your honours, I do not know anything of that crime that you have laid to 
my charge, and will thereupon take my death, if I should be driven to so 
strict a trial. 

After this sort, having lien a whole month there in close prison, and 
being very evil at ease therewithal, she sent for the loid chamberlain, and 
the lord Chandos, to come and speak with her ; who coming, she requested 
them that she might have liberty to walk in some place, for that she felt 
herself not well. To the which they answered, that they were right sorry 
that they could not satisfy her grace's request : for that they had com- 
mandment to the contrary, which they durst not in any wise break. Fur- 
thermore, she desired of them, if that could not be granted, that she might 
walk but into the queen's lodging. No, nor yet that (they answered) could 
by any means be obtained without a further suit to the queen and her 
council. "Well," said she, "my lords, if the matter be so hard, that 
they must be sued unto for so small a thing, and that friendship be so 



980 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



strict, God comfort me." And so they departed, she remaining in her old 
dungeon still, without any kind of comfort but only God. 

The next day after the lord Chandos came again unto her grace, declar- 
ing unto her, that he had sued unto the council for further liberty. Some 
of them consented thereunto, divers other dissented, for that there were so 
many prisoners in the Tower. But, in conclusion, they did all agree that 
her grace might walk into those lodgings, so that he and the lord cham- 
berlain, and three of the queen's gentlewomen did accompany her, the 
windows being shut, and she not suffered to look out at any of them : 
wherewith she contented herself, and gave him thanks for his good will in 
that behalf. Afterwards there was liberty granted to her grace to walk in 
a little garden, the doors and gates being shut up, which notwithstanding 
was as much discomfort unto her, as the walk in the garden was pleasant 
and acceptable. At which times of her walking there, the prisoners on that 
side straitly were commanded not to speak or look out at the windows into the 
garden, till her grace were gone out again, having, in consideration thereof, 
their keepers waiting upon them for that time. Thus her grace, with this 
small liberty, contented herself in God, to whom be praise there-for. 

The 5th day of May, the constable of the Tower was discharged of his 
office of the Tower, and one sir Henry Benifield placed in his room, a man 
unknown to her grace, and therefore the more feared ; which so sudden 
mutation was unto her no little amaze. He brought with him a hundred 
soldiers, in blue coats, wherewith she was marvellously discomforted, and 
demanded of such as were about her, whether the lady Jane's scaffold 
were taken away or no ; fearing, by reason of their coming, lest she should 
have played her part. To whom answer was made, that the scaffold 
was taken away, and that her grace needed not to doubt of any such 
tyranny; for God would not suffer any such treason against her person. 
Wherewith being contented, but not altogether satisfied, she asked who 
sir Henry Benifield was ; and whether he was of that conscience, or no, 
that if her murdering were secretly committed to his charge he would see 
the execution thereof. She was answered, that they were ignorant what 
manner of man he was. Howbeit they persuaded her that God would not 
suffer such wickedness to proceed. " Well," quoth she, " God grant it be 
so. For thou, O God, canst mollify all such tyrannous hearts, and disappoint 
all such cruel purposes ; and I beseech thee to hear me, thy creature, 
which am thy servant and at thy commandment, trusting by thy grace 
ever so to remain." 

In conclusion, on Trinity Sunday, being the 19th day of May, she was 
removed from the Tower, the lord treasurer being then there, for the lading 
of her carts, and discharging the place of the same ; where sir Henry 
Benifield (being appointed her jailer) did receive her, with a company of 
rake-hells to guard her, besides the lord of Derby's band, waiting in the 
country about, for the moonshine in the water. Unto whom at length 
came my lord of Tame, joined in commission with the said sir Henry, for 
the safe guiding of her to prison ; and they together conveyed her grace to 
Woodstock, as hereafter folio weth. The first day they conducted her to 
Richmond, where she continued all night, being restrained of her own men, 
which were lodged in out-chambers, and sir Henry Benifield's soldiers 
appointed in their rooms to give attendance on her person. Whereat she 



PRESERVATION OF THE LADY ELIZABETH. 981 

being marvellously dismayed, thinking verily some secret mischief to be 
a-working towards her, called her gentleman-usher, and desired him with 
the rest of his company to pray for her : " For this night," quoth she, " I 
think to die." Wherewith he being stricken to the heart, said, " God 
forbid that any such wickedness should be pretended against your grace." 
So, comforting her as well as he could, at last he burst out into tears, and 
went from her down into the court, where were walking the lord of Tame, 
and sir Henry Benifield. 

Then he, coming to the lord of Tame, (who had proffered to him much 
friendship,) desired to speak with him a word or two ; unto whom he 
familiarly said, he would with all his heart. Which when sir Henry, 
standing by, heard, he asked what the matter was. To whom the gentleman- 
usher answered, " No great matter, sir," said he, " but to speak with my lord 
a word or two." Then when the lord of Tame came to him, he spake on 
this wise : " My lord," quoth he, " you have been always my good lord, 
and so I beseech you to remain. The cause why I come to you at this 
time is, to desire your honour unfeignedly to declare unto me, whether 
any danger is meant towards my mistress this night, or no ; that I and my 
poor fellows may take such part as shall please God to appoint : for certainly 
we will rather die, than she should secretly and innocently miscarry." 
" Marry," said the lord of Tame, " God forbid that any such wicked 
purpose should be wrought; and rather than it should be so, I with my men 
are ready to die at her foot also." And so (praised be God) they passed 
that doleful night, with no little heaviness of heart. 

Afterwards, passing over the water at Richmond, going towards Windsor, 
her grace espied certain of her poor servants standing on the other side, 
which were very desirous to see her. Whom when she beheld, turning to 
one of her men standing by, she said, " Yonder I see certain of my men : 
go to them and say these words from me, * Tanquam ovis ;' " that is, 
Like a sheep to the slaughter. So she passing forward to Windsor, was 
lodged there that night in the dean of Windsor's house, a place more meet 
indeed for a priest than a princess. And from thence her grace was guarded 
and brought the next night to master Dormer's house, where, much people 
standing by the way, some presented to her one gift, and some another, 
so that sir Henry was greatly moved therewith, and troubled the poor 
people very sore, for showing their loving hearts in such a manner, calling 
them rebels and traitors, with such vile words. Besides, as she passed 
through the villages, the townsmen rang the bells, as being joyful of her 
coming, thinking verily it had been otherwise than it was indeed, as the 
sequel proved after to the said poor men. For immediately the said sir 
Henry, hearing the same, sent his soldiers thither, who apprehended some 
of the ringers, setting them in the stocks, and otherwise uncourteously 
misusing other some, for their good wills. 

On the morrow, her grace, passing from master Dormer's, (where was, 
for the time of abode there, a strait watch kept,) came to the lord of Tame's 
house, where she lay all the night, being very princely entertained both of 
knights and ladies, gentlemen and gentlewomen. The next day she took 
her journey from Ricot to Woodstock, where she was enclosed, as before 
in the Tower of London, the soldiers guarding and warding both within 
and without the walls, every day to the number of sixty, and in the night, 



982 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

without the walls, forty, during the time of her imprisonment there. At 
length she had gardens appointed for her walk, which was very comfort- 
able to her grace. But always, when she did recreate herself therein, the 
doors were fast locked up, in as strict manner as they were in the Tower, 
being at the least five or six locks between her lodging and her walks ; sir 
Henry himself keeping the keys, and trusting no man therewith. Where- 
upon she called him her jailer ; and he, kneeling down, desired her grace 
not to call him so, for he was appointed there to be one of her officers. 
"From such officers," quoth she, " good Lord deliver me!" Hearing 
upon a time out of her garden at Woodstock a certain milkmaid singing 
pleasantly, the said lady Elizabeth wished herself to be a milkmaid as she 
was ; saying, that her case was better, and life more merry than was hers, 
in that state as she was. 

After her grace had been there a time, she made suit to the council that 
she might be suffered to write to the queen ; which at last was permitted. 
So sir Henry Benifield brought her pen, ink, and paper ; and standing by 
her while she wrote, (which he straitly observed,) always, she being weary, 
he would carry away her letters, and bring them again when she called 
for them. In the finishing thereof, he would have been messenger to the 
queen of the same ; whose request her grace denied, saying, one of her 
own men should carry them ; and that she would neither trust him nor any 
of his therein. Then he answered again, saying, " None of them durst be 
so bold," he trowed, " to carry her letters, being in that case." " Yes," 
quoth she, " I am assured I have none so dishonest that would deny my 
request in that behalf, but will be willing to serve me now as before." 
" Well," said he, " my commission is to the contrary, and I may not 
so suffer it." Her grace, replying again, said, " You charge me very often 
with your commission; I pray God, you may justly answer the cruel deal- 
ing you use towards me." Then he, kneeling down, desired her grace to 
think and consider how he was a servant, and put in trust there by the 
queen to serve her majesty; protesting that if the case was hers, he would 
as willingly serve her grace, as now he did the queen's highness. For 
the which his answer her grace thanked him, desiring God that she might 
never have need of such servants as he was; declaring further to him, 
that his doings towards her were not good nor answerable; but more than 
all the friends he had would stand by. To whom sir Henry replied and 
said, that there was no remedy but his doings must be answered, and so 
they should, trusting to make good account thereof. The cause which 
moved her grace so to say, was for that he would not permit her letters to 
be carried four or five days after the writing thereof. But, in fine, he was 
content to send for her gentleman from the town of Woodstock, demand- 
ing of him whether he durst enterprise the carriage of her grace's letters to 
the queen, or no : and he answered, " Yea, sir, that I dare ; and will 
with all my heart :" whereupon sir Henry, half against his stomach, took 
them unto him. 

Then about the 8th of June came down Dr. Owen and Dr. Wendy, 
sent by the queen to her grace, for that she was sickly ; who, ministering 
to her, and letting her blood, tarried there and attended on her grace five 
or six days. Then she being well amended, they returned again to the 
court, making their good report to the queen and the council of her grace's 



PRESERVATION OF THE LADY ELIZABETH. 983 

behaviour and humbleness towards the queen's highness ; which her 
majesty hearing, took very thankfully : but the bishops thereat repined, 
looked black in the mouth, and told the queen, they marvelled that she 
submitted not herself to her majesty's mercy, considering that she had 
offended her highness. 

About this time, her grace was requested by a secret friend, to submit 
herself to the queen's majesty, which would be very well taken, and to her 
great quiet and commodity. Unto whom she answered, that she would 
never submit herself to them, whom she never offended. " For," quoth 
she, " if I have offended and am guilty, I then crave no mercy, but the 
law ; which I am certain," quoth she, " I should have had ere this, if it 
could be proved by me. For I know myself (I thank God) to be out of 
the danger thereof, wishing that I were as clear out the peril of my enemies ; 
and then I am assured I should not be so locked and bolted up within walls 
and doors as I am. God give them a better mind when it pleaseth him." 

About this time there was a great consulting among the bishops and 
gentlemen, touching a marriage for her grace, which some of the Spaniards 
wished to be with some stranger, that she might go out of the realm with 
her portion; some saying one thing-, and some another. A lord, who 
shall be here nameless, being there, at last said, that the king should never 
have any quiet commonwealth in England, unless her head were stricken 
from the shoulders. Whereunto the Spaniards answered, saying, God 
forbid that their king and master should have that mind, to consent to 
such a mischief. 

This was the courteous answer of the Spaniards to the Englishmen, 
speaking after that sort against their own country. From that day the 
Spaniards never left off their good persuasions to the king, that the like 
honour he should never obtain, as he should in delivering the lady Eliza- 
beth's grace out of prison ; whereby at length she was happily released 
from the same. Here is a plain and evident example of the good clemency 
and nature of the king and his councillors toward her grace (praised be 
God there-for !) who moved their hearts therein. Then hereupon she 
was sent for, shortly after, to come to Hampton Court. 

While the said lady Elizabeth was a prisoner in the Tower, a writ came 
down, subscribed with certain hands of the council, for her execution ; 
which, if it were certain, as it is reported, Winchester (no doubt) was de- 
viser of that mischievous drift. And, doubtless, the same Ahithophel had 
brought his impious purpose that day to pass, had not the fatherly provi- 
dence of Almighty God (who is always stronger than the devil) stirred up 
master Bridges, lieutenant the same time of the Tower, to come in haste to 
the queen, to give certificate thereof, and to know further her consent, 
touching her sister's death. Whereupon it followed, that all that device 
was disappointed, and Winchester's devilish platform, which he said he 
had cast, through the Lord's great goodness came to no effect. 

Now, after these things thus declared, to proceed further there where 
we left before, sir Henry Benifield and his soldiers, with the lord of Tame, 
and sir Ralph Chamberline, guarding and waiting upon her, the first night 
from Woodstock she came to Ricot ; in which journey such a mighty wind 
did blow, that her servants were fain to hold down her clothes about her : 
insomuch that her hood was twice or thrice blown from her head. Where- 



984 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

upon she, desiring to return to a certain gentleman's house there near, could 
not be suffered by sir Henry Benifield so to do, but was constrained, under 
a hedge, to trim her head as well as she could. After this, the next night 
they journeyed to master Dormer's, and so to Colnbrooke, where she lay 
all that night at the George ; and by the way, coming to Colnbrooke, 
certain of her grace's gentlemen and yeomen met her, to the number of 
three-score, much to all their comforts, which had not seen her grace of 
long season before : notwithstanding they were commanded, in the queen's 
name, immediately to depart the town, to both their and her grace's no 
little heaviness, who could not be suffered once to speak with them. So that 
night all her men were taken from her, saving her gentleman-usher, three 
gentlewomen, two grooms, and one of her wardrobe, the soldiers watching 
and warding about the house, and she close shut up within her prison. 

The next day following, her grace entered Hampton Court on the back 
side, into the prince's lodging, the doors being shut to her ; and she, 
guarded with soldiers as before, lay there a fortnight at the least, ere any 
had recourse unto her. At length came the lord William Haward, who 
marvellous honourably used her grace. Whereat she took much comfort, 
and requested him to be a mean that she might speak with some of the 
council ; to whom, not long after, came the bishop of Winchester, the lord 
of Arundel, the lord of Shrewsbury, and secretary Peter, who, with great 
humility, humbled themselves to her grace. She again, likewise, saluting 
them, said, " My lords, I am glad to see you : for methinks I have been 
kept a great while from you desolately, alone. Wherefore I would desire 
you to be a mean to the king and queen's majesties, that I may be delivered 
from prison, wherein I have been kept a long space, as to you, my lords, 
it is not unknown." 

When she had spoken, Stephen Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester, 
kneeled down, and requested that she would submit herself to the queen's 
grace; and in so doing he had no doubt but that her majesty would be 
good to her. She made answer, that rather than she would so do, she 
would lie in prison all the days of her life ; adding, that she craved no 
mercy at her majesty's hand, but rather desired the law, if ever she did 
offend her majesty in thought, word, or deed. " And besides this, in 
yielding," quoth she, " I should speak against myself, and confess myself 
to be an offender, which I never was, towards her majesty, by occasion 
whereof the king and the queen might ever hereafter conceive of me an 
evil opinion. And therefore I say, my lords, it were better for me to lie in 
prison for the truth, than to be abroad and suspected of my prince." And 
so they departed, promising to declare her message to the queen. 

On the next day the bishop of Winchester came again unto her grace, 
and kneeling down declared, that the queen marvelled that she would 
so stoutly use herself, not confessing that she had offended : so that it 
should seem that the queen's majesty had wrongfully imprisoned her grace. 
" Nay," quoth the lady Elizabeth, " it may please her to punish me as she 
thinketh good." "Well," quoth Gardiner, "her majesty willeth me to 
tell you, that you must tell another tale ere that you be set at liberty." 
Her grace answered, that she had as lieve be in prison with honesty and 
truth, as to be abroad suspected of her majesty : " and this that I have 
said, I will," said she, " stand unto ; for I will never belie myself." Win- 



PRESERVATION OF THE LADY ELIZABETH. 985 

Chester again kneeled down, and said, " Then your grace hath the vantage 
of me, and other the lords, for your wrong and long imprisonment." 
" What vantage I have," quoth she, u you know : taking God to record, 1 
seek no vantage at your hands for your so dealing with me ; but God for- 
give you and me also !" With that the rest kneeled, desiring her grace 
that all might be forgotten, and so departed, she being fast locked up again. 

A sevennight after, the queen sent for her grace, at ten of the clock in 
the night, to speak with her : for she had not seen her in two years before. 
Yet, for all that, she, amazed at the sudden sending for, thinking it had 
been worse than afterwards it proved, desired her gentlemen and gentle- 
women to pray for her ; for that she could not tell whether ever she should 
see them again or no. At which time sir Henry Benifield with mistress 
Clarencius coming in, her grace was brought into the garden, unto a stair's 
foot that went into the queen's lodging, her grace's gentlewomen waiting 
upon her, her gentleman-usher and her grooms going before with torches ; 
where her gentlemen and gentlewomen being commanded to stay all, saving 
one woman, mistress Clarencius conducted her to the queen's bed-chamber, 
where her majesty was. At the sight of whom her grace kneeled down, 
and desired God to preserve her majesty, not mistrusting but that she 
should try herself as true a subject towards her majesty, as ever did any ; 
and desired her majesty even so to judge of her : and said, that she should 
not find her to the contrary, whatsoever report otherwise had gone of her. 
To whom' the queen answered, "You will not confess your offence, but 
stand stoutly to your truth : I pray God it may so fall out." " If it doth 
not," quoth the lady Elizabeth, " I request neither favour nor pardon at 
your majesty's hands." " Well," said the queen, " you stiffly still persevere 
in your truth. Belike you will not confess but that you have been wrong- 
fully punished." " I must not say so, if it please your majesty, to you." 
" Why then," said the queen, " belike you will to others." " No, if it 
please your majesty," quoth she, " I have borne the burden, and must 
bear it. I humbly beseech your majesty to have a good opinion of me, 
and to think me to be your true subject, not only from the beginning 
hitherto, but for ever, as long as life lasteth." And so they departed with 
very few comfortable words of the queen in English : but what she said 
in Spanish, God knoweth. It is thought that king Philip was there 
behind a cloth, and that he showed himself a very friend in that matter. 

Thus her grace departing, went to her lodging again, and that day seven- 
night was released of sir Henry Benifield, (her jailer as she termed him,) and 
his soldiers. And so her grace being set at liberty from imprisonment, went 
into the country, and had appointed to go with her sir Thomas Pope, one 
of queen Mary's councillors, and one of her gentlemen-ushers, master Gage ; 
and thus straitly was she looked to, all queen Mary's time. And this is 
the discourse of her highness's imprisonment. 

After so great afflictions falling upon this realm from the first beginning 
of queen Mary's reign, we are come at length (the Lord be praised !) to 
the 17th day of November, which day as it brought to the persecuted 
members of Christ rest from their mourning, so it easeth me somewhat 
likewise of my laborious writing, by the death, I mean, of queen Marv ; 
who, being long sick before, upon the said 17th day of November, 1558, 



986 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

about three or four o'clock in the morning yielded life to nature, and her 
kingdom to queen Elizabeth her sister. As touching the manner of her 
death, some say that she died of a tympany, some (by her much sighing 
before her death) supposed she died of thought and sorrow. Whereupon 
her council, seeing her sighing, and desirous to know the cause that they 
might minister the more ready consolation, feared, as they said, that she 
took that thought for the king's majesty her husband, which was gone 
from her. To whom she said, " Indeed that may be one cause, but that 
is not the greatest wound that pierceth my oppressed mind :" but what 
that was she would not express to them. Albeit, afterward, she opened 
the matter more plainly to master Rise and mistress Clarencius (if it be 
true that they told me, which heard it of master Rise himself;) who being 
familiar with her and most bold about her, said also that they feared she 
took thought for king Philip's departing from her. " Not that only," 
said she; " but when I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying 
in my heart." 

Now forasmuch as queen Mary, during all the time of her reign, was 
such a vehement adversary and persecutor against the sincere professors 
of Christ Jesus and his gospel : for the which there be many which do 
highly magnify and approve her doings therein, reputing her religion to 
be sound and catholic, and her proceedings to be most acceptable and 
blessed to Almighty God : to the intent therefore that all men may 
understand how the blessing of God did not only not proceed with her 
proceedings, but contrariwise how his manifest displeasure ever wrought 
against her, in plaguing both her and her realm, and in subverting all her 
counsels and attempts, whatsoever she took in hand, we will bestow a 
little time therein. 

Gamaliel, speaking his mind in the council of the Pharisees, concerning 
Christ's religion, gave this reason : that if it were of God it should con- 
tinue, whosoever said nay ; if it were not, it could not stand. So may it 
be said of queen Mary and her Romish religion ; that if it were so perfect 
and catholic as they pretend, and the contrary faith of the gospellers so 
detestable and heretical as they make it, how cometh it then, that this so 
catholic a queen, such a necessary pillar of his spouse the church, con- 
tinued no longer, till she had utterly rooted out of the land this heretical 
generation ? yea, how chanced it rather, that Almighty God, to spare these 
poor heretics, rooted out queen Mary so soon from her throne, after she 
had reigned but only five years and five months? 

Now furthermore, how God blessed her ways and endeavours in the 
mean time, until she thus persecuted the true servants of God, remaineth 
to be discussed ; where this is first to be noted, that when she first began 
to stand for the title of the crown, and yet had wrought no resistance 
against Christ and his gospel, but had promised her faith to the Suffolk- 
men, to maintain the religion left by king Edward her brother, so long 
God went with her, advanced her, and, by the means of the gospellers, 
brought her to the possession of the realm. But after that she, breaking 
her promise with God and man, began to take part with Stephen Gardiner, 
and had given over her supremacy unto the pope, by-and-by God's bless- 
ing left her, neither did anything well thrive with her afterward, during 
the whole time of her regiment. 



UN PROSPEROUS ESS OF QUEEN MARY'S REIGN. 987 

For first, incontinently, the fairest and greatest ship she had, called 
Great Harry, was burnt ; such a vessel as in all these parts of Europe was 
not to be matched. Then would she needs bring in king Philip, and by 
her strange marriage with him, to make the whole realm of England sub- 
ject unto a stranger. And all that notwithstanding, (that she either did, 
or was able to do,) she could not bring to pass to set the crown of England 
upon his head. With king Philip also came in the pope and his popish 
mass ; with whom also her purpose was to restore again the monks and 
nuns unto their places ; neither lacked there all kind of attempts to the 
uttermost of her ability ; and yet therein also God stopped her of her will, 
that it came not forward. After this, what a dearth happened in her time 
here in her land ! the like whereof hath not lightly in England been seen, 
insomuch that in sundry places her poor subjects were fain to feed off 
acorns, for want of corn. Furthermore, where other kings are wont to be 
renowned by some worthy victory and prowess by them achieved, let us 
now see what valiant victory was gotten in this queen Mary's days. King 
Edward the sixth, her blessed brother, how many rebellions did he sup- 
press in Devonshire, in Norfolk, in Oxfordshire, and elsewhere ! What a 
famous victory in his time was gotten in Scotland, by the singular working 
(no doubt) of God's blessed hand, rather than by any expectation of man ! 
King Edward the third, (which was the eleventh king from the conquest,) 
by princely puissance purchased Calais unto England, which had been 
kept English ever since, till at length came queen Mary, the eleventh 
likewise from the said king Edward, which lost Calais from England again ; 
so that the winnings of this queen were very small — what the losses were 
let other men judge. 

Hitherto the affairs of queen Mary have had no great good success, as 
you have heard. But never worse success had any woman, than had she 
in her child-birth. For seeing one of these two must needs be granted, 
that either she was with child or not with child : if she were with child and 
did travail, why was it not seen ? if she were not, how was all the realm 
deluded ! And in the meanwhile, where were all the prayers, the solemn 
processions, the devout masses of the catholic clergy ? why did they not 
prevail with God, if their religion were so godly as they pretend ? If their 
masses, " ex opere operato," be able to fetch Christ from heaven, and to 
reach down to purgatory, how chanced then they could not reach to the 
queen's chamber, to help her in her travail, if she had been with child 
indeed ? if not, how then came it to pass, that all the catholic church of 
England did so err, and was so deeply deceived ? 

Queen Mary, after these manifold plagues and corrections, which might 
sufficiently admonish her of God's disfavour provoked against her, would 
not yet cease her persecution, but still continued more and more to revenge 
her catholic zeal upon the Lord's faithful people, setting fire to their poor 
bodies by half dozens and dozens together. Whereupon, God's wrathful 
indignation increasing more and more against her, ceased not to touch her 
more near with private misfortunes and calamities. For after that he had 
taken from her the fruit of children, (which chiefly and above all things 
she desired,) then he bereft her of that, which of all earthly things should 
have been her chief stay of honour, and staff of comfort, that is, withdrew 
from her the affection and company even of her own husband, by whose 



988 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

marriage she had promised before to herself whole heaps of such joy and 
felicity. But now the omnipotent Governor of all things so turned the 
wheel of her own spinning against her, that her high buildings of such 
joys and felicities came all to a castle-come-down ; her hopes being con- 
founded, her purposes disappointed, and she now brought to desolation ; 
who seemed neither to have the favour of God, nor the hearts of her sub- 
jects, nor yet the love of her husband ; who neither had fruit by him while 
she had him, neither could now enjoy him whom she had married, neither 
yet was at liberty to marry any other whom she might enjoy. Mark here, 
Christian reader, the woeful adversity of this queen, and learn withal what 
the Lord can do, when man's wilfulness will needs resist him, and will 
not be ruled. 

At last, when all these fair admonitions would take no place with the 
queen, nor move her to revoke her bloody laws, nor to stay the tyranny of 
her priests, nor yet to spare her own subjects, but that the poor servants 
of God were drawn daily by heaps most pitifully as sheep to the slaughter, 
it so pleased the heavenly majesty of Almighty God, when no other remedy 
would serve, by death to cut her off; which in her life so little regarded 
the life of others, giving her throne, which she abused to the destruction 
of Christ's church and people, to another, who more temperately and 
quietly could guide the same, after she had reigned here the space of 
five years and five months. The shortness of which years and reign, scarce 
we find in any other story of king or queen since the conquest or before, 
(being come to their own government,) save only in king Richard III. 

And thus much here, as in the closing up of this story, I thought to 
insinuate, touching the unlucky and rueful reign of queen Mary : not for 
any detraction to her place and state royal, whereunto she was called of 
the Lord, but to this only intent and effect : that forsomuch as she would 
needs set herself so confidently to work and strive against the Lord and 
his proceedings, all readers and rulers may not only see how the Lord did 
work against her there-for, but also by her may be advertised and learn 
what a perilous thing it is for men and women in authority, upon blind 
zeal and opinion, to stir up persecution in Christ's church, to the effusion 
of Christian blood, lest it prove in the end with them, (as it did here,) 
that while they think to persecute heretics, they stumble at the same stone 
as did the Jews, in persecuting Christ and his true members to death, to 
their own confusion and destruction. 

Leaving now queen Mary, being dead and gone, I come to them which 
under her were the chief ministers and doers of this persecution, the 
bishops and priests to whom the queen gave all the execution of her 
power, as did queen Alexandra to the Pharisees after the time of the 
Maccabees, of whom Josephus says : " She only retained to herself the 
name and title of the kingdom, but all her power she gave to the Pharisees 
to possess." Touching which prelates and priests here is to be noted in 
like sort the wonderful and miraculous providence of Almighty God, which 
as he abridged the reign of their queen, so he suffered them not to escape 
unvisited. First beginning with Stephen Gardiner, the arch-persecutor of 
Christ's church, whom he took away about the midst of the queen's reign, 
of whom sufficient hath been touched before. After him dropped others 
away also, some before the death of queen Mary, and some after ; as 



DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON PERSECUTORS. 989 

Morgan, bishop of St. David's, who sitting upon the condemnation of 
bishop Farrar, unjustly usurping his room, not long after was stricken by 
God's hand after such a strange sort, that his meat would not go down, 
but rise and pick up again, sometimes at his mouth, sometimes blown out 
at his nose, most horrible to behold ; and so he continued till his death. 
This foresaid bishop Morgan bringeth me also in remembrance of justice 
Morgan, who sat upon the death of the lady Jane, and not long after fell 
mad, and was bereft of his wits; and so died, having ever in his mouth, 
" Lady Jane, lady Jane !" 

Before the death of queen Mary died Dr. Dunning, the wretched 
chancellor of Norwich, who after he had most rigorously condemned and 
murdered so many simple and faithful saints of the Lord, died in Lincoln- 
shire, being suddenly taken, as some say, sitting in his chair. The like 
•sudden death fell also upon Berry, commissary in Norwich, as is before 
showed in the story of Thomas Hudson. Bishop Thornton, suffragan of 
Dover, after he had exercised his cruel tyranny upon so many godly men 
at Canterbury, coming upon a Saturday from the chapter-house at Canter- 
bury to Bourne, and there, upon the Sunday following, looking upon his 
men playing at the bowls, fell suddenly in a palsy, and so had to bed, was 
willed to remember God : " Yea, so I do," said he, " and my lord cardinal 
too." After him succeeded another bishop, ordained by the foresaid 
cardinal, who brake his neck falling down a pair of stairs in the cardinal's 
chamber at Greenwich, as he had received the cardinal's blessing. 

To these examples may be added the terrible judgment of God upon 
the parson at Crundale in Kent, of which read before. Not long before 
the death of queen Mary, died Dr. Capon, bishop of Salisbury ; and about 
the same time followed the unprepared death of Dr. Jeffrey, chancellor of 
Salisbury, who in the midst of his buildings, suddenly being taken by the 
mighty hand of God, yielded his life, which had so little pity of other 
men's lives before. Here is to be noted that the foresaid chancellor 
departing upon a Saturday, the next day before the same he had appointed 
to call before him ninety persons, and not so few, to examine them by 
inquisition ; had not the goodness of the Lord prevented him with death, 
providing for his poor servants in time. Such is the merciful dealing of 
the Almighty with his people, whom after he scourged a little, in his dis- 
pleasure, at length he burned the rod. 

And now to come from priests to laymen, we find in them also no less 
terrible demonstration of God's heavy judgment upon such as have been 
vexers and persecutors of his people. In the story of master Bradford, 
mention was made of master Woodroofe the sheriff, who used much to 
rejoice at the death of the poor saints in Christ; and so hard he was in his 
office, that when master Rogers was in the cart going toward Smithfield, 
and in the way his children were brought unto him, the people making a 
lane for them to come, master Woodroofe bade the carman's head should 
be broken, for staying his cart. But what happened ? He was not come 
out of his office the space of a week, but he was stricken by the sudden 
hand of God, the one half of his body ; in such sort, that he lay benumbed 
and bedridden, not able to move himself but as he was lifted of others ; 
and so continued in that infirmity the space of seven or eight years, till 
his dying day. 



990 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Likewise touching Ralph Lardin, the betrayer of George Eagles, it is 
thought of some, that the said Ralph afterward was attached himself, 
arraigned, and hanged ; who, being at the bar, had these words before 
the judges there, and a great multitude of people : " This is most justly 
fallen upon me," saith he, " for that I have betrayed the innocent blood 
of a good and just man, George Eagles, who was here condemned in the 
time of queen Mary's reign, through my procurement, who sold his blood 
for a little money." Not much unlike stroke of these severally was 
showed upon William Swallow of Chelmsford, and his wife; also upon 
Richard Potto, and justice Brown, cruel persecutors of the said George 
Eagles, concerning whose story read before. 

Alexander the keeper of Newgate, a cruel enemy to those that lay there 
for religion, died very miserably, being so swollen that he was more like a 
monster than a man, and so rotten within, that no man could abide the 
smell of him. This cruel wretch, to hasten the poor lambs to the slaughter, 
would go to Bonner, Storey, Cholmley, and others, crying out, " Rid my 
prison; rid my prison ! I am too much pestered with these heretics." 

The son of the said Alexander called James, having left unto him by his 
father great substance, within three years wasted all to nought : and when 
some marvelled how he spent those goods so fast, " Oh I" said he, " evil 
gotten, evil spent." And shortly after, as he went in Newgate-market, 
he fell down suddenly, and there wretchedly died. John Peter, son-in-law 
to this Alexander, and a horrible blasphemer of God, and no less cruel to 
the said prisoners, rotted away, and so most miserably died ; who com- 
monly when he would affirm anything, were it true or false, used to say, 
" If it be not true, I pray God I rot ere I die." — Witness the printer 
hereof, with divers others. 

And thus much concerning those persecutors, as well of the clergy-sort 
as of the laity, which were stricken, and died before the death of queen 
Mary. With whom also are to be numbered in the race of persecuting 
bishops, which died before queen Mary, these bishops following : Cotes, 
bishop of Chester ; Parfew, bishop of Hereford ; Glyn, bishop of Bangor ; 
Brookes, bishop of Gloucester ; King, bishop of Tame ; Petow, elect of 
Salisbury ; Day, bishop of Chichester ; Holyman, bishop of Bristol. 

Now, after the queen, immediately following, or rather waited upon 
her, the death of cardinal Pole, who the next day departed : of what 
disease, although it be uncertain to many, yet by some it is suspected, 
that he took some Italian physic, which did him no good. Then followed 
these bishops in order : John Christopherson, bishop of Chichester ; 
Hopton, bishop of Norwich ; Morgan, bishop of St. David's ; John White, 
bishop of Winchester ; Ralph Bayne, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; 
Owen Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle ; Cuthbert Tonstall, bishop of 
Durham ; Thomas Reynolds, elect of Hereford, after his deprivation died 
in prison. Besides these bishops, first died at the same time, Dr. 
Weston, dean of Westminster, afterwards dean of Windsor ; chief disputer 
against Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. Master Slethurst, master of 
Trinity college in Oxford, who died in the Tower. Seth Holland, dean of 
Worcester, and warden of All Souls' college in Oxford. William Cobinger, 
monk of Westminster, who bare the great seal before Stephen Gardiner, 
after the death of the said Gardiner made himself monk in the house of 



DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON PERSECUTORS. 991 

Westminster ; and shortly after fell mad, and died in the Tower. Dr. 
Steward, dean of Winchester. 

To behold the working of God's judgments, it is wondrous. In the 
first year of queen Mary, when the clergy were assembled in the Convoca- 
tion-house, and also afterward, when the disputation was in Oxford against 
Drs. Cranmer and Ridley, and master Latimer, he that had seen then Dr. 
Weston the prolocutor in his ruff, how highly he took upon him in the 
schools, and how stoutly he stood in the pope's quarrel against simple 
and naked truth, full little would have thought, and less did he think 
himself, I dare say, that his glory and lofty looks should have been 
brought down so soon, especially by them of his own religion, whose part 
he so doughtily defended. 

But such is the reward and end commonly of them who presump- 
tuously oppose themselves to strive against the Lord, as by the example 
of this doctorly prolocutor right well may appear. For not long after the 
disputation above mentioned against bishop Cranmer and his fellows, God 
so wrought against the said Dr. Weston, that he fell in great displeasure 
with cardinal Pole and other bishops, because he was unwilling to give up 
his deanery, and house of Westminster, unto the monks and religious men, 
whom indeed he favoured not, although in other things he maintained the 
church of Rome : who notwithstanding, at last, through importunate suit, 
gave up Westminster, and was dean of Windsor ; where, not long after, 
he was apprehended in adultery, and for the same was by the cardinal 
put from all his spiritual livings. Wherefore he appealed to Rome, and 
purposed to have fled out of the realm, but was taken by the way, and 
committed to the Tower of London ; and there remained until queen 
Elizabeth was proclaimed queen, at which time he being delivered, fell 
sick and died. The common talk was, that if he had not so suddenly 
ended his life, he would have opened and revealed the purpose of the chief 
of the clergy, (meaning the cardinal,) which was to have taken up king 
Henry's body at Windsor, and to have burned it. And thus much of 
Dr. Weston. The residue that remained of the persecuting clergy, and 
escaped the stroke of death, were deprived, and committed to prisons. 

Concerning Dr. Chedsey here is to be noted, that in the beginning of 
king Edward's reign, he recanted, and subscribed to thirty-four articles, 
wherein he then fully consented and agreed, with his own handwriting, to 
the whole form of doctrine approved and allowed then in the church, as 
well concerning justification by faith only, as also the doctrine of the two 
sacraments then received; denying as well the pope's supremacy, transub- 
stantiation, purgatory, invocation of saints, elevation and adoration of the 
sacrament, the sacrifice and veneration of the mass, as also all other like 
excrements of popish superstition, according to the king's book then set forth. 

Wherefore the more marvel it is, that he, being counted such a famous 
and learned clerk, would show himself so fickle and unstable in his asser- 
tions, so double in his doings, to alter his religion according to time, and 
to maintain for truth, not what he thought best, but what he might most 
safely defend. So long as the state of the lord protector and of his 
brother stood upright, what was then the conformity of this Dr. Chedsey, 
his own articles in Latin, written and subscribed with his own hand, do 
declare, which I have to show, if he will deny them. But after the decay 



992 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

of the king's uncles, the fortune of them turned not so fast, but his religion 
turned withal; and eftsoons he took upon him to dispute against Peter 
Martyr, in upholding transubstantiation at Oxford, which, a little before, 
with his own handwriting he had overthrown. After this ensued the time 
of queen Mary, wherein Dr. Chedsey, to show his double diligence, was 
so eager in his commission to sit in judgment, and to bring poor men to 
their death, that in the last year of queen Mary, when the lord chancellor, 
sir Thomas Cornwallis, lord Clinton, and divers other of the council had 
sent for him, by a special letter, to repair unto London out of Essex, he, 
writing again to the bishop of London, sought means not to come at the 
council's bidding, but to continue still in his persecuting progress. The 
copy of whose letter I have also in my hands, if need were, to bring forth. 

To these add also the stinking death of Edmund Bonner, commonly 
named the bloody bishop of London ; who, not many years ago, in the 
time and reign of queen Elizabeth, after he had long feasted and banqueted 
in durance at the Marshalsea, as he wretchedly died in his blind popery, 
so as strikingly and blindly, at midnight, was he brought out and buried 
in the outside of all the city, amongst thieves and murderers, a place right 
convenient for such a murderer ; with confusion and derision both of men 
and children, who, trampling upon his grave, well declared how he was 
hated both of God and man. What else be all these, I say, but plain 
visible arguments, testimonies, and demonstrations even from heaven, 
against the pope, his murdering religion, and his bloody doctrine? For 
who can deny their doings not to be good, whose end is so evil? If Christ 
bid us to know men by their fruits, and especially seeing by the end all 
things are to be tried, how can the profession of that doctrine please God, 
which endeth so ungodly ? Esaias, prophesying of the end of God's 
enemies, which would needs walk in the light of their own setting up, 
and not in the light of the Lord's kindling, threateneth to them this final 
malediction, " In doloribus," saith he, " dormietis;" i.e. " In sorrow shall 
ye sleep." Innumerable examples more to the same effect might be 
added, but these may suffice, which I here notify unto the children of the 
murdering mother church of Rome, (of whom it may well be said, " Your 
hands be full of blood,") to the intent that they by the example of their 
fellows may be admonished to follow the prophet's counsel, " Be you 
washed, and make yourselves clean," etc ; and not to presume too far 
upon their own security, nor think themselves the further off from God's 
hand, because man's hand forbeareth them. 

I know and grant, that man hath no further power upon any than God 
from above doth give. And what the laws of this realm could make 
against them, as against open murderers, I will not here discuss, because 
they shall not say that we desire their blood to be spilt, but rather to be 
spared ; but yet this I say, and wish them well to understand, that the 
sparing of their lives which have been murderers of so many is not for 
want of power in magistrates, nor for lack of any just law against them, 
whereby they might justly have been condemned; but because Almighty 
God peradventure in his secret purpose, having something to do with these 
persecutors, hath spared them hitherto ; not that they should escape un- 
punished, but that he will take his own cause into his own hand, either 
by death to take them away, (as he did by Bonner and others,) or else to 



SETTLING OF RELIGION IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 993 

make them persecute themselves ; or stir up their consciences to their own 
confusion, in such sort as the church shall have no need to lay any hands 
upon them. Wherefore with this short admonition to close up the matter, 
I wish all whom God's lenity suffereth yet to live wisely to ponder with 
themselves, that as their cruel persecution hurteth not the saints of God, 
whom they have put to death, so the patience of Christ's church suffering 
them to live doth not profit them, but rather heapeth the greater judgment 
of God upon them in the day of wrath, unless they repent in time, which 
I pray God they may. 

And now to re-enter again to the time of queen Elizabeth. It cannot 
sufficiently be expressed what felicity and blessed happiness this realm 
hath received in receiving her at the Lord's almighty and gracious hand ; 
whose coming in was not only so calm, so joyful, and so peaceable, with- 
out shedding any blood, but also her reign, during the first twenty-four 
years and more, so quiet, that all that time her sword was spotted and 
polluted with no drop of blood. In commendation of her clemency also, 
here might be added how mildly her grace forgave the foresaid sir Henry 
Benifield, suffering him to enjoy goods, life, lands, and liberty. 

Towards the end of March, 1559, a conference was held by command 
of the queen's most excellent majesty at Westminster, between the papists 
and the protestants ; eight persons, that is to say, four bishops and four 
doctors, being appointed on either side. The matter of the conference 
was comprehended in these three propositions : 1. It is against the word 
of God, and the custom of the ancient church, to use a tongue unknown 
to the people, in common prayers, and the administration of the sacra- 
ments. 2. Every church hath authority to appoint, take away, and 
change ceremonies and ecclesiastical rites, so the same be to edification. 
3. It cannot be proved by the word of God, that there is, in the mass, 
offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the quick and the dead. 

About this time also was a parliament summoned at Westminster, 
wherein was much debating about matters touching religion ; and although 
some diversity there was of judgment and opinion between parties, yet, 
notwithstanding, through the merciful goodness of the Lord, the true cause 
of the gospel had the upper hand, the papists' hope was frustrate, and 
their rage abated, the order and proceedings of king Edward's time con- 
cerning religion were revived again, the supremacy of the pope abolished, 
the articles and bloody statutes of queen Mary repealed ; briefly, the 
furious firebrands of cruel persecution, which had consumed so many poor 
men's bodies, were now extinct and quenched. 

Finally, the old bishops were deposed, for that they refused the oath in 
renouncing the pope, and not subscribing to the queen's just and lawful 
title : in whose rooms and places, first for cardinal Pole succeeded Dr. 
Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury. In the place of Heath suc- 
ceeded Dr. Young. Instead of Bonner, Edmund Grindall was bishop of 
London. For Hopton, Thirlby, Tonstall, Pates, Christopherson, Petow, 
Cotes, Morgan, Voysey, White, Oglethorpe, etc., were placed Dr. John 
Parkhurst in Norwich, Dr. Coxe in Ely, Jewell in Salisbury, Pilkinton in 
Durham, Dr. Sands in Worcester, master Downham in West-Chester, 
Bentham in Coventry and Lichfield, Davies in St. David's, Alley in 

3 s 



i 



994 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

Exeter, Home in Winchester, Scory in Hereford, Best in Carlisle, 
Bullingham in Lincoln, Scam bier in Peterborough, Barkley in Bath, 
Guest in Rochester, Barlow in Chichester, etc. 

And now to conclude, good Christian reader, this present tractation, not 
for lack of matter, but to shorten rather the matter for largeness of the 
volume, I here stay for this present time, without further addition of more 
discourse, either to overweary thee with longer tediousness, or overcharge 
the book with longer prolixity ; having hitherto set forth the acts and 
proceedings of the whole church of Christ, namely, of the church of 
England, although not in such particular perfection, that nothing hath 
overpassed us ; yet in such general sufficiency, that I trust not very much 
hath escaped us, necessary to be known, touching the principal affairs, 
doings, and proceedings of the church and churchmen. Wherein may be 
seen the whole state, order, descent, course, and continuance of the same, 
the increase and decrease of true religion, the creeping in of superstition, 
the horrible troubles of persecution, the wonderful assistance of the 
Almighty in maintaining his truth, the glorious constancy of Christ's 
martyrs, the rage of the enemies, the alteration of times, the travails and 
troubles of the church, from the first primitive age of Christ's gospel, to 
the end of queen Mary, and the beginning of this our gracious queen 
Elizabeth. During the time of her happy reign, which hath hitherto con- 
tinued (through the gracious protection of the Lord) the space now of 
twenty-four years, as my wish is, so I would be glad the good will of the 
Lord were so, that no more matter of such lamentable stories may ever be 
offered hereafter to write upon. But so it is, I cannot tell how, the elder 
the world waxeth, the longer it continueth, the nearer it hasteneth to its 
end, the more Satan rageth ; giving still new matter of writing books and 
volumes : insomuch that if all were recorded and committed to history, 
that within the said compass of this queen's reign hitherto hath happened, 
in Scotland, Flanders, France, Spain, Germany, besides this our own 
country of England and Ireland, with other countries more, I verily 
suppose one Eusebius, or Polyhistor, which Pliny writeth of, would not 
suffice thereunto. 

But of these incidents and occurrents hereafter more, as it shall please 
the Lord to give grace and space. In the mean time, the grace of the 
Lord Jesus work with thee, gentle reader, in all thy studious readings. 
And while thou hast space, so employ thyself to read, that by reading 
thou mayest learn daily to know that which may profit thy soul, may 
teach thee experience, may arm thee with patience, and instruct thee 
in all spiritual knowledge more and more to thy perpetual comfort 
and salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord ; to whom be glory in secula 
seculorum. Amen. 



APPENDIX, 



SECTION I. 

MASSACRES IN THE VALTELINE, AND CRUEL PERSECUTIONS OF THE 
FAITHFUL IN DIVERS OTHER PLACES. 

In 1620, a dreadful massacre occurred in the Valteline, a fertile valley of 
Switzerland, inhabited chiefly by Roman catholics. The ringleaders entered 
the valley one night about six o'clock, taking care that all the ways and pas- 
sages were well guarded, that their bloody purpose might not be defeated. 
Four muskets were discharged before the palace of the seignior Podesta, 
principal magistrate of Tyrane, and the great bell rung, upon which signal 
the inhabitants took the alarm, and made toward the palace. The murderers 
then ordered the bridge to be broken which lay towards Bruce, and there 
planted a strong guard : all this was done before day. At dawn of day 
the bells rang another peal at the church of Marello. The wretches 
ranged themselves together, so that when the protestants, without fear or 
suspicion, came out of their houses to see what was the matter, they were 
instantly shot. Others by force entered the houses, dragged their victims 
from their beds, and slew them. One poor gentleman hid himself in a 
garret, but the villains finding him threw him out of window, and after- 
wards dispatched him with the blow of a club. Antonia de Salva, chan- 
cellor in that valley, a man of great authority, was dragged out of his 
house, and shot. The governor of Teglio, a man of great worth, very 
learned and skilled in many languages, being by chance at Tyrane, was 
also with his servant strangled, in the chamber where he was found. 

The pastor of the church of Tyrane, and the pastor of Marello, withdrew 
themselves into a hall, where they were discovered and murdered. The 
wretches cut off the head of the former, and carried it into the church, 
fixing it upon a pole in the pulpit where he used to preach. The palace 
of the chequer of Tyrane was besieged, John de Cappaul being at that time 
governor. The chancellor Michael Lazarone was hated by the papists for 
his piety, and pursued even thither by these hell-hounds, who threatened to 
fire the palace, unless he were delivered into their hands. Lazarone, see- 
ing that, secretly left the house in the evening, and hid himself about the 
banks of the river Adda, wherein he covered himself, and lay close three 
hours. His enemies, however, at length found him, and dragged him out 
of the water ; and though in tears he begged for his life, in consideration 
of his children, they answered, that this was no time for pity and favour : 
but if he would swear by the pope's bull, and abjure his faith, they would 
grant him his life. He answered, " God forbid that I, for the love of this 
temporal life, should deny my Lord Jesus Christ, who with his precious 



906 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

blood, did at so dear a rate redeem me. I say, God forbid!" Upon 
this they immediately murdered him. 

The same evening-, the gate of the palace was burnt to the ground by 
these rebels, who the next morning entered into it, raging with fury, and 
took the governor prisoner, with his young son ; spoiling and maiming 
wives and maidens, and carrying away all they could lay hands on. 
The governor was taken away, and after he had remained a long time 
prisoner, was shot. In endeavouring to resist, one John Antonio 
Mazano and his wife defending him, was with herself and two young 
children cruelly killed. John Antonio Schlosser, a Gardonese, having 
made long resistance, and killed one of the rebels, was at last taken, 
tied to a tree, and shot. In brief, these rebels had regard to neither 
young, old, weak, or strong, many of all sorts were either shot to death, 
or cut in pieces, or in one manner or other destroyed. 

The ladies who were not slain, were constrained to change their reli- 
gion, and to go to mass, except the wife of the Lazarone and her 
daughters, and niece, who by the assistance of Almighty God continued 
in safety. On the 8th of August, these were released, and retired them- 
selves into Retia, leaving behind them in the Valteline one daughter 
and two young sons, who could not obtain leave to depart the country. 

At the massacre of Teglio were murdered about sixty persons. A 
number of wicked wretches, apparelled in red cassocks, and well mounted 
on horseback, marched in the morning to Tellat, at the hour w r hen the 
sermon was, and ran like wolves to the Volta church ; the protestants who 
were assembled, observing the evil intention of those villains, arose sud- 
denly from their seats, endeavoured to shut the door, and to barricade 
the place with the benches. They without laboured with all their 
power to enter the church; but not being able so speedily to do it, some 
climbed up into the windows, and discharged their muskets among the 
people without respect of any person, and killed many. At last they 
opened the door, entered, and slew all they found, except a few who 
promised to go to mass. Some of the men and women with their chil- 
dren fled into the belfry to save themselves ; but they set fire to the 
place, and burnt all that were within. 

At the massacre at Sondres, in the mountain of Sondrium and Malenk, 
were left dead about one hundred and forty persons. Annaidai Lita, 
wife of Anthoni Grotti, of Chio, in the territory of Vincentine, of an 
honourable and ancient house, was come out of Italy but a few years 
before for the liberty of her conscience. She was first exhorted to change 
her religion; but constantly persevering therein, she was admonished to 
have a care of her young infant which she held in her arms, being about 
two months old; otherwise she and her babe too should die: but with 
an undaunted courage she answered, that she had not departed from her 
native country, neither had she forsaken all the estate she had, to renounce 
at last that faith which had been inspired into her by the Lord Jesus 
Christ. " And how" — said she — " should I have regard in this cause of 
my infant, since God spared not his only Son, but delivered him up to 
death for the love of me and of all sinners?" Then giving them the 
child, she said — "Behold the child! the Lord God, who hath the care 
of the birds of the air, will much more be able to save this poor creature, 



ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL MARTYRS. 997 

although by you it were left in those wild mountains." So unlacing her 
gown, she said — " Here is the body which you have power to kill ; but 
my soul, on which you have no power to lay hands, that I commend to 
my God." Immediately she was cut in pieces, being thirty-five years of 
age. The infant, because it was a lovely babe to look on, was suffered 
to live, and was delivered to a popish woman to nurse. The husband 
of this gentlewoman was murdered for the faith a little before. 

Some women were by force taken up to the tops of high and craggy 
mountains, and threatened to be thrown down headlong with their chil- 
dren, unless they would go to mass. And yet those that were moved 
and terrified with the horrors of death, and had consented to change 
their religion, yet were they murdered for all that without any pity at all. 
An aged man of sixty-seven years was set upon an ass, his face turned 
to the tail, which he held in his hand instead of a bridle, and in his 
other hand a book, whom in this manner they carried through Sondres. 
Then they cut off his ears, nose and cheeks, boring holes into divers parts 
of his body, with a strange and unparalleled barbarity, until they had 
quite killed him. 

Anthony de Prati, of the hills, was exhorted with many words to 
abjure his religion; but he refused with all the constancy of a martyr, and 
made a most powerful impression on all who witnessed his courage and 
calmness in his dying moments, calculated to establish them the more firmly 
in their most holy faith. They were astonished, and gave glory to God, 
publicly bearing witness of the martyr's triumphant end. Paulo Beretta, 
of Chio, in the province of Vicence, aged seventy-five years, a maiden lady 
of a noble and ancient family, who came twenty-seven years before to 
Sondres to embrace the gospel, was carried through Sondres in scorn, 
having a mitre of paper on her head, her face besmeared with dirt, and 
many buffets given on her cheeks. Being required to call upon the holy 
virgin and the saints, and to place her trust in them, she smiling readily 
answered them — "My trust and my salvation is in my Saviour Jesus 
Christ, and in him only will 1 trust." At last she was carried away to be 
sent to Milan. On the eighteenth of July an elderly woman was found 
murdered in the highway, in the plain of St. Gregory, in the Valteline, 
which was conjectured to be the body of this gentlewoman. 

Many hid themselves in dens, and caves, and woods, out of which 
they durst not come but by night to get some food, and that with great 
fear and terror, on account of the watching of the enemy, while others 
for want of convenient food to eat, and others that fed only upon roots, 
leaves, and grass, made an end of their lives ; and many were murdered 
in divers places, who had no burial at all ; so that several carcases were 
to be seen in groves and woods in the mountains, and in the waters in 
many places. At the massacre of Berbonne, were slain about eleven 
persons. And likewise at Caspano and Trahorn, about the same num- 
ber; one of them, a tradesman, being discovered by his countrymen 
and kindred, was taken and carried to Morbegnio, and burnt, being 
sixty years old. 

Giovan Pietro Malacrida, although he was little of stature, yet was 
he great and mighty in his confession of the truth, insomuch that for 
the love of his Saviour he suffered death with singular cheerfulness 



£93 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

being forty years of age. His example was devoutly and constantly 
imitated by Elizabeth his wife, who was killed in the thirty-eighth year 
of her age: and moreover these murderers not therewith content, ob- 
serving a daughter of hers, an infant of three years old, to lie in the 
cradle, they took the innocent babe by the feet, and dashed out her 
brains against the wall. Upon impartial investigation it every way appears, 
that these several persons underwent their sufferings for the truth of the 
gospel, and were honest and faithful martyrs of Christ. 



SECTION II. 



ATTEMPTS OF THE PAPISTS TO OVERTURN THE PROTESTANT GOVERNMENT 
—THE GUNPOWDER PLOT— HORRIBLE MASSACRES IN IRELAND. 

Returning to our own country, we observe with much gratitude the 
auspicious measures commencing the reign of Elizabeth. The secure 
establishment of this princess on the throne of England, put a stop to 
the rage of the papists ; for the authority of the pope vanished, and 
peace and liberty rested on the nation. But the papists thought it a 
sin to live peaceably under a heretical princess, especially one against 
whom two popes had thundered out excommunications, freeing her sub- 
jects from their allegiance, and threatening them with the wrath of God 
if they did assist her, and promising rewards to all persons who 
should lay hands upon her, which was to be paid out of the church, with 
full pardon of all their sins. But when they saw that the queen's sub- 
jects were too faithful to engage in any such villanous designs, they 
then proceeded to secret plots, as that wherein the duke of Norfolk and 
Robert Biddulph were engaged, in 1566, and for which the Duke suf- 
fered at York. In 1578, the invasion of Ireland, at the charge of the 
pope, was happily prevented. The next year James Fitz Morris was sent 
into Ireland, with Saunders the Jesuit, who carried consecrated banners 
to them. The year following San Joseph was sent thither with 700 
Spanish soldiers, and the pope's promise of a million of crowns, to 
carry on the work of rebellion ; and to them joined the earl of Desmond 
and his brothers; but they being all happily defeated, they next con- 
spired the death of the queen, and made several attempts to murder 
her; first by Somervile and Hall, two priests; one of whom being con- 
demned, was found murdered for fear he should discover others. After 
this followed the devices of Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, with 
Throgmorton and Parry, who had letters, with plenary pardon, sent 
them by the pope for killing the queen. The same year, Savage and 
Babington, engaged to commit the like wicked act, by procurement of 
Ballard a Jesuit; but being happily discovered, were condemned and exe- 
cuted, and were registered for martyrs in the Romish Calendar. Stafford 
and Moody were dealt withal to commit the like villany, proposing to 
lay a bag of gun-powder under the queen's bed-chamber, which, by 
the mercy of heaven, was detected, as well as all the other plots. 



POPISH CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE QUEEN. 999 

These schemes providentially failing, the pope instigated Philip II. of 
Spain to invade England, though in queen Mary's time he had affected great 
kindness towards the princess Elizabeth. For this purpose the pope fur- 
nished him with a consecrated banner, and fresh bulls for excommunicating 
the queen as a heretic, publishing a crusade against her, and absolving her 
subjects from their oath of allegiance. Philip equipped a most formidable 
armament, which the Spaniards, proud of their power and elated with the 
vain hopes of victory, named the Invincible Armada. It consisted of one 
hundred and thirty sail of ships, containing 57,808 tons, wherein were 
engaged 8,350 seamen, 19.290 soldiers, and two thousand and eighty galley 
slaves, besides gentlemen and volunteers in abundance; so that scarce 
a family in Spain but had either a son, brother, or cousin in the fleet. 
There were likewise on board 2,340 cannon, with powder, bullets, match, 
muskets, pikes, spears, swords, knives, daggers, chains, and whips, to 
torment and murder English protestants ; and with them came swarms 
of capuchins, mendicants, and Jesuits. There lay in Flanders 50,000 
old soldiers, with 288 vessels ready to transport them, under the duke 
of Parma; all the king of Spain's best soldiers, even as far as America, 
being drawn forth for this boasted crusade. The whole of the expedi- 
tion cost the Spaniards twelve millions of crowns; added to which the 
pope contributed a million of gold. But the mercy of God defended 
England, discomfiting this mighty armada, and driving it back with 
shame, loss, and confusion; so that of 134 ships which sailed out of 
Lisbon, only thirty eight returned; the Spaniards losing in this voyage 
eighty-one ships, 13,500 soldiers, and 2000 more taken prisoners in 
England, Ireland, and the Low-Countries: the rest of the navy being 
destroyed by the English and Dutch, the seas, rocks, sands, and tem- 
pests, all seeming to conspire to defeat this insolent attempt. 

Yet these people no sooner recovered breath, than they sent over new 
commissioners and emissaries disguised in all shapes into England, with 
new contrivances. Lopez and his confederates, Cullen, York, "Williams, 
Squire, Hesket, all entered into a conspiracy to kill the queen, being 
encouraged by the Jesuits and the Spanish ministers of state. These 
proving abortive, in 1599 the earl of Tyrone made a new rebellion in 
Ireland, having the same pardons to offer as were given by the popes to 
those who fight against the Turks. And in 1601, the king of Spain 
sent a great fleet to the same country, to assist the rebels. But notwith- 
standing all these designs, Elizabeth having outlived four kings and 
eight popes, died in a good old age. She had previously intimated her 
desire that the king of Scotland should succeed her, in which the whole 
nation seemed to concur. He mounted to the English throne with the 
title of James 1st. He was the son of Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, and 
Mary, queen of Scots, the only child of James V. of Scotland, son of 
James IV. and Margaret his queen, who was the eldest daughter of 
Henry VII. king of England. He arrived at the Charterhouse, in Lon- 
don, May 7th, and was crowned at Westminster, July 25th, 1603. 

Among subsequent efforts to overturn the reformed government, the 
gunpowder conspiracy is the most signal. The chief persons concerned 
in this diabolical plot were Robert Catesby, a gentleman of Northamp- 



1000 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

tonshire ; Thomas Percy, the earl of Northumberland's cousin ; John 
Grant, Ambrose Rockwood, John and Christopher Wright, Francis 
Tresham, Guy Fawkes, Sir Everard Digby, Robert and Thomas Winter 
Thomas Bates, and Robert Keyes. Some of these consulting together 
at their first meeting how they might restore the popish religion in Eng- 
land, Percy, one of the most zealous, proposed to kill the king, and 
offered to perform it himself. To whom Catesby answered, that if the 
king was taken off, there were still two young princes and princesses, 
with the greatest part of the nobility and gentry, devoted to the pro- 
testant religion; and unless these were involved in the same fate with 
the king, they should render their condition rather worse than better, 
by attempting his majesty's life only. He proposed therefore the 
blowing up the king, queen, and prince, with both the houses of lords 
and commons, at the next assembly of the parliament, when the king 
should come to the house, to make his speech, at the opening of the 
sessions. This being approved by the rest as a most glorious undertaking, 
it was resolved to put it into execution ; but some, scrupling the law- 
fulness of committing so terrible a slaughter on a religious account, they 
agreed, before they proceeded in it, to ask the opinion of their confes- 
sors ; whereupon Henry Garnet, the superior, with Oswald Tesmond 
and John Gerard, two other priests of the Jesuits' order, were consulted ; 
who did not only declare the enterprise lawful, but applauded the design 
as just, and even pious ; since it was to be executed upon excommuni- 
cated heretics. 

An oath of secrecy was then taken by the conspirators; and mass 
being celebrated by Gerard, they also took the sacrament to be true to 
each other, and promote the plot with all their powers; after which, 
Percy took a house adjoining to the house of lords, from whence they 
proposed to dig a mine under it, which would contain a sufficient quan- 
tity of gunpowder to blowup the whole building; and they began to 
work on their mine about Christmas 1604. But the parliament being 
prorogued, first to February, then to October, and again to the 5th of 
November, 1605, they had time enough, or rather too much, to effect 
their design, though they were obliged to dig through the foundation 
of a very thick wall. When the conspirators had almost conquered this 
difficulty, they were surprised to hear a noise and the talking of people 
near the place where they were at work, and began to conclude they 
were discovered ; but sending out Guy Faukes for intelligence, he 
brought them word, that the voices they had heard were in an adjoining 
cellar, where coals were exposed to sale; and that it was exactly under 
the house of lords, and now offered to be let. Whereupon Percy went 
immediately and hired it, putting thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into 
it, which he had imported from Holland, and covered them with coals 
and fagots. 

Having thus provided for their grand design, it was considered that 
though the king and prince might be taken off by this means, yet the 
duke of York and princess Elizabeth would be out of their power; and 
consequently the success of their enterprize would still be very doubtful : 
but Percy being one of the band of pensioners, and well acquainted with 
the palace, undertook to secure the duke of York; and it was looked 



LETTER TO LORD MO NT EAGLE. 1001 

upon as no difficult matter to surprise the princess, who resided at the 
lord Harrington's, in Warwickshire, under a pretence of a hunting 
match. It was next considered, what money and horses they could raise 
towards efTectino; their purpose: whereupon Digby promised fifteen 
hundred pounds, Tresham two hundred, Percy the rents of Northumber- 
land, which he was empowered to receive, and computed they would 
amount to 4000/. He also engaged to provide ten horses from the same 
quarter; and the rest of the conspirators promised to raise what money 
and troops they could, that they might be able to make a stand, and 
encourage their friends to take arms in defence of their religion, when 
the great blow was given. It was debated also, whether they should 
require the assistance of any princes of their communion; but it was 
thought necessary to defer this till after the act was committed, lest 
the plot should be discovered by being communicated to too many. 
It was resolved to proclaim the princess Elizabeth queen, when they 
had assembled their troops, a proclamation being drawn up with this 
view, in which they made no mention of the intended alteration of reli- 
gion; this being agreed to be deferred till their forces should be joined 
by some of the catholic powers. In the mean time, they resolved to 
charge the Puritans with the destruction that was intended : and it is 
supposed they designed to assassinate the duke of York, by their pro- 
mising to proclaim the princess Elizabeth. 

The conspirators having thus formed their scheme, and proceeded so 
far in the execution of it, there remained little more for them to do, than 
to set fire to the train they had laid for blowing up the king, the queen 
the prince, the nobility, and the representatives of a great and flour- 
ishing people. When, on a sudden, an unaccountable fit of tenderness 
seized one of the party, who, by his endeavouring to rescue a friend, lord 
Monteagle, from this unparalleled destruction, discovered the design. 
The following is a copy of the letter which was sent about ten days be- 
fore the meeting of parliament. 

"My lord, 

Out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have regard to your 
pi iservation ; therefore would advise you, as you tender your life, to 
invent some excuse to put off your attendance at this parliament; for 
God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of these times. 
Think not slightly of this advice, but retire yourself into the country, 
where you may expect the event in safety ; for though there be no ap- 
pearance of any stir, yet, I say. they shall receive a terrible blow in this 
parliament, and shall not see who they are that hurt ihem. This coun- 
sel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good, and can do 
you no harm, for the danger is past, as soon as you have burnt the letter: 
and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it. To 
whose holy protection I commit you." 

His lordship carried the letter, the same evening he received it, to 
secretary Cecil ; who communicated it to some other members of the 
council; but they did not think it of that consequence, to make any 
inquiries about the matter, till the king should return from Rovston, 
where he was £one to hunt : he did not return till the last dav of October. 



1002 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

The next day this letter was shewn to his majesty; who, upon perusing 
it, said, he did not tnink it was to be contemned : to which Cecil an- 
swered, he was of opinion, that it was written either by a fool or a 
madman, by that expression in it — " The danger is past, as soon as you 
have burnt the letter:" for, he observed, the warning given by it could 
be of no use, if the burning the letter would remove the danger ; but 
the king interpreted it, That the danger would be over in as little time 
as he could burn the letter ; having great regard to that passage, 
" They should receive a terrible blow this parliament," and yet, "should 
not see who hurt them." Which sudden blow, he apprehended, would 
be the effect of gunpowder; and therefore ordered all the cellars, and 
all other places near the parliament house, to be searched. The earl of 
Suffolk, who was then lord-chamberlain, and whose proper place it was 
to see all places prepared for the king's reception, put off the search till 
the day before the meeting of parliament ; and then, taking the lord 
Monteagle with him, viewed all the rooms about the parliament-house, 
and particularly the cellar under the house of lords ; which he found 
full of wood and coals ; and having inquired who it belonged to, was 
answered, to lord Percy ; who being a servant of his majesty, and one 
who made some figure at court, the earl returned, and acquainted the 
king in what state he found things, without searching further. But the 
king's suspicion being rather increased than diminished by this report, 
he ordered all the wood and coals in the cellar to be removed forthwith ; 
and Sir Thomas Knevet, a justice of peace for Westminster, and gentle- 
man of the privy-chamber, was ordered to see it done, though it was 
then late at night. This gentleman was so fortunate, as to discover the 
six and thirty barrels of powder hidden under the coals! He also found 
a man standing near the place, booted and spurred, with his cloak on, 
whom he searched, and found upon him a dark lanthorn and three 
matches. This person proved to be Guy Faukes, one of the conspira- 
tors, who passed for Percy's man ; who seeing their hopeful plot dis- 
covered, swore, when he was apprehended, that had he been found with- 
in the cellar, he would have blown up himself, and them likewise. This 
discovery being made, the secretary and the lord-chamberlain immedi- 
ately acquainted the king therewith, who was then in bed; and the pri- 
soner, being examined before the council, was so far from being in any 
consternation, that he acknowledged the villanous design, took it all 
upon himself, said his religion and conscience prompted him to it, and 
would name none of his accomplices; only observing that the devil had 
betrayed a very good design, and that there was no crime in destroying 
a heretical king. However, being carried to the Tower the next day 
and threatened with the rack, he confessed the conspiracy, and named 
his accomplices; who having some intimation of the discovery, fled into 
Warwickshire; where some of their friends were preparing to rise in arms 
and surprise the princess Elizabeth, according to the scheme they had 
laid. They had actually broken open a stable belonging to one Benock, 
and seized seven or eight managed horses for their purpose: but under- 
standing from their friends who fled from London, that the enterprise 
was entirely defeated, they assembled about a hundred horse, and : 
endeavoured to persuade their brethren, the papists, to take arms in the 



HORRIBLE MASSACRES IN IRELAND. 1003 

defence of their religion : but nobody joining them they fled, and were 
pursued by Sir Foulk Greville, deputy-lieutenant of Warwickshire, and 
the sheriff of that and the neighbouring counties, till the rebels took 
shelter in a house, at a place called Holbach, in Staffordshire. Here 
they endeavoured to defend themselves, when a spark of fire falling into 
a parcel of gunpowder, which they were drying by the fire, blew up 
part of the house ; whereupon they endeavoured to sally out at the gate, 
and make their way with their swords in their hands, but were repulsed. 
Catesby, Percy, and Winter, setting themselves back to back, resolved 
to die fighting: the two first had their desire, but Winter was wounded 
and taken ; Digby, Rockwood, Grant, and Boter surrendered. Mr. 
Tresham, Robert Winter, and Littleton, were apprehended at their lodg- 
ings in London, and all of them committed to the Tower. 

Thomas Winter, upon his examination, confessed the whole conspiracy 
and acknowledged their crimes were too great to be forgiven ; while 
Digby, on the other hand, said they were provoked to this desperate 
attempt through the severe usage they met with from the government, 
after hopes had been given them of a toleration ; and Tresham, in his 
examination, accused Garnet the Jesuit as privy to the conspiracy, though 
he afterwards retracted it, and pretended he had not seen Garnet for 
sixteen years. Such was the terror in which the clergy held the laity 
of the catholic church in that day. 

The protestants in Ireland were happily preserved from persecution in 
the reign of the cruel queen Mary, by the following singular providence. 
Mary, resolving to persecute them, appointed Dr. Cole, a bloody agent 
of Bonner, one of the commissioners for this purpose. He arrived at 
Chester with his commission, and the mayor of that city being a papist 
waited upon him ; when the doctor taking out of his cloak-bag a leathern 
box, said — " Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland." 
The good woman of the house, being a protestant, and having a brother 
in Dublin, named John Edmonds, was greatly troubled at what she heard. 
But watching her opportunity, whilst the mayor was taking his leave, 
and the doctor complimenting him down stairs, she opened the box, took 
out the commission, and instead thereof laid a sheet of paper, with a 
pack of cards, and the knave of clubs at top. The doctor not suspect- 
ing any thing, put up the box, and arrived with it in Dublin in September 
1558. Then waiting upon the lord Fitz- Walters, at that time viceroy, 
he presented the box to him, which being opened, nothing was found 
therein but a pack of cards. This startling all the persons present, the 
lord-deputy said — ' We must procure another commission ; and in the 
mean time let us shuffle the cards.' Dr. Cole was returning to England 
to get another commission ; but waiting for a wind, news came that 
queen Mary was dead, very happily for the protestants, who by this 
means escaped a most cruel persecution. The above relation is con- 
firmed by historians of the greatest credit, who add, that queen Elizabeth 
settled a pension of forty pounds per annum upon Elizabeth Edmonds, 
for having thus saved the lives of her protestant subjects. 

Another generation had, however, scarcely passed away before the 
protestants of Ireland were most cruelly visited with persecution. 



1004 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

So greatly had the Irish ecclesiastics increased under Charles I. by 
titular Romish archbishops, bishops, deans, &c. that in the year 1629, 
it was deemed necessary to forbid the public exercise of the popish rites 
and ceremonies. But notwithstanding this prohibition, soon after, the 
Romish clergy erected a new popish university in Dublin. They also 
proceeded to build monasteries and nunneries in various parts of the 
kingdom; in which the priests, and the chiefs of the Irish, held frequent 
meetings; and, from thence, used to pass, to and fro, to France, Spain, 
Flanders, Loraine. and Rome; where the plot of 1641, was maturing 
by the family of the O'Neil's and their followers. A short time before 
•the conspiracy broke out, the papists of Ireland had presented a remon- 
strance to the lords-justices of that kingdom, demanding the free exer- 
cise of their religion, and a repeal of all laws to the contrary. To this 
both houses of parliament in England solemnly answered, that they 
would not allow any toleration to the popish religion in that kingdom. 

Irritated by this, the papists hastened to put in execution the con- 
certed plot, for the destruction of the protestants. The great design 
was, that a general insurrection should take place at the same time 
throughout the kingdom; and that all the protestants without exception 
should be murdered. The day fixed for this horrid massacre was 
the 23rd of October, 1641, the feast of Ignatius Loyala, founder of the 
Jesuits; and the chief conspirators, in the principal parts of the king- 
dom, made the necessary preparations for the intended conflict. In 
order that this detested scheme might the more infallibly succeed, the 
most distinguished artifices were practised by the papists; whose beha- 
viour, in their visits to the protestants, at this time, was with more seem- 
ing kindness than they had hitherto shewn, which was done more com- 
pletely to effect their inhuman and treacherous designs. 

The carrying the conspiracy into effect was delayed till the approach 
of winter, that the sending of troops from England might be attended 
with greater difficulty. Cardinal Richelieu, the French minister, had 
promised the conspirators a considerable supply of men and money; 
and many Irish officers had given the strongest assurances, that they 
would heartily concur with their catholic brethren, as soon as the in- 
surrection appeared. The day preceding that which was appointed for 
this horrid transaction arrived, when, happily for the metropolis of the 
kingdom, the conspiracy was discovered by one Owen O'Connelly, an 
Irishman. k 

The lords-justices had but just time to put themselves, and the city, 
in a proper posture of defence. The lord M'Guire, who was the prin- 
cipal leader here, with his accomplices, were seized the same evening in 
the city: and in their lodgings were found swords, hatchets, pole-axes, 
hammers, and such other instruments of death as had been prepared for 
the destruction and extirpation of the protestants in that part of the 
kingdom. The metropolis was thus happily preserved ; but the bloody 
part of the intended tragedy was past prevention. The conspirators 
were in arms all over the kingdom early in the morning of the day ap- 
pointed, and every protestant who fell in their way was immediately 

k For this signal piece of service, the English parliament voted O'Connelly the sum of 
500/. and a pension during life of 200/. 



HORRIBLE MASSACRES IN IRELAND. 1005 

murdered. On the 22nd of October, Sir Phelim O'Neil, upon pretence 
of paying a visit to lord Charlemont, first perfidiously seized him in his 
castle, killed his servants before him, and, in a few days murdered his 
lordship, with some others, in cold blood, as clearly appeared on the 
trial of lord M'Guire, who was executed for high treason, in London, 
in 1664. 

The scene of blood having been begun, it flowed all over the country. 
No age, no sex, no condition was spared. The wife weeping for her 
butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was pierced 
with them, and perished by the same stroke. The old, the young, the 
vigorous, and the infirm, underwent the same fate, and were blended 
in one common ruin. In vain did flight save from the first assault : 
destruction was every where let loose, and met the hunted victims at every 
turn. In vain was recourse had to relations, to companions, to friends: 
all connections were dissolved, and death was dealt by that hand, from 
which protection was implored and expected. Without provocation, 
without opposition, the astonished English, living in profound peace, 
and, as they thought, in full security, were massacred by their nearest 
neighbours, with whom they had long maintained a continued inter- 
course of kindness and good offices. Nay, even death was the slightest 
punishment inflicted by these monsters in human form : all the tortures 
which wanton cruelty could invent, all the lingering pains of body, the 
anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate revenge excited 
without injury, and cruelly derived from no cause whatever. Depraved 
nature, even perverted religion, though encouraged by the utmost licence 
cannot reach to a greater pitch of ferocity than appeared in these mer- 
ciless barbarians. Even the weaker sex, naturally tender to their own 
sufferings, and compassionate to those of others, here emulated their 
robust companions in the practice of every cruelty. The very children 
taught by example, and encouraged by the exhortation of their parents, 
dealt their feeble blows on the dead carcases of defenceless children of 
the English. 

Neither was the avarice of the Irish sufficient to produce the least re- 
straint on their cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the cattle they had 
seized, and by rapine had made their own, were, because they bore the 
name of English, wantonly slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds, 
turned loose into the woods, there to perish by slow and lingering tor- 
ments. All the commodious habitations of the planters were laid in 
ashes, or levelled with the ground. And where the wretched owners had 
shut themselves up in the houses, and were preparing for defence, they 
perished in the flames, together with their wives and children. The 
bigoted and merciless papists had no sooner begun to imbrue their 
hands in blood, than they repeated the horrid tragedy day after day ; 
and the protestants in all parts of the kingdom fell victims to their fury 
by deaths of the most unheard-of nature. 

The vain and ignorant Irish were more strongly instigated to execute 
the infernal business by the Jesuits,, priests, and friars, who, when the 
lay for the execution of the plot was agreed on, recommended, in their 
prayers, diligence in the great design, which they said would greatly 
tend to the prosperity of the kingdom, and to the advancement of the 






1006 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



catholic cause. They every where declared to the common people, that 
the protestants were heretics, and ought not to be suffered to live any 
longer among them ; adding, that it was no more sin to kill an English- 
man than to kill a dog ; and that the relieving or protecting them was 
a crime of the most unpardonable nature. Such was the general des- 
cription of this unparalleled massacre; but we must now proceed to 
particulars. 

When the papists besieged the town and castle of Longford, and the 
inhabitants of the latter, who were protestants, surrendered on condi- 
tion of being allowed quarter, the besiegers, the instant the towns- 
people appeared, attacked them in the most unmerciful manner, their 
priest, as a signal for the rest to fall on, first ripping open the body of 
the English protestant minister ; after which his followers murdered all 
the rest, some of whom they hung, others were stabbed or shot, and 
great numbers knocked on the head with axes provided for the purpose. 

The garrison at Sligo was thus treated by O'Connor Slygah ; who 
upon the protestants quitting their holds promised them quarter, and to 
convey them safe over the Carlow mountains, to Roscommon. But he 
first imprisoned them in a most loathsome gaol, allowing them only 
grains for their food. Afterwards, when some papists were merry over 
their cups, who were come to congratulate their wicked brethren for 
their victory over these unhappy creatures, those protestants who sur- 
vived were brought forth by the White-friars, and were either killed, or 
precipitated over the bridge into a swift water, where they were soon 
destroyed. It is added, that this wicked company of White-friars went 
some time after, in solemn procession, with holy water in their hands, 
to sprinkle the river; on pretence of cleansing and purifying it from the 
stains and pollution of the blood and dead bodies of the heretics, as 
they called the unfortunate protestants who were inhumanly slaughtered 
at this very time. 

At Kilmore, Dr. Bedell, bishop of that see, had charitably settled and 
supported a great number of distressed protestants, who had fled from 
their habitations to escape the diabolical cruelties committed by the 
papists. But they did not long enjoy the consolation of living toge- 
ther ; the good prelate was forcibly dragged from his episcopal residence, 
which was immediately occupied by Dr. Swiney, the popish titular 
bishop of Kilmore, who said mass in the church the Sunday following, 
and then seized on all the goods and effects belonging to the persecuted 
bishop. Immediately after this, the papists forced Dr. Bedell, his two 
sons, and the rest of his family, with some of the chief of the protes- 
tants whom he had protected into a ruinous castle, called Lochwater, 
situated in a lake near the sea. Here he remained with his companions 
some weeks, all of them daily expecting to be put to death. The greatest 
part of them were stripped naked, by which means, as the season was 
cold and the building in which they were confined open at the top, they 
suffered the most severe hardships. 

In this situation they continued till the 7th of January, when they 
were all released. The bishop was courteously received into the house) 
of Dennis O'Sheridan, one of his clergy, whom he had made a convert 
to the church of England. He was at that time in the seventy-first 



HORRIBLE MASSACRES TN IRELAND. 1007 

year of his age, and being afflicted with a violent ague caught in his 
late cold and desolate habitation on the lake, it soon threw him into a 
fever of the most dangerous nature. Finding his dissolution at hand, 
lie received it with joy, like one of the primitive martyrs just hastening 
to his crown of glory. After having addressed his little flock, and ex- 
horted them to patience in the most pathetic manner, as they saw their 
own last day approaching ; after having solemly blessed his people, his 
family and his children, he finished the course of his ministry and life 
together, on the 7th of February, 1642. Some of the better disposed 
of his foes, who had venerated him when living, attended his funeral, 
and when his remains were deposited in the grave, they discharged a 
volley of shot, crying out, Requiescat in pace ultimus Anglorum: that 
is — " May the last of the English rest in peace." Adding, that as he 
was one of the best, so he should be the last English bishop found 
among them. 1 

In the barony of Trelawney, the papists, at the instigation of their 
friars, compelled above forty English protestants, some of whom were 
women and children, to the hard fate either of falling by the sword or 
of drowning in the sea. These choosing the latter, were accordingly 
forced, by the naked weapons of their inexorable persecutors, into the 
deep, where, with their children in their arms, they first waded up to 
their chins, and afterwards sunk down and perished together. In the 
castle of Lisgool upwards of 150 men, women, and children, were all 
burnt together; and at the castle of Moneah not less than 100 were 
all put to the sword. Great numbers were also murdered at the castle 
of Tullah, which was delivered up to M'Guire on condition of having 
fair quarter ; but no sooner had that base villain got possession of the 
place, than he ordered his followers to murder the people, which was 
immediately done with the greatest cruelty. 

Several others were put to death in the most horrid manner, such 
as could have been invented only by dsemons in the form of men. Some 
were laid with the centre of their backs on the axle-tree of a carriage, 
with their legs resting on the ground on one side, and their arms and 
head on the other. In this position one of the savages scourged the 
wretched object on the thighs and legs; while another set on furious 
dogs, who tore to pieces the arms and upper parts of the body ; and in 
this dreadful manner were they deprived of their existence. Several 
were fastened to horses' tails, and the beasts being set on full gallop by 
their riders, the wretched victims were dragged along till they expired. 
Many were hung on lofty gibbets, and a fire being kindled under them, 
they finished their lives, partly by hanging, and partly by burning. Nor 
did the more tender sex escape the fullest share of cruelty that could 
be projected by their merciless and furious persecutors. Many women 
of all ages, were put to deaths of the most cruel nature. Some in par- 

1 Very extensive was his learning, and he would have given the world a greater proof of 
it, had he printed half that he wrote. Scarce any of his writings were saved ; the papists 
having destroyed most of his papers, and his library. He had gathered a vast heap of 
critical expositions of scripture, all which, with a great trunk full of his manuscripts, fell 
into the hands of the Irish. Happily his great Hebrew MS. was preserved, and is now in 
the library of Emanuel College, Oxford. 



1008 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

ticular were fastened with their backs to strong posts, and being stripped 
to the waists, the inhuman monsters cut off their right breasts with shears, 
which of course put them to the most excruciating torments ; and in 
this position they were left, till, from the loss of blood, they expired. 

Such was the savage ferocity of these barbarians, that even unborn 
infants were dragged from the womb to become victims to their rage. 
Many unhappy mothers were hung naked on the branches of trees, and 
their bodies being cut open, the innocent offsprings were taken from 
them, and thrown to dogs and swine. And to increase the horrid scene, 
they would oblige the husband to be a spectator before he suffered him- 
self. There were upwards of a hundred Scottish protestantsat the town 
of Lissenskeath to whom were shewed no more mercy than to the 
English. 

M'Guire, going to the castle of that town, desired to speak with the 
governor, when being admitted, he immediately burnt the records of 
the county, which were kept there. He then demanded a thousand 
pounds of the governor, which having received, he immediately com- 
pelled him to hear mass, and to swear that he would continue so to do. 
And to complete his horrid barbarities, he ordered the wife and children 
of the governor to be hung up before his face; besides massacreing at 
least one hundred of the inhabitants. There were more than a thousand 
men, women, and children, driven, in different companies, to Porten- 
down bridge, which was broken in the middle, and they were compelled 
to throw themselves into the water: such as attempted to reach the 
shore were knocked on the head. In the same part of the country, at 
least four thousand persons were drowned in different places. The 
inhuman papists, after first stripping them, drove them like beasts to the 
spot fixed on for their destruction ; and if any, through fatigue or in- 
firmities, were slack in their pace, they pricked them with their swords 
and pikes ; and to strike terror on the multitude they murdered some 
by the way. Many of these poor wretches, when thrown into the water 
endeavoured to save themselves by swimming to the shore : but their 
persecutors prevented their endeavours taking effect, by shooting them 
in the water. 

At one place one hundred and forty English, after being driven for 
many miles in the most severe weather, were all murdered on the same 
spot, some being hanged, others burnt, some shot, and many of them 
buried alive ; and so cruel were their tormentors, that they would not 
suffer them to pray before they robbed them of their existence. They 
took other companies under pretence of safe-conduct, who, from that 
consideration, proceeded cheerfully on their journey; but when the 
treacherous papists had got them to a convenient spot, they butchered 
them all in the most cruel manner. 

About one hundred and fifteen men, women, and children, were con- 
ducted, by order of Sir Phelim O'Neil, to Portendown bridge, where 
they were all forced into the river, and drowned. One woman, named 
Campbel, finding no probability of escaping, suddenly clasped one of 
the chief of the papists in her arms, and held him so fast, that they 
were both drowned together. Forty-eight families were massacred in 
Killoman, among whom twenty-two were burnt together in one house. 



HORRIBLE MASSACRES IN IRELAND. 1009 

The rest were either hanged, shot, or drowned. The people of Kilmore 
comprised about two hundred families, and all fell victims to their rage. 
Some of them sat in the stocks till they confessed where their money 
was; after which they put them to death. The whole country was one 
common scene of butchery, and many thousands perished in a short 
time, by sword, famine, fire, water, and all other the most cruel deaths 
that rage and malice could invent. 

These bloody villains shewed so much favour to some as to dispatch 
them immediately ; but they would by no means suffer them to pray. 
Others they imprisoned in filthy dungeons, putting heavy bolts on their 
legs, and keeping them there till they were starved to death. They thrust 
all the protestants at Cashel into a loathsome dungeon, where they kept 
them together for several weeks in the greatest misery. At length they 
were released, when some of them were barbarously mangled, and left 
on the highways to perish at leisure ; others were hanged, and some were 
buried in the ground upright, with their heads above the earth; the 
papists, to increase their misery, treating them with derision during their 
sufferings. 

Nine hundred and fifty-four protestants in the county of Antrim were 
murdered in one morning ; and afterwards about twelve hundred more 
in that county. Twenty-four protestants were forced into a house, at a 
town called Lisnegary, which was fired, and they were all burned together, 
their outcries, in derision, being counterfeited by their foes. Among other 
acts of cruelty, they took two children belonging to an English woman, 
and dashed out their brains before her face ; after which they threw the 
mother into a river, and she was drowned. They served many other 
children in the like manner, to the great affliction of their parents, and 
the disgrace of human nature. 

All the protestants in Kilkenny, without exception, were put to death, 
and some of them in so cruel a manner, as perhaps, was never before 
thought of. They beat an English female protestant with such barba- 
rity, that she had scarce a whole bone left; after which they threw her 
into a ditch; but not satisfied with this, they took her child, a girl about 
six years of age, and after stabbing it, threw it to its mother, there to 
languish till it perished. One man they forced to go to mass, after 
which they ripped open his body, and in that manner left him. They 
sawed another asunder, cut the throat of his wife, and after having 
dashed out the brains of their infant, threw it to the swine, who greedily 
devoured it. 

Having committed these, and many other horrid cruelties, they took 
the heads of seven protestants, and among them that of a pious minister, 
all which they fixed up at the market cross. They put a gag into the 
minister's mouth, then slit his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf of 
a bible before it, bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough. They 
did several other things by way of derision, and expressed the greatest 
satisfaction at having thus murdered, and exposed the unhappy protes- 
tants. It is in fact impossible to imagine the pleasure these monsters 
took in exercising their cruelty ; and to increase the misery of those who 
fell into their hands, when they butchered them they would say — "Your 
soul is thus sent to the devil." One of these miscreants would come 
2* 3 T 



1010 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

into a house with his hands imbrued in blood, and boast that it was 
English blood, and that his sword had pierced the white skins of the 
protestants even to the hilt ! 

As soon as any one of them had killed a protestant, others would 
come and receive a gratification in cutting and mangling the body ; 
after which they left it exposed to be devoured by dogs ; and when they 
had slain a number of them they would boast, that the devil was be- 
holden to them for sending so many souls to hell ! In the church of 
Powerscourt they burnt the pulpit, pews, chests, and bibles belonging 
to it. They took other bibles, and after wetting them with dirty water, 
dashed them in the faces of the protestants, saying — " We know you 
love a good lesson ; here is an excellent one for you ; come to-morrow, 
and you shall have as good a sermon as this." Many of the protestants 
they dragged by the hair of their heads into the church, where they 
stripped and whipped them in the most cruel manner, telling them, at 
the same time, that if they came to-morrow, they should hear the like 
sermon. 

There were put to death several ministers in Munster, in the most 
shocking manner. One in particular, they stripped stark naked, and 
driving him before them, pricked him with swords and darts till he fell 
down and expired. In some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut 
off the hands of the protestants, and in that manner turned them into 
the fields, to wander out their miserable existence Many young men 
they also obliged to force their aged parents to a river, where they were 
drowned. One young man was compelled in one place to kill his father, 
and then was himself immediately hanged. In another they forced a 
woman to kill her husband, then obliged the son to kill her, and after- 
wards shot him through the head. 

At a place called Glaslow, a popish priest, with some others, prevailed 
on forty protestants to be reconciled to the church of Rome. They had 
no sooner done this, than they told them they were in a good faith, and 
that they would prevent their falling from it, and turning heretics, by 
sending them out of the world, which they did by immediately putting 
them to death. Upwards of thirty protestants, men, women, and chil- 
dren, in the county of Tipperary, fell into the hands of the papists, 
who after stripping them naked, murdered them with stones, pole-axes, 
swords, and other instruments. In the county of Mayo about sixty 
protestants, fifteen of whom were ministers, were, upon covenant, to be 
safely conducted to Galway, by one Edmund Burke and his soldiers; 
but that inhuman monster by the way drew his sword, as an intimation 
of his design to the rest, who immediately followed his example, and 
murdered the whole. 

Great numbers in Queen's County were put to the most shocking 
deaths. Fifty or sixty were placed together in one house, which being 
set on fire, they all perished in the flames. Several were stripped naked, 
and being fastened to horses by ropes placed round their middles, were 
dragged through bogs till they expired in the greatest torture. Several 
were suspended by the feet to tenter-hooks driven into poles; and left 
till they perished in that wretched posture. Some were fastened to the 



HORRIBLE MASSACRES IN IRELAND. 1 01 1 

trunk of a tree, with a branch at top. Over this branch hung one arm, 
which principally supported the weight of the body; and one of the 
legs was turned up, and fastened to the trunk, while the other hung 
straight. In this dreadful posture did they remain, as long as life would 
permit, pleasing spectacles to their blood-thirsty persecutors. 

Seventeen men were buried alive at Clownes; and an Englishman, his 
wife, five children, and a servant maid, were all hung together, and 
their bodies afterwards thrown into a ditch. Many were hung by the 
arms to branches of trees, with a weight to their feet; and others by the 
middle, in which postures they left them till they expired. Others were 
fastened to windmills, and before they were half dead, the barbarians 
cut them in pieces with their swords. Some men, women, and children, 
they cut and hacked in various parts of their bodies, and left them 
wallowing in their blood to perish where they fell. One poor woman 
they hung on a gibbet, with her child, an infant about a twelvemonth 
old, the latter of whom was hung by the neck with the hair of its 
mother's head, and in that manner finished its short but miserable 
existence. 

No less than three hundred protestants were drowned in one day in 
the county of Tyrone; and many others were hanged, burned, and 
otherwise put to death. The rector of Tyrone, Dr. Maxwell, lived at 
this time near Armagh, and suffered greatly from these merciless savages. 
This clergyman in his examination, taken upon oath before the king's 
commissioners, declared, that the Irish papists owned to him, that at 
several times they had destroyed, in one place, 12,000 protestants, whom 
they inhumanly slaughtered atGlynwood, in their flight from the county 
of Armagh. The river Bann being not fordable, and the bridge broken 
down, the Irish forced thither, at different times, a great number of 
unarmed and defenceless protestants, and with pikes and swords vio- 
lently thrust above one thousand into the river, where they miserably 
perished. 

The cathedral of Armagh did not escape the fury of these barbarians, 
it being maliciously set on fire by their leaders, and burnt to the ground. 
And to extirpate, if possible, the very race of those unhappy protestants, 
who lived in or near Armagh, the Irish first burnt all their houses, and 
then gathered together many hundred of innocent people, young and 
old, on pretence of allowing them a guard and safe-conduct to Colerain : 
when they treacherously fell on them by the way, and inhumanly mur- 
dered them all. Similar barbarities were practised on the wretched 
protestants in almost all parts of the kingdom; and, when an estimate 
was afterwards made of the number who were sacrificed to gratify the 
diabolical souls of the papists, it amounted to one hundred and fifty 
thousand ! 

Flushed with success and insolence, these desperate wretches soon 
got possession of the castle of Newry, where the king's stores and am- 
munition were lodged; and, with as little difficulty, made themselves 
masters of Dundalk. They afterwards took the town of Ardea, where 
they murdered all the protestants, and then proceeded to Drogheda. 
The garrison of Drogheda was in no condition to sustain a siege, not- 



1012 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

withstanding which, as often as the Irish renewed their attacks, they 
were vigorously repulsed, by a very unequal number of the king's 
forces, and a few faithful protestant citizens under sir Henry Tichborne, 
the governor, assisted by the lord viscount Moore. The siege of Drog- 
heda began on the 30th of November, 1641, and held till the 4th of 
March, 1642, when sir Phelim O'Neil, and the Irish miscreants under 
him, were forced to retreat. During this proceeding, ten thousand 
troops were sent from Scotland to the relief of the remaining protestants 
in Ireland, which being properly divided in the most capital parts of 
the kingdom, happily overpowered the Irish savages; and the protes- 
tants, for a time, lived happy and unmolested. 

In the reign of king James II., however, they were again interrupted, 
for in a parliament held at Dublin in the year 1689, great numbers of 
the protestant nobility, clergy, and gentry of Ireland, were attainted of 
high treason. The government of the kingdom was, at that time, in- 
vested in the earl of Tyrconnel, a bigoted papist, and an inveterate 
enemy to the protestants. By his order they were again persecuted in 
various parts of the kingdom. The revenues of the city of Dublin were 
seized, and most of the churches converted into prisons. And had it 
not been for the resolution and uncommon bravery of the garrisons of 
the city of Londonderry, and the town of Inniskillen, there had not one 
place remained for refuge to the distressed protestants in the whole 
kingdom; but all must have been given up to king James, and to the 
furious popish party . 

On the 18th of April, 1689, the remarkable siege of Londonderry was 
opened by twenty thousand papists, the flower of the Irish army. The 
city was not properly circumstanced to sustain a siege, the defenders, 
consisting of a body of raw undisciplined protestants, who had fled thither 
for shelter, and half a regiment of lord Mountjoy's disciplined soldiers, 
with the principal part of the inhabitants, making in all only seven 
thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men. At first the 
besieged hoped that their stores of corn and other necessaries, would 
be sufficient ; but, by the continuance of the siege, their wants increased ; 
and these became at last so heavy, that for a considerable time before 
the siege was raised, a pint of coarse barley, a small quantity of greens, 
a few spoonfuls of starch, with a very moderate proportion of horse- 
flesh, were reckoned a week's provision for a soldier. And they were, 
at length, reduced to such extremities, that they ate whatever they could 
procure. 

While their miseries increased with the siege, many through mere 
hunger and want pined and languished away, or fell dead in the streets. 
And it is remarkable, that when their long expected succours arrived 
from England, they were upon the point of being reduced to this alter- 
native, either to preserve their existence by eating each other, or at- 
tempting to fight their way through the Irish, which must have infallibly 
produced their destruction. Most seasonably and happily these succours 
were brought by the ship Mountjoy, of Derry, and the Phoenix, of 
Colerain, at which time they had only nine lean horses left, with a pint 
of meal to each man. By hunger, and the fatigues of war, their seven 



THE BURNING OF LONDON. 1013 

thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men were reduced to 
four thousand three hundred, one-fourth part of whom were rendered 
unfit for service. 

As the calamities of the besieged were very great, so likewise were 
the terrors and sufferings of their protestant friends and relations; all 
of whom were forcibly driven from the country thirty miles round, and 
inhumanly reduced to the sad necessity of continuing some days and 
nights, without food or covering, before the walls of the town ; and 
were thus exposed to the continual fire both of the Irish army from 
without, and the shot of their friends from within. The succours from 
England happily arriving, put an end to their afflictions; and the siege 
was raised on the 31st of July, having been continued upwards of three 
months before. The day before the siege of Londonderry was raised, 
the Inniskilliners engaged a body of six thousand Irish Roman catholics, 
at Newton Butler, or Crown-Castle, of whom near five thousand were 
slain. This, with the defeat at Londonderry, dispirited the papists, and 
they gave up all farther attempts to persecute the protestants. In the 
following year, viz. 1690, the Irish took up arms in favour of James II., 
but were totally defeated by his successor king William III. 



SECTION III. 



THE FIRE OF LONDON— MURDER OF SIR EDMUND GODFREY— EXECUTION OF 
THE EARL OF ESSEX, LORD RUSSEL, ALGERNON SIDNEY, AND OTHERS. 

Much controversy has been expended about the cause of the great fire of 
London. Without affecting to decide the question of its being caused in 
whole or in part by the papists, such incidents only are here inserted as 
tend to the affirmative. It broke out about two o'clock in the morning of 
Sept. 2, 1666, at a baker's house in Pudding-lane, near Fish-street-hill. 
It raged with extreme violence, by means of a strong north-east wind; 
so that notwithstanding all means used for extinguishing it, it spread 
far and near, and so continued for near four days, till it had burnt down 
13,200 houses, which stood upon 337 acres of ground, within the walls, 
and 63 acres three rods without, besides 89 parish churches, the spacious 
cathedral of St. Paul, the Royal Exchange, the Guild-hall, the Custom- 
house, many other halls, several principal city-gates, and other public 
edifices. It was accompanied with the loss of vast quantities of rich 
household stuff, and goods of all sorts, but especially books, of which 
alone were lost near the value of 150,000 pounds; together with a 
great quantity of tobacco, sugar, wines, and plums: so that the whole 
loss was computed to be 9,900,000 pounds; and yet not above seven 
or eight persons, through God's providence, were burnt in this vast 
desolation. 

On Sept. 18th, the parliament met, and the commons appointed a 
committee to examine into the causes of the fire, and to take informa- 
tions concerning it; and in a short time many and considerable in- 
formations were brought in, that the papists were the contrivers and 
managers of this dreadful fire. Among other things, it plainly appeared 



1014 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

that several of the popish party™ were made acquainted with it before 
it happened. Mr. Light, of RadclifT, deposed — That being in discourse 
with Mr. Richard Langham (afterwards executed for high-treason) in 
February before the fire, concerning religion, Langham took him by the 
hand, and said to him — " You expect great things in sixty-six, and 
think that Rome will be destroyed, but what if it be London I " A 
Frenchman toid one Elizabeth Stiles, in April before the fire — That 
English maids would love Frenchmen better, when there was not a 
house left standing between Temple-bar and London-bridge; to which 
she replied — She hoped his eyes would never see that. He said, "This 
will happen betwixt June and October." 

Robert Hubert, a French papist of Normandy, is said to have begun 
the fire of London, having been hired thereto by Stephen Piedelow, 
likewise a papist; but Hubert observing the ruin and desolation that 
followed, could not rest till he had freely discovered the whole matter; 
affirming, that by Piedelow's directions he had put a fire-ball to the 
end of a long pole, and lighting it with a piece of a match, put it into 
the baker's window, and staid till the house was in a flame. A French 
merchant went to Hubert in the White Lion prison in South wark, and 
told him, he did not believe him guilty of what he had confessed. He 
replied — " Yes, sir, I am guilty of it, and have been brought to it by 
the instigation of Mr. Piedelow; yet not out of any malice to the 
English nation, but from a desire of reward which he promised me, 
upon my return into France." Hubert was tried and executed for this 
horrid fact, owning to the last his doing thereof by the instigation of 
Piedelow. 

The Jesuits and their partizans finding the burning of London had 
not completed their work, since in a few years it rose more glorious than 
before, resolved, by the assistance of France, to extinguish the protestant 
cause, or what they were pleased to term, the northern heresy. This 
mighty project was to be accomplished by the murder of King Charles 
II. they finding him not to possess courage enough, though he shewed 
his inclination, for perfecting this pious design. But Dr. Titus Gates, 
who had been chaplain to the duke of Norfolk, being reconciled to 
the church of Rome, hearing some whisperings among the popish priests, 
of a vast contrivance in hand, and desiring to know the extent of it, he 
by opening some letters sent by the Jesuits to their confederates in 
Spain, became acquainted with the whole conspiracy, which upon his 
return into England he discovered to the king, council, and parliament; 
charging Edward Coleman, secretary to the duchess of York, of corres- 

m Dr.Oatee, in his narrative, says, that in July, 1678, one Strange, a Jesuit, told him, 
that they had got fourteen thousand pounds by the fire of London, in 1666, and spent 
seven hundred fire-balls to effect their villany ; and that when the fire-merchants were at 
work, other papists, both men and women, were employed to plunder: that they had a 
warehouse in Wild-street, where some of their stolen goods were laid ; and other goods 
were concealed in Somerset-house, as hollands, cambrics, fine cloth, and considerable quan- 
tities of plate, with a box of jewels. Dr. Oates asked Strange how the king came to escape 1 
for it seems his death was designed then. He replied, " Indeed we were resolved to have 
cut him off, but seeing him so industrious about quenching the fire, we could not find in 
our hearts to do it." He further said, there were eighty-six employed in it ; and J. Grove, 
afterwards executed for high treason, told Dr. Oates that he fired Southwark, and that the 
Jesuits got two thousand pounds by that fire. 



MURDER OF SIR EDMUND GODFREY. 1015 

ponding with father de la Chaise, confessor to the French king, for reducing 
these three kingdoms to popery and slavery; of which Coleman's let- 
ters that were seized, gave a full confirmation : and it appeared, that 
several noblemen and gentlemen had commissions to command in the 
army that was to be raised for effecting the business. It was afterwards 
discovered, that many cities and great towns in England were to be 
fired, upon the murder of king Charles ; and a general massacre was 
intended by an army of 50,000 men, mostly French and Irish, who, 
they gave out, were enough, upon a surprise, to slay many thousand 
protestants ; the militia of London and Westminster being at that time 
undisciplined. This and a great deal more being discovered, both 
houses of parliament were fully satisfied of the reality of the plot. 

A singular and barbarous murder of a worthy gentleman named Sir 
Edmond Godfrey, now occurred. Sir Edmond appearing zealous in the 
discovery and prosecution of the popish plot, of which Dr. Oates had 
given him information upon oath, so enraged the conspirators, that they 
resolved to take him off, to deter all others from intermeddling therein. 
Several popish priests were concerned in contriving his death, which 
they at length accomplished. On October 12, 1678, Sir Edmond going, 
about nine o'clock in the evening, by Somerset-house in the Strand, 
Hill, servant to Dr. Godden, the Jesuit, stepped out of the gate hastily, 
and intreated him for God's sake to come in, for that there were two 
men quarrelling, and he was afraid there would be blood shed. To give 
an appearance of truth to this, Kelly, an Irish priest, and Berry, porter 
to Somerset-house, pretended to quarrel on purpose. Sir Edmond at 
first refused to go in, but his importunity prevailing, Hill entered the gate 
first and after him Sir Edmond; Girald, another Irish priest, and Green, 
cushion-man to queen Catherine, followed just behind. Prance, the 
queen's goldsmith, watched at the gate, that nobody else should enter. 
Sir Edmond going towards those that pretended to quarrel, Green threw 
a cravat about his neck, and presently all four pulled it so that he could 
make no noise ; they then violently beat him on the breast with their 
knees, and Green, with all his force, wrung his neck almost round. For 
the disposal of the body, they carried it into a little chamber of Hill's, 
another of the murderers, who had been, or was Dr. Godden's man, where 
it lay till Monday night, when they moved it into another room, and 
thence back again till Wednesday, when they carried him out in a sedan 
about twelve o'clock, and afterwards upon a horse, with Hill behind him, 
to support him, till they got to Primrose-hill, near a public house, and 
there threw him into a ditch, with his gloves and cane on a bank near 
him, and his own sword run through him, on purpose to persuade the 
world he had killed himself. Thus making choice of a place, where they 
might think he would be some time concealed, and near where he had 
been seen walking the same day, if the affidavits to this purpose in Sir 
Roger's book may be relied upon. 

All this Mr. Prance swore upon the trial of the murderers, with whom 
he acknowledged to have had several consultations before, concerning 
it ; whose evidence was confirmed, not only by innumerable other cir- 
cumstances, but Bedlow's confession, who was to have been present at 
the action, had not remorse of conscience hindered him, having been 



1016 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

engaged by the conspirators for a great reward : he was also afterwards 
to have had a considerable part of it for carrying off the body. Green, 
Hill, and Berry were tried and executed for this murder. At the same 
time the following persons being found guilty, upon the fullest evidence 
of the conspiracy against the king's person, were also executed, namely 
Edward Coleman, William Ireland, Thomas Pickering, John Grove, 
Thomas Whitebread, William Harcourt, John Fenwick, John Gavan, 
Anthony Turner, Richard Langhorn, and Oliver Plunket. And about 
the same time the lord Stafford, being impeached by the house of com- 
mons, before his peers in Westminster-hall, was found guilty of high 
treason, and beheaded on Tower-hill. 

The Roman catholics, incensed that their plot had miscarried, and 
that so many of their party had fallen in their cause, resolved, with the 
assistance of several great persons at court, to be revenged of their ene- 
mies. To bring this about, a pretended protestant plot was advanced, 
which was said to have the iniquitous design of murdering the king and 
the duke of York. To this, many of the best persons in England fell a 
sacrifice. 

Mr. Arnold, a vigorous opponent of priests and Jesuits, was at this 
time assailed by their vigilance and malice, and would have suffered 
violent death at their hands but for some providential interposition more 
than once of friendly individuals to rescue him. The first assault was 
in the Temple-lane, of which he was seasonably apprised, and for which 
he was sufficiently prepared. The second and more serious attack was 
soon after near the same spot, when he would have been murdered but 
for the sudden appearance of a youth with a light, when the assassins 
fled. 

The next who suffered was Mr. Stephen College, who was first known 
to the public at the trial of lord Stafford, being called up as collateral 
witness for Mr. Dugdale. He was accused by Heins and Macnamarra, 
and one or two of the apostate evidences of the popish plot. These 
persons swore against him the most extravagant things, such as his 
taking Whitehall, and dragging the king from it; in short, so incon- 
gruous was their story, and so ill were their own characters, that the 
London jury refused to find the bill, but returned it ignored. Notwith- 
standing this, contrary to all justice, he was tried again at Oxford, and 
condemned. His behaviour at his execution, was such as convinced 
many of his greatest enemies of his innocence. He maintained, that 
he was perfectly innocent of what he died for. "I did deny it," says 
he, " before the council, and do deny it upon my death : I never was 
in any kind of plot in my days; and if I had any such design as these 
have sworn against me, I take God to witness, as I am a dying man, 
and on the terms of my salvation, I know not one man upon the face of 
the earth who would have stood by me. And lower, I knew not of any 
part of what they swore against me, till I heard it sworn at the bar. 
Again, all the arms we had were for our defence, in case the papists 
should have made any attempt by way of massacre." God is my wit- 

n There was at this time a general, though perhaps, considering the disparity of numbers 
between the Roman catholics and the protestants in England, a groundless apprehension of 
this; yet, such were the impressions upon the public mind, that many prepared themselves 
with arms in case of danger. 



DEATH OF THE EARL OF ESSEX. 1017 

ness, this is all I know. It is thee, O God, I trust in. I disown all 
dispensations, and will not go out of the world with a lie in my mouth. 
From the sincerity of my heart, I declare again, that these are the very 
sentiments of my soul, as God shall have mercy upon me." 

The next sufferer in the protestant cause at this period was Arthur, 
earl of Essex, a person whom it was the highest interest of the popish 
faction to have out of the way. He had a large interest, a plentiful 
estate, a great deal of courage, understood the world, and the princi- 
ples and practices of the papists as well as any man, having also been 
of several secret committees in the examination of the plot, for which 
very reason there was as much necessity for his dying as for Sir Edmond 
Godfrey being put to death. With respect to the immediate subject 
of his death, the manner and circumstances thereof: it must first be 
granted, that for the present only supposing he was murdered by the 
hands of the papists, they would, certainly, make it their business to 
render the manner of it as dark as the hell in which it was contrived. 
Murders, especially of that magnitude, are not used to be committed in 
the face of all the world, and at noon-day. 

The earl of Essex was found with his throat cut in the Tower, on the 
13th of July 1683, about eight or nine in the morning, at which time 
the duke of York, the king's brother, and a bigoted papist, his known 
and bitter enemy, was present. Every thing tended to excite a suspicion 
of his having been murdered, although, as in the case of Sir E. Godfrey 
it was intended that he should be thought to have killed himself. A 
deputy coroner only was present at the inquest, instead of a legal one ; 
and none of the relations were called to attend the inquest. The 
body was removed from the place where it was first laid, stripped, the 
clothes taken away, the body and rooms washed from the blood, and 
the clothes denied the view of the jury! The principal witnesses exam- 
ined were only Bomeny his man, and Russel his warder, who might be 
so justly suspected of being privy to, if not actors in it. The jury has- 
tened and hurried the verdict, when so great a man, a peer of the realm, 
and such a peer was concerned, who was the king's prisoner. When 
Sir Thomas Overbury had been before murdered in the Tower, and his 
jury brought in an unrighteous verdict, the case was adjourned. When 
even Sir Edmond Godfrey's jury were so much cried out against for their 
ill-management, they adjourned their verdict, and staid considerably 
before they brought it in. This was at a time when the lord Russel 
was to be tried for a share in the plot, in which the earl was also accused 
of being concerned. 

One branch of this conspiracy, and which it was so much the papists' 
interest to have the belief fixed on it, was a barbarous murder of the 
duke and king; and nothing could so immediately and critically tend to 
the earl of Essex's ruin. The news of his death was instantly, with much 
diligence, conveyed from the Tower to the Sessions-house, Bench, Bar, 
and Jury, and harped upon by the lord Howard and by others in after- 
trials, as by more than a thousand witnesses, as a proof of the finger of 
God. After this, the very centinel, who that day stood near the place, 
was found dead in the Tower ditch, and captain Hawley barbarously 
murdered at Rochester ; and ill methods used to prevent the truth of 



1018 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

all from coming to light. Mr. Braddon was harassed, prosecuted, impri- 
soned, and fined for stirring in it. On the fair and impartial consideration 
of these things, every one of which is but notorious matter of fact, is it not 
evident he was murdered by the popish party ? 

From the manner, too, in which the deed was perpetrated, it appeared 
impossible, that the earl could have done it himself. His throat was cut 
from one jugular to the other, and lay the aspera arteria and windpipe, 
to the vertebrae of the neck, both the jugulars being thoroughly divided; 
so that from the great flux of blood which must necessarily have fol- 
lowed on the dividing of one jugular, as well as all those strong muscles 
which lie in the way, he must have fainted, and been rendered unable 
to go round to the other. In this evident and conclusive manner does 
guilt often attach itself with unerring certainty to its actual perpetra- 
tors ; and leave the inference in the power of the simplest reasoner. 

The next who fell under their cruelty, and to whose death that of the 
earl of Essex was but a prologue, was lord Russel ; without all dispute 
one of the most accomplished gentlemen that ever England bred ; and 
whose pious life and virtue was much more treason against the court, by 
affronting them with what was so much hated there, than anything else that 
was sworn against him. That he must be viewed as a martyr to the 
cruelty of a rising papal faction, there can be no doubt. Being marked 
out, and among others destined for the slaughter, he was taken 
and imprisoned in the Tower, and brought to his trial the 13th of 
July, 1683, the very day on which Essex was murdered. He was 
brought to the Old Bailey, and the same morning tried for high treason. 
He earnestly desired that he might have respite, and not be tried that 
day, since he had some witnesses who could not be in town till the night : 
but they were so eager for his blood, that they would not stay so much 
a till the afternoon, pretending it was against precedent, and they could 
not do it without the attorney- general's consent. Just at that time, 
news was brought into the house, that my lord Essex had that morning 
prevented justice : and several of the jury afterwards confessed, that 
they had never found Russel guilty, had it not been for that accident. 
His indictment ran in these words — " He did conspire and compass our 
lord the king, his supreme lord, not only of his kingly state, title, power 
and government of this his kingdom of England, to deprive and throw 
down ; but also our said sovereign lord the king to kill, and the ancient 
government of this kingdom of England to change, alter, and wholly 
subvert, and to cause a miserable slaughter among the subjects of our 
said lord the king through his whole kingdom of England." 

That all this was not intended as a matter of form only, is clear, by 
the king's counsel opening the evidence. The first said, " He was 
indicted for no less than conspiring the death of the king's majesty ; and * 
that in order to the same, he and others did meet and conspire together, 
to bring our sovereign lord the king to death, to raise war and rebellion 
against him, and to massacre his subjects; and in order to compass 
these wicked designs, being assembled, did conspire to seize the king's 
guards, and his majesty's person : and this is the charge against him." 

The attorney-general fell a little lower, and told them, that the mean- 
ing of all these tragical words, was a consultation about a rising, about 



TRIAL OF LORD RUSSEL. 1019 

seizing the guards, and receiving messages from the earl of Shaftsbury 
concerning an insurrection. Yet the proof against him came not up 
so high even as this, though all care was used for that purpose, and kind 
questions put very frequently to lead and draw the evidence; only one 
of them witnessing to any one point in particular. 

Colonel Rumsey first swore, That he was sent with a letter from lord 
Shaftsbury, who lay concealed at Wapping, to meet lord Russel, Ferguson 
and others, at Shepherd's, to know of them what resolution they were come 
to concerning the rising designed at Taunton. That when he came 
thither, the answer was, that Mr. Trencher had failed them, and no 
more would be clone at that time. That Mr. Ferguson spoke the most 
part of that answer; but that lord Russel was present, and that he did 
speak about the rising of Taunton, and consented to it. That the com- 
pany was discoursing also of viewing the guards, in order to surprise 
them, if the rising had gone on ; and that some undertook to view them ; 
and that the lord Russel was by, when this was undertaken. But this 
being the main hinge of the business, and this witness not yet coming 
up to the purpose, they thought it convenient to refresh his memory, 
asking him, Whether he found my lord Russel averse, or agreeing to 
it? He answered, Agreeing. But being afterwards on the trial asked, 
Whether he could swear positively, that my lord Russel heard the 
message, and gave any answer to it ? — all that he said was, That when 
he came in, they were at the fire-side, and that they all came from the 
fire-side to hearken to his words. 

The chief that Shepherd witnessed, was, That my lord Russel and 
others being at his house, there was a discourse of surprising the king's 
guards; and Sir Thomas Armstrong having viewed them when he came 
thither another time, said, that they were remiss, and the thing was 
seizable, if there were strength to do it. And upon being questioned too, 
as Rumsey before him, whether my lord Russel was there, he said he was 
at the time they talked of seizing the guards. 

Lord Howard was the next witness. After a long and florid harangue, 
he at last made his evidence bear directly upon the point for which he 
came thither, and swore, that after my lord Shaftsbury went away, their 
party resolved still to carry on the design of the insurrection without 
him; for the better management whereof they erected a little cabal 
among themselves, which consisted of six persons, whereof my lord Rus- 
sel and himself were two: that they met for that purpose at Mr. Hamp- 
den's house, and there adjusted the place and manner of the intended 
insurrection. That about ten days after, they had another meeting on 
the same business at my lord Russel's, where they resolved to send some 
persons to engage Argyle and the Scots in the design, and that he was 
sure my lord Russel was there. Being asked whether he said anything, 
he answered, That every one knew him to be a person of great judg- 
ment, and not very lavish of discourse. Being again goaded on by 
Jeffreys, with the question — did he consent? " We did," he said, " put 
it to the vote, it went without contradiction, and I took it that all there 
gave their consent accordingly." 

Now as to colonel Rumsey the first witness; my lord Cavendish proved 
on the trial, that lord Russel had a very ill opinion of him, and therefore 



1023 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

it was not likely he would intrust him with a secret of such importance. 
Then as the evidence, forced out of him, as it was, in both branches 
of the design, seizing the guards, and the rising of Taunton, he says in 
terms very general — That he was agreeing to one, and spoke about, and 
consented to the other. For his agreeing to the seizing of the guards, he 
might think, as the lord Howard did, that silence gives consent; for it 
did not appear, nor did he swear, that my lord spoke one word about it. 
But he himself, in his last speech, and which there is all the reason in 
the world to believe exactly true, since, as he himself says in it, He al- 
ways detested lying, though ever so much to his advantage ; and hoped 
none would be so unjust, or uncharitable, to think he would venture on 
it in these his last words, for which he was soon going to give an account 
to the great God, the searcher of hearts, and judge of all things. In this 
last speech he protests, that at this time of which Rumsey swears, there 
was no undertaking of securing and seizing the guards, nor none ap- 
pointed to view or examine them, only some discourse there was of the 
practicability of it; he heard it mentioned as a thing which might easily 
be effected, but never consented to it as a thing fit to be done. 

Shepherd's evidence amounted to nothing: he spoke not a syllable to 
the purpose, or any thing which affected lord Russel. He could hardly 
tell whether he was there when there was the discourse of seizing the 
guards, but spake not a word of the prisoner's hearing, or in the least 
wise consenting to the same. With regard to lord Howard, his evidence 
was equally vague and undecisive. He said, that when they had in- 
quired how matters stood in the country, and that the duke of Monmouth 
had found Trenchard and the west country failed them, the design was 
put off again, and this about the 17th or 18th of October. Now this 
same action Rumsey spoke of, but took a larger scope as to the time, 
the end of October, or the beginning of November, far enough from the 
17th or 18th of the month before. 

Rumsey said, on this disappointment of the Taunton men and 
Trenchard, Shaftsbury resolved to be gone. Lord Howard, that he was 
so far from it, that he and his party resolved to it without the lords, and 
had set one time and the other, and at last the 17th of November, which 
also not taking effect, then Shaftsbury went off. As to his evidence, 
which was closer; the story of the council of six, besides the former 
improbability, that he, among all others, should be chosen one of them ; 
it is remarkable, that in their former greater consultations at Shepherd's, 
which he and Rumsey mentioned, the lord Howard was never present, 
nor did he so much as touch on it in his evidence ; though here, if any 
where, the grand affair of seizing the guards, and the answer to Shafts- 
bury about Taunton was concerted. All that appears of truth in the 
matter, seems to be what lord Russel acknowledged, that those persons 
named, met very often; that there was no formed design, but only 
loose talk about those concerns. That there was no debate of any such 
thing as was sworn, nor putting any thing in a method; but my lord 
Howard being a man of voluble tongue, they were all delighted to hear 
his oratory. 

It appears then from his own acknowledgement, that Howard, Arm- 
strong, and such others, had sometimes discoursed of ill designs and 



MARTYRDOM OF LORD RUSSEL. 1021 

matters in is company: and as he said in his speech, " What the heats, 
wickedness, passions, and vanities of other men had occasioned, he ought 
not to be answerable for, nor could he repress them. Nay more, he did 
sufficiently disapprove those things which he heard discoursed of with 
more heat than judgment. But for himself, he declared solemnly, that 
he was never in any design against the king's life, or any man's what- 
ever; nor ever in any contrivance of altering the government." It would 
after all this, be almost superfluous to go any further, or insert the evi- 
dence given by Dr. Tillotson, Burnet, Cox, and others, not only of his 
virtuous and honourable behaviour, but especially of his judgment about 
popular insurrections, that he was absolutely against them, that it was 
folly and madness till things came to be regulated in a parliamentary 
way, and thought it would ruin the best cause in the world to take any 
such ways towards its preservation. 

But all this and more would not do, die he must, the duke ordered it, 
the witnesses swore it, the judges directed it, the jury found it; and 
when the sentence came to be passed, the judge asked, as is usual, 
What he had to say why it should not be pronounced? He answered, 
that whereas he had been charged in the indictment with conspiring 
the death of the king, which he had not taken notice of before, he 
appealed to the judge and court, whether he were guilty within the 
statute on which he was tried, the witnesses having sworn an intention 
of levying war, but not of killing the king, of which there was no proof 
by any one witness. The recorder told him, that was an exception 
proper to be made before the verdict. Whether the evidence did amount 
to prove the charge, was to be observed by the jury; for if the evidence 
came short of the indictment, they could not find it to be a true charge; 
but when once they had found it, their verdict did pass for truth, and 
the court was bound by it, as well as his lordship, and they were to go 
according to what the jury had found, not their evidence. Now it should 
be asked, what was the reason of the prisoner being asked that question, 
What he had to say for himself? Was it only formality, or banter? He 
made an exception, which the judge himself confessed proper. But who 
was counsel for the prisoner? Was not the bench? Or, did it not pre- 
tend to be so? And why was not this observed by them in their direc- 
tion to the jury? Being found guilty, against all truth, sentence was 
accordingly past upon him ; and he was removed to Newgate. While 
there, the importunity of his friends, lest they should think him sullen 
or stubborn, prevailed with him to sign petitions, and make an address 
for his life, though it was not without difficulty that he did any thing 
that was begging to save it. To the last, he owned that doctrine, which 
other good men, who were then of another judgment, have since been 
forced into, namely, the lawfulness of resistance against unlawful vio- 
lence, from whomsoever it proceeds. 

After fruitless applications for pardon ; after a farewell and adieu in 
this world, to one of the best of women, who stood by him, and assisted 
him in his trial, and did not leave his presence, till at last on Saturday 
the 21st of July, he went into his own coach about nine o'clock with 
Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Burnet; whence he was carried to Great Lincoln's- 
inn-field to the scaffold prepared for him, where, among all the numerous 



1022 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



persons, he was one of the most unconcerned. Very few rejoiced at so 
doleful a spectacle, except the papists, who indeed had sufficient reason ; 
my lord Powis's people expressing, as it is said, a great deal of pleasure 
and satisfaction. There, after he had again solemnly protested his 
innocency, and that he was far from any design against the king's 
person, or of altering the government: nay, that he did upon the words 
of a dying man profess, that he knew of no plot against the king's life 
or government; and delivering one of the finest speeches in the world 
to the sheriff, he prayed by himself, and with Dr. Tillotson's assistance; 
and embracing him and Dr. Burnet, he submitted to the fatal strokes, 
for the executioner took no less than three before he could sever his 
head. When it was held up, as usual, there was so far from being any 
shout, that a considerable groan was heard round the scaffold. His 
body was given to his friends, and conveyed to Chenies in Buck- 
inghamshire, where it was buried among his ancestors. During the 
day of his execution there was a great storm, and many loud claps 
of thunder. 

The story of captain Walcot and his fellow-sufferers, should have been 
first related, they having been convicted before lord Russel, and exe- 
cuted on Friday, as he was on Saturday. But lord Russet's fate having 
so immediate a dependance on the earl of Essex's, and all the plot 
hanging on him ; especially they being the most conspicuous of any 
who suffered on this occasion ; it looked more natural and proper to 
begin with them, and reserve the other to this place. 

Captain Walcot was a gentleman of a considerable estate in Ireland, 
and had eight children all living. The supposed crime for which Walcot 
suffered, and which West and others witnessed against him, was con- 
sulting the death of the king, and charging the guards at his return 
from Newmarket, while the dreadful blunderbuss was to be fired into 
the coach by Rumbald, or some others. His privity to discourses about 
the king's death was but misprision. For his acting in it, they could 
not have pitched on a more unlikely man to command a party in so 
desperate an attempt as charging the guards, than one who was bed- 
ridden of the gout, as about this time, and often besides, the captain 
was. Nor seems West's pretence more likely, that he refused to be active 
in the assassination, because of the baseness of it, but offered to charge 
the guards, while others did it. This he denied with indignation in his 
speech, and appealed to all that knew him, whether they thought him 
such an idiot, that he should not understand it was the same thing to 
engage the king's guards, while others killed him, as to kill him with 
his own hands? Here then, it is plain, lay the truth of the business. 
West, Rumsey, and others, had been frequently discoursing at this vil- 
lanous rate: West was most impatiently eager of having it done; he 
proposed the killing him at a play, which he said would be in their own 
calling. 

Colonel Rumsey and West were the main pillars, and almost the only 
witnesses on which the credit of that action depended, who appear 
throughout the great and almost sole managers thereof, and who accuse 
others for being concerned in it. West said, that Walcot joined in the 
direction about the nature and size of the arms, intended for the assas- 



EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN WALCOT AND OTHERS. 1023 

sination of the king and duke; that he was very intimate and familiar 
with Rumbald, who was to be the principal actor in the assassination. 
But Rumbald's death cleared himself and Walcot, and shewed what 
West was. In another place he affirmed, that Walcot told him Ferguson 
had the chief management of the intended assassination. To sum up 
the whole, the world is left to its liberty to believe, at least three dying 
men's asseverations, against those who so plainly swore away the life 
of others to save their own. 

All this duly considered, a fair supposition lies of the innocency of 
captain Walcot and others of what they were accused, found guilty, 
sentenced, and died for; it being on West's evidence, and such as his, 
that he and others were arraigned and condemned ; the captain's de- 
fence being much the same with what he says in his speech. It is well 
known, that the witnesses against captain Walcot swore for their own 
lives with halters as it were about their necks; and it is as true that most 
of the witnesses had talked at a mad rate, in the hearing of some of 
those whom they destroyed ; but mark what captain Walcot in a most 
solemn manner with his last breath declared. 

He denied any design of killing the king, or of engaging the guards 
whilst others killed him, and said, that the witnesses invited him to 
meetings, where some things were discoursed of, in order to the asserting 
our liberties and properties; which we looked upon to be violated and 
invaded: that they importuned and perpetually solicited him, and then 
delivered up him to be hanged. That they combined together to swear 
him out of his life, to save their own ; and that they might do it ef- 
fectually, they contrived an untruth. That he forgave them, though 
guilty of his blood; but withal, earnestly begged, that they might be 
observed, that marks might be set upon them, whether their end were 
in peace or misery and woe. 

Rouse, who was tried with the captain, was charged with such a 
parcel of mad romance, as was scarce ever heard of; and one would 
wonder how perjury and malice, which used to be sober sins, could ever 
be so extravagant as to think of it. He was to seize the Tower, pay the 
rabble, uncase the aldermen, to be pay-master, and a great deal more 
to the same tune. In his defence he says no great matter, but yet what 
looks a thousand times more like truth than his accusation ; that the 
Tower business was only discourse of the feasibleness of the thing; but 
without the least intent of bringing it to action ; that all he was con- 
cerned in any real design he had from Lea, and was getting more out 
of him, with an intention to make a discovery. 

Hone was likewise accused, and owned himself guilty of a design to 
kill the king and the duke of York, or one, or neither, for it was im- 
possible to make any sense of him. When they came to suffer, Walcot 
read a paper, in which was a good rational confession of his faith ; then 
came to the occasion of his death; for which, he said he neither blamed 
the judges, jury, nor council, but only some men, that in reality were 
deeper concerned than he, who had combined together to swear him out 
of his life to save their own, and that they might do it effectually, con- 
trived an untruth. He forgave the world and the witnesses; gave his 
friends advice to be more prudent than he had been; prayed that his 



1024 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

might be the last blood spilled on that account; wished the king would 
be merciful to others; said he knew nothing of Ireland; and concluded 
with praying God to have mercy on him. He had then some discourse 
with Cartwright, wherein he told him, that he was not for contriving the 
death of the king, nor for having any hand in it. 

The next victim was colonel Algernon Sidney. He was of the ancient 
and noble family of the Sidneys, and deservedly famous to the utmost 
bounds of Europe. As the ingenious Mr. Hawles observed, he was 
merely talked to death, under the notion of a commonwealth man, and 
found guilty by a jury who were not much more proper judges of the 
cause, than they would have been had he written in Greek or Arabic. 
He was arraigned for a branch of this plot at Westminster, the 17th of 
November, 1683; where, though it cannot be said the grand jury knew 
not what they did, when they found the bill against him, since, no 
doubt, they were well instructed what to do; yet it appears, that they 
found it almost before they knew what it was, being so well resolved 
on the case, and agreed on their verdict, that had he been indicted for 
breaking open a house, or robbing on the highway, it was doomed to 
have been billa vera, as much as it was now. For although the indict- 
ment was never presented to them before they came into the hall, yet 
they immediately found it: the substance whereof was, for a conspiracy 
to depose the king, and stirring up rebellion, and writing a libel for that 
purpose. The most part of the evidence brought against him, was only 
hear-say, as against my lord Russel ; nay, West, whose evidence was 
then refused, now was admitted to tell a long story of what he had from 
one and the other. Rumsey's was much of the same nature. In the 
rear came that never-failing evidence, lord Howard, who witnessed that 
he was one of the council of six, and engaged as one of the deepest in 
their consults. And more than this, he exercised his own faculty very 
handsomely, in an account of two speeches Mr. Hampden made on the 
occasion, which indeed were such fine things, that some might think it 
worth the while to swear against a man, only to have the reputation of 
reciting them; and let any man judge whom they are most like, Mr. 
Hampden, or my lord's own witty self. 

A paper was the next evidence, said to be of Sidney's writing, which 
was found in his study. The subject was an enquiry into the forms of 
government and the reasons of their decay; the rights of the people, 
the bounds of sovereignty, and the origin of power. That which gave 
the greatest offence in it lies in the following sentence. " The king is 
subject to the law of God, as a man, and to the people who made him 
such, as a king." And examples of evil kings and tyrants, whom 
sometimes a popular fury had destroyed; at others, the Ordines Regni 
either reduced, or set them aside, when their government was a curse 
instead of a blessing to their people. If there were any mistakes, as he 
said in his speech, they ought to have been confuted by law, reason, and 
scripture, not scaffolds and axes. In the first place, it was not proved 
to be his writing, nor did he confess it; treason and life are critical 
things: one ought to be as fairly proved, as the other to be cautiously 
proceeded against. Though he might write it, he had the liberty of an 
Englishman, not to accuse himself: the very same thing which was 



MARTYRDOM OF ALGERNON SIDNEY. 1025 

afterwards put in practice by those reverend persons, who, later than he, 
and cheaper too, defended their country's liberty with only the loss of 
their own. Still here being not a syllable in these papers respecting 
king Charles, any more than of the great mogul, against whom they 
might as well have made it treason ; it was all supplied by the innuendo, 
that is, such interpretation as they would please to affix on his words. 
Thus when he writes Tarquin, or Pepin, or Nero, they say, he meant 
king Charles. 

Such was my lord Howard's evidence, that had the jury been any but 
what they were, and Sidney describes them, they would not have hanged 
a Jesuit upon the credit of it; he having, one would think, taken a 
pride in damning himself deeper and deeper against every new appear- 
ance in public, on purpose to try the skill and face of the counsel in 
bringing him off again. To the evidence brought against him in my 
lord Russel's case, he had taken care to add the following: — That the 
earl of Clare witnessed, that he said, after Sidney's imprisonment, if 
questioned again, he would never plead, and that he thought colonel 
Sidney as innocent as any man breathing. 

Now, though there was no reasonable answer could be given to all 
this; though Sidney pleaded the obligations my lord Howard had to 
him, and the great conveniency he might think there might be in his 
death, since he was some hundreds of pounds in his debt, which would 
be the readiest way of paying him ; and had besides, as it appeared, a 
great mind to have the colonel's plate secured at his own house; though 
never man in the world certainly ever talked stronger sense, or better 
reasoned or more evidently bantered the judges, and left them nothing 
but railing; yet it was all a case with him, as well as the others; and 
the petty jury could as easily have found him guilty, without hearing 
his trial, as the grand jury did, as soon as ever they saw the bill. Never 
was any thing more base and barbarous, than the summing up the evi- 
dence and directions to the jury, who yet stood in no great need of 
them : nor more uncivil and saucy a reflection on the noble family and 
name of the Sidneys, than the judges saying that he was born a traitor. 
Never was any thing braver, or more manly, than his remonstrance to 
the king for justice, and another trial: nor, lastly, more Roman, and 
yet truly Christian than his end. The brave old man came upon the 
scaffold, as undauntedly as if he had been going to fight, and as lively 
as if he had been a Russel. In his last speech he gave almost the 
substance of those books which were lately written in the defence of the 
late transactions. He there said as much in a little space as ever man 
did — that magistrates were set up for the good of nations, not to the 
contrary. If that be treason, king Charles I. was guilty of it against 
himself, who said the same thing — that the power of magistrates was 
what. the laws of the country made it — that those laws and oaths have 
the force of a contract, and if one part is broken, the other ceases. 
And other maxims of the same necessity and usefulness. He, besides 
this, gave a full account of the design of his book, of his trial, and the 
injustice done him therein; of the juries being packed, and important 
points of law overruled; and ended with a most compendious prayer, 
in which he desired God would forgive his enemies, but keep them 

3 u 



1026 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

from doing any more mischief; he then laid down his head in eternal 
repose. 

Before this excellent character is dismissed, let the reader attend to 
the substance of an address delivered at his death. Having first excused 
his not speaking, as well because it was an age that made truth pass for 
treason, for the truth of which, he instances his trial and condemnation, 
and that the ears of some present were too tender to bear it, as because 
of the rigour of the season, and his infirmities; then after a short re- 
flection upon the little said against him by other witnesses, and the little 
value that was to be put on the lord Howard's testimony, whom he 
charges with an infamous life, and many palpable perjuries, and to be 
biassed only by the promise of pardon, and makes, even though he had 
been liable to no exceptions, to have been but a single witness; he 
proceeds to answer the charge against him from the writings found in 
his closet by the king's officers, which were pretended, but not lawfully 
evidenced to be his,° and pretends to prove, that had they been his, 
they contained no condemnable matter, but principles more safe both 
o princes and people too, than the pretended high-flown plea for ab- 
solute monarchy, composed by Filmer, against which they seemed to be 
levelled; and which he says, all intelligent men thought were founded 
on wicked principles, and such as were destructive both to magis- 
trates and people too. Which he attempts to make out after this 
manner. 

First, he says, if Filmer might publish to the world, that men were 
born under a necessary and indispensable subjection to an absolute king, 
who could be restrained by no oath, whether he came to it by creation, 
inheritance, or any other right cause, nay, or even by usurpation; why 
might he — Algernon Sidney — not publish his opinion to the contrary, 
without the breach of any known law? This opinion, he professes, con- 
sisted in the following particulars: — That God hath left nations at the 
liberty of modelling their own governments. That magistrates wert: 
instituted for nations, and not d contra. That the right and power of 
magistrates were fixed by the standing laws of each country. That 
those laws, sworn to on both sides, were matter of a contract between 
the magistrates and people, and could not be broken without danger 
of dissolving the whole government. That usurpation could give no 
right ; and that kings had no greater enemies than those who asserted 
that, or were for stretching their power beyond its limits. That such 
usurpations commonly affecting the slaughter of the reigning person, 
the worst of crimes was thereby most gloriously rewarded. That such 
doctrines are more proper to stir up men to destroy princes, than all 
the passions that ever yet swayed the worst of them, and that no prince 

° In his petition to the king, speaking of those papers, he says : " That whosoever wrote 
them, they were but a small part of a polemical discourse, in answer to a book written 
thirty years before, upon general propositions, applied to no time, nor to any particular case ; 
that the confusion and errors in the writing showed that they had never been so much as 
revised ; and that being written in a hand that no man could well read, they were not fit 
for the press, nor could be for some years. But they being only the crude and private 
thoughts of a man for the exercise of his own understanding i-n his studies, and never shown 
to any, or applied to any particular case, could not fall under the statute of Edward III., 
the statute falsely pleaded, and artfully perverted, for his condemnation and death." 



MARTYRDOM OF ALGERNON SIDNEY. 1027 

could be safe, if his murderers may hope for such rewards; and that 
few men would be so gentle as to spare the best kings, if by their de- 
struction a wild usurper could become God's anointed, which he says 
was the scope of the whole treatise, and asserts to be the doctrine of the 
best authors of all nations, times, and religions, and of the scripture, 
and so owned by the best and wisest princes, particularly by Lcuis XIV. 
of France, in his declaration against Spain, anno 1667, and by king 
James, of England, in his speech to the parliament, 1603; and adds, 
that if the writer had been mistaken, he should have been fairly refuted, 
but that no man was ever otherwise punished for such matters, or any 
such thing referred to a jury. That the book was never finished, nor 
ever seen by them whom he was charged to have endeavoured by it 
to draw into a conspiracy : that nothing in it was particularly or mali- 
ciously applied to time, place, or person, but distorted to such a sense 
by inuendoes, as the discourses of the expulsion of Tarquin, &c. and 
particularly of the translation made of the crown of France from one 
race to another, had been applied by the then lawyers' inuendoes, to 
the then king of England; never considering, that if such acts of state 
be not allowed good, no prince in the world has any title to his crown, 
and having by a short reflection shewn the ridiculousness of deriving 
absolute monarchy from patriarchal power, he appeals to all the world, 
whether it would not be more advantageous to all kings, to own the de- 
rivation of their power to the consent of willing nations, than to 
have no better title than force, which may be overpowered by superior 
force. 

Notwithstanding the innocence and loyalty of that doctrine, he was 
told he must die, or the plot must die; and he complained that in order 
to the destroying the best protestants in England, the bench was filled 
with such as had been blemishes to the bar; and instanced that against 
law, they had advised with the king's counsel about bringing him to 
death, had suffered a jury to be picked by the king's solicitors: refused 
him a copy of his indictment, or to suffer the act of the 46th of Edward III. 
to be read, which allows it hath over-ruled the most important points of 
law, without hearing, and assumed to themselves a power to make con- 
structions of treason, though against law, sense, and reason, which by 
the statute of the 25th of Edward III. by which they pretended to try 
him, was reserved only to the parliament; and so praying God to forgive 
them, and to avert the evils that threatened the nation, to sanctify those 
sufferings to him, and though he fell a sacrifice to idols, not to suffer 
idolatry to be established in this land. He concluded with a thanks- 
giving, That God had singled him out to be a witne'ss of his truth, and 
for that good old cause, in which from his youth he had been engaged. 
Such was the substance of the writing delivered to the sheriffs a minute 
before his execution. 

Our next victim to the tyranny of the day was Mr. James Holloway. 
This gentleman was by profession a merchant; but the greater part 
of his trade lay in linen manufacture, which, as it appears from his pa- 
pers, he had brought to such a height in England, as, had it met with 
suitable encouragement, would, as he made it appear, have employed 
80,000 poor people, and 40,000 acres of land, and be 200,000/. a year 



1028 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

advantage to the public revenue. The return of the Habeas Corpus writ 
stated him, late of London, merchant, though he lived mostly at Bristol. 
He seems to be a person of sense, courage, vivacity of spirit, and a 
man of business. All we can have of him is from that public print, 
called his Narrative, concerning which it must be remembered, that 
we have no firm authority to assure us all therein contained was 
his own writing; and perhaps it might be thought convenient that he 
should die, for fear he might contradict some things published in his 
name. But on the other side, where he contradicts the other witnesses, 
his evidence is strong, since surely that was not the interest of the 
managers to invent of their own accord ; some truth they might utter, 
though displeasing, to gain credit to the rest. 

Mr. Holloway was accused for the plot, as one who was acquainted 
with West, Rumsey, and the rest; and having been really present at 
their meetings and discourses on that subject, absconded when the pub- 
lic news concerning the discovery came into the country; though this, 
as he told the king, was more for fear, that if he were taken up, his cre- 
ditors would never let him come out of gaol, than anything else. After 
some time he got to sea in a little vessel, went over to France, and so 
to the West-Indies, among the Caribee Islands, where much of his 
concern lay : but writing to his factor at Nevis, he was by him trea- 
cherously betrayed, and seized by the order of Sir William Stapleton, 
and thence brought prisoner to England. After examination, and a 
confession of at least all that he knew, having been outlawed in his 
absence on an indictment of treason, he was on the 21st of April 1684, 
brought to the King's-Bench, to shew cause why execution should not 
be awarded against him, as is usual in that case; he opposed nothing 
against it, only saying, if an ingenuous confession of truth could merit 
the king's pardon he hoped he had done it. The attorney being called 
for, ordered the indictment to be read, and gave him the offer of a trial, 
waving the outlawry, which he refused, and threw himself on the king's 
mercy; on which execution was awarded, though the attorney, who 
had not so much law even as Jeffrey, was for having judgment first 
pass against him, which is never done in such cases. He was executed 
at Tyburn April the 30th. 

Sir Thomas Armstrong was not long after called to sacrifice his life in 
the same cause. He had been all his life a firm servant and friend to 
the royal family, in their exile and afterwards : had been in prison for 
them under Cromwell, and in danger both of execution and starving; 
for all which they now rewarded him. He had a particular honour and 
devotion for the duke of Monmouth, and pushed on his interest on all 
occasions, being a man of as undaunted English courage as ever our 
country produced. He was with the duke formerly in his actions in 
Flanders, and shared there in his danger and honour. His accusation 
was, his being concerned in the general plot, and that too of killing the 
king; but he was indeed hanged for running away, and troubling them 
to send so far after him. The particulars pretended against him, were 
what the lord Howard witnessed in Russel's trial, of his going to kill 
the king when their first design failed. But this was only imaginary, 
though advanced into a formal accusation, and aggravated by the attor- 



EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS ARMSTRONG. 1029 

ney, as the reason why he had a trial denied him, when Holloway had 
one offered, both of them being alike outlawed. On which outlawry 
Sir Thomas was kidnapped in Holland, brought over in chains, and 
robbed by the way in the bargain. Being brought up, and asked what 
he had to plead that sentence should not pass upon him, he pleaded 
the 6th of Edward VI. wherein it is provided — That if a person out- 
lawed render himself in a year after the outlawry pronounced, and tra- 
verse his indictment, and shall be acquitted on his trial, he shall be 
discharged of the outlawry. On which he accordingly then and there 
made a formal surrender of himself to the lord chief justice, and asked 
the benefit of the statute, and a fair trial for his life, the year not being 
yet expired. But this availed him nothing : sentence was passed upon 
him and he suffered on the following Friday. 

At the place of execution he deported himself with courage becoming 
a great man, and with the seriousness and piety suitable to a Christian. 
Sheriff Daniel told him, he had leave to say what he pleased, and should 
not be interrupted, unless he upbraided the government ; Sir Thomas 
thereupon told him that he should not say any thing by way of speech; 
but delivered him a paper, which he said contained his mind; he 
then called for Dr. Tennison, who prayed with him, and then he prayed 
alone. 

He thus expressed himself in his paper, that he thanked Almighty 
God he found himself prepared for death, his thoughts set upon another 
world, and weaned from this ; yet he could not but give so much of his 
little time, as to answer some calumnies, and particularly what Mr. 
Attorney accused him of at the bar, namely, with being one of those 
that were to kill the king ; he took God to witness, that he never had a 
thought to take away the king's life, and that no man ever had the im- 
pudence to propose so base and barbarous a thing to him ; and that he 
never was in any design to alter the government. He then concluded 
with observing, that if he had been tried, he could have proved lord 
Howard's base reflections upon him, to be notoriously false ; he con- 
cluded, that he had lived, and now died of the reformed religion, and 
heartily wished he had lived more strictly up to what he believed : that 
he had found the great comfort of the love and mercy of God, in and 
through the blessed Redeemer, in whom alone he trusted, and verily 
hoped that he was going to partake of that fulness of joy which is in 
his presence, the hopes whereof infinitely pleased him. 



SECTION IV. 



ACCESSION OF JAMES II.— MONMOUTH'S REBELLION, WITH SOME ACCOUNT 
OF THOSE WHO WERE UNJUSTLY PUT TO DEATH. 

The duke of York, having ascended the English throne under the title of 
James II., soon manifested his tyranny and his intentions. In violation of 
a statute-law, he erected a new ecclesiastical commission court; had a Je- 
suit confessor; and filled all the places, both civil and military, with papists. 
The interests of Rome engrossed his attention, and such was his zeal tor the 



1030 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

catholic religion, that Pope Innocent XI. to whom he had sent his 
favourite agent, Beryl, cautioned him not to be too hasty. Although, 
on his accession, he had in his address, declaimed all arbitrary princi- 
ples, and promised to protect the honour of the nation, and deserve its 
confidence, he soon evinced his insincerity. In a sort of triumph, he 
produced some papers of his brother Charles II. by which it appeared, 
that he had died a Roman catholic, and in contempt of the feelings of 
the people, on the first Sunday of his reign, James went publicly to mass. 
The duke of Norfolk, who carried the sword of state, stopt at the chapel 
door. " My lord," said the king, " your father would have gone fur- 
ther." — " Your majesty's father," replied the spirited nobleman, "would 
not have gone so far." While James was proceeding thus, and indulg- 
ing himself in the prospect of subverting the established religion, the 
duke of Monmouth, who, on the death of lord Russel, had gone over 
to Flanders, trusting to the affections he possessed in the hearts of the 
protestants, whose cause he had ever espoused, formed the design of 
bringing about a revolution. To this rash and unhappy enterprise, he was 
chiefly instigated by the active spirit of the duke of Argyle. Having 
prepared a squadron of six vessels, badly manned, and very ill supplied, 
they divided, and with three each, sailed for the places of their destina- 
tion : Monmouth landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, on the 13th of June 
1683, with 150 men, and marching thence to Taunton, his army in- 
creased to 6000. 

In the mean while, the duke of Argyle had landed in Argyleshire, 
where he found the militia prepared to oppose him. But being imme- 
diately joined by his brave vassals and faithful partizans, he instantly 
penetrated into the western counties, hoping to be joined by the disaf- 
fected covenanters. But his little squadron being captured, and his 
brave followers having lost their baggage in a morass in Renfrewshire, 
every hope was extinguished, and they were necessitated to disperse for 
immediate preservation. The unfortunate nobleman assumed a disguise, 
but was soon taken by two peasants, and conducted to Edinburgh, were 
he was executed. At his death, he discovered all that heroic firmness, 
which he had uniformly manifested in his life, together with a great 
degree of piety. "Job tells us" said he, "that man that is born of 
a woman is of few days and full of trouble ; and I am a clear instance 
of it. I know afflictions spring not out of the dust : they are not only 
foretold, but promised to Christians ; and they are not only tolerable but 
desirable. We ought to have a deep reverence and fear of God's dis- 
pleasure, but withal, a firm hope and dependance on him for a blessed 
issue, in compliance with his will ; for God chastens his own to refine, 
and not to ruin them. We are neither to despise, nor to faint under 
afflictions. I freely forgive all who have been the cause of my being 
brought to this place ; and I entreat all people to forgive me wherein I 
have offended, and pray with me, that the merciful God would sanctify 
my present trial, and for Christ's sake, pardon all my sins, and receive 
me to his eternal glory." 

The fatal news of the above nobleman and his followers, no sooner 
reached the duke of Monmouth than he sunk into despondency. He 
now began to see the temerity of his undertaking. To provide for his 



DEFEAT AND DEATH OF MONMOUTH. 1031 

safety was not quite impossible. He therefore began to retreat till he 
re-entered Bridgewater, while the royal army being in his rear. Here 
he ascended a tower, from whence viewing the army of Feversham, his 
hopes again revived, while he meditated an attack. He accordingly 
made most skilful arrangements, but committing an important post to 
lord Grey, that dastardly soldier betrayed him. Seeing the conflict 
hopeless, he galloped off the field, and continued his flight for tw r enty 
miles until his horse sunk under him, while the unfortunate noble, 
almost exhausted as the animal, wandered on foot for a few miles 
further, and then sunk down with hunger and fatigue. In the battle, 
two thousand of Monmouth's troops were slain, and a great number 
made prisoners, of whom some hundreds were afterwards executed. 
Five days after, the poor duke was discovered lying in a ditch, almost 
in a lifeless state. On being recovered, the remembrance of the recent 
incident, affected him so powerfully, that he wept aloud. He was con- 
veyed to London, and on the 15th of July, was brought to the scaffold 
being in the thirty-sixth year of his age. 

Previously to his death, he said that he repented of his sins, and was 
more particularly concerned for the blood that had been spilt on his 
account. " Instead" said he, "of being accounted factious and rebel- 
lious, the very opposing of popery and arbitrary power, will sufficiently 
apologize for me. I have lived, and now die in this opinion, that God 
will work a deliverance for his people. I heartily forgive all who have 
wronged me, even those who have been instrumental to my fall, earnestly 
praying for their souls. I hope that king James will shew himself to 
be of his brother's blood, and extend his mercy to my children, they 
being not capable to act, and, therefore, not conscious of any offence 
against the government. He entreated the executioner to spare him 
the second blow; but the man, whose heart was unfit for his office, 
failed to strike off his head at the first blow, on which the duke 
gently turning himself round, cast a look of tender reproach upon him, 
and then again meekly submitted his head to the axe, while the tears of 
the spectators spoke how well he was beloved. 

That ambition had a share in moving both these unfortunate noble- 
men to the step, which ended in their death, cannot be denied : but, 
among their partisans, numbers were doubtless actuated by purer 
motives, even the love of the cause of truth ; and though we cannot but 
lament that ignorance and mistaken zeal, that led them to assume the 
sword, in order to advance the glory of Him, whose weapons are not 
carnal, but spiritual, we must not refuse to enrol their names with those 
of the martyrs : their offences, however, and the manner of their death 
being the same, much enlargement is needless. 

The unjust execution of Alderman Cornish, and the cruel mode and 
place of that outrage are well known, and in the view of protestants 
generally have given that worthy citizen a rank among modern martyrs. 
The alderman was seized in October 1685: and the Monday after his 
commitment, which was on the previous Friday, he was arraigned for 
high-treason, having no notice given him till Saturday noon. His charge 
was for conspiring to kill the king, and promising to assist the duke of 
Monmouth, &c. in their treasonable enterprises. He desired his trial 



1032 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

might be deferred, because of the short time for preparation; and that 
he had a considerable witness a hundred and forty miles off, and that 
the king had left it to the judges, whether it should be put off or not. 
But it was denied him; the attorney telling him, he had not deserved 
so well of the government as to have his trial delayed. Rumsey and 
Goodenough were evidences against him. They both swore to things 
that were most flagrantly extravagant and false; the first contradicting 
the evidence he had given at the trial of lord Russel, and the last 
swearing that Cornish had talked with him of seizing the Tower, when 
it was proved, that the alderman had ever entertained so ill an opinion 
of Goodenough, that he would not have trusted him with the most 
trifling secret. 

He was found guilty in spite of all, and condemned, and even that 
Christian serenity of mind and countenance, wherewith it was visible he 
bore his sentence, the bench turned to his reproach. Nevertheless he 
continued in the same excellent temper whilst in Newgate, and gave the 
world a noble instance of the happiness of such persons as live a pious 
life, when they come to make an end of it, let the way be ever so vio- 
lent and unjust. 

Approaching the press-yard, on his way to execution, and seeing the 
halter in the officer's hand, he said — " Is this for me?" The officer an- 
swered in the affirmative. The alderman replied — " Blessed be God," 
and kissed it; and after said — " O blessed be God for Newgate, I have 
enjoyed God ever since I came within these walls, and blessed be God 
who hath made me fit to die. I am now going to that God who will not 
be mocked, to that God who will not be imposed upon, to that God who 
knows the innocency of his poor creature." And a little after he said 
— " Never did any poor creature come unto God with greater confidence 
'n his mercy, through Jesus Christ; for there is no other name given 
under heaven whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus." Then 
speaking to the officers, he said — " Labour every one of you to be fit 
to die, for I tell you, you are not fit to die: I was not before I came 
hither; but blessed be God, he hath made me fit and willing to die! In 
a few moments I shall have the fruition of the blessed Jesus, and that 
not for a day, but for ever. I am going to the kingdom, where I shall 
enjoy the presence of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of God 
the Holy Spirit, and of all the holy angels: I am going to the general 
assembly of the first-born, and of the spirits of just men made perfect 
O that God should ever do so much for me! blessed be his name! this 
was his design from all eternity, to give his only Son to die for poor 
miserable sinners." Then the officers going to tie his hands, he said — 
" What, must I be tied then? Well, a brown thread might have served 
the turn; you need not tie me at all, I shall not stir from you, for thank 
God I am not afraid to die." As he was going out, he said — " Fare- 
well, Newgate: farewell all my fellow prisoners here; the Lord comfort 
you, the Lord be with you all." 

He was then led to the place of execution, which, to the outrage of 
all humanity, was before his own door near Guildhall. If anything was 
wanting in his trial, from the haste of it, for the clearing his innocence, 
he sufficiently made it up in solemn asseverations on the scaffold. " God 



ASSASSINATION OF MR. DANGERFIELD. 1033 

is my witness," said he, " the crimes laid to my charge were falsely and 
maliciously sworn against me by the witnesses; for I never was at any 
consultation or meeting where matters against the government were dis- 
coursed of. I never heard or read any declaration tending that way. 
Again, as for the crimes for which I suffer, upon the words of a dying 
man, I am altogether innocent." The cruelty of his enemies was not 
satiated by his death. His quarters were set up on Guildhall, in terrorem, 
and for the same reason, no doubt, he was executed so near it— to strike 
early terror into the hearts of the numerous protestants of the city, who 
could not be well affected towards the popery of the new king; but who 
betrayed not the least symptom of confederacy against his government 
or his person. 

Alderman Cornish was condemned as a sharer in the preceding plot: 
and one more individual suffered for that inexplicable affair. He was a 
surgeon of considerable repute, and a man of a liberal and enlarged 
understanding: his name was Bateman. During his imprisonment he 
sunk into a deep melancholy, and when brought to trial, he was quite 
deranged, so that he was unable to speak in his own defence, and to 
confront his accusers, who were Rouse, Lee, and Goodenough. His own 
son, therefore, undertook to plead his cause ; and could but what he 
brought for him have been allowed its due weight, he must have escaped. 
But he was found guilty; and just before his execution very much re- 
covered himself, dying as much like a christian, and with as great a 
presence of mind as most of the others. From all these instances, it 
appears that some violent actions were intended by some designing men, 
who had artfully insinuated themselves into the confidence of these pro- 
testant patriots; but who, when detected, in order to save their own 
worthless lives, betrayed those virtuous men, and charged upon them 
the guilt which was meant to be put in execution only by themselves. 

The cruel assassination of Mr. Dangerfield, next claims our attention. 
His father, a gentleman of Waltham, had been a great sufferer in the 
cause of Charles I. He died about the time of the discovery of the 
plot, and with his last breath charged his son to have no hand in any 
thing against the government; which he promised and faithfully ob- 
served. He was a man of business and courage, and therefore em- 
ployed by the papists, while among them, in their desperate and most 
dangerous concerns. The great thing which brought him before the 
public, was Mrs. Celier's business, called the Meal-Tub plot. The 
papists had designed to kill two birds with one stone, divert the laws and 
people from themselves, and ruin their enemies ; for which end they had 
amongst them made a plot to bring the best patriots of the nation into 
a pretended design against the king and government, by a kind of an 
association, like that which afterwards took better effect. For this trans- 
action Mr. Dangerfield was made choice of, a list of their names, with 
the design, being by him, according to order, conveyed into colonel 
Mansel's chamber. But he was discovered, and seized in the design, 
and acknowledged all the intrigue, giving so clear an account of it, 
that they had never the impudence to pretend any contradiction. But 
there was somewhat yet deeper in the case, which he afterwards revealed 
in his depositions before the parliament, namely, that he was employed 



1034 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

by the same party to kill the king, and encouraged and promised im- 
punity and reward, and part of it given him by a great person for that 
purpose. 

While the stream ran violently for popery, he went over, for security, 
into Flanders, but continued not long there. Returning back, he was 
some time after seized, and carried before the council, where, before the 
king himself, persisting in all his former evidence, he was committed to 
Newgate; and after having lain there for some time, petitioned for 
a trial, which they could not do upon any account but Scandalum 
Magnatum, and that in a matter which lay only before the parliament 
to whom he had revealed it. Yet for that he was tried, and found 
guilty, as Williams the speaker was afterwards for licensing his narrative 
by order of parliament. He was to undergo a whipping. Before he 
went out, he had strong forebodings of his death, and chose the follow- 
ing text for his funeral sermon — "There the wicked cease from troubling 
and there the weary are at rest." After the sentence was executed on 
him, on his return home, one Francis, stabbed him in the eye, and the 
instrument touching his brain, he was hardly sensible after, but died of 
the wound in a few hours, not without great suspicion of poison, his 
body being swelled and black, and full of great blains. The murderer 
fled, but was pursued by the rabble, who had torn him to pieces, had 
not the officers rescued him. He defended and justified the act whilst 
in Newgate, saying, he had the greatest men in the kingdom to stand 
by him ; to whom, after his trial, and being found guilty upon clear 
evidence, great applications were made, which had been successful for 
his pardon, had not Jeffreys himself gone to Whitehall, and told the 
king he must die, for that the rabble were now thoroughly heated, and, 
that great danger might ensue; accordingly, the poor state martyr was 
put to death. 

We now come to the sufferings of Benjamin and William Hewling, 
two most accomplished and amiable youths, and who, from first to last 
displayed such heroic constancy and christian piety, that a general officer 
in the royal army, used frequently to exclaim, " If you would learn to 
die, go to the young men of Taunton" — at which place the elder suf- 
fered on the 12th of September 1685. The elder of these brothers was 
a superior scholar, well versed in the mathematics and philosophy 
generally. He had the command of a troop of horse in the duke's army 
in Holland ; while his brother was a lieutenant of foot. They signalised 
themselves in several partial actions; but were too late in joining the 
duke's army at Sedgemore to save him from defeat and destruction. 
After attempting to escape by sea, they were driven back, apprehended, 
and committed to Exeter goal. The younger brother, who was under 
twenty, suffered at Lyme on the same day that the elder was put to 
death at Taunton. Let the junior be judged of by the following extract 
from his last letter — " I am going to launch into eternity, and I hope 
and trust into the arms of my blessed Redeemer, to whom I commit 
you and all my dear relations." The elder possessed an equally pious 
as well as protestant spirit, and both were examples of as pure a patriot- 
ism as ever glowed in the bosom of an Englishman. We cannot with- 
hold one extract from Benjamin's letter to his mother, but two hours 



DEATH OF LADY LISLE. 1035 

before his death. " Honoured mother — I know there has been nothing 
left undone by you for saving my life, for which I return my hearty 
thankfulness. Pray give my duty to all my relations, and friends. 
Tell them all how precious an interest in Christ is when we come to die, 
and advise them never to rest in a christless state. For if we are his, 
it is no matter what the world do to us — they can but kill the body, 
while the soul is out of their reach : though I question not but their malice 
wishes the death of that also, which has too evidently appeared by their 
deceitful flattering promises. The Lord God of heaven be your comfort 
under these sorrows, and your refuge from these miseries, the Lord carry 
you through this vale of tears with a resigned submissive spirit, and at 
last bring you to himself to glory — where I question not you will meet 
your dying sons." 

Next to these heroic youths we mention Mr. Christopher Battiscomb, 
a gentleman of good family and fine prospects in the world. He had 
been confined in Dorchester goal from the time of Lord Russel's death ; 
but released upon nothing being proved against him. He joined 
the duke of Monmouth to resist the aggression of popery and arbitrary 
power, and after his defeat was again imprisoned at Dorchester. Tried 
by the infamous Jeffreys he was not likely to escape. Because he had 
studied in the temple for the bar, the cruel judge was for hanging him 
without trial ; but some form and plea of justice were necessary, which 
were followed by condemnation and execution. He suffered at Lyme 
with great fortitude. When his friends left him, he said with the utmost 
serenity — " Though we part here, we shall meet in heaven." 

Mr. William Jenkyn follows. For his protestant and patriotic sen- 
timents, freely avowed, his father had been committed to Newgate, where 
close confinement soon deprived him of life. The son partook of the 
parent's spirit, and uniting himself with those whom his conscience 
deemed the true friends of his country and his God, he fell into the 
hands of the papal faction, and paid the forfeiture of his life at Dor- 
chester. Some of his last words were — " Parting with my friends, and 
their grief for me, are my greatest difficulty ; but it will be only for a 
very short time, and we shall meet again in endless joys, where my dear 
father is already entered, whom I shall presently and triumphantly 
embrace." 

Lady Alicia Lisle, from the inexorable temper of judge Jeffreys, who, 
like another Bonner, delighted in blood, was most cruelly sacrificed. 
She was condemned by one of those dormant laws that were scarcely 
known, and seldom executed. Her pretended offence was, that of hold- 
ing a correspondence with Nelthorpe, an outlawed person, and for giving 
him shelter in her house. She was so old, that she slept during her 
trial, yet notwithstanding, she found no mercy, but was beheaded at 
Winchester. Nelthorpe, at his death, afterwards declared, that he was 
wholly a stranger to her, and had never even heard her name till he was 
taken. Juvenal says of Priam, when he was sacrificed, that he had 
scarce blood enough left to tinge the knife of the sacrifices So it might 
have been said of Lady Lisle. Her extreme age, however, found no 
pity in the bosom of her foes, while her perfect serenity enraged them 
even more than her pretended crime. Parliament, convinced of the 



1036 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

injustice of her death reversed the sentence ; but it was too late — her 
hoary head had received a crown of glory. 

The individual with whom she was charged with corresponding, but 
who deposed his entire ignorance of her, Mr. Richard Nelthorpe, suf- 
fered at London. He had been outlawed, for being in the plot for as- 
sassinating the late king. He, however, solemnly averred his utter de- 
testation of any such design, neither did he know of such a thing being 
in agitation. He often avowed it his duty to sacrifice life for the main- 
tenance of the protestant faith and the consequent liberties of England. 
His dying speech was excellent but too long to be inserted entire, and we 
are fearful of marring its effects by slight quotations. It thus concludes 
— " Grant me thy love, O God my dearest father! stand by me in the 
hour of death, and give thine angels charge over me. Deliver me from 
the rage of the evil one, and receive me into thine eternal kingdom." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Gaunt was burnt at Wapping She was a woman 
zealous for the protestant cause, and full of charity to such of its pro- 
fessors as stood in need of relief. She was most basely betrayed by a 
person named Barton, whom, with his wife and family, she had pre- 
served from starving ; and although he was an outlaw, and his outlawry 
was not reversed, his evidence, contrary to all justice, was admitted 
against her. 

We now come to Scotland, to notice a few examples of patient suffering 
in the same hallowed cause in that country. The duke of Argyle is en- 
titled to the first place in this catalogue, in point of time as well as rank. 
He was put to death at Edinburgh on the 30th of June 1685. His 
speech on the scaffold was mostly scripture, and has been called a ser- 
mon of considerable ingenuity as well as seriousness. Nearly at the 
same time Colonel Rumbold suffered He was proceeding in his last, 
address to explain some parts of his political conduct, when drums were 
beaten to drown his voice. His character may be judged by the 
following loyal and christian sentiments. " For the cause of the 
king, were every hair of my head and beard a life, I would joyfully 
sacrifice them all. I was never anti-monarchical in my principles, 
but for a king and free parliament; the king having power enough to 
make him great, and the people to make them happy. I die in the 
defence of the just laws and liberties of the nation." And being asked 
if he thought not his sentence dreadful? he answered, " I wish I had 
a limb for every town in Christendom." 

Mr. John King was executed at Edinburgh, on the 14th of August, 
1679. He, at his death, made a long and interesting address to the 
people — too long for insertion, yet too good for abridgement. On the 
same day also, and at the same place, Mr. John Kidd suffered. He 
likewise addressed the spectators at considerable length, and discovered 
great resignation and piety. The following were his last words, " O that 
God would pass by Scotland once again, and make our time a time of 
love! come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! The Lord is my light and life, 
my joy, and song, and salvation ; whom then can I fear? The God of 
his chosen be my mercy this day, and the enriching comforts of the 
Holy Ghost keep up and carry me fair through, to the glory of his grace 
the edification of his people, and my own eternal advantage." 



L 



EXECUTION OF SEVERAL PROTESTANTS. 1037 

Mr. Matthew Bragg suffered death at Dorchester. This gentleman's 
case was particularly severe, as he had never intended to join in the 
rebellion; but being met by a party of the duke's horse, they forced 
him to escort them to the house of a Roman catholic, which they wanted 
to plunder for arms. They also detained his horse for the service of the 
duke, and strove to persuade him to join them. This, however, he re- 
fused, and went home on foot. His having been among the duke's party 
thus accidentally, being made public by some malicious persons, he was 
brought to trial and condemned. His condemnation was followed in two 
days by a barbarous execution. The short interval, including the sab- 
bath, was spent in remarkably fervent and doubtless sincere devotions, 
in which he was joined by an excellent clergyman, who afterwards 
testified to the eminent piety he evinced, and the distinguished prepara- 
tion for heaven which preceded his departure from earth. 

Among those who innocently suffered with Mr. Bragg, was Mr. 
Smith of Chardstock; and Mr. Speed of Collumpton. Both from their 
confessions and characters appear to have been men of eminent piety. 
In his last address, Mr. Smith spoke thus — " God forgive my passionate 
judge, and my cruel hasty jury. Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do ! God bless the king; and though his judges have no mercy 
on me, I hope he may find mercy when he most standeth in need of it." 
Concerning Mr. Speed, it is sufficient to observe that the guards around 
the scaffold were so struck with his magnanimity and resignation that 
they relented in their tyranny, and were constrained to acknowledge the r 
convictions of his innocence and excellence. 

At Bridport, Mr. John Sprage, suffered death, with twelve others. At 
Lyme, among the first who was brought to death was captain Holmes, a 
man very zealous for the duke, and withal very brave. He suffered in 
company with eleven more persons whom he embraced at the place of 
execution, and strengthened them with spiritual advice. He said, among 
other things — " It is a glorious sun-shining day, and I doubt not, though 
our breakfast be sharp and bitter, it will make us meet for a comfortable 
supper with our God and Saviour in heaven, where all sin and sorrow 
shall be done away for ever. You see I am imperfect, having left one 
arm in the field; I therefore want some assistance to help me up this 
tragical stage." 

About the same time, also, suffered Mr. Samuel Larke, a man greatly 
beloved for the goodness of his life; and with him, Mr. Christopher 
Battiscomb, Dr. Temple, captains Matthews, Madders, and Kidd, Mr. 
Joseph Tyler, and five others. These were executed in Somerset and 
Devonshire. At Bristol Mr. Tyler and Mr. Cox suffered; the latter, 
with his two sons had joined the duke on his first landing; both the 
youths were condemned as well as their father; but they were providential- 
ly preserved. In Sherborne, twelve persons suffered death, for their ad- 
herence to the same cause. Among these were Messrs. Glisson, Savage, 
Hall, Sprague, and Clegg. At Axminster were executed Mr. Rose and 
Mr. Evans. The former was a gunner, and had come over with the duke : 
he was a man of great resolution, and, finding the hopes of his master 
frustrated, appeared to prefer death to life. Mr. Port, a young sur- 
geon, and very amiable man, suffered at Honiton, and discovered at his 
death, a great share of christian piety, with a knowledge of eternal 



1038 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

things, surpassing his years, he being about twenty. At the same place, 
soon after, suffered the Rev. J. Evans, who, between the time of his 
sentence and its execution, devoted himself wholly to the teaching of 
eternal things, and received his death with a cheerfulness, that mani- 
fested his hopes of eternal glory. 

Mr. Simon Hamling suffered at Taunton. He was so far from joining 
in the rebellion, that he had walked from his house in the country, about 
three miles from Taunton, on purpose to persuade his son to take no 
part in the affair; judging all resistance in a professor of Christ, as un- 
lawful; but, being a protestant dissenter, he was seized, and not offer- 
ing to his corrupt judges any money for his ransom, he was condemned 
and executed. Mr. Cratchett also suffered innocently; he being a con- 
stable of the hundred, was surprised by a party of the duke's horse, who 
shewed him a warrant to bring in provisions for the army, and threatened 
in case of refusal to burn his house: so that, for his immediate preserva- 
tion, he was obliged to comply. Among many other sufferers, in various 
parts, were Mr. Samuel Robins, Mr. Charles Speak, Mr. Parrot, Mr. 
Henry Bodly, and Mr. John Hicks. This last gentleman made a long 
and peculiarly eloquent harangue, in justification of himself, of the 
wickedness of the times, and in exhorting his hearers to follow after the 
things that regarded their eternal welfare. 

At Taunton, besides those already named, with many others, Mr. 
J. Gatchill, Mr. Simon Hamling, and Mr. Hucker, were executed. 
In addition numbers perished in prison, while several were brought to 
death without any trial, especially by the cruel and sanguinary Kirk, 
so well known in the records of blood. At Bath, more exempt from 
blood than most cities of the realm, Mr. William Hussey, seventy years 
old, and Mr. Thomas Paul, nearly of the same age, were executed. 
Likewise, a young man named Trip, who was carried to his execution 
in blankets, being at the point of death of a malignant fever. This 
act of cruelty, however, met its reward, as many of the soldiers, and 
those concerned in his death, caught the disease, and from them it 
spread far and wide about the country. 

Great numbers of those who suffered through this enterprise of the 
duke of Monmouth, a were innocent of the offence, many of them never 
having taken any part in it, and many others having been forced into 
it, in order to save their properties and their lives. It has been re- 
marked, and may be remarked again with confidence, that whatever 
political and civil pleas were urged for their condemnation and death, 
most of them were hurried violently out of the world through fear of 
the influence of their example as sound protestants, and men esteemed 
in their generation. 

Chief-justice Jeffreys, and the corrupt judges under him, seemed ac- 
tuated by the spirit of furies, and whole parishes were, by their means, 

a " The cruelty of the king's officers towards the prisoners which they took at Sedgemoor, 
exceeds all credit. The earl of Feversham ordered about twenty to be hung immediately after 
the action. Nineteen others were put to death at Bridgewater, by colonel Kirke, an inhuman 
wretch, who continued to execute others occasionally for his diversion, with circumstances of 
wanton barbarity. Judge Jeffreys was now sent the western circuit, to finish the horrid tragedy. 
At Dorchester he ordered nine and twenty persons to be executed immediately after conviction. 
He prosecuted the same work of carnage at Exeter and Taunton ; and two hundred and fifty per- 
sous are said to have been sacrificed, in this circuit, under colour of justice." — Clarendon. 



POPERY EXPELLED FROM ENGLAND. 1039 

depopulated. Nor was his rage and violence displeasing at court. King 
James was so delighted at his success, that in a proclamation for a 
thanksgiving, he declared that now nothing remained, which could pos- 
sibly disturb the future quiet of his reign. He then procured the 
opinion of his judges — That it was in his power to dispense with the 
penal laws; upon which followed a declaration for liberty of conscience, 
and suspending the taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and 
several papists were put into offices. Soon after, the vice-chancellor 
of Cambridge, and the fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford, were 
suspended and turned out, for not admitting popish priests and friars, 
contrary to their oaths. The bishop of London was suspended for re- 
fusing to suspend Dr. Sharp, for preaching against popery. Seven 
bishops were committed to the Tower for refusing to order the declara- 
tion for liberty of conscience to be read in their several dioceses : they 
were tried at Westminster-hall, and brought in " Not Guilty," to the 
great joy of the people. 

In this sad state was the protestant religion in 1688; and, to crown 
all, it was pretended the queen had a son, who was declared prince of 
Wales, and was designed by the papists to finish the work his father 
might not have time to do; namely, to entail popery and slavery upon 
the nation for ever hereafter. The ancient glory of the English nation, 
and the liberties and properties of all degrees therein, seeming now to 
be in inevitable danger, the nobility and gentry of the kingdom having 
no where else under heaven to place their hope and confidence but in 
her highness, the heiress apparent to the crown, and in the celebrated 
virtue and renown of his highness the prince of Orange, for military 
conduct and heroic magnanimity. They humbly represented their griev- 
ances so effectually to them, that at length the prince was induced to 
appear in their defence, and landed with an army of 15000 men. Being 
joined by great numbers of the nobility and gentry at Exeter, and after- 
wards by several of James's own army, the king was so affrighted, that 
he sent the queen and the pretended prince of Wales to France; and 
father Peters, with the rabble of priests, monks, and friars, packed up 
their trinkets to shift for themselves. The lord chancellor Jeffreys fled 
likewise, but was taken, and died in the Tower; king James himself 
soon after abdicated, and retired into France. After this the whole 
nation by their representatives, made it their humble request, that the 
prince of Orange with his royal consort, would be pleased to accept of 
the crown; and they were accordingly proclaimed king and queen, with 
great joy, on February 13, 1688, whereby the nation was restored to its 
ancient liberties, and freed from the dangers of popery and slavery. 

Casting an eye as we conclude on the continent, an affecting instance 
of wholesale persecution and virtual martyrdom distinguished and dis- 
graced the eighteenth century. But few lives indeed were sacrificed, and 
none by the fatal violence of the moment ; yet some hundreds were re- 
duced to extreme misery, and expatriated without mercy, by the eccle- 
siastical powers of Saltzburgh in the year 1731. The edict was issued 
in the winter, and fourteen days only were allowed for its execution. At 
the expiration of this short time the soldiers drove the protestants, 
amounting to some thousands, in troops from every city and town, every 
village and hamlet, of the realm. Most of them were stripped of every 



10-10 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

thing but the raiment they wore. It is no little relief, amidst this scene, 
to find that subscriptions were opened in every protestant state in Europe, 
to supply their wants, and provide a refuge for them. The greater part 
obtained an asylum in Prussia. A letter from Liepsic gives the follow- 
ing account of their arrival in that city. " Upwards of 2000 protestant 
emigrants, driven destitute from their homes, have sought shelter within 
our hospitable walls. As soon as news of their approach arrived, at 
least ten thousand of the inhabitants went out to meet them. The weary 
pilgrims were of all ages and descriptions. Some were bent with age 
and were supported by their children : others had prattling infants in 
their arms, or new-born babes at their breasts ; while the greater part 
were almost dead with hunger and fatigue. They were met at the gates 
by the clergy, and entered the city in as regular procession as possible — 
those who could use their voices singing Luther's hymn. In the market 
place they halted, and were quartered by the magistrates in the different 
inns and other houses of the city. Every family seemed to vie with the 
rest in hospitality and benevolence. On Sunday they assembled in the 
church and a collection was made at the doors. Many of the rich mer- 
chants subscribed a thousand dollars each. There was scarcely a ser- 
vant or an apprentice boy who did not contribute his part. The women, 
even the poorest, took their handkerchiefs and aprons, when they had 
nothing else, and bestowed upon them." At Halle and "Wittemburg the 
poor wanderers received equally kind attention ; and at Potsdam the 
king himself came out to meet them. They then for the first time broke 
their ranks, to surround the sovereign and fall at his feet. He received 
them in the most generous manner, and those who survived their suffer- 
ings settled in his dominions, while such as were declining towards death 
had their latter days soothed by his beneficence and that of his subjects. 
We have thus given some account of almost every martyr who suffered 
for the faith of Christ, of whom record is preserved. That there were 
hundreds of Christians martyred for the cause of the Redeemer, of whom 
history knows nothing, cannot be doubted ; for, a hundred volumes would 
not contain the history of all the worthies who were destroyed in the dif- 
ferent ages of the Christian church. We have purposely omitted any 
account of the disasters which have happened through popular fanaticism 
in modern times. It may be thought that we have gone too far in classing 
the sufferers under James and Jeffreys with the martyrs for our holy re- 
ligion ; but it should be remembered that, although some were politically 
guilty, the greater number were really condemned by the popish party on 
account of their adherence to the Protestant faith. We have not, however, 
any apprehension that the superior light and religion of our day will suffer 
the martyr-fires to be rekindled, unless our country return to its former 
faithlessness to God and to itself. 



1C41 



SECTION V. 

PERSECUTIONS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS FROM 
THE REIGN OF HENRY III. TO LOUIS XVIII.* 

France has its " noble army of martyrs," and its martyrology is large. 
In a former section of this work, ending at page 213, the reader has been 
furnished with a brief account of the cruelties of popery in that country 
down to the year 1573. 

In 1576 was formed the famous League, the chief promoter of which 
was the duke of Guise ; and the pretence, the preservation of the Catholic 
religion. Henry III., then king, was a bigoted papist; but the increasing 
power of the duke of Guise so alarmed him, that to secure himself the 
better against his intrigues, he favoured the Protestants, and they obtained 
an edict for the free exercise of their religion in 1577. This was called the 
edict of Poictiers. Popish bigotry did not, however, long admit the 
privileges of this edict to be enjoyed by the Protestants. 

Henry IV. succeeded to the throne in 1589, and being a Protestant, 
though he renounced his professed religion, yet he still showed kindness to 
those with whom he had been accustomed to worship ; and during a visit 
at Nantes, he published the famous edict named after that town. This edict 
continued for a number of years as the safeguard of the reformed church. It 
secured to the Protestants free worship, and all the rights of citizens, and it 
was registered as perpetual and irrevocable. Henry IV. was stabbed in his 
coach by an execrable wretch named Ravaillac, who assigned as a reason 
for committing the crime, that he believed the king to be still in heart a 
Protestant. 

Louis XIII., his successor, was not guilty of Protestantism. He was a 
weak bigot ; and the popish clergy adored him because he sanctioned their 
superstitions, and allowed them to use his power in persecuting his Pro- 
testant subjects, whom he hated. The Jesuits, who had been banished from 
France for attempting the life of Henry IV., a. d. 1593, were recalled, and be- 
came favourites at the court ; and their doctrine obtained popularity, that 
" princes may put heretics to death, and therefore they ought to put them 
to death." An artful priest got raised to the rank of cardinal, and was 
prime minister. This man, cardinal Richelieu, endeavoured by every artifice 
to prejudice the mind of Henry against the Protestants ; and having assured 
him that it was a principle with them that kings might be deposed by their 
people, excited him to adopt those measures which created a civil war, in 
which the Protestants were great losers. Five years afterwards, war was 
renewed ; and the last fortified town, Rochelle, which was left to the Pro- 
testants, endured a siege, in which, out of 18,000 inhabitants, no less than 
13,000 perished, chiefly by famine. This was a severe blow to the Pro- 

* This section, and those following, are added by the writer of the Essay on Popery prefixed 
to the present Edition. 

3 x 



1042 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

testants. The king, however, confirmed anew the edict of Nantes. Many- 
Protestants saw a storm gathering, and fled the country in 1634. In less 
than ten years from this time, both Richelieu and Louis were called to give up 
their final account. Notwithstanding the persecutions of this reign , the 
Protestants had however greatly increased, and their numbers now amounted 
to not less than two millions — thus resembling the palm-tree, which beneath 
the pressure revives and flourishes. 

Louis XIV., now five years of age, ascended the throne on the demise of 
his father, a. d. 1643. The queen-mother was appointed sole regent during his 
minority, and cardinal Mazarine, a creature of Richelieu's, was her prime 
minister. The edict of Nantes was again confirmed, and the confirmation 
repeated when the king attained his majority. Louis was a tool of the 
Jesuits, and soon adopted the resolution of extirpating the Protestants. 
He tempted the great with rank and office. He ordered the priests to preach 
down the reform faith; and when unanswerable replies were published against 
their arguments, he forbade the Protestants to print. And now com- 
menced a series of minor and vexatious persecutions, till at length he 
revoked what had been called " The 'perpetual and irrevocable edict of 
Nantes." With this revocation he banished the Protestants from his 
kingdom ; though, in so doing, he lost a mass of wealth and industry which 
France could never recover. This revocation took place on the 22nd of 
October, 1685. 

The most cruel proceedings followed : " Now," says Saurin, " we were 
banished ; then we were forbidden to quit the kingdom on pain of death. 
Here we saw the glorious rewards of some who betrayed their religion ; 
and there we beheld others who had the courage to confess it, a haling to 
a dungeon, a scaffold, or a galley. Here we saw our persecutors drawing 
on a sledge the dead bodies of those who had expired on the rack ; there 
we beheld a false friar tormenting a dying man, who was terrified, on the 
one hand, with the fear of hell if he should apostatize, and, on the other, 
with the fear of leaving his children without bread, if he should continue in 
the faith ; yonder they were tearing children from their parents, while the 
tender parents were shedding more tears for the loss of their souls than 
for that of their bodies or lives." "It is impossible," says Robert Robin- 
son, " to meet with parallel instances of cruelty among the heathens in 
their persecutions of the primitive Christians. The bloody butchers who 
were sent to them under the name of dragoons, invented a thousand tor- 
ments to tire their patience, and to force an abjuration from them." 
" They cast some," says Claude, " into large fires, and took them out when 
they were half-roasted. They hanged others with large ropes under their 
armpits, and plunged them several times into wells, till they promised to 
renounce their religion. They tied them like animals on the rack ; and 
poured wine with a funnel into their mouths, till, being intoxicated, they 
declared that they consented to turn Catholics. Some they slashed and 
cut with penknives ; others they took by the nose with red-hot tongs, 
and led them up and down the rooms till they promised to turn Catholics." 
These barbarous deeds made eight hundred thousand Protestants quit the 
kingdom, who, besides their talents and industry, contrived to carry off 
twenty millions of property. The silk manufactory in Spital Fields origin- 
ated in this emigration. The pastor Charnier, who had drawn up the edict 






PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 1043 

of Nantes, perished in this persecution, and ranks among the number of 
illustrious martyrs. 

Four hundred thousand Protestants yet remained in France ; and the 
merciless Catholics gave them no rest. They compelled them to go to mass 
and to receive the communion ; but some refused to swallow the water, for 
which crime they were burned alive. Others, who refused to receive the 
sacrament when they were dying, were dragged upon hurdles and thrown 
into the common sewers. The punishment of death was decreed against 
those who met for worship, and against any Protestant minister who should 
return from banishment- Claude Brousson, a man of undaunted spirit, 
was first an advocate at Toulouse, and having entered the ministry returned 
to Nismes. ' Public worship being prohibited, he projected the plan of 
meeting to worship God in another way ; and preached to numerous as- 
semblies in deserts, in caverns, and during the night. At length he was 
betrayed and conveyed to Montpellier, where he was broken alive upon 
the wheel, under pretence that he had corresponded with the king's ene- 
mies. He died for the cause of Christ in the fifty-first year of his age, and 
displayed all the heroism of a primitive martyr. 

The Protestants could find shelter nowhere, for they were pursued and 
sought out in their strongholds in dens, woods, rocks, and caves ; till at length 
they were, for the most part, obliged to disperse and flee the country. 
After this time there was no public worship ; a few only met privately by 
stealth, and occasionally a religious pastor ventured his life by visiting the 
remnant of his oppressed flock. 

Louis XIV. died in 1715, and left behind him his example as a model 
for tyrants. He had blighted France with a curse from which it has never 
recovered, and shed those torrents of tears and blood, in addition to those 
caused by the cruelty and perfidy of Charles IX., for which a righteous 
Judge has visited that guilty nation in subsequent revolutions, the like of 
which has no existence in the pages of history. 

Louis XV. was great grandson of the last king, whose arbitrary reign 
had extended through seventy-two years. The young king was too much 
occupied with his gallantries to care about the consciences of his subjects, 
so that he did not directly interfere in matters of religion. But the arbi- 
trary laws of his predecessor were left in full operation. During his reign 
several Protestant ministers were put to death. A few facts will show the 
shocking state of the French Protestants at this time. 

Eighteen persons were sentenced to the galleys for their religion, in the 
year 1745; among whom were a physician, and two old officers, knights 
of St. Louis ; and in the same year, twenty-one meetings of Protestants 
for public worship were condemned to fines and costs, to the amount of 
41,000 livres. 

Fifty- four persons were condemned to prison in 1746, besides eleven 
young females, who were taken from their parents, and forced into different 
convents. One aged mother was also imprisoned, with others, for not giving 
up her sons to vengeance and her daughters to the cloister. 

The following horrible cruelties, committed at this time, have also been 
attested by the most credible witnesses : — " I accompanied M. de Beau- 
vais," said M. de Boufflers, " in a reconnaisance on the shores of Languedoc. 
We arrived at Aiguesmortes, at the foot of the Tour de Constance . We 



1044 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

found at the entrance an officious jailer, who, after having conducted us 
by some back and winding staircases, opened with a tremendous noise a 
frightful door, on which we might have expected to have seen the inscrip- 
tion of Dante. No language can describe the effect of a spectacle to 
which our eyes were unaccustomed ; it was at once hideous and affecting, 
and disgust increased its horror. We saw a large round hall, deprived of 
air and light ; fourteen women languished there in misery and in tears. 
The commandant could scarcely contain his emotion ; and doubtless, for 
the first time, these unhappy beings perceived compassion on a human 
countenance. I see them still. At this sudden appearance they fell at 
our feet, bathed them with tears, attempted to speak, but found only sighs; 
and at length, emboldened by consolations, related to us all at once their 
common sufferings. Alas ! all their crime was that they were educated in 
the religion of Henry IV. The youngest of these martyrs was nearly fifty 
years of age — she was only eight when they seized her, as she was going 
to the sermon with her mother, and her punishment had not yet terminated." 

" I have also seen this Tour de Constance" says Monsieur Boissy 
d'Anglas, addressing his children. " It must excite in you a double interest, 
since the ancestor of your mother, accused of having attended preaching, 
and being confined there during her pregnancy, gave birth to a daughter, 
from whom you are descended. I declare that nothing I have ever seen 
was so calculated to insure ineffable remembrance. It was towards the 
year 1763; five or six years before the circumstance related by M. de 
Boufflers, and so honourable to M. de Beauvais. My mother had brought 
me to visit one of our relations, who resided a league from Aiguesmortes ; 
she wished to see the unhappy victims of the religion we professed, and 
she took me with her. There were more than twenty-five prisoners ; and 
the description of their misery by M. de Boufflers is but too exact; only 
instead of a simple gaoler, they were under the care of a royal lieutenant, 
who alone could open the Tour, and give permission to enter. The prison 
was composed of two large round halls, one above another ; the lower 
room received light from the upper, by a circular hole about six feet in 
diameter, and the upper from a similar hole, made in the terrace which 
formed the roof. The fire was lighted in the centre ; the smoke could 
only escape through openings, by which air and light, and unhappily with 
them rain and wind, were admitted. I saw the prisoner who had been 
shut up from the time she was eight years old. Thirty-two years she had 
been there when I saw her, and she had been there thirty-eight when she 
was liberated. Her mother died in her arms some time after their captivity. 
Her name was Mademoiselle Durand." 

" I dare not attempt," says M. Wilks, " to sketch merely an outline of 
the bitter sufferings, cruel tortures, and glorious deaths which compose the 
annals of this period. M. Desubas, an excellent and zealous minister, 
twenty-six years of age, was arrested December 11, 1745, at D'Aggrene, 
and the next day a lieutenant and thirty men conducted him to Vernoux. 
Some Protestant peasants, informed of the seizure of their minister, as- 
sembled on the route, without arms, to implore his liberation ; the only 
answer was a discharge of musketry — six were killed, and four were made 
prisoners Arrived at Vernoux, the tidings spread, and the poor people, 
alarmed for the life of their pastor, collected in crowds. Old men, women, 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 1045 

and children, united in tears and intreaties for their beloved M. Desubas. 
Two of the Catholic bourgeois gave them some hope of success, but it 
was only the more effectually to prepare their destruction. The escort 
and the Catholics fired from the windows on a defenceless multitude, 
amounting to 2000 persons. Two hundred Protestants were wounded, 
the greater part of them mortally, and thirty-six were killed. 

The cruel martyrdom of the aged John Calas, whose fate is recorded 
on page 252 of this work, occurred in the latter part of this reign. 
From the time of the death of Calas, to whose memory justice was after- 
wards done, the Protestants of France experienced some mitigation of 
their sufferings, and were generally allowed to worship God publicly and 
in peace. 

Louis XV. died after a reign of fifty-nine years, and was succeeded by 
his grandson in 1774. 

Louis XVI. was the best of the Bourbon race ; but during the early part 
of his reign, the Protestants suffered much under the intolerant laws which 
encouraged their persecutors. Among other oppressions the sufferers were 
called to endure, was the non-recognition of the Protestant marriages, 
and the consequent illegitimacy pronounced against the children, who were 
too often deprived of their rights by unjust and avaricious Catholics. At 
length, in 1787, an edict restored the Protestants to the enjoyment of their 
civil rights ; but some opposition was made to it in parliament ; and one 
enthusiastic papist, presenting a crucifix, peremptorily inquired if they were 
going to crucify the Son of God afresh ? There were, however, political 
and pecuniary motives connected with the granting of these favours; and, 
notwithstanding this edict, partial persecutions still existed. 

The national assembly in 1789 decreed, "that no man should be dis- 
turbed in his religious opinions, nor troubled in the exercise of his religion;" 
and during the existence of the republic, and the subsequent reign of 
Napoleon, this served as a basis for the laws respecting liberty of worship. 
In 1790, a member, however, showed the cloven foot of the persecuting 
Catholic, by proposing that the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion 
should be the only public and authorized worship ; but his proposal was lost. 

Still, at this period, liberty of worship was not fully enjoyed. Infidelity 
reigned among the ruling authorities, and the refractory priests were sub- 
jected to severities which they had themselves before inflicted on the Pro- 
testants. Popery was popery still — the same sanguinary superstition as 
it ever had been. The following brief narrative will confirm the truth of 
the remark : — 

In 1 8 1 5, M. Maigre, a venerable octogenarian and large silk manufacturer 
at Nismes, fled from his house in a carriage, with his son, his son's wife, 
two children, and two female servants. They were arrested on the road 
by a patrol, to whom M. Maigre showed a regular passport. Two 
postilions returning from Beaucaire, cried to the patrol, " Why do you 
suffer these people to pass — they are Protestants ? " At this moment 
M. Maigre discovered in the crowd an old servant: " Andre," said he, 
" do you not know me? are you not interested for me ?" " Ah, that was 
formerly," said the ingrate ; " it is very different now ;" and immediately 
aimed a terrible blow at his old master. A postilion leaped from his horse, 
and threw a rope round the neck of his youngest daughter, intending to 



1046 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

strangle her; but one of the servants flew to her rescue, and drew on 
herself the fury of the monster, who, throwing the instrument of his cruelty 
round her, endeavoured to hang her to a tree : fortunately, the cord was 
too short. The infuriated mob then determined to convey their prisoners 
to Remoulins. They arrived at the village of La Foux, overwhelmed with 
menaces and imprecations ; and seeing a capuchin, they solicited his pro- 
tection. He acknowledged that he knew them, but refused to intercede 
for them, and shut himself up in the first house. They were forced into 
the bark in which they were to cross to Remoulins, while the people on 
the shore cried, " Throw them into the water — drown them !" The family 
then embraced each other, exclaiming in agony, " We are ah lost!" A 
man seized the aged father, and threw him into the stream ; he tried to 
swim to the bank, but was struck by a stone, and his strength failing he 
was drowned. His son, more vigorous, made more resistance ; with one 
hand he seized a peasant, with the other he grasped the mast. To secure 
him, they promised him his life ; but at the moment he quitted his hold, 
they threw him overboard. He swam to the shore, where a gentleman ran 
to his assistance, and tried to staunch the blood which was flowing fast 
from his wounds. A man approached, and pointed a fusil. " Spare this 
good man," said his protector ; " he is not guilty of any crime : in saving 
his life, you will render an important service to your country." " Yes," 
said M. Maigre, " we have injured no one. It is true we differ in our reli- 
gious opinions ; but should this lead you to take my life ? Ask this gentle- 
man — he knows me well." M. Sere then assured the murderers that the 
family was generally respected. " You are yourself one of the same kind," 
said a peasant. " No, I am a Roman Catholic; and to prove my assertion, 
here is my prayer-book, and a cross which belongs to my daughter." 
" You shall, however, both march to prison," said the peasants. " Alas!" 
cried M. Maigre, seizing the hand of his friend, " to what danger has your 
generosity exposed you !" On the road, a man aimed twice at M. Maigre 
with a musket, saying, "Stand away, let me kill him;" while M. Sere 
threw himself on the musket, knelt at their feet, and kissed the hands of 
the murderer, earnestly imploring the life of the unfortunate. " Retire," 
said the savage, "unless you wish to share the same fate." A woman, 
alarmed at the danger to which the intrepid courage of Sere had exposed 
himself, drew him away. M. Maigre was assassinated, and thrown into 
a stream which flowed by the village. A reaper drew his body from the 
water with his scythe, took his money, his snuff-box, and his watch, and 
cast the corpse again into the river. The wife and daughters had taken 
refuge in an inn ; the assassins pursued them with the intention of immo- 
lating the whole family; and had not the innkeeper assured them that the 
ladies had escaped into the country, and the marechaussee almost imme- 
diately appeared, they would inevitably have been sacrificed by the 
murderers of their husband and brother. 

When Bonaparte was first consul, he concluded a concordat with the 
pope, in which he well secured the Protestants ; a circumstance that gave 
great dissatisfaction to the Roman Catholics, who tried in vain to induce 
him to make some alterations in their favour. The condition of the 
Protestants was greatly improved during the elevation of Napoleon, a 
circumstance which could not fail to attach them to his dynasty. 



PERSECUTIONS IX THE SOUl'H OF FRANCE. 1047 

Louis XVIII. , having- been placed on the throne by the forces of the allied 
powers, was soon surrounded by interested priests, and efforts were made 
to restore to the Catholics paramount influence. But suddenly Napoleon 
boldly invaded France with his miniature army, and resumed his seat on 
the throne. His hundred days' reign was terminated by the battle of 
Waterloo, a. d. 1815. 

Louis XVIII. returned. The Catholics now felt themselves secure in the 
prospect of renewed authority, and the Protestants dreaded that their 
vengeance, which had been dammed up for so long a time, would now 
burst forth like a mountain-torrent. During the hundred days they had not 
hesitated to pronounce their threats, and to intimate that if Louis returned 
they would denounce the Protestants as Bonapartists. The time of ven- 
geance arrived; and in the month of July, 1815, about four hundred Pro- 
testants were inhumanly murdered in the department of the Garde. These 
persecutions were stubbornly denied by the Roman Catholics, both at home 
and abroad; and when they were obliged to admit the facts, they contra- 
dicted the causes, and as usual, in all cases of popish persecution, attributed 
them to political differences. There were great numbers of Bonapartists 
among the population of Nismes, but not one of them suffered; while even 
royalists were said to have perished among the Protestants. Prior to 
the return of Napoleon, the esplanade or public walk at Nismes resounded 
with songs, in which men, women, and children repeated that they would 
" wash their hands in the blood of Protestants : that with their liver and 
lights they would make a mess to feed upon, and that they would make 
black puddings of the blood of Calvin s children !" The most worthless 
vagabonds were employed to sing these songs, and were paid, according to 
their age and services, from twopence halfpenny to fifteen pence each day. 

Protestants were not safe from cruel assaults, if found in a spot where 
they could be secretly committed; and when the injured parties called for 
justice, the magistrates disregarded their appeals. The declamations of 
the Catholics became more bold : " We will no longer suffer amongst us 
these villains, these monsters of Protestants; we must rid ourselves of 
them ; annihilate even the last of them." The Protestants were insulted 
every instant ; and Catholics were accustomed to soap cords publicly, in 
their presence, with which they declared they would tie them to the 
gallows prepared for their execution. M. de Vallongne, afterwards mayor 
of Nismes, a man of rank, education, and family, was heard to say that 
a second St. Bartholomew was necessary. The Duke D'Angoul6me 
visited Nismes. Complaints were made to him, and all the facts above 
related were laid before him; but he refused to believe them, or to make 
any inquiry, but arrested twelve of the principal Protestants accused by 
the Catholics of being Bonapartists. Among the arrested was the worthy 
M. Vincens St. Laurence, counseller of the prefecture. When he was led 
to the state prison amidst the sanguinary vociferations of the populace, 
M. Boyer Brun, advocate-secretary to the prince, said, on seeing him pass, 
" At last we shall overcome those villains of Protestants !" The army 
marched to encounter Napoleon on his return, but the Catholics threatened 
that when they returned they would massacre every Protestant. When 
Bonaparte resumed his power, the Protestants, so far from retaliating, showed 
that degree of kindness to their enemies that made them ashamed ; but the 



1048 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

return of the Bourbons to power was the signal for renewing the cruel 
persecutions. The Protestants suffered imprisonment under false accusa- 
tions ; their vineyards were spoiled, their houses plundered, their places of 
worship burned ; they experienced the most cruel insults and assaults, and 
large numbers suffered death — some under the most aggravated forms. 
The perpetrators of these crimes escaped punishment. One barbarian, 
more cruel than the rest, boasted that with his own hands he had killed 
forty Protestants, and should not be satisfied till he had killed fifty ! This 
bloodthirsty wretch, originally a street-sweeper, whose name was Trestaillon, 
alias Toilajon, alias Lafont, died only a short time since, when his zeal was 
not forgotten, for he was buried by the priests with considerable splendour. 
He had received a commission in the army. About ten thousand, who saw 
the approach of the storm, fled to the mountains of Cevennes to avoid the 
threatening danger; but the prefect persuaded the principal persons to 
return, and great numbers of these were assassinated. 

This chapter might be extended to a volume, and the number of the victims, 
in various ways, be greatly augmented ; but it is necessary to study brevity. 
A few well-attested facts shall conclude the account of the persecutions of 
the French Protestants in 1815. 

Two parties glutted their savage appetites on the farm of Madame 
Frat. The first, after eating, drinking, breaking the furniture, and stealing 
what they thought proper, took leave by announcing the arrival of their 
comrades, "compared with whom," they said, " they should be thought 
merciful." Their predictions were fulfilled. Three men and an old woman 
were left on the premises : at the sight of the second company, two of the 
men fled. The banditti entered the kitchen, seized the old woman, and 
demanded, " Are you a Catholic?" " Yes." " Repeat, then, your Pater 
and Ave." Terrified by the recollection of the past and the apprehension 
of the future, she hesitated, and was instantly knocked down with a 
musket. On recovering her senses, she took an opportunity to leave the 
house ; and in going out she met Ladet, a servant of the farm, who was 
bringing in a salad, which the depredators had ordered him to cut as they 
entered. She entreated him to fly ; but the good man, confident in his 
age and innocence, refused to abandon the property of his employers, and 
for the last time approached the house of his mistress. " Are you a Pro- 
testant?" they exclaimed. "I am," he replied; and immediately a 
musket was presented at him, and he fell wounded, but not dead. To 
consummate their work, the monsters lighted a fire with straw and boards 
threw their yet living victim into the flames, and suffered him to expire in 
the most dreadful agonies. They left the remains not wholly consumed ; 
part of which were devoured by the dogs. The prefect of the Garde, in 
order to cover the crime, declared again and again that the man was a 
Catholic ; but the Protestant pastors, MM. Juillerat and Rabaut, publicly 
contradicted the apologist, and declared that the murdered man and all 
his family were Protestants. The unfortunate victim was in his sixty- third 
year, and left a widow and four children dependent on the bounty of his 
Protestant brethren. This and the subsequent barbarities were practised 
chiefly about Nismes. 

An old unmarried man aged sixty, named Lafond, lived in a very retired 
manner; he had neither the inclination nor the ability to engage in political 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OP PRANCE. 1049 

plots or discussions. His only crime was that he professed the reformed 
religion. He was singled out as one of the first victims. Trestaillon, 
accompanied by other ruffians, went to his house, forced open the street 
door, and went up to his apartment, which was on an upper floor. Regard- 
less of his cries and entreaties, they dragged him by his white locks to the 
landing-place, and precipitated him from the top of the balustrade. They 
thought he was dead, and left him ; but returning soon after, they found 
him only stunned, and much wounded : they brought him to his door, and 
there, amidst the acclamations of the populace, literally cut him into pieces 
with axes and broadswords. 

A Protestant in the national guard, one night being on piquet with 
Catholics, who were going to relieve a post stationed at one of the gates, 
descried by the light of the moon two female bodies, with their faces 
turned towards the ground. When they were turned up, the miserable 
man recognised his wife and daughter, who had been murdered as they 
returned from the country. The cries of agony he raised on the discovery 
of his misfortune irritated the barbarians who accompanied him. They 
levelled their muskets, saying it was a pity he should be separated from 
those he so much loved, fired, and he fell on the dead bodies. He, however, 
lingered till the next morning, when he told his distressing tale and expired. 

One Bigot, a carter, was attacked in his house, where he defended 
himself, with the assistance of his wife and sister-in-law. They were com- 
pelled to yield to the assailants, who, in spite of their cries, tears, and 
entreaties, cut the throat of Bigot, and left him to bleed to death. His 
wife and sister, whom they forced to be present at the horrid scene, were 
afterwards killed on his body with axes. 

An old man, aged eighty, was farmer on the estate of M. Chambeau : 
about thirty banditti went to his house, and after they had levied a con- 
tribution, asked him if he was not a Protestant. On his answering " Yes," 
they ordered him to kneel down, and shot him; they then lighted up a 
large fire, and burnt his body to ashes ! 

In 1801, M. Saussine retired from the army, (which he had entered in 
1777,) with the rank of captain, and his two sons had since fallen on the 
field of battle. He was sixty-five years of age, infirm and deaf; and 
living in peace and privacy. It was enough that he was a Protestant. 
At six o'clock in the morning he was found at his residence on the road 
to Uzes, in the department of the Garde, and killed on the spot. Tru- 
phemy drove the widow from her home, and Trestaillon took possession 
of it as a dwelling for his sister. Madame Saussine died soon after of 
grief and persecution. 

At Nismes, as in all France, the inhabitants wash their clothes either 
at the fountains or on the banks of streams. There is a large basin near 
the fountain, where every day great numbers of women may be seen 
kneeling at the edge of the water, and beating the linen with heavy pieces 
of wood in the shape of battledoors. This spot became the scene of the 
most cruel and indecent practices. The Catholics vented their fury on 
the wives, widows, and daughters of Protestants, by a newly-invented 
punishment. They turned their lower garments over their heads, and so 
fastened them as to favour their shameful exposure, and their subjection 
to chastisement ; and nails being placed in the wood of the battoirs in the 



1050 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

form of Jleurs-de-lis, they beat them till the blood streamed from their 
bodies, and their screams rent the air. The fete of the Assumption, pro- 
fessedly designed by the Catholics to recall the most exalted purity and 
the Divine benevolence, was observed by those of Nismes, by the most 
revolting violation of female modesty, and by brutal gratifications at which 
even savages might blush. Often was death demanded as a commutation 
of this ignominious punishment, but death was refused with malignant 
joy ; murder was to perfect, and not prevent, the obscene and cruel sport. 
To carry their outrage to the highest degree, they assailed in this manner 
several who were in a state of pregnancy ! 

Madame Rath, when near her confinement, was attacked by about 
sixty of the purest Catholics armed with knotted cords, battoirs, and 
stones. It was with difficulty that she escaped instant death, and only 
by extraordinary skill that her life was preserved in premature childbirth. 
Her babe just breathed and expired. Her mother had already lost an 
eye from the discharge of a pistol fired at her by Trestaillon. The loss 
of her child, the distressing situation of her mother, and her own agony and 
shame, were the punishments inflicted on her for being guilty of Calvinism ! 

Madame Gautiere and Madame Domerque, in a similar critical period, 
were treated with similar indignity. Madame Reboul died in a few days 
of the injuries she had received. The daughter of Benouette was beaten 
and torn with nails, by a young man named Merle, assisted by an inhuman 
rabble of both sexes. One of the daughters of Bigonette, who was thrown 
into a well and drowned, died of the ill-treatment she experienced : one 
orphan sister, in terror, had become a Catholic ; but the other, although 
at the risk of her life, refused to abandon her religion. A female servant 
was stripped of all her clothes, and left on the public road, covered with 
blood, and exposed to the jests of a degraded populace : a soldier took 
off his great coat, threw it on her, and conducted her to the town. 

But it is time to stop, though the list might be greatly enlarged. Yet, 
notwithstanding the authenticated accounts of numerous victims of popish 
brutality, the half has not been told. For the scandalous nature of these 
outrages prevented many of the sufferers from making them public, and 
especially from relating the most aggravating circumstances. The practice 
continued for several months. Where were the authorities ? What 
punishment was inflicted on the criminals ? The agents of the government 
made light of the transactions, and deceived public opinion ; a force was 
at the command of the authorities, but they never honestly employed it. 
A party had resolved, if possible, to extirpate the Protestants in this their 
principal seat. 

Allured by specious proclamations, many who had fled returned, but only 
to be slaughtered ; and many Protestant fathers thus fell by the hands of 
the Catholic assassins while in the bosom of their families. The most 
horrible cruelties were committed in a wholesale manner; and when any of 
the murderers were taken, they were soon again set at liberty. The crimi- 
nals were none of them strangers, neither were they few, but there was no 
justice for the unfortunate Protestants. A much-esteemed Protestant 
ex-mayor was shot in the streets of Ners. Three Protestant friends and 
companions of the deceased were accused of the crime. They were taken 
before the authorities, and instantly ordered to be shot. 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 1051 

The king and his ministers were not ignorant of what was passing. 
Memorials were forwarded to them by stealth. From one of these the 
following is an extract : " Those men, Sire, who are described as your 
enemies, perish without a struggle, that they may not appear to disobey 
your authority. Protestant princes surround them, and they have not 
preferred a complaint, nor solicited their mediation. Are such men 
rebels ? [It was under shelter of this charge that the criminals pursued 
their savage persecutions.] But, Sire, patience may be exhausted, and it 
may be difficult to restrain by reason the vengeance of a people too cruelly 
persecuted. Anticipate, Sire, this dire alternative; reorganize the national 
guard ; dissolve the bands assembled in defiance of your authority ; and 
remove from their administrative functions those who have caused or 
suffered our blood to flow. But, if reserved for continued persecution, 
at least let our fate be distinctly announced. Ministers of Louis XVIII., 
would you be more inexorable than Louis XIV., against whom Europe 
uttered the cry of execration? If so, satisfy the hatred of our enemies, 
but give us time to assemble our dispersed families, to dispose of the 
property we have acquired in enriching the country still so dear to our 
hearts. We will seek again a refuge on foreign shores ; we will once more 
implore the compassion of those hospitable nations in which our forefathers 
found an asylum, where their names are still held in honour, and their 
memories are revered." " If," said another memorial, " the Protestants 
are authorized to profess the principles which the king has proclaimed, 
why should they be tormented, decimated, treated as wild beasts? Why 
should they not return to their homes, and at least resume their labours, 
and the ruins of their dilapidated shops? Why should they not be per- 
mitted the exercise of their religious worship, more necessary to their 
comfort than ever, but suspended by the dispersion of both the pastors 
and the flocks ?" 

While the Protestants were thus suffering in despair, the Catholics, the 
constituted authorities, and their friends, were not only free from anxiety, 
but surrounded with splendid prosperity, and distinguished by festivities 
and mirth ; while the midnight sky was illuminated with the flames which 
were seen in all directions, blazing and ascending from the country houses 
of the Protestants. 

Sham proclamations were issued, expressing a sort of regret at these 
proceedings ; while the assassins and Catholics in general were allowed to 
retain their arms, but the Protestants were left without any to protect 
themselves. 

Among other acts of fanaticism, the persecutors proceeded to tear infants 
from their mothers, even when just put to the breast, that they might be 
baptized in the Catholic church ; and they endeavoured to terrify the 
women, by declaring that if their children lived unbaptized Catholics, 
they would be cursed, and if they died, they would be buried like heretic 
dogs. Such was popery in France in the years 1815 and 1816! 

The Protestants had to flee from their homes, or barricade their houses 
and secrete their property. Yet great numbers were imprisoned, ill-treated, 
and cruelly butchered ; while some of the murderers publicly declared how 
many Protestants they would kill for their share, and fixed on their next 
martyrs. Country houses, warehouses, shops, town dwellings, vineyards, 



1052 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

property of every kind was involved in ruin, and robbery and pillage 
everywhere added to murder. All worship was suspended, pastors fled, 
or, if they remained, were exposed to prison and death, and the Protestant 
temples were sacked by the Catholic multitude. The re-restoration of 
Louis XVIII. was followed by the like persecutions ; and the tribunals 
before which the causes of the Protestants were tried, condemned 
Protestants to death, who were known to be innocent of crime, but 
acquitted the wretches who were the notorious ringleaders of the Catholic 
mobs. These were Trestaillons, alias Lafont, etc., Quatretaillons or 
Graffan, and Truphemy. Some of these murderers demanded the Pro- 
testants shut up in prison, marched them out in pairs, and obliging them 
to kneel down on the ashes of their yet burning property, shot them in 
slow succession. These were the men that found advocates among the 
highest ranks in society, and, which was not at all surprising, among the 
Catholic clergy, who became their warm intercessors ! 

At length the Protestant temples which had been shut up for several 
months were ordered to be re-opened, under the auspices of the Due D'An- 
gouleme, whose attachment to popery none could dispute ; and urged by 
General Lagarde, who had promised the prince to see his desires executed, 
the consistory ventured to obey. But fearing a tumult, the greatest 
caution and silence were used, and private information only was given to 
the worshippers. 

M. Juillerat Chasseur was appointed to perform a service at Nismes. 
On his way, he heard these exclamations and remarks from the Catholics : 
" What ! have they still the audacity to dare to pray to God?" " This is 
the moment to give them the last blow." " Yes, and neither women nor 
children must be spared." " Ah," said one, " they dare to come again ; 
I will go and get my musket, and ten for my share ! " When the worship- 
pers arrived, they found persons in possession of the adjacent streets, and 
the steps of the church, who vowed that the worship should not be per- 
formed ; and expressed their rage in the most furious language, crying, 
"Down with the Protestants!" "Kill the Protestants!" The service 
began. In a few moments a rush of persons into the church interrupted 
the minister, and shouts were raised of " Vive le Roi !" " Death, death 
to the Protestants ! kill, kill !" The gendarmes forced out the fanatics. 
The noise was increased outside. The house of God resounded with 
groans and shrieks. The pastors were inaudible. They attempted in 
vain to sing the forty-second Psalm. Madame Juillerat, the excellent 
wife of the preacher, stood at the foot of the pulpit with her infant 
daughter in her arms, and expected instant death. " We shall be slain," 
said she, " at the altar of our God, the victims of a sacred duty, and 
heaven will open to receive us and our unhappy brethren." She blessed 
the Redeemer, and waited the approach of the expected murderers. At 
length a detachment of soldiers arrived, and under their wing the assembly 
escaped. The Catholics were enraged ; for too much ardour had deranged 
their plan. It was intended to suffer the worship to terminate, and then 
to rush with arms on the unsuspecting Protestants as they left the temple, 
and massacre them all. The aged pastor, Olivier Desmond, was reported 
in England to have been killed ; and when it was found that he was not, 
the Catholic periodicals of the day impudently denied the whole affair, 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OE ERANCE. 1053 

and maligned those who had raised a naturally exaggerated report. But 
the fact was, that he was saved only by the greatest resolution. The 
venerable man was actually surrounded by murderers ; they put their 
fists in his face, and cried, " Kill the chief of brigands !" His life was only 
preserved by the firmness of some officers, among whom was his own son, 
an officer in the royal troops of the line. They made a bulwark round 
him with their bodies, and amidst their naked sabres conducted him to 
his home. M. Juillerat, with his wife and child, was pursued and assailed 
with stones, and his mother received a severe and dangerous blow on the 
head. Several females were cruelly treated, and died of their injuries ; and 
the number of Protestants more or less ill-treated, amounted to between 
seventy and eighty. 

General Lagarde was informed of these outrages. He instantly 
resolved to disperse the assailants. For this purpose, he mounted his 
horse, and entered one of the streets, where a mob had assembled. A 
villain seized his bridle, another presented the muzzle of a pistol close to 
his body, and asked in a vociferating tone, " Wretch ! you make me 
retire?" He immediately fired; and perceiving that the general retained 
his seat, he added, " Ah ! brigand, I have not killed you." The murderer 
was Louis Boissin, a serjeant in the company of the national guards, com- 
manded by M. Vidal. Boissin was known to everybody, but no one 
endeavoured to arrest him, and he effected his escape without difficulty. 
As soon as the general found himself wounded, he gave orders to the 
commander of the gendarmerie to protect the Protestants, and set off in 
a gallop to his hotel. Immediately on his arrival, he fainted. On re- 
covering from the swoon, he prevented the surgeon from examining his 
wound till he had written a letter to the government, that, in case of his 
death, it might be known from what quarter the blow had been aimed, 
and that none might dare to accuse the Protestants of the crime from 
which he suffered. 

In the evening the Catholics again visited the temple, broke open the 
doors, robbed the poor-box, rent the ministers' robes in pieces, tore the 
books into fragments, stripped and defiled the pulpit by numberless inde- 
cencies, ransacked the closets, and would have destroyed the records, but 
were at that time providentially prevented. 

After this, more victims were added to the number of the murdered. 
Upwards of six hundred Protestants were suffered to remain in the prisons 
of Nismes, detained without a warrant, and unable to procure trial or 
liberation. Every day the fanatics sent emissaries to the dungeons to en- 
deavour to obtain, by promises or threats, abjurations of faith, and conver- 
sions to the Apostolic, Catholic, and Roman religion. The families of the 
imprisoned Protestants were necessarily insulted and tormented with simi- 
lar importunities. The pastors were either absent or unable to strengthen 
the sufferers by their counsel and their prayers ; the public ordinances of 
their religion had been long denied ; fraternal visits were difficult, and often 
impossible ; charitable relief could not be administered ; and unfortunate 
individuals, who had neither work nor bread, were urged and invited to 
embrace a religion rendered hateful by their own persecution, and the 
imprisonment and murder of their dearest relations. That in such cir- 
cumstances some should profess a change they felt not is scarcely sur- 



1054 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

prising, when it is remembered what multitudes under the dragonades of 
Louis XIV. were received into the bosom of the Catholic church as sound 
converts, who were afterwards condemned and murdered as heretics re- 
lapsed. But to the honour of the persecuted, and to the glory of God, 
who strengthens the infirmity of his creatures in the hour of trial, the 
Protestants had hitherto generally preferred insult, outrage, spoliation, 
imprisonment, and death, to all the allurements connected with the adop- 
tion, even feigned, of a religion which their consciences disavowed. But 
now the system of forced conversions made regular and fearful progress ; 
and these were the subjects of boasting and triumph among the Catholics. 
The Protestants were some time before they could reassemble for worship ; 
and when they did it was under the protection of a strong guard, and after 
they had agreed to give up their places of worship, which were unjustly 
claimed by the Catholics, in lieu of which new places were to be erected. 
During these persecutions the interference of foreign aid was never 
sought. But the editor of these pages, having received documents relative 
to this persecution, ventured to publish them to the world under the title 
of " Statements of Persecutions of the Protestants in the South of France." 
This pamphlet, amidst the clashing sentiments of the times, brought some 
furious attacks upon the author. For the statements were denied by high 
authority, because they inevitably reflected on the Bourbon dynasty. 
They, however, contained authentic documents sufficient to excite the at- 
tention of the Corporation of London, the Deputies of the Three Denomi- 
nations, the three denominations of dissenting ministers themselves, and 
the Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty. Large extracts from 
the pamphlet were read at Guildhall ; and a circular published by " The 
Protestant Society" stated, that " A pamphlet prepared by the Rev. I. 
Cobbin attracted the particular attention of the committee." These 
societies all adopted resolutions founded on the statements. But the dis- 
senting ministry did more; and as contradictory statements were abroad, 
they deputized the Rev. Clement Perrot, of Guernsey, to visit the depart- 
ment of the Garde, and ascertain facts more correctly. He did so with 
some difficulty and danger; and on his return published his " Report of 
the Persecution of the French Protestants," from which it appeared that 
the half had not been told. The agents of France were enraged at this 
bold publication of the truth. "The interference of the police," says 
Mr. Perrot, " I experienced throughout my journey ; and even since I 
have happily arrived in my native land, I have the most authentic proofs 
that the sub-prefect of St. Maloes, M. Petit Thouars, has written to the 
inspector of aliens at Jersey, to make inquiries respecting my journey, and 
has also declared his determination to arrest me if I came to that port to 
embark for Guernsey." But the statements and Report produced their 
desired effect, and the covert persecutors were too much exposed and 
ashamed to pursue their course. Sir Samuel Romilly made a stir on the 
subject in the British parliament, and entered accurately into the whole 
history of the persecutions, vindicating the character of the Protestants 
as peaceable subjects, and exposing the malice and subtlety of their 
enemies. The measure towards redress was opposed by Lord Castlereagh, 
then in power, and who had recently returned from a long residence in 
the court of France. 



PERSECUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. 1055 

The storm did not now rage as before ; but the prisons remained rilled 
with Protestants, an impartial judge was displaced, and more victims were 
immolated under the semblance of justice, though the witnesses against them 
contradicted each other. The unfortunate victims of perjury were con- 
demned to imprisonment — the pillory — branding with hot irons — the 
galleys for limited terms or for life, and some to death. 

In July, 1816, two months after the efforts of sir Samuel Romilly in be- 
half of the Protestants, three of their number were doomed to perpetual 
labour, and five to be executed. The executions took place at Nismes 
and at Arpaillaigues, in the month of September. The unhappy Protes- 
tants, accompanied by two pastors, ascended the scaffold with a confidence 
which the Catholics attributed to arrogance, but which religion only could 
inspire. Dame Verdus was the first ; and she mounted the guillotine 
singing, in the words of the twenty-fifth Psalm, " Unto thee, O Lord, do 
I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee, let me not be ashamed ; 
let not mine enemies triumph over me," etc. Reboul died, recommend- 
ing his family to God, and imploring for himself his grace and mercy. 
Bresson said, "Though young, I do not regret life; I leave the world 
with resignation, because I am confident that the God with whom my 
religion has made me acquainted, will be more merciful and more just 
than those who have condemned me to this shameful death : but I feel for 
my aged father, who depended on me, and has no one left for his support." 

The widow Boucoiran, before being taken to the place of execution, 
offered up an affecting prayer with her friends, and sang the fifty-first 
Psalm. As she and two pastors who attended her passed the town of 
Uzes, she caught a view of the steeple of the Protestant church, and ex- 
claimed, " Blessed temple, where I loved so much to worship, I shall never 
see you more ; but I shall go to one still more glorious in heaven, and 
angels will conduct me there. " When the vehicle arrived at the village of 
Arpaillaigues, "There," said she, " I am about to die, before my own house : 
my children are perhaps there concealed ; and I must leave the world with- 
out giving and receiving one embrace. Ah ! this is indeed, painful to a 
mother's heart; but the will of the Lord be done." Looking around, she 
continued, " Everything in nature dies — trees, flowers, all perish. We 
are like flowers ; why should not I die also ? But when I am no more, 
watch over my children ; let them, I beseech you, be well instructed in 
religion, that they may find it support them, as it has supported me, and 
as it now supports me in my last trial. Make them learn the catechism 
thoroughly, and let them be taught trades, that they may gain an honest 
livelihood, and be placed above the temptation of abandoning their religion." 

When the pastor Roux had addressed the condemned and prayed, he 
raised the widow and conducted her on to the scaffold, which she ascended 
with an energy and fortitude altogether above her sex. Her resignation ; 
the prayers which she offered, with an unaltered tone, for her own salva- 
tion ; the forgiveness of her enemies, which she repeatedly pronounced, 
astonished and affected many of the spectators. Till the moment that the 
head was severed from her body, the voice of prayer was heard to issue 
from her lips. Her pastor prayed also, beside her, till she had passed 
into an eternal world ; and then, covered with her blood, he prayed for 
her companion, Boisson, a venerable man of seventy-eight years of age, 



1056 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

who also ascended with a firm step, pardoned his persecutors, implored 
the grace of God, and resigned himself to death with a calm and dignified 
confidence, of which the multitude had never beheld an example. The 
Catholics exulted in the execution of the unfortunate victims, and even 
longed for the gratification of insulting their lifeless remains, which were 
deposited in two holes prepared for them the night before. 

The widow Boucorian left four orphan children ; the eldest, a girl of 
thirteen years of age, was thrown into prison, charged with a capital crime, 
and brought before the court of assizes. While in prison she was separated 
from her mother, and exposed to numerous inducements to renounce the 
Protestant religion, and embrace the Catholic faith. 

In 1820, the assasination of the Due de Berri at Paris, by Louvel, 
furnished a splendid occasion, after a short interval of rest, for the perse- 
cutors to resume their sanguinary work. Trestaillons, who had fled lest 
he should at length be made to answer for his crimes, reappeared at 
Nismes triumphant. " He is come to revenge the death of the prince on 
the Protestants ! " " Why did not we make an end of the race in 1815? " 
"Let us murder these wretches; their blood will produce royalists." 
Such was the declamatory language of the persecutors. The accusation 
w r as so obviously false, that the government at Paris more decidedly inter- 
fered, and prevented a renewal of carnage. 

At this critical period, Providence raised up an advocate for the Pro- 
testants in the person of M. Madier of Montjau, a Catholic, a magistrate, 
and a royalist. In a petition to the Chamber of Deputies, he revealed all 
the facts of the long and inconceivable persecution. " He exposed the 
brutality of the populace, the intrigues of their leaders, the guilt of the 
magistrates, the scandal of the tribunals ; asserted the innocence and the 
virtue of the Protestants ; demanded the destruction of the secret armed 
force, and the punishment of the guilty." The statements of M. Madier 
could not be controverted. He had witnessed every transaction, and his 
reputation was irreproachable. Several deputies eloquently pleaded the 
cause of the Protestants. France could not but pronounce a verdict in 
favour of the persecuted. 

The widows, orphans, and relations of the murdered Protestants appealed 
for justice on the guilty. Quatretaillons was accused before the tribunals, 
but noble Catholics and eminent royalists withdrew him from the danger 
of the storm, and protected him! M. Madier was charged with impro- 
priety of conduct, and summoned before the court of cassation. His crime 
was revealing the dangerous circumstances of the Protestants. The public 
prosecutor demanded the erasure of his name from the list of magistrates, 
but he was only censured for telling the truth. 



1057 



SECTION VI. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION AT MADRID — INSTRUMENTS 
OF TORTURE DISCOVERED— LIBERATION OF THE PRISONERS. 

In 1809, Colonel Lehmanowsky was attached to that part of Napoleon's 
army stationed at Madrid ; and while in that city, the Colonel used 
to express his opinions freely among the people, respecting the priests and 
Jesuits of the Inquisition. It had been decreed by the French emperor 
that the Inquisition and monasteries should be suppressed, but the decree 
was not executed. Months had passed away, and the prisons of the In- 
quisition had not been opened. One night,' about twelve o'clock, as the 
Colonel was walking along one of the streets of Madrid, two armed men 
sprang upon him from an alley, and made a furious attack. He instantly 
drew his sword, put himself in a posture of defence, and, while struggling 
with them, he saw at a distance the lights of the patroles — French 
soldiers mounted, who carried lanterns, and rode through the streets of 
the city at all hours of the night, to preserve order. He called to them 
in French, and, as they hastened to his assistance, the assailants took to 
their heels, and escaped — not, however, before he saw by their dress that 
they belonged to the guards of the Inquisition. He went immediately to 
Marshal Soult, then governor of Madrid, told him what had taken place, 
and reminded him of the decree to suppress the institution. Marshal Soult 
replied that he might go and destroy it. The Colonel having told him that 
his regiment — the 9th of the Polish Lancers — was not sufficient for such a 
service, without the aid of two additional regiments, the troops required 
were granted : one of these regiments was the 17th, under the command of 
Colonel de Lile, subsequently pastor of an evangelical church in Marseilles. 
The troops marched to fulfil their destined object, the Inquisition being 
about five miles from the city. It was surrounded by a wall of great 
strength, and defended by a company of soldiers. 

When they arrived at the walls, the Colonel addressed one of the senti- 
nels, and summoned the holy fathers to surrender to the imperial army, and 
open the gates of the Inquisition. The sentinel who was standing on the 
wall appeared to enter into conversation for a moment with some one 
within, at the close of which he presented his musket, and shot one of the 
Colonel's men. This was a signal of attack, and he ordered his troops to 
fire upon those that appeared on the walls. It was soon obvious that it 
was an unequal warfare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered with 
the soldiers of the holy office ; there was also a breastwork upon the walls, 
behind which they partially exposed themselves as they discharged their 
muskets. The French troops were in the open plain, and exposed to a 
destructive fire. They had no cannon, nor could they scale the walls ; and 
the gates successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. The Colonel 
could not retire, and send for cannon to break through the walls, without 
giving them time to lay a train for blowing up the French troops. He 
saw, therefore, that it was necessary to change the mode of attack, and 
23 3 Y 



1058 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

directed that some trees should be cut down and trimmed, to be used as 
battering-rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, as 
numerous as could work to advantage, and brought to bear upon the walls 
with all the power that they could exert ; while the troops kept up a fire 
to protect them from that poured upon them from the walls. Presently 
the walls began to tremble, a breach was made, and the imperial troops 
rushed into the Inquisition. Here they met with an incident, to which 
nothing but Jesuitical effrontery is equal. The inquisitor-general, followed 
by the father-confessors in their priestly robes, all came out of their rooms 
as the French were making their way into the interior of the Inquisition ; 
and with long faces and their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers 
resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of 
the attack and defence, and had just learned what was going on, they 
addressed themselves in the language of seeming rebuke to their own 
soldiers, and asked, " Why do you fight our friends the French?" 

Their intention was, doubtless, to make their assailants think that the 
resistance was wholly unauthorized by them ; and if they could have suc- 
ceeded in making a temporary impression in their favour, they would have 
had an opportunity, in the confusion of the moment, to escape. But their 
artifice was too shallow, and did not succeed. Colonel Lehmanowsky 
caused them to be placed under guard, and all the soldiers of the Inquisition 
to be secured as prisoners. He then proceeded to examine all the rooms 
of the stately edifice. He passed from room to room, and found all perfectly 
in order. The apartments were richly furnished, with altars and crucifixes 
and wax candles in abundance, but no evidence could be discovered of 
iniquity being practised there ; there were none of those peculiar features 
which might have been expected in an Inquisition. Splendid paintings 
adorned the walls. There was a rich and extensive library. Beauty and 
splendour appeared everywhere, and the most perfect order on which eyes 
ever rested. The architecture, the proportions were perfect. The ceiling 
and floors of wood were scoured and highly polished. The marble floors 
were arranged with a strict regard to order. There was everything to 
please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste ; but where were those horrid 
instruments of torture which were reported to be there, and where those 
dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive? The search 
seemed to be in vain. The holy fathers assured the Colonel that they had 
been belied, and that he had seen all. The commanding officer began to 
think that this Inquisition was different from others of which he had heard, 
and was inclined to give up the search. But Colonel de Lile was of a 
different mind. Addressing Colonel Lehmanowsky, he said, " Colonel, 
you are commander to-day, and as you say so it must be; but if you will 
be advised by me, let this marble floor be examined. Let water be brought 
and poured upon it, and we will watch and see if there is any place through 
which it passes more freely than others." " Do as you please, Colonel," 
replied the commander, and ordered water to be brought accordingly. 
The slabs of marble were large, and beautifully polished. When the water 
had been poured over the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the inqui- 
sitors, a careful examination was made of every seam in the floor, to see if 
the water passed through. Presently Colonel de Lile exclaimed that he 
had found it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the water passed 



K 



DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION. 10.59 

through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands were 
now at work for further discovery ; the officers with their swords, and the 
soldiers with their bayonets, cleared out the seam, and endeavoured to 
raise the slab ; others with the but-ends of their muskets struck the slab 
with all their might in order to break it ; while the priests remonstrated 
against the desecration of their holy and beautiful house. While thus en- 
gaged, a soldier who was striking with the but-end of his musket struck 
a spring, and the marble slab flew up. The faces of the inquisitors instantly 
grew pale as Belshazzar when the hand-writing appeared on the wall, and 
they shook with fear from head to foot. Beneath the marble slab, now 
partly up, there was a staircase. The commander stepped to the altar, 
and took from the candlestick one of the lighted candles four feet in 
length, that he might explore the room below. One of the inquisitors 
endeavoured to prevent him; and laying his hand gently on his arm, with 
a very demure and sanctified look, he said, " My son, you must not take 
those lights with your bloody hands: they are holy." "Never mind," 
said the commander, " I will take a holy thing to shed light on iniquity ; 
I will bear the responsibility !" Colonel Lehmanowsky then took the light, 
and proceeded down the staircase. When he and his companions in arms 
reached the foot of the stairs, they entered a large square room which was 
called the Hall of Judgment. In the centre of it was a large block, and a 
chain fastened to it. On this they had been accustomed to place the 
accused, chained to his seat. On one side of the room was an elevated 
seat, called the Throne of Judgment, which the inquisitor-general occupied ; 
and on either side were seats less elevated, for the holy fathers when en- 
gaged in the solemn business of the Holy Inquisition. 

From this room the party proceeded to the right, and obtained access 
to small cells extending the entire length of the edifice ; and here they 
were presented with the most distressing sights. These cells were places 
of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of inquisitorial hate 
were confined year after year, till death released them from their sufferings : 
and there their bodies were suffered to remain until they were entirely 
decayed, and the rooms had become fit for others to occupy. To prevent 
this being offensive to those who occupied the Inquisition, there were flues 
or tubes extending to the open air, sufficiently capacious to carry off the 
odour. In these cells were the remains of some who had paid the debt of 
nature ; of whom some had been dead apparently but a short time; while 
of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of 
their dungeon. In other cells were found living sufferers of both sexes 
and of every age, from threescore years and ten down tc fourteen or fifteen 
years, all in a state of complete nudity, and all in chains ! Here were old 
men and aged women, who had been shut up for many years. Here, too, 
were the middle-aged, and the young man, and the maiden of fourteen 
years old. The soldiers immediately went to w r ork to release these captives 
from their chains, and took from their knapsacks their overcoats and other 
clothing, which they gave to cover their nakedness. They were exceedingly 
anxious to bring them out to the light of day ; but Colonel Lehmanowsky, 
aware of the danger, had food given them, and then brought them gradually 
to the light as they were able to bear it. 

The military party then proceeded to explore yet another room on their 



1058 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



directed that some trees should be cut down and trimmed, to be used as 
battering-rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, as 
numerous as could work to advantage, and brought to bear upon the walls 
with all the power that they could exert ; while the troops kept up a fire 
to protect them from that poured upon them from the walls. Presently 
the walls began to tremble, a breach was made, and the imperial troops 
rushed into the Inquisition. Here they met with an incident, to which 
nothing but Jesuitical effrontery is equal. The inquisitor-general, followed 
by the father-confessors in their priestly robes, all came out of their rooms 
as the French were making their way into the interior of the Inquisition ; 
and with long faces and their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers 
resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of 
the attack and defence, and had just learned what was going on, they 
addressed themselves in the language of seeming rebuke to their own 
soldiers, and asked, " Why do you fight our friends the French?" 

Their intention was, doubtless, to make their assailants think that the 
resistance was wholly unauthorized by them ; and if they could have suc- 
ceeded in making a temporary impression in their favour, they would have 
had an opportunity, in the confusion of the moment, to escape. But their 
artifice was too shallow, and did not succeed. Colonel Lehmanowsky 
caused them to be placed under guard, and all the soldiers of the Inquisition 
to be secured as prisoners. He then proceeded to examine all the rooms 
of the stately edifice. He passed from room to room, and found all perfectly 
in order. The apartments were richly furnished, with altars and crucifixes 
and wax candles in abundance, but no evidence could be discovered of 
iniquity being practised there ; there were none of those peculiar features 
which might have been expected in an Inquisition. Splendid paintings 
adorned the walls. There was a rich and extensive library. Beauty and 
splendour appeared everywhere, and the most perfect order on which eyes 
ever rested. The architecture, the proportions were perfect. The ceiling 
and floors of wood were scoured and highly polished. The marble floors 
were arranged with a strict regard to order. There was everything to 
please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste ; but where were those horrid 
instruments of torture which were reported to be there, and where those 
dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive? The search 
seemed to be in vain. The holy fathers assured the Colonel that they had 
been belied, and that he had seen all. The commanding officer began to 
think that this Inquisition was different from others of which he had heard, 
and was inclined to give up the search. But Colonel de Lile was of a 
different mind. Addressing Colonel Lehmanowsky, he said, " Colonel, 
you are commander to-day, and as you say so it must be; but if you will 
be advised by me, let this marble floor be examined. Let water be brought 
and poured upon it, and we will watch and see if there is any place through 
which it passes more freely than others." " Do as you please, Colonel," 
replied the commander, and ordered water to be brought accordingly. 
The slabs of marble were large, and beautifully polished. When the water 
had been poured over the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the inqui- 
sitors, a careful examination was made of every seam in the floor, to see if 
the water passed through. Presently Colonel de Lile exclaimed that he 
had found it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the water passed 



DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION. 1059 

through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands were 
now at work for further discovery ; the officers with their swords, and the 
soldiers with their bayonets, cleared out the seam, and endeavoured to 
raise the slab ; others with the but-ends of their muskets struck the slab 
with all their might in order to break it ; while the priests remonstrated 
against the desecration of their holy and beautiful house. While thus en- 
gaged, a soldier who was striking with the but-end of his musket struck 
a spring, and the marble slab flew up. The faces of the inquisitors instantly 
grew pale as Belshazzar when the hand-writing appeared on the wall, and 
they shook with fear from head to foot. Beneath the marble slab, now 
partly up, there was a staircase. The commander stepped to the altar, 
and took from the candlestick one of the lighted candles four feet in 
length, that he might explore the room below. One of the inquisitors 
endeavoured to prevent him; and laying his hand gently on his arm, with 
a very demure and sanctified look, he said, " My son, you must not take 
those lights with your bloody hands: they are holy." "Never mind," 
said the commander, " I will take a holy thing to shed light on iniquity ; 
I will bear the responsibility !" Colonel Lehmanowsky then took the light, 
and proceeded down the staircase. When he and his companions in arms 
reached the foot of the stairs, they entered a large square room which was 
called the Hall of Judgment. In the centre of it was a large block, and a 
chain fastened to it. On this they had been accustomed to place the 
accused, chained to his seat. On one side of the room was an elevated 
seat, called the Throne of Judgment, which the inquisitor-general occupied ; 
and on either side were seats less elevated, for the holy fathers when en- 
gaged in the solemn business of the Holy Inquisition. 

From this room the party proceeded to the right, and obtained access 
to small cells extending the entire length of the edifice ; and here they 
were presented with the most distressing sights. These cells were places 
of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of inquisitorial hate 
were confined year after year, till death released them from their sufferings : 
and there their bodies were suffered to remain until they were entirely 
decayed, and the rooms had become fit for others to occupy. To prevent 
this being offensive to those who occupied the Inquisition, there were flues 
or tubes extending to the open air, sufficiently capacious to carry off the 
odour. In these cells were the remains of some who had paid the debt of 
nature ; of whom some had been dead apparently but a short time; while 
of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of 
their dungeon. In other cells were found living sufferers of both sexes 
and of every age, from threescore years and ten down to fourteen or fifteen 
years, all in a state of complete nudity, and all in chains ! Here were old 
men and aged women, who had been shut up for many years. Here, too, 
were the middle-aged, and the young man, and the maiden of fourteen 
years old. The soldiers immediately went to work to release these captives 
from their chains, and took from their knapsacks their overcoats and other 
clothing, which they gave to cover their nakedness. They were exceedingly 
anxious to bring them out to the light of day; but Colonel Lehmanowsky, 
aware of the danger, had food given them, and then brought them gradually 
to the light as they were able to bear it. 

The military party then proceeded to explore yet another room on their 



1060 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

left. Here they found the instruments of torture, of every kind which the 
ingenuity of men or devils could invent. The first instrument noticed was 
a machine by which the victim was confined, and then, beginning with the 
fingers, all the joints in the hands, arms, and body were broken and drawn 
one after another, until the sufferer died. The second was a box in which 
the head and neck of the victim were so closely confined by a screw, that 
he could not move in any way. Over the box was a vessel, from which 
one drop of water fell upon the head of the victim every second, each suc- 
cessive drop falling upon precisely the same place ; by which, in a few 
moments, the circulation was suspended, and the sufferer had to endure the 
most excruciating agony. The third was an infernal machine, laid hori- 
zontally, to which the victim was bound ; the machine then being placed 
between two beams, in which were scores of knives so fixed that, by turn- 
ing the machine with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was all torn from 
his limbs into small pieces. The fourth surpassed the others in fiendish 
ingenuity. Its exterior was a large doll, richly dressed, and having the 
appearance of a beautiful woman, with her arms extended ready to embrace 
her victim. A semicircle was drawn around her, and the person who passed 
over this fatal mark touched a spring which caused the diabolical engine 
to open ; its arms immediately clasped him, and a thousand knives cut 
him in as many pieces, while in the deadly embrace. 

The sight of these engines of infernal cruelty kindled the fire of indigna- 
tion in the bosoms of the soldiers. They declared that every inquisitor 
and soldier of the inquisition should be put to the torture. Their rage was 
ungovernable. Colonel Lemanowsky did not oppose them : they might have 
turned their arms against him, if he had attempted to arrest their work. 
They then began punishing the holy fathers. The first was put to death 
in the machine for breaking joints. The torture of the inquisitor that suf- 
fered death by the dropping of water on his head was most excruciating: 
the poor wretch cried out in agony to be taken from the fatal machine. 
Next the inquisitor-general was brought before the infernal engine called 
"the Virgin." He was ordered to embrace her, and begged hard to be 
excused. " No," said the soldiers; " you have caused others to kiss her, 
and now you must do it." They interlocked their bayonets, so as to form 
large forks, and with these pushed him over the deadly circle. The beau- 
tiful image, prepared for the embrace, instantly clasped him in its arms, 
and cut him into innumerable pieces. The French commander, after having 
witnessed the torture of four of the barbarous inquisitors, sickened at the 
awful scene, and he left the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the other 
guilty inmates of that prison-house of hell. 

In the mean time it was reported through Madrid, that the prisons of 
the Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal 
spot. Oh, what a meeting was there ! It was like a resurrection. About 
a hundred who had been buried for many years were now restored to life. 
There were fathers who found their long-lost daughters ; wives were re- 
stored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, and parents to their 
children ; and there were few who could recognise no friend among the 
multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can describe. When the 
multitude had retired, Colonel Lehmanowsky caused the library, paintings, 
furniture, and other articles of value, to be removed ; and having sent to 



PERSECUTIONS IN POLAND. 1061 

the city for a wagon-load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the 
vaults beneath the building, and placed a slow match in connexion with it. 
All having withdrawn to a distance, in a few moments the walls and turrets 
of the massive structure rose majestically in the air, impelled by a tremen- 
dous explosion, and then fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins. 
The Inquisition was no more ! 

It is to be regretted that in the papal countries, in the northern 
parts of the continent, similar cruelties are, however, still inflicted. The 
odious name of Inquisition is indeed dropped ; but there are dungeons 
and tortures, and the like instruments are used to inflict suffering and 
death ; while multitudes of unhappy victims for conscience' sake are dying 
daily, wasted away by a cruel and lingering death. May the prison doors 
soon be opened, the captives' chains be for ever broken, and the heralds 
of the everlasting gospel go forth themselves unfettered, and proclaim 
** the acceptable year of the Lord !" 



SECTION VII. 



PERSECUTIONS IN POLAND, AUSTRIA, AND HUNGARY. 

The Greek and Roman religions are twins ; but the corruptions of the 
former are even too bad to be coupled with the latter. The emperor 
Nicholas wished to bring all his subjects to one standard, and pope Gregory 
XVI. was pleased to accommodate himself to the wishes of the arbitrary 
autocrat. In the year 1834, his holiness therefore issued a bull, by which he 
anathematized the Roman Catholics of Poland, for not obeying the abso- 
lute commands of the czar of the Muscovites : " We Gregory XVI., the 
servant of God's Servant, send our salutes and blessings to our beloved 
brethren in Jesus Christ. We command and order, by the power given 
us by Jesus Christ and his successors, that you may be obedient in every 
thing to your emperor, whom God has given you as a ruler, and know 
that all the power comes from God. I received a report that you have 
rebelled against the power of your monarch : therefore, if you do not return 
to obedience, I shall forget you ; God will abandon you ; he shall retain 
the heavenly dew ; your land shall deny its fruits ; you shall starve from 
hunger, wandering in deserts like wild beasts, and live on grass like king 
Nebuchadnezzar. Power is given to me to open the kingdom of heaven 
to my obedient children, and shut it up to the disobedient. I hope you 
will obey your holy father ; if not — I will anathematize you and your 
posterity unto the ninth generation ! Whosoever shall oppose my com- 
mands, let him be accursed for ever!" 

This cursing letter is to be found in the archives of every parish in Poland 
at this very day. It was read by force from every pulpit of every religious 
denomination, on every Sunday and fast-day, during a oeriod of four 
months, in the presence of a Muscovian policeman. 



1062 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

As if to confound the impudence of Rome — to prove that lie pope is 
nothing else but a lying imposter, Divine Providence caused that the 
anathematized land of Saimatra should produce in the next year, 1835, 
such abundant crops of corn, fruits, and vegetables, that the oldest inha- 
bitants could not recollect such rich proofs of God's bounty ! The people 
aroused from Roman degradation, cried out unanimously, " This is a great 
sign — a miracle ! " Hundreds of honest sensible young priests, joined the 
people, and, throwing away the slavish fears, which characterize every 
Roman priest, they began to preach to the nations the true gospel of 
Christ. Centuries had elapsed since a change had taken place. " Down 
with the pope ! Down with Rome ! Down with the Greek schism ! 
Down with the monks and Jesuits ! " re-echoed from one end of the land 
to the other ; and if this first outbreak is hushed for a moment, it is only 
to gather strength for a last and prevailing explosion of truth and justice. 

Such a reformation has, however, to contend with great difficulties. The 
Jesuits, who take the habits of monks, kidnap every protesting Sclavonian, 
whom they destroy in the secret dungeons ; while the czar of Muscovia 
exterminates by millions every protesting Roman Catholic, every Jew and 
every Protestant, who does not embrace the debasing tenets of the Russian, 
that is, the Greek church. 

These facts are concealed as much as possible from the rest of Europe, 
and the public oracles of intelligence have powerful motives to suppress 
them. One only of recent date shall be here recorded. In the town of 
Lenezyca in Poland, is a convent of the Bernardines, of which Francis 
Paidloski is custos provincice, or chief, and where is founded a Roman 
theological college, of which Erasm Wnorowski is the definitor, or first 
professor. Wladislaus Hentzel, who has abjured popery for ever, was the 
second professor : he has since removed his residence to the diocese of 
Breslau, in Silesia, where he is now known as a protestant minister. Every 
student in this college is dressed as a monk, and obliged in his turn to 
wander round the country, and defraud the people by a wholesale system 
of insolent mendicity, from which the fathers are able to spend their lives 
in comforts, luxuries, and debaucheries. In 1834, after the excommuni- 
cation of the Poles by the pope of Rome, the turn to go on a begging ex- 
pedition fell upon the laic, or novice, Raymond Ziemnowiez — one ot 
those young reformers who waited but for an opportunity to denounce 
the baneful system of Popery. He went directly to the village of Topola, 
near Lenezyca ; and there, hanging his monkish cowl and habit on the 
wooden cross in the village cemetery, began to preach the gospel, and to 
demonstrate the tyrannies and impositions of the Roman pontiffs. 

In spite of the villagers, who applauded the boldness of this young 
apostle, he was imprisoned by the parish priest and the Muscovites, and 
sent into his convent to be punished for having spoken the truth. But 
Raymond, well aware of the secret assassinations practised by the monks, 
implored the protection of the major of Lenezyca, Baldowski, and requested 
to be judged by the laws of the country. Moreover, he was well known 
in the town, and had numerous influential friends : hence, the monks, not 
able to murder him as a heretic, made him clericus perpetuus, a perpetual 
servant of the convent, never to go out, nor to be ordained a priest. Their 
vengeance was not however satiated ; they had recourse to the old stratagem 



PERSECUTIONS IN AUSTRIA. 1063 

of popish persecutors, and denounced him as a conspirator against the czar : 
a falsehood which all the monks confirmed as truth, and poor Raymond 
Ziemnowiez was banished to Siberia for life ! 

Raymond, however, was not a subject of Russia. He was born in 
Galicia; and having relations in Bohemia and Hungary, all his friends 
combined to save him from destruction, and to confound the impudent 
monks. After five years of unremitting exertions and expences, the un- 
fortunate Raymond was released from the dungeons of Siberia, under 
the condition not to leave the country ; and even the Muscovian govern- 
ment granted him, as a recompense, a pension for life. Had he had the 
misfortune of being a Russian subject, he would never have been re- 
leased from the murdering grasp of the monks, and from the imperial 
dungeons ; nor would his friends have dared to appeal to the czar for 
justice. The Protestant who may visit Lenezyca will there find the half- 
martyr Raymond with his face marked with the burning iron, bearing the 
brand — Siberia ! 

It may be added that another victim of the pope and czar, the preacher 
Benjamin, of the town of Konin, was less fortunate than Raymond Ziem- 
nowiez ; he was sent to Siberia for having dared to preach the pure gospel 
of Christ, and being a Russian subject none dare intercede in his behalf. 

Among the bitter persecutors of the protesting Christian families of 
Poland are Valentinus Tomaszewski, bishop of Kalizz, and the bishop of 
Sandornir, Joseph Goldman. Both wretches are renowned for their 
crimes, robberies, and villanies ; both have brought thousands of families 
to beggary by false denunciations ; both are loaded with execrations by 
millions of unfortunates, who expire, through their instrumentality, in the 
dungeons of Siberia daily ; both are recompensed with the numerous 
estates of those Christian families whom they have sent by force to the 
mountains of the Ural, to perish in misery ; and both are received into 
favour with the czar. 

The Roman Catholic Austrian dungeons at Speilberg have been crammed 
with protesting Poles. Since the expulsion of Metternich, those dungeons 
have been opened, and it is to be hoped the whole of the victims of popish 
cruelty were released. But in the Siberian mines they are expiring daily 
by hundreds under their tortures. Men w 7 orthy of a better lot perish at 
the rate of from one hundred to five hundred a day ! It is not to be sup- 
posed that all are Christians in the best sense of the word ; but numbers 
are, and the rest are honest men not ashamed to avow their protesting 
sentiments against the crimes of popery. New victims have been 
found to replace daily the dying ones, who crammed into a large pit by 
hundreds, are covered with fagots and burnt to ashes, as the cheapest 
mode of burial. 

Such is the spirit of persecution and tyranny in Poland and Austria; yet 
Protestantism is not wholly suppressed. Five thousand staunch disciples 
of Christ, scattered secretly among the people, still expose Roman and 
schismatic idolatries and superstitions; and in Switzerland, France, and 
England some thousands of ex-catholics of Poland have united in a Pro- 
testant Evangelical Union, and ex-popish priests are labouring assiduously 
as protestant missionaries. 



1064 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



The kingdom of Hungary, unfortunately under the dominion of Austria, 
has suffered much from her oppressions ; and the popish priesthood have 
availed themselves of the advantages afforded under that power for crush- 
ing freedom of worship. " The sufferings of Protestantism in France — 
the history of all the cruel edicts applied for by the priests, granted by the 
civil power, and put in force by the dragoons, through the different quarters 
of that kingdom — have long had an abiding place in the mind of evan- 
gelical Christendom; but, if the history of Hungary were known, the 
persecutions which devout Protestants have endured in these distant 
countries would perhaps exceed in interest those of the Huguenots under 
the Valois and Bourbons." 

At his coronation every king of Hungary was obliged to take an oath 
of fidelity to a constitution which guaranteed the equality of religious con- 
fessions. But, alas ! what is a constitution to the partizans of the papacy ? 
In 1609, under Leopald II., at the instance of the Jesuits, the evangelical 
ministers were cited to Presburg ; and they were shut up in the dungeons 
of Tyrnau. Some were forced to recant, others were banished, others 
after frightful tortures were sent in chains to the galleys at Naples ; and 
many were tortured to death. From 1702 to 1783, the evangelical 
churches of Hungary, with few exceptions, were without pastors. Though 
some districts under the Turkish government enjoyed religious liberty, 
whenever they again became subject to their former princes that liberty 
was anew withdrawn. Evangelical Christians were excluded from offices 
of public trust ; and, when they ventured to complain of this, were subjected 
to heavy fines or to corporal punishments. Did it happen that a Romish 
procession passed a Protestant temple, and could get admission, the priest 
muttered some prayers, and by this process took possession of it in the 
name of the church. Such a procession took place, on one occasion, at 
Vadasfa. The Protestants fearing that their adversaries might look with 
envy on their church, surrounded it with carriages, forming on all sides a 
solid entrenchment, and themselves mounted guard inside. Suddenly the 
sound of chanting was heard, the great popish procession drew near, the 
more zealous of the devotees attempted to throw down the barriers, a con- 
flict ensued, and, unfortunately, a papist fell dead. Immediately after, that 
neighbourhood was subjected to military occupation, numerous arrests 
were made, and the venerable pastor, M. Fabry, was, notwithstanding his 
innocence, himself put in fetters in the prison of the Comitat. His unhappy 
wife rushed to Vienna, and threw herself in an agony of grief at the feet 
of Maria Theresa. That princess, however, unfortunately prevented by the 
Jesuits, repulsed her from her feet, saying, " Begone, Lutheran courtesan ! " 

Joseph II., by the edict of toleration, restored to the Protestants of 
Hungary their pastors and churches ; but the oppression under which they 
had groaned for seventy years rendered this benefit almost illusory. More 
than three thousand pastors were wanted at once ; and though some were 
found ready for the work, numbers were employed who were not worthy 
of the office. The Magyar Protestants yet numbered several thousands 
in the year 1849, but much crippled in their state, owing to the recent 
struggles of the Hungarian nation to obtain their liberties. 



1065 



SECTION VIII. 

PERSECUTIONS IN TARTARY— ACCOUNT OF ABDALLAH AND SABAT. 

The brief history of the following martyrdom bears a striking resemblance 
to that of Stephen, not in the manner of its being executed, but in the 
circumstance of a young man witnessing the execution and consenting to 
the death, who afterwards himself became a convert to the truth as it is 
in Jesus. 

Converts among Mohammedans, where their laws are in force, are indeed 
very rare, for they have slender means of coming to the knowledge of the 
Saviour. If they avow it, they are exposed to certan death, as stated and 
seen in the subjoined narrative : an illustrious proof of the grace of God, both 
in the conversion and martyrdom of a young Arabian, as well as the conver- 
sion of his friend and companion. The latter resided some time with the 
distinguished scholar and missionary Dr. Claudius Buchanan, whose state- 
ment is here recorded in his own words :■ — 

" Abdallah and Sabat were intimate friends, and being young men of 
family in Arabia, they agreed to travel together, and to visit foreign 
countries. They were both zealous Mohammedans. Sabat is the son of 
Ibrahim Sabat, a noble family of the line of Beni-Sabat, who trace their 
pedigree to Mohammed. The two friends left Arabia, after paying their 
adorations at the tomb of their prophet at Mecca, and travelled through 
Persia, and thence to Cabul. Abdallah was appointed to an office of 
state under Zemoun Shah, king of Cabul; and Sabat left him there, and 
proceeded on a tour through Tartary. 

" While Abdallah remained at Cabul, he was converted to the Christian 
faith by the perusal of a Bible, as is supposed, belonging to a Christian 
from Armenia, then residing at Cabul : the Armenian Christians in Persia 
having among them a few copies of the Arabic Bible. In the Mohammedan 
states it is death for a man of rank to become a Christian. Abdallah en- 
deavoured for a time to conceal his conversion, but finding it no longer 
possible, he determined to flee to some of the Christian churches near 
the Caspian Sea. He accordingly left Cabul in disguise, and had gained 
the great city of Bochara, in Tartary, when he was met in the streets of 
that city by his friend Sabat, who immediately recognized him. Sabat 
had heard of his conversion and flight, and was filled with indignation at 
his conduct. Abdallah knew his danger, and threw himself at the feet of 
Sabat. He confessed that he was a Christian; and implored him, by the 
sacred tie of their former friendship, to let him escape with his life. ' But, 
sir,' said Sabat, when relating the story himself, ' I had no pity, I caused 
my servants to seize him, and I delivered him up to Morad Shah, king of 
Bochara. He was sentenced to die, and a herald went through the city 
of Bochara, announcing the time of his execution. An immense multitude 
attended, and the chief men of the citv. I also went and stood near to 



1066 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



Abdallah. He was offered his life, if he would abjure Christ, the execu- 
tioner standing by him with his sword in his hand. " No," said he, (as if 
the proposition were impossible to be complied with,) "I cannot abjure 
Christ." Then one of his hands was cut off at the wrist. He stood firm, 
his arm hanging by his side with but little motion. A physician by desire 
of the king offered to heal the wound, if he would recant. He made no 
answer, but looked up steadfastly towards heaven, like Stephen the first 
martyr, his eyes streaming with tears. He did not look with anger 
towards me. He looked at me, but it was benignly, and with the counte- 
nance of forgiveness. His other hand was then cut off. But, sir/ continued 
Sabat, in his imperfect English, ' he never changed, he never changed ! 
And when he bowed his head to receive the blow of death, all Bochara 
seemed to say, What new thing is this?' " 

This was a wonderful instance of the sovereignty and power of Divine 
grace, as well as of the efficacy of the word of God, through the secret 
teaching of the Holy Spirit, in leading a sinner to Jesus, when he sincerely 
sought after a Saviour, and left his mind open to conviction. We know not 
of all the subjects of the Redeemer: they are found where we should never 
have sought for them. Nor probably are all the eminent martyrs for 
Christ found in our martyrologies. Here was one of whom we should 
perhaps never have known, had it not been for the subsequent conversion 
of his friend and accuser. He stood alone amidst thousands of his coun- 
trymen, an individual witness to the truth as it is in Jesus. No brother 
Christian cheered him by his sympathy ; no Christian spectator witnessed 
his heroism ; no other Christian knew of his martyrdom to encourage 
him by his prayers. There was nothing but the love of Jesus in his heart, 
and the promises of Jesus treasured up in his memory, to stimulate and 
support him amidst his excruciating sufferings. But these were enough. 
He had Christ in his heart, " the hope of glory," and he was willing to 
be offered up. Thus he " witnessed a good confession before many wit- 
nesses," and his happy spirit winged its way to join the noble army of 
martyrs. 

The subsequent history of the accuser must not be separated from this 
narrative : — " Sabat had indulged the hope that Abdallah would have re- 
canted when he was offered his life ; but when he saw that his friend was 
dead, he resigned himself to grief and remorse. He travelled from place 
to place, seeking rest and finding none. At last he thought that he would 
visit India. He accordingly came to Madras about five years ago, [that 
is, in 1804.] Soon after his arrival, he was appointed Mufti, or ex- 
pounder of the Mohammedan law, by the English government ; his great 
learning and respectable station in his own country rendering him emi- 
nently qualified for that office. And now the period of his own conversion 
drew near. While he was at Visagapatam, in the northern Circars, exercis- 
ing his professional duties, Divine Providence brought in his way a New 
Testament in Arabic. He read it with deep thought, the Koran lying before 
him. He compared them together ; and at length the truth of the word 
of God fell on his mind, as he expressed it, like a flood of light. Soon 
afterwards he proceeded to Madras, a journey of three hundred miles, to 
seek Christian baptism ; and having made a public confession of his faith, 
he was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Kerr, in the English church at that place, 



PERSECUTIONS IN TARTARY. 1067 

by the name of Nathaniel, in the twenty-seventh year of his age. Being 
now desirous to devote his future life to the glory of God, he resigned his 
secular employment, and came by invitation to Bengal, where he is now 
[1809] engaged in translating the Scriptures into the Persian language. 
This work hath not hitherto been executed, for want of a translator of 
sufficient ability. The Persian is an important language in the East, being 
the general language of Western Asia, particularly among the higher 
classes, and is understood from Calcutta to Damascus. But the great 
work which occupies the attention of this noble Arabian is the promulga- 
tion of the gospel among his own countrymen ; and, from the present 
fluctuations of religious opinion in Arabia, he is sanguine in his hopes of 
success. His first work is entitled, ' Neama Besharatin HI Arabi,' (Happy 
News for Arabia !) written in the Nabuttee, or common dialect of the 
country. It contains an eloquent and argumentative elucidation of the 
truth of the gospel; with copious authorities admitted by the Mohammedans 
themselves, and particularly by the Wahabians. And prefixed to it is an 
account of the conversion of the author, and an appeal to the members 
of his well-known family in Arabia for the truth of the facts." 

The following circumstance in the history of Sabat ought not to be 
omitted. When his family in Arabia had heard that he had followed the 
example of Abdallah and become a Christian, they despatched his brother 
to India, a voyage of two months, to assassinate him. While Sabat was 
sitting in his house at Visagapatam, his brother presented himself in the 
disguise of a faqueer, or beggar, having a dagger concealed under his 
mantle. He rushed on Sabat, and wounded him. But Sabat seized his 
arm, and his servants came to his assistance. He then recognised his 
brother. The intended assassin would have become the victim of public 
justice, but Sabat interceded for his brother, and sent him home in peace, 
with letters and presents to his mother's house in Arabia. 

Sabat after this was some time at Dinapore, in Bengal, with the eminent 
missionary Martyn, then chaplain to the East India Company. The 
latter was associated with Mirza Tetrut, another celebrated Persian scholar, 
as coadjutors in the translation of the Scriptures. Mr. Martyn, in his 
letters, never failed to speak of his friend Sabat in terms of affection and 
admiration. John Huss and Jerome of Prague were not perhaps more 
talked of in Europe, than Abdallah and Sabat in Bucharia and Arabia. 

How wonderful are the w r ays of God ! The conversion of Abdallah 
indirectly led the way to the conversion of his friend Sabat. The circum- 
stances of his capture and execution were links in the mysterious chain. 
The faith, patience, and fortitude of the martyr affected the heart that was 
before obdurate. While Abdallah looked benignly on his cruel friend, as 
the blood flowed from his amputated limbs, and the sword was already 
lifted up to deprive him of life, doubtless the last prayer that proceeded 
from his lips was in behalf of his persecutors, and especially of Sabat, 
" Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do •" That fervent 
prayer for his late friend was heard ; and friends so awfully separated on 
earth will be found reunited in heaven, and spend a long eternity in 
wonder, love, and praise ! The narrative is a striking practical comment 
on Matt. x. 32—39. 



1068 



SECTION IX. 



PERSECUTIONS IN MADAGASCAR— FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION PROHIBITED 
—PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL MARTYRS. 

Madagascar, comparatively but little known to the world, has added to the 
illustrious martyrs for Jesus. It is one of the largest islands in the world, 
being; two hundred and forty leagues long, and from forty to seventy broad. 
Its situation is in the Indian or Eastern Ocean, and it is the principal island 
in the group usually designated the Eastern Archipelago. It is separated 
from the eastern coast of Africa by the Mosambique Channel, which is 
about one hundred and fifty leagues across. Its population, according to 
the highest estimate, is about four millions. The island is inhabited by 
several tribes or castes : 1. The Betsimicaracs, or negro race, on the north- 
east coast, who have the character of being drunkards, cowards, and fools ; 
the Antibanivouls, their neighbours, distinguished for stupidness and igno- 
rance ; and the Betalimes, who are herdsmen. 2. The Hovas, inhabiting 
the province of Ancorie, near the middle of the island, much resemble 
the natives of India, and are well skilled in working metals. 3. The 
Antimahouris, most probably descended from the Malay race, are indolent. 
Their religion extends to the knowledge of a preserving Deity; but he is 
never worshipped, nor addressed, but when he is reviled for sending mis- 
fortunes. They believe in an evil spirit, whose habitual residence is in 
burial-places. Their youth is spent in debauchery, and in middle age they 
marry. All ages are given to intoxication. They believe in sorcery, and 
wear amulets to defend them from it. 

In the year 1818, the London Missionary Society established a mission 
in this important country. At that period the English government was on 
very friendly terms with Radama, who was then king, though not possessed 
of the entire island, and who resided in the Hova country. During his 
reign the missionaries went on prosperously ; but he died prematurely, 
from indulged habits of intemperance and irregularity, at the age of thirty- 
six, after the mission had been established ten years. 

Radama's eldest sister's eldest son was the proper heir to the throne ; 
but it was seized by Ranavalona, one of the deceased king's wives. The 
queen was always known to be deeply attached to the superstitions of her 
country, and to have cherished a great veneration for the national idols and 
their worship. Ranavalona was intimate with the missionaries, but evinced 
no inclination to embrace Christianity ; and she and her flatterers attri- 
buted her elevation to her idols. She soon manifested a strong dislike to the 
new religion, and an opposition to its extension in Madagascar. She began 
by ordering the missionaries to leave the country. A young man named 
Andriatsoa, who boldly avowed his attachment to the gospel and ridiculed 
the idols, fell under her severe displeasure. An idol had been appealed to 
by the opponents of Andriatsoa, which had directed that he should be 
killed and cut in pieces, or otherwise the rice-harvest that year would 
perish. An officer named Razakandrianaina took an active part against 
him, for he had induced one of his wives to read and to attend the preach- 



PERSECUTIONS IN MADAGASCAR. 1069 

ing of the gospel, on which account she had been divorced by him. He 
therefore accused Andriatsoa to the judges, stating that he was chang- 
ing the religious customs of the country ; that he paid no regard to the 
idol where he resided ; that he conducted himself differently to other 
people ; would not swear, nor follow the licentious habits of the people ; 
that he would not work on the Sabbath, nor mention the name of the idol 
in his prayers, although he prayed four or five times a day ; that he was 
collecting the people to pray after dark ; and that owing to the disrespect 
he had shown to the idol, it was so incensed that it was destroying the 
rice with hailstones. Human nature and idolatry are still the same ; and 
one is here strongly reminded of the charges against the pious captives in 
Babylon as recorded in the book of Daniel. It was expected that the 
young Christian would have immediately fallen a victim to the queen's 
displeasure : she, however, only ordered him to be tried by the ordeal of 
the tangena ; that is, taking a poison which by remaining in the stomach 
kills, but if thrown off the intended victim escapes, and is pronounced 
innocent. In this case the accused escaped ; and the native Christians 
imprudently showed their joy by making a grand procession on the occasion. 
The queen herself saw the procession, and was indignant, considering it 
as an insult offered to herself. 

The queen's mind was now prepared to receive further charges against 
the Christians; and Razakandrianaina, greatly mortified at the result of his 
accusation, and the respect paid to the young man, resolved to bring an 
accusation against the whole body of the Christians, in which he was the 
more encouraged from the state of the queen's mind. An opportunity for 
misrepresentation was afforded him, by hearing one of the slaves preaching 
an evening discourse on Joshua xxiv. 14, 15 ; in which the preacher urged 
his hearers to leave off idolatry, and forsake the gods which their fathers 
had served, and to serve Jehovah and Jesus Christ. The usual artifice 
of accusers was resorted to, and the slave and his fellow Christians were 
represented as political enemies to the throne, raising assemblies in the 
night, and urging the people to serve the English and renounce their 
allegiance to the queen. " There are," said the accuser, " in and around 
the capital, certain people changing the customs of the twelve sovereigns of 
Andrianimpoinimerina, of Lehidama, and that of Ranavalomarijaka, they 
despise the idols of the queen and sikidy, (or divination,) and all the 
customs of their forefathers ; they treat them as nothing, and consider 
themselves as under no obligation to honour and worship them, though 
these alone obtained the kingdom for the queen and her ancestors ; they 
enter into a league with the English that are residing here ; they despise the 
graves of the Vazimba, though they, perhaps, contain the ashes of the 
ancestors of the queen. They also hold assemblies in the night, rather 
than in the day, and deliver speeches in these meetings that no one replies 
to, and they do these things without permission from the queen. Moreover, 
in these meetings they urge all present to serve Jehovah and Jesus Christ. 
Our ancestors never heard of these persons, nor have we till now ; nor do 
we know, even now, who they are. It is said that Jehovah was the first 
king of the English, and that Jesus Christ was the second. Besides all 
this, these meetings are carried on by slaves. We cannot see the end of 
these things : the queen only knows ; and she knows what is best to be 



1070 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 



done ; but we fear that these people, who have become so friendly with 
the English, will attempt to transfer the kingdom of the queen to them." 

One of the queen's ministers, to whom the above allegations were made, 
promised to lay them before the queen. When the queen heard them she 
went into a violent passion, burst into tears, and vowed that she would 
stop the progress of the Christians even with their blood. On a certain sab- 
bath she was returning from bull-sporting, and passing a place of worship, 
she overheard the singing, on which she observed, "These people will 
not leave off until some of their heads are taken from their shoulders." 
The queen summoned a general meeting of all the people, men, women, 
and children, to be held on a sabbath day ; and orders were given to return 
a list of places where the Christians assembled, and also a list of the bap- 
tized. Ranavalona was astonished when she learned the greatness of their 
numbers, and swore that she would put to death the owners of the houses 
where they met. Many persons of influence about the queen's person 
spoke in favour of the Christians, and testified to their good conduct, so 
that the queen was somewhat softened and shaken in her resolution to put 
all the Christians to death. She, however, afterwards sent them informa- 
tion, that they would be allowed to exercise their own religious customs 
among themselves, but they would violate the laws if they made any pro- 
selytes, and subject themselves to the penalty for so doing. From that 
time, spies were employed to see what natives attended Christian worship, 
and numbers who before attended were afraid of disobeying the queen. 

The grand assemblage of the people took place as the queen had com- 
manded, and a royal message was delivered forbidding the free exercise of 
the Christian religion among the natives. All that had become converts 
and been baptized, and all that had attended Divine worship, were re- 
quired to make confession w 7 ithin one month; and those who did not con- 
fess, when discovered, would be put to death. The period was afterwards 
shortened to a week, with this caution : " Remember that next Sunday is 
the last day ; unless you send in your names by that time, you die wilfully." 

This was a trying time, and " the fearful and unbelieving," some of 
whom had promised better things, turned back from their Christian 
brethren, and went no more with them. There were, however, others who 
boldly pleaded, " We did no evil, and intended none to the queen or her 
kingdom, in our prayers and our observance of the sabbath ; we prayed to 
the God of heaven and earth to prosper her reign." One excellent Chris- 
tian, a man of'influence, accused himself to the judges, and being asked 
how often he prayed, replied, " For the last three or four years I have not 
spent a single day without offering prayer several times a day." The 
judges asked him to give a specimen of his prayer, and he did so, includ- 
ing in it confession of sin, supplication for mercy and grace, and interces- 
sion for the queen and for all her subjects. The judges approved of the 
spirit of the prayer ; but said as the queen did not approve of these things, 
prayers to God ought not to be offered in her country. This eminent and 
large-hearted Christian preached the gospel with great faithfulness ; and 
afterwards risked his life by concealing the persecuted during several 
months, till he was obliged to flee to the forest himself to avoid the rage 
of the persecutors. 

The Christians assembled at midnight to pray for the Divine protection 



PERSECUTIONS IN MADAGASCAR. 1071 

throughout the week of probation. One of high rank in the army joined 
them, and openly avowed his attachment to the cause of Christ. He 
would not accuse himself to the queen, because he was conscious he had 
done no wrong, and he resolved to take the Christian's God as his God, 
and to unite himself with his people. Soon after his wife also was brought 
to acknowledge the Saviour. He concealed some of the Christians for 
some time within his house. The week elapsed. The queen accepted of 
a dollar and a bullock as an atonement for the offences of many, which if 
renewed their lives were to be forfeited. Many others were degraded, or 
wholly deprived of their honours, and not less than four hundred officers 
were reduced in rank. They were also prohibited from instructing their 
slaves, who were in that case to be beheaded, and their owners to be 
severely fined and to undergo further punishment. The Christians were 
next deprived of their books, the concealing of a single leaf exposing them 
to death. To their great grief many delivered them up, but many others 
ventured to retain small portions. These books were collected throughout 
the country, where they had found a circulation even at the distance of 
three hundred miles from the capital. 

Some of the missionaries left the island ; but those that remained still 
imparted instruction to many of the natives, and continued so to do during 
the year 1835, till the time of their departure in 1836. The number of 
converts had gradually increased, notwithstanding the great danger to 
which they were exposed. The Lord's Supper was occasionally adminis- 
tered ; and in the prospect of soon losing their teachers, the Christians 
rapidly grew in Divine knowledge, by diligently reading the word of God. 
The Bible was so prized, that one man in a feeble state of health travelled 
sixty miles to obtain a copy. He pressed the precious volume to his 
heart, and said, " This contains the words of eternal life ; it is my life, and 
I will take as much care of it as of my own life." This man continued 
steadfast in the faith, but, like the primitive Christians, he was compelled 
by persecution to leave his home, and to seek refuge in the forests. 

The Christians in the capital durst not now sing the songs of Zion, but 
they reminded themselves of them by often playing their tunes on their 
national harps. The Christians who apostatized were subject to the jeers 
of the heathen. A great officer had especially remarked, that he had heard 
them singing words expressive of triumph over the fear of death ; but now 
they had been all frightened at it, made confession to the queen, craved 
pardon, and promised to offend no more. These jeers, however, induced 
many to show more fortitude, decision, and consistency. 

In 1836 the missionaries were obliged to quit the country. They could 
do no further good. They could not collect any people to hear the gospel, 
for none durst attend. The congregations were scattered. The pious 
visited the missionaries by stealth, but the unbelievers durst not do so ; nor 
could the missionaries visit any of the people, for it was death to a native 
to lend an ear. The schools also were subject to the same general inter- 
dict. The year 1836 was a year of suffering ; the servants of the departed 
missionaries were subjected to the murderous ordeal of the tangena. The 
oppressions of the government became more and more cruel. The native 
Christians gradually took courage, and held secret meetings in each other's 
houses, on solitary mountains, and other places where they could see a great 



1072 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

distance, and escape from any approaching danger. They also secured some 
Bibles and other religious works, which they buried under ground, so that 
they could apply to these instructors in failure of the missionaries. 

An excellent woman and early Christian convert, named Rafaravavy, 
fell under the displeasure of the queen, just about the time that the mis- 
sionaries were quitting the capital. Rafaravavy had been a most zealous 
isolator, and was now as zealous in the cause of Christ. She obtained a 
large house in the capital, and there instituted a prayer-meeting. By her 
simplicity, fervour, and consistency, she induced many to attend on the 
regular means of grace. At this time three of her servants laid an informa- 
tion against her, accusing her and nine of her friends of observing the 
sabbath, reading the book which the queen had prohibited, and continually 
praying to Jehovah Jesus, according to the custom of the Europeans. 
They particularly pointed out the time and place where they regularly met 
together. One of the officers accordingly went to the house. Rafaravavy 
was alone at the time, and had been reading just in the very place men- 
tioned, having left the spot only a few moments before the officers reached 
the house, and retired to the other end of the dwelling. Rafaravavy, in- 
formed of her narrow escape from detection, immediately deposited all her 
books with the missionaries. Her father, a man of rank, put the servants 
in irons : they were, however, afterwards released at the intercession of their 
accused mistress. The judge sent to Rafaravavy's father, and informing 
him of the charges alleged against his daughter, advised him to tell her to 
accuse herself instantly before the queen, and at the same time to denounce 
her companions, or it would go hard with her. Her father hastened to 
interrogate her, and to shake her resolution, but she boldly confessed that 
she adhered to Christianity. He then went and accused himself and her 
before the judge, and the accusation was sent to the queen. She was in a 
rage: " Is it possible," said she, " that there is any one so daring as to 
defy me, and that one too a woman ? This is annoying to me ; go and put 
her to death at once : it cannot be borne." Several influential persons made 
great interest in her behalf, and pleaded the services which her father and bro- 
ther had rendered to the government in the high offices which they sustained. 

At three o'clock in the morning, Rafaravavy paid her farewell visit to the 
missionary family on the eve of departure. She was then expecting 
death, but displayed the greatest serenity and composure; and quitted the 
house, leaving behind her Christian salutations to all the churches of the 
Redeemer, begging their intercessions for the little flock in Madagascar. 
The queen, however, decided to spare her life, and was for this time satis- 
fied with a pecuniary fine; but she warned Rafaravavy, that " if ever she 
should be found again guilty of a similar offence, she must not hope for 
pardon ; life alone would then make atonement for the crime." 

Finding that she was narrowly watched by her father, and her friends, 
who lived near her, she resolved to remove to the suburbs of the capital, 
and went to Ambatonakanga. Here the little band of Christians frequently 
met together; and sometimes they retired to a mountain, or to some more 
remote place, that they might enjoy their social meeting without interrup- 
tion. Here Christians, introduced to them from distant parts by the 
missionaries, often enjoyed sacred and social intercourse, and the house of 
Rafaravavy was their hospitable abode for weeks together. 



PERSECUTIONS IN MADAGASCAR. 1073 

The converts rather increased than decreased, and enjoyed a little rest, 
for the queen supposed that their religion would depart with the mission- 
aries. They were, however constantly exposed to danger at any hour ; 
but in a letter addressed to one of their late missionaries, in 1837, they 
expressed themselves in the following terms : " By the strength of God, 
we shall still go forward, and not fear what may befall us. But we will go 
in the power of the Lord ; and if accused by the people, we will still go 
straightforward, for we know that if we deny him before men, Jesus will 
deny us before his Father ; but if we confess him, he also will confess us, 
when he shall come in the clouds to judge the world, and present them 
that are blameless before the Father for ever." As there were now no 
schools, the Christians taught those among them who could not read, each 
taking a few pupils. 

The Christians enjoyed but a short respite from persecution. Five men 
and nine women were apprehended, and all reduced to slavery,. their pro- 
perty at the same time being confiscated. Among the sufferers was 
Rafaravavy, who was dragged to prison and loaded with irons. She ex- 
pected immediate execution, and frequently uttered, " Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit ! " To a young Christian who followed her, she said privately, 
" Go with me and see my end, and hear my last words ; for, if I shall find 
by experience the strength of Christ sufficient for my support, and am enabled 
to bear testimony to it in my last moments, as I have enjoyed it hitherto, it 
may tend to encourage our friends who may be called to follow my steps." 

While the irons were being put on, one of the men said to the smith, 
" Do not put them on too fast, it will be difficult to take them off; nor, 
indeed, is it necessary, she is to be put to death to-morrow morning at 
cock-crow." This indeed was the queen's order; but in consequence of a 
fire breaking out in the capital in the course of the night, and destroying 
many houses, the execution was in the confusion unavoidably deferred. 
New orders were expected from the queen, but were not given. A short 
time after this, orders were again issued immediately to execute Rafaravavy; 
but with great difficulty and danger she escaped, and with five others came 
to England. They, however, afterwards returned to a safe spot in their own 
country, where, under another authority, the queen could not touch them. 

Rasalama, an excellent young female, was among the queen's victims. 
She was put in heavy irons and beaten, but continued singing hymns. 
Her firmness amidst her sufferings astonished her persecutors, which they 
ignorantly attributed to witchcraft, and supposed that the missionaries 
operated by some secret charm on the minds of the Christian converts. 
Rasalama had been confined in the house of a man in office, named 
Ramiandrovola, whose character was proverbially savage and cruel. From 
this house she was emancipated, only to prepare for execution the next 
morning. She was put that afternoon into irons of a peculiar construc- 
tion, not intended so much for the security of the prisoners as for cruel 
punishment. The irons consisted of rings and bars, so fastened around 
the feet, hands, knees, and neck as to produce the most excruciating pain. 

At the appointed time she was led to the place of execution, singing 
hymns by the way. Passing by Mr. Griffith's chapel, where she was 
baptized, she exclaimed, " There I heard the words of the Saviour !" On 

3 z 



1074 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM. 

reaching the fatal spot, she calmly kneeled down, committed her spirit into 
the hands of her Redeemer, and in that attitude was speared to death, the 
executioners, three or four in number, standing behind and by the side of 
her, and striking her through the ribs and the heart. The pain would be 
momentary, the release triumphant, and the bliss that followed immortal. 
Her body was left to be devoured by the wild dogs that frequent all places 
in Madagascar where criminals suffer. When some friends went, some 
time afterwards, to the exact spot where she was killed, they could find a 
few bones only, lying about where they had been scattered by the dogs. 

The next martyr was a young man named Rafaralahy. This devoted 
Christian had built a house in a retired spot, for the purpose of affording 
accommodation to those in slavery, that they might meet together for reli- 
gious conversation and prayer. They were discovered by the treachery of 
a backslider, and taken up. Rafaralahy was put in irons, and desired to 
give up the names of all his fellow Christians, but he remained inflexible. 
In two or three days he was conveyed to execution ; and on arriving at the 
place, he requested a few moments to commit his soul to the Saviour. He 
then rose from his knees ; and when the executioners were preparing to 
throw him down on the ground, he said that there was no need for that, as 
he was now ready to die. He then laid himself down, and was immediately 
put to death. His friends were allowed to bury the body with their 
ancestors, but his property was confiscated. Thus died the second martyr 
of Madagascar. In him the Christians lost a hospitable, generous, and 
devoted brother Christian, willing to divide his property among the perse- 
cuted church, to share the dangers of worshipping the true God, and to lay 
down his life in the cause of the Redeemer. 



THE END. 



INDEX 



Abbes, James, burnt at Bury, 753. 

Abbeys, dissolution of, 360 ; lands restored by 
queen Mary, 661. 

Abdallali, account of, 1065 ; converted to Chris- 
tianity, ib. ; martyred at Bochara, 1066. 

Abyssinia, persecutions in, 238. 

Adalbert, bishop of Prague, account of, 121. 

Adoration, popish doctrine of, 12. 

.Egidio, doctor, death of, 183. 

African persecutions, 40. 

Agatha, a Sicilian lady, martyred, 45. 

Aix, bishop of, disgraceful conduct, 135. 

Alban, a primitive martyr, account of, 58. 

Albigenses, persecutions of the, 136. 

Albright, Anne, burnt at Canterbury, 914. 

Alcock, John, apprehended, 965 ; examined 
hj parson Newali, ib. ; dies in prison, 966. 

Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, his death, 47. 

Alexander hi. condemns the Albigenses, 136. 

Alexander, keeper of Newgate, his cruelty 
to Philpot, 904 ; miserable death, 990. 

Allin, Edmund, and his wife, martyred, 943. 

Allin, Kose, her hand burnt by Edmund 
Tyrrel, 945 ; martyred at Colchester, 946. 

Almericus burnt in Paris, 146. 

Alphage, archbishop of Canterbury, 123. 

Ambrose, George, martyr, 928. 

Andriatsoa, a young Christian of Madagascar, 
persecuted, 1068. 

Andronicus, a primitive martyr, slain, 64. 

Apostles, brief notices of their lives and mar- 
tyrdoms, 18—25. 

Appleby, Walter, and his wife, martyred, 943. 

Apprice, John, a blind man, burnt at Strat- 
ford with a cripple, 929. 

Ardeley, John, his answers to Bonner, 680 ; 
condemned and burnt, ib. 

Argyle, duke of, executed at Edinburgh, 1030. 

Arians, origin of, 88. 

Armagh cathedral burnt by the papists, 1011. 

Armstrong, sir Thomas, account of, 1028 ; his 
condemnation and behaviour on the scaf- 
fold, 1029. 

Arnold, Mr., assaulted by papists, 1016. 

Arragon, king of, assists the Albigenses, 142. 

Articles, the Six, established, 357 ; Cranmer's 
objections, 359. 

Askew, Anne, her examinations, 450 ; sent for 
by Bonner, 452; released upon bail, and again 
apprehended, 455; cruelly racked by the 
chancellor and others, 458 ; martyrdom, 461. 



Askin, Thomas, suffers with Julius Palmer, 932. 
Austen, John and Thomas, persecutors of John 

Bland, 733. 
Austoo, James and Margery, martyrs, 951. 
Austria, persecutions in, 1063. 
Auto da Fe, described, 155 ; by Dr. Geddes, 156. 

Bablngton, warden of the Fleet, his cruelty 
to bishop Blooper, 620. 

Badby, Thomas, martyred in Smithfield, 292. 

Baker, sir John, examines John Bland, 739. 

Banes, bishop of Lichfield, examines Bobert 
Glover, 783 ; condemns a blind woman, 935. 

Baptism, Bomish doctrine of, 12. 

Barbaiy, persecutions in, 241. 

Barnes, Dr., account of, 369 ; martyrdom, 376. 

Bartholomew, St., horrible massacre of, 192. 

Barton, Elizabeth, the maid of Kent, 319 ; 
her confession and execution, 320. 

Basil, daily tortured by order of the emperor,92. 

Basset, a popish priest, disputes with Benet 
concerning the pope's supremacy, 473. 

Battiscomb, Christopher, tried by Jeffreys, and 
executed at Lyme, 1035. 

Beach, Joan, a widow, martyred, 928. 

Beccles, three persons burnt at, 930. 

Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, shut up in a ruined 
castle by the papists, 1006. 

Benbridge", Thomas, brought to the stake, 966, 
recants, and led again to prison, 967 ; re- 
vokes his recantation, and is broiled in the 
fire by the papists, 967. 

Benet, a poor widow, persecuted, 945. 

Benet, Thomas, account of, 469 ; excommu- 
nicated, 471 ; martyrdom, 476. 

Benineld, sir Henry, gaoler to the lady Eliza- 
beth, 980 ; his unmerciful behaviour, 981 ; 
clemency of queen Elizabeth, 993. 

Benion, Thomas, burnt at Bristol, 970. 

Beretta, Paulo, martyr, 997. 

Berry, a popish priest and cruel persecutor, 
overtaken by death, 959. 

Bezieres, siege" of the city, 138 ; treacherous 
capture of the carl of, 140. 

Bible, English, printed at Paris, 347. 

Bilney, Thomas, martyred, 325. 

Bishops, popish, liberated, 583; persecuting-, 
who died before and after queen Mary, 990. 

Bland, John, story of, 732; examinations, 
735 ; refutes popish absurdities, 743 ; burnt 
at Canterbury, /49. 



1076 



INDEX. 



Bocardo, a prison in Oxford, where Cranmer 
was confined, 862. 

Bohemia, persecutions in, 214 ; twenty noble- 
men executed, 217; embraces the doctrines 
of Wickliffe, 221 ; supplicates the Council 
for John Huss, 224. 

Boleyn, Anne, her character, 304 ; marriage, 
312 ; favours the reformation, 335 ; falsely 
accused, 336; executed, 337. 

Bonaventura, his blasphemies in 'Our Lady's 
Psalter,' 696. 

Bongeor, Agnes, burnt at Colchester, 951. 

Boniface, history of, 109 ; commission from 
Gregory n., Ill ; founds four bishoprics, 
and created archbishop of Mentz, 112 ; 
preaches the gospel in Fiiesland, where he 
is killed by savages, 113. 

Boniface viii., pope, his pretensions to abso- 
lute power, 310. 

Bonner examines Anne Askew, 452 ; com- 
mitted to prison in king Edward's days, 510 ; 
advanced to the bishopric of London by 
displacing Ridley, 540 ; progress through 
his diocese, 593 ; brings Saunders into trou- 
ble, 610 ; false report concerning Hooper, 
624 ; degrades Hooper, 625 ; degrades Dr. 
Taylor, 637 ; cruelty to Tomkins, 644 ; ex- 
amines Hunter, 647 ; persuades Higbed and 
Causton to recant, 653 ; condemns Card- 
maker and Warne, 677; his talk with 
Haukes, 682 ; sentences Watts, 694 ; com- 
mits Elizabeth Warne and others to the 
fire, 758 ; shaves himself to anger Smith, 
768 ; treatment of Ridley, 793 ; his talk 
with Philpot, 880 ; falsely accuses Philpot, 
898 ; his Lathi prayer before giving sen- 
tence against a heretic, 901 ; condemns 
Philpot, 904 ; strikes Whittle on the face, 
908 ; condemns Bartlet Green and others, 
911; Roger Holland and seven others sen- 
tenced, 961 ; dies in the Marshalsea prison, 
and buried in the fields, 992. 

Bookseller at Avignon burnt with two Bibles 
about his neck, 135. 

Bourne preaches at Paul's Cross, and incenses 
the people, 699. 

Bradford, John, story of, 698 ; examinations, 
700; talk with two Spanish friars, 713; 
with a servant, 718 ; burnt in Smithfield, 
720 ; his letters, 721—730. 

Bragg, Matthew, and others, suffer death at 
Dorchester, 1037. 

Brentford, six persons martyred at, 962. 

Brookes, bishop of Gloucester, sets in commis- 
sion on Ridley and Latimer, 843 ; his ad- 
dress to Ridley, 855 ; degrades Ridley, 860 ; 
as pope's legate judges Cranmer, 918 ; his 
authority denied, 919. 

Brousson, Claude, a French pastor, broken on 
the wheel, 1043. 

Browne, Thomas, cause of his trouble, 912. 

Bucer, Martin, opinion of the common prayer 
book, 515 ; his advice to king Edward, ib. ; 
his death, 517 ; condemnation of his doc- 
trines, and burning of his bones, 939. 

Bullinger, Henry, his letter to Hooper, 634. 

Bungay, Cornelius, martyr, 786. 

Burto, Dominico, mutilated, 146. 

Burton, Nicholas, burnt at Cadiz, 184. 



Burton, Edward, denied Christian burial by a 
popish priest the day queen Elizabeth was 
crowned, 788. 

Bury, three men consumed in one fire at, 931 ; 
three other faithful martyrs there burnt, 968. 

Calabria, persecutions in, 243. 

Galas, John, his trial and execution, 272. 

Cambridge, Bradford's letter to the university, 
722; cardinal Pole's visitation, 937; pro- 
ceedings of the inquisitors there, 938. 

Canterbury, five persons burnt at, 779 ; four 
women and three men martyred at, 943 ; 
five persons consumed there, being the last 
that suffered in queen Mary's reign, 971. 

Capon, bishop of Salisbury, and others, ex- 
amine John Marbeck, 408. 

Carclanus, Hier., his commendation of king 
Edward vi., 534. 

Cardmaker, John, martyred in Smithfield, 675. 

Careless, John, dies in prison, 931. 

Carman, Thomas, burnt at Norwich, 957. 

Carver, Dirick, condemned by Bonner, 752 ; 
burnt at Lewes, 753. 

Cavel, John, martyr, 927. 

Catmer, George, martyr, 779. 

Catmer, Joan, condemned and martyred, 914. 

Causton, Thomas, privately urged by Bonner 
to recant, 652 ; burnt at Raleigh, 653. 

Cawches, Katherine, burnt at Guernsey, 934. 

Chedsey, Dr., argues with Philpot, 545 ; with 
Cranmer, 559 ; dissembles in king Edward's 
days, 991 ; his persecuting spirit, 992. 

Cheyney, disputes concerning transubstantia- 
tion, 547. 

China, persecutions in, 236. 

Christ, his natural body cannot be in two or 
more places at one time, 349 ; but once 
offered, 445 ; the angels saying to the three 
Marys, 544 ; the sacrament a memorial of 
his death, 552; absurdity of transubstan- 
tiation, ib. ; spiritually present in the 
sacrament, 559, 849, etc. ; his body in 
heaven, says Augustine, 571 ; appears to 
Peter, ib. 

Christian man, popish definition of, 14. 

Chrysostom, as quoted by Dr. Weston, 576. 

Church ordinances explained, 367. 

Clarke, Roger, martyr, 447. 

Clergy permitted to marry, 504. 

Cob, Thomas, burnt at Thetford ? 779. 

Coberley, William, burnt at Salisbury, 927. 

Cobham, baron of. See Oldcastle. 

Coker, Yfilliam, martyr, 757. 

Colchester, six persons martyred at, 928 ; 
twenty-two persons driven from thence to 
London, 941 ; six other faithful martyrs 
there consumed in one fire, 946. 

Cole, Dr., disputes with Philpot, 883 ; a 
persecutor of Cranmer, 921. 

College, Stephen, executed, 1016. 

Collier, Richard, burnt at Canterbury, 757. 

Collins, commissary, examines John Bland, 735. 

Commodus succeeds Antoninus in the empire, 
37 ; styles himself Hercules, 38. 

Constantino, doctor, account of, 183. 

Constantine the Great favours the Christians, 
81 ; miracle of a cross appearing to him, 82. 

Convocation-house, disputation in, 542. 



INDEX. 



1077 



Coomans, ruartp-ed at Antwerp, 234. 

Cooper, Elizabeth, burnt at Norwich, 944. 

Coo, Kobert, martyr, 778. 

Cornish, alderman, his unjust execution, 1031 ; 
his words on the way to death, 1032. 

Councils, the bishops' opinion of, 329. 

Cranmer accused of heresy, 422 ; further accu- 
sations, 462 ; preaches a fast-sermon, 510 ; 
before the convocation at Oxford, 558 ; 
his answers, 560 ; condemned by the con- 
vocation, 582 ; appeals from their judg- 
ment, ib.; his declaration, 584; history 
of, 915; made archbishop of Canterbury, 
917 ; obtains speech of the king, and for a 
time escapes imprisonment, ib. ; prevailed 
on to subscribe to lady Jane, ib. ; arraigned 
and committed to the Tower by queen Mary, 
919; cited before the commissioners, and 
refuses reverence to the pope' s delegate, 918; 
talk with Dr. Martin, 919 ; cited to appear 
at Rome, yet kept fast in prison, ib. ; new 
commission from the pope, 920 ; the order 
of his degradation, and. appeal to the next 
general council, ib. ; persuaded to recant, 
921 ; Dr. Cole's sermon and Dr. Cranmer' s 
prayer, 922; revokes his former recanta- 
tion, 924 ; pulled from the stage and led to 
the stake, 925 ; his martyrdom, 926 ; ex- 
tract from his letter to the queen, ib. 

Crashfield, Eichard, martyred, 949. 

Cromwell, lord, fall of, 363 ; execution, 364. 

Cursing with bell, book, and candle, 471. 

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, history of, 52. 

Cyprian, the magician, torn with pincers and 
beheaded, 67. 

Cyril, a primitive bishop, martyred, 45. 

Dale, John, dies in prison, 964. 

Damlip, Adam, account of, 418 ; preaches at 

Calais, 419 ; imprisoned in the Marshalsea, 

420 ; martyred at Calais, 421. 
Danes landing in Britain, 285. 
Dangerfield, Mr. murdered, 1034. 
Dangerfield, "William, his wife, and his fa- 
mished child, story of, 936. 
Dauphiny, Waldenses in, persecuted, 132. 
Dead men condemned of heresy, and burnt 

by the papists, 681, 939. 
Denley, John, story of, 753 ; his answers, 754 ; 

burnt at TTxbridge, 756. 
Devenish, John, burnt with Symson, 956. 
Disputation at London, appointed by queen 

Mary, 542 ; at Oxford, 557. 
Dowell, sir Henry, prevents the martyrs 

praying at the stake, 968. 
Doyle, sir Henry, entreats for the persecuted, 

and enrages a priest, 964. 
Drakes, Robert, martyr, 928. 
Draycot, Dr., orders John Glover's body to be 

taken up, and pronounces him damned, 787. 
Driver, Alice, apprehended, 967 ; her ears cut 

off for likening queen Mary to Jezebel, ib. ; 

burnt with Alexander Grouch, 968. 
Drowry, Thomas, a blind boy, condemned by 

Dr. Williams, and burnt, 929. 
Dunkeld, bishop of, thanks God that he knows 

neither the Old Testament nor the New, 425. 
Dunning, Dr., chancellor of Norwich, sudden 

death of, 989. 



Eagles, George, history of, 946 ; apprehension 
and trial, 947 ; his head hackled off and his 
body quartered at Chelmsford, 948. 

Edward vi., his early life, 489; proclaimed 
king, ib.; the reformation carried on, 490; 
his illness, 532 ; endows three charities, ib. ; 
Cardan's commendation of, 534 ; disinherits 
the lady Mary, 533; his last words and 
death, ib. ; letter to Hooper, 617. 

Elizabeth, queen, her birth, 976; her god- 
father, ib. ; her tutor's report of her, ib. ; 
persecuted by her sister, ib. ; committed to 
the Tower, 978 ; her words on landing, ib. ; 
examined by Gardiner, 979; sues^ for 
greater liberty, and allowed to walk in a 
little garden, ib. ; sir Henry Benifield ap- 
pointed her jailer, 980 ; discharged of the 
Tower, and lodged at the dean of Windsor's, 
981 ; conveyed to Woodstock, 982 ; writes 
to her sister, ib. ; Gardiner plots her death, 
and providentially preserved by master 
Bridges, 983 ; removed to Hampton Court, 
984 ; her talk with Gardiner, ib. ; inter- 
view with the queen, 985 ; greater liberty 
granted her, ib. ; her prosperity, 993. 

Essex, earl of, murdered in the Tower, 1017. 

Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, persecuted, 100 ; 
exiled, and thrown into a dungeon, 101. 

Eusebius, bishop of Samostatia, persecuted 
by the Arians, 97 ; killed by a tile, 98. 

Fabian, bishop of Rome, martyr, 43. _ 

Faith, Romish doctrine of, 10 ; explained by 
the ecclesiastical committees, 365. 

Farman, Dr., warns suspected persons, 370. 

Farrar, bishop of St. David's, examinations 
of, 654 ; burnt at Caermarthen, 657. 

Felician, beheaded by order of Diocletian, 56. 

Felicitas and her seven sons martyred, 33. 

Fetty, John, his sufferings in Lollards' Tower, 
972 ; his child scourged, ib. 

Firmer, Henry, his examinations, 414 ; mar- 
tyrdom, 417 ; comforts his companions, ib. 

Fisher, bishop of Rochester, favours the nun 
of Kent, 320; attainted, 322 ; beheaded, 467. 

Fish's 'Supplication of the Beggars,' 323. 

Flanders, persecutions in, 233. 

Flower, William, story of, 671; burnt at 
Westminster, 675. 

Forret, Thomas, talk with the bishop of 
Dunkeld, 425 ; burnt at Edinburgh, 426. 

Foster, Adam, martyr, 931. 

Forest, Henry, martyred, 391. 

Foster, Martin, martyr, 220. 

Foster, Isabel, condemned by Bonner, 912. 

Foster, justice, persecutes the faithful, 774. 

Founleson, James, and his wife, martyred, 427. 

France, persecutions during the civil wars of 
the nation, 146; persecutions and suffer- 
ings of the Protestants from the reign of 
Henry in. to Louis xviii., 1041. 

Franciscans oppose the king's supremacy, 330. 

Frankesh, John, martyr, 749. 

Freewill, errors of the papists concerning, 11. 

Frith, John, account of, 326 ; his translation 
of Hamilton's book, 380. 

Foxe, Hugh, burnt with Cuthbert Symson, 956. 

Fust, Thomas, his answer to Bonner, 773 ; 
burnt at Ware, ib. 

z 2 



1078 



INDEX. 



Galerius, the Roman emperor, a persecutor of 
the Christians, 15 ; plagued by God, 76. 

Gardiner, Stephen, bishop of Winchester, ob- 
jects to the people having the Scriptures, 
334; an enemy to Cranmer, 422; goes to 
arrest the queen, 464 ; favours images, 491 ; 
sent to the Tower, 502 ; liberated by queen 
Mary, 583; his oration before the parliament, 
595; sermon at Paul's cross, 596; calls 
king Edward an usurper, 605 ; his talk with 
Rogers, 606; examines Saunders, 612; 
abuses Dr. Taylor, 636 ; his talk with Brad- 
ford, 702 ; sketch of his life, 871 ; his book 
against the pope, 872 ; unstable in religion, 
ib. ; delays his dinner to hear of Ridley 
and Latimer's death, ib. ; suddenly smitten 
by God, and miserably dies, 873. 

Gardiner, William, account of, 185 ; burnt at 
Lisbon, 186. 

Garret, Thomas, account of, 374 ; his words 
at the stake, 378. 

Gates, sir John, beheaded, 540. 

George, Agnes, burnt at Stratford, 930. 

George, Christian, burnt at Colchester, 960. 

George, St., tortured and beheaded, 83. 

Georgians, oppressed by the Turks, 242. 

Gerard, a Venetian, martyred, 125. 

Germany, persecutions in, 226. 

Gibson, Richard, martyr, 954. 

Gilbert, Guillemine, burnt at Guernsey, 933. 

Glover, John, story of, 780; escapes to the 
woods, 787 ; his body taken up six weeks 
after burial, and cast into the highway, ib. 

Glover, Robert, apprehended, 782 ; his letter 
to his wife, ib. ; joy at the stake, 786. 

Glover, William, death of, 787 ; denied burial 
by order of the bishop, and dragged into a 
broom-field, 788. 

Glyn, Dr., disputes with Ridley, 572. 

Godfrey, sir Edmund, murdered near Somer- 
set-house, 1015 ; trial of the murderers, ib. 

Gouch, Alexander, taken with Alice Driver, 
967 ; prevented praying at the stake, 968. 

Gratwick, Stephen, unlawful condemnation 
of, 942. 

Green, Bartlet, history of, 910 ; cause of his 
apprehension and martyrdom, 911. 

Gregory xvi. excommunicates the Poles, 1061. 

Grey, lady Jane, married to the lord Guil- 
ford, 537 ; proclaimed queen, ib. ; her com- 
munication with Fecknam, 551 ; letter to 
master Harding, her father's chaplain, 553 ; 
to her sister, 554 ; her words on the scaffold, 
and execution, 555. 

Grinstead, three persons burned at, 935. 

Guernsey, three women and an infant burnt 
at, 932 ; defence of the story, 934. 

Gunpowder plot, the instigators, 1000 ; means 
of effecting, ib. ; letter to lord Monteagle, 
1001 ; the plot discovered, and punishment 
of the conspirators, 1002. 

Gwin, John, burnt with Julius Palmer, 931. 

Hadley, town of, first receives the word of 
God, 634. 

Hale, Thomas, apprehended and burnt, 970. 

Hales, judge, brought into trouble, 644 ; de- 
stroys liimself, ib. 

Hall, Nicholas, burnt at Rochester, 749. 



Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrew's, ex- 
amines Adam Wallace, 438. 

Hamilton, Patrick, account of, 379 ; his trea- 
tise, called ' Patrick's Places,' 381. 

Hamlin, Philip, martyr, 150. 

Harant, lord, executed, 217. 

Harding, chaplain to the duke of Suffolk, ad- 
monished by the lady Jane, 553. 

Harpole, John, martyr, 926. 

Harpsfield, archdeacon of London, his talk 
with Haukes, 685 ; ground of his popisb 
faith, 737 ; his opinion of the sacrament, 
738 ; examines Sheterden, 744 ; affirms that 
the mind of the priest and not the words, 
changes the sacramental elements, 757. 

Harwood, Stephen, burnt at Stratford, 773. 

Haynes, Dr., accused by the canons of Exeter, 
and sent to the Fleet, 402. 

Haukes, Thomas, his history, 681 ; brought 
into trouble for refusing to have his child 
christened, 682 ; examined concerning the 
sacrament, 684; his talk with Harpsfield, 
685 ; with Chedsey, 687 ; sent to the Gate- 
house at Westminster, 689 ; struck by 
Bonner, 691 ; condemned by Bonner, 692 ; 
claps his hands three times in the fire, after 
that all men thought him dead, ib. 

Henry n. of France witnesses an unjust exe- 
cution, 149. 

Henry ni. of France, his reasons for favour- 
ing the Protestants, 1041. 

Henry iv. of France, grants the edict of Nantes, 
1041 ; stabbed by Ravillac, ib. 

Henry vin. ascends the throne, 296; his 
learning, 297 ; writes against Luther, and 
styled ' Defender of the Faith,' 303 ; mar- 
ries the lady Katherine, 304; efforts to 
annul the marriage, 305 ; Cranmer' s pro- 
posal, 307 ; controversy respecting the di- 
vorce, 308 ; authority of Rome repudiated, 
313 ; the king's marriage declared null by 
the English divines, 314 ; declared valid by 
the pope, 315 ; marries Anne Boleyn, 312 ; 
beheads her, and marries Jane Seymour, 
337 ; Thomas & Becket's shrine destroyed, 
346 ; the king excommunicated by the pope, 
ib. ; English Bible set up in churches, 347 ; 
sits in judgment upon Lambert, 350 ; the 
Six Articles enacted, 357 ; marries Anne of 
Cleves, 361 ; his second divorce, 364 ; his 
fifth wife, Catherine Howard, accused and 
beheaded, 394 ; at war with Scotland and 
France, 423 ; warns Cranmer, 462 ; his 
favour to Catherine Parr, 464 ; his sickness 
and death, 465. 

Heretics, manner of proceeding against, 477. 

Hermengildus, a Gothic prince, slain, 105. 

Hewling, Benjamin and William, executed 
at Taunton, 1034. 

Higbed, Thomas, condemned by Bonner, 653. 

Hildebrand, pope, excomunicates Henry rv., 
281 ; keeps the king waiting at his gate, ib. 

Holland, Roger, condemned by Bonner, 961. 

Hooper, bishop, life of, 615; his letter to 
Ridley, 618 ; degraded and sent to Gloucester 
to be burnt, 625 ; the queen's pardon brought 
him at the stake, 628 ; lines on his martyr- 
dom, 629; his letter to his wife, 630; his 
talk with a friar, 634. 



INDEX. 



1079 



Holloway, James, accused aud executed at 
Tyburn, 1028. 

Howard, lady Katharine, accused of inconti- 
nence, and beheaded, 394. 

Hudson, Thomas, story of his persecution and 
martyrdom, 957. 

Hullier, John, a priest, martyred, 928. 

Hungarian persecutions, 1064; Romish priests 
take possession of Protestant temples, ib. 

Hunne, Richard, murdered by the papists, 929. 

Hunter, "William, reproved for reading the 
Bible, 646 ; examined by Bonner, 647 ; burnt 
at Brentwood, 649. 

Huss, John, embraces Wickliffe's doctrines, 
221 ; cited before the Council, 222 ; de- 
graded, 225 ; his prophecy at the stake, 226. 

Hussy examines Elizabeth Young, 973, 

Hut, Katherine, her words respecting the 
popish sacrament, 929. 

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, martyred, 30. 

Images removed from St. Martin's church, 490 ; 
committed to the fire, 496 ; ordered to be 
defaced, 513. 

Inquisition, origin, progress, and cruelties of, 
151 ; successive tortures described, 158 ; 
victims in Spain and Portugal, 161 ; sin- 
gular discoveries of its enormities, 174; 
mode of proceeding, as related by one of its 
victims, 177. — At Madrid, destroyed by 
order of Napoleon, 1057; description of 
the interior, 1058; hall of judgment, ib.; 
singular discovery of the most diabolical 
cruelties, 1059 ; the dungeons visited and 
the prisoners released, ib.; instruments 

■ of excruciating torture described, 1060; 
punishment of the inquisitors, ib. ; the 
building blown up, 1061. 

Invocation, erroneous doctrine of, 12. 

Ireland preserved from persecution in the 
days of queen Mary, 1003; horrible mas- 
sacre in 1641, 1004—1013. 

Ireneus, bishop of Lyons, beheaded, 40. 

Islington, four persons burnt at, 951; forty 
persons apprehended at, 960. 

Italy, martyrdoms in, 253. 

James i. ascends the throne, 999; the gun- 
powder plot, 1000. 

James II. succeeds to the crown, and shows 
his popish intentions, 1029; cautioned by 
the pope, 1030 ; goes publicly to mass, ib. 

Japan, persecutions in, 238. 

Jeffrey, chancellor of Salisbury, a persecutor, 
his sudden death, 981. 

Jeffreys, judge, a bitter persecutor, 1038. 

Jerome of Prague, account of, 229 ; burnt, 231 . 

Jerome, William, vicar of Stepney, burnt in 
Smithfield, 376. 

Jessenius, Dr., beheaded, 219. 

John, king, resigns his crown to the pope, 283. 

John of Gaunt, protects Wickliffe, 287. 

John de Roma, a persecutor, 134. 

Jovian succeeds Julian, 94; a persecutor, 95. 

Julian the Apostate persecutes the Christians, 
91 ; his Persian expedition and death, 91. 

Julitta, a primitive martyr, burnt, 77. 

Julius in. chosen pope/541 ; reason for be- 
stowing his cardinal's hat on his servant, ib. 



Justification, Romish doctrine of, 10. 
Justin, a philosopher, martyred, 33; his works 
extant, 34. 

KAPLiTZ,aBohemiannobleman,beheaded,218. 

Katherine, queen, divorced from king Henry, 
304; appeals to Rome, 306; deatb of, 333. 

Kerby, martyred at Ipswich, 448. 

Kidd, John, executed, 1036; his prayer for 
Scotland, ib. 

King, John, executed at Edinburgh, 1036. 

Kingston, sir Anthony, attends Hooper's mar- 
tyrdom, 626. 

Knight, Stephen, prayer at the stake, 651. 

Lady murdered, 146. 

Lambe, Robert, brought into trouble through 
a friar's blasphemy, 426 ; burnt at Perth, 428. 

Lambert, John, account of, 348; trial before 
the king, 350; his condemnation read by 
the lord Cromwell, 354 ; martyred in Smith- 
field, 355. 

Lardin, Ralph, a persecutor, punished, 990. 

Lashford, Joan, alias Wame, her story and 
martyrdom, 913. 

Latimer brought before the convocation at 
Oxford, 558 ; his disputation there, 577 ; 
condemned by the convocation, 582 ; his 
early life, 815 ; converted by Bilney, 816 ; 
extracts from his sermon, 817 ; kindness to 
a poor woman in prison, 822 ; offends certain 
popish priests, 823 ; his letter to the arch- 
bishop, 824; resigns his bishopric, 829; 
foretells his death, 830; his letters, 831; 
examined by the commissioners, 850 ; per- 
mitted to speak but forty words, 853 ; last 
examination, 857; his behaviour at the 
stake with Ridley, 863. 

Launder, John, martyr, 752. 

Laurence, John, burnt at Colchester, 651. 

Laurentius, a primitive martyr, broiled on a 
gridiron, 51. 

Laverock, Hugh, a lame man, burnt at Strat- 
ford, 929 ; comforts his fellow martyr, ib. 

Lazarone, Michael, murdered at Tyrane, 995. 

Leaf, John, burnt with John Bradford, 720. 

Legal, M. de, proceedings against the inqui- 
sition, 175 ; excommunicated, 176 ; releases 
four hundred prisoners, ib. 

Lewes, four persons martyred at, 930; ten 
faithful martyrs consumed in one fire, 943. 

Lewes, mistress Joyce, her persecution, 949 ;. 
behaviour before her martyrdom and at the 
stake, 950. 

Licinius, a persecuting Roman emperor, 82.^ 

Lisle, lady Alicia, condemned by Jeffrevs, 1035. 

Lithgow, "William, sufferings of, at Malaga, 
186; tortured by the inquisitors, 188; un- 
expected deliverance, 191. 

Lithuanian persecutions, 235. 

Lomas, John, burnt at Canterbury, 913. 

Longford, the inhabitants of, treacherously 
murdered, 1006. 

London, fire of, its probable cause, 1013; com- 
mittee of inquiry appointed, 1014. 

Londonderry besieged by twenty thousand pa- 
pists, 1012; sufferings of the inhabitants, ib. 

Louis xiii., recalls the Jesuits, 1011 ; yet con- 
firms the edict of Nantes, 1012. 






1080 



INDEX. 






Louis xiv., ascends the throne at the age of 
five years, 1042 ; revokes the edict of Nantes, 
with some account of the cruel persecutions 
which followed, ib. 

Louis xv., cruel persecutions inflicted during 
his reign, 1043 ; account of those imprisoned 
for life in the Tour de Constance, 1044. 

Louis xviii. reascends the throne and perse- 
cutes the Protestants, 1047; memorial in 
their favour, 1051 ; protected by the duke 
of Angouleme, 1052. 

Lyster, Christopher, martyr, 928. 

Madagascar, account of, 1068 ; Protestant 
mission established, ib. ; false charges against 
the Christians, 1069 ; general assembly com- 
manded, and the free exercise of religion 
forbidden by the queen, 1070 ; departure of 
the missionaries, 1071 ; sufferings of the 
principal martyrs, 1072. 

Magistrates, assumed authority over, 13. 

Maidstone, seven persons there martyred, 943. 

Marbeck, John, examinations of, 403 ; con- 
demned, 145; reprieved, 416. 

Marshall, Dr., vice-chancellor of Oxford, stops 
Ridley's mouth, 863. 

Marsh, George, story of, 661 ; martyrdom, 669. 

Marriage, Romish errors concerning, 13. 

Martin, bishop of Rome, persecuted, 106. 

Martin, Isaac, his trial and sufferings, 166. 

Martyr, Peter, burning of his bones, 681 ; his 
wife's body taken up and burnt, 940. 

Mary, queen, resists the reformation, 506 ; 
mass continued in her chapel, 519 ; refuses 
to hear Ridley preach, 521 ; hears of her 
brother's death, and asserts her right to the 
crown, 537 ; arrives in London, 539 ; altera- 
tion of religion, 587; her marriage, 591; 
her letter to Bonner, 678; supposed preg- 
nancy, 695; rekindles the martyr-fires by 
a fresh commission, 941 ; number of persons 
burnt by her, 975 ; unprosperousness of her 
reign, 987 ; forsaken by her husband, 985 ; 
dies mourning for Calais, 986. 

Mass not found in Scripture, 441. 

Massey, Perotine, the story of, 933 ; burnt at 
Guernsey with her new-born babe, 934. 

Maundrel, John, burnt at Salisbury, 927. 

Maurice, prince, declares for the liberty of 
Germany, 531. 

Maximilian, a Roman officer, executed, 62. 

Mayfield, four persons burnt at, 935. 

Mazarine, cardinal, prime -minister of Louis 
xiv., 1042. 

Mearing, Margaret, burnt with John Rough 
in Smithfield, 955. 

Middleton, Humfrey, martyr, 749 ; his noble 
confession, ib. 

Mille, Walter, account of, 443 ; martyred, 446. 

Miller, Simon, burnt at Norwich, 944. 

Mills, priest of Christ's church, his popish 
absurdities refuted, 742. 

Minge, William, dies in prison, 731 

Molinos, his writings and persecutions, 268. 

Monasteries visited by order of Henry viii., 
331 ; suppressed, 340 ; new visitation ap- 
pointed, 343. 

Monmouth, duke of, his unhappy enterprise, i 
1030; defeat and execution, 1031. | 



Monks, some account of, 331 ; expelled by the 

Danes, and restored by Edgar, 332; their 

sources of wealth, ib. 
Moor, Thomas, sentenced at Leicester, 935 ; 

his answer to the bishop, ib. 
More, sir Thomas, great seal delivered to, 307 ; 

refuses to take the oath, 321 ; accused, con- 
demned, and beheaded, 467. 
Morel, a Huguenot pastor, persecuted, 202 ; 

his answer to the duke of Guise, 204. 
Morgan, bishop, a persecutor, smitten, 989. 
Morgan, judge, who sat on the lady Jane 

Grey, dies mad, 989. 
Mount, William, story of, 944 ; apprehended 

with his family by Edmund Tyrrel, 945 ; 

martyred at Colchester, 946. 
Moyle, justice, sets Yeoman in the stocks, 963. 
Munster, horrible deaths there inflicted on 

the Protestants, 1010. 

Nantes, edict of, the safeguard of the French 
Protestants, when granted, and by whom, 
1041; revoked, 1042. 

Narbonne, besieged by the earl of Toulouse, 144. 

Nelthorpe, Richard, an outlawed person, exe- 
cuted at London, 1036. 

Netherlands, persecutions in the, 232. 

Newman, John, apprehended by Tyrrel, 753 ; 
examined respecting the sacrament, 756 ; 
martyred, ib. 

Nichol, William, burnt at Haverford-west, 957. 

Nicholas, pope, poisoned, 280. 

Nightingale, parson of Crundale, a terrible 
example of Divine punishment, 660. 

Nismes, slaughtering of a Protestant family, 
1045 ; general massacre, 1047 ; horrible 
cruelties inflicted on various Protestants, 
1048 ; attempt to murder a Protestant con- 
gregation, 1052; six hundred detained in 
prison, 1053; renewed persecutions, 1056. 

Noone, justice, a persecutor, 967. 

Norfolk, duke of, opposes the reformation, 328 ; 
sent to the Tower, 465. 

Norfolk, duke of, his reply to James n., 1030. 

Northumberland, duke of, disliked by the 
people, 538 ; apprehended and sent to the 
Tower, 539 ; executed, 540. 

Noyes, John, burnt at Laxfield, 952 ; conduct 
at the stake, ib.; his foot found unburn t, 
and buried Avith his ashes, ib. 

Nuns, queens and kings' daughters who be- 
came such, 122. 

Oguier, Robert, his wife and sons arrested, 
197 ; the father and eldest son burnt, 199 ; 
burning of the mother and younger son, 
200 ; behaviour at the stake, 201. 

Oldcastle, sir John, accused and burnt, 294. 

O'Neil, sir Phelim, massacres the Protestants 
in Ireland, 1005; forces one hundred and 
fifty persons into a river, 1008; compelled 
to retreat from Drogheda, 1012. 

Origen of Alexandria, persecuted, 48. 

Ormes, Cicely, sentenced and burnt at Nor- 
wich, 952 ; her joy at the stake, 953. 

Orobio, physician, tortured and banished, 166. 

Osborne, T., recants and does penance, 694. 

Osmond, Thomas, burnt at Manningtree, 694. 

Otto, lord Henry, executed, 218. 



INDEX. 



10S1 



Our Lady's Matins, extracts from, 696 ; Psalter, 

ditto, 697. 
Oicsia, what it signifieth, 543. 

Packin t gham, Patrick, martyr, 756. 

Palmer, Julius, his history, 931 ; condemned 
by Dr. Jeffrey, 931; and behaviour at the 
stake, 932 ; his last word, ' Jesus,' ib. 

Papists, erroneous doctrines of, 10 ; prohibit 
the reading of the Scriptures, 484. 

Parke, Gregory, martyr, 875. 

Pair, queen Eatherine, her talk with the 
king, 463 ; delivered from her enemies, 464. 

'Patrick's Places,' translated, 381. 

Paid in. endeavours to regain England, 337. 

Pearson, Anthony, martyred, 417. 

Penance, Boniish, account of, 11. 

Pendleton, Dr., preacher of the gospel in king 
Edward's days, afraid of persecution, 615. 

Pepin, made king of Erance, 113. 

Peme, Dr., vice-chancellor of Cambridge, 
exhorted by Bradford to repent, 725 ; be- 
haviour at cardinal Poles' visitation, 937. 

Perpetua, a piirnitive martyr, 40. 

Persecutions, the ten general, of the primitive 
church, 25 — 85 ; of Christians in Persia, 85 
— 87 ; under the Aiian ascendancy, 88 — 90 ; 
under Julian the apostate, 91 — 95 ; of Chris- 
tians by the Goths, 96 — 98 ; under the Arian 
Vandals, 99 — 102; brief account of, in the 
fifth to the seventh centuries, 103—108; 
ditto, in the eighth, ninth, and tenth cen- 
turies, 109—122; ditto, in the eleventh 
century, 123—128. 

Peter, a friar, murdered near Toulouse, 127. 

Phagius, Paulus, bis doctrines condemned by 
the inquisitors at Cambridge, 938 ; his bone's 
taken up and burnt, 939 ; restored, 941. 

Philip, king, lands at Southampton, 591 ; mar- 
ried to queen Mary, ib. ; styled ' king,' etc., 
592; his pompous behaviour, 593; favours 
the lady Elizabeth, 983 ; returns to Spain, 
986 ; invades England with the Invincible 
Armada, 999 ; signally defeated, ib. 

Pliilpot, John, disputes" in the convocation- 
house, 542 ; his hfe and examinations, 876 ; 
lodged in Bonner's coal-house, 879 ; brought 
before Bonner, 880 ; expounds the doctrine 
of the sacrament, 894; refuses to appear 
before Bonner, 897 ; last examination, 900 ; 
condemned by Bonner, 904; cruelly used 
in Newgate, 905; behaviour at the stake, 906. 

Piedmont, persecutions in the valley of, 246 ; 
further persecutions, 257. 

Plaise, Matthew, persecuted, 943. 

Poictiers, edict of, by whom granted, 1041. 

Pointz, Thomas, story of, 484 ; escape, 488. 

Poland, persecutions in, 1061. 

Pole, cardinal, arrives in England, 594; his 
absolution, 595 ; calls a convocation, 894 ; 
his visitation of Cambridge, 937; dies the 
day after queen Mary, 990. 

Polley, Margery, condemned and burnt, 750. 

Popes, rise of, throughout Christendom, 279 ; 
their schisms and quarrels, 287. 

Popish idolatries forbidden in king Edward's 
days, 500. 

Potten, Agnes, burnt at Ipswich, 927. 

Prati, Anthony de, martyred, 997. 



Prest's wife, story of, 968; her answer con- 
cerning the popish sacrament, 969 ; burnt 
at Exeter, 970. 

Public worship, changes in, 502. 

Purgatory, popish doctrine of, 13; Latimer's 
opinion of, 833. 

Pygot, "William, martyred, 650. 

Pygot, Bobert, account of, 789. 

Queen's County, cruelties practised by the 
papists in, 1010. 

Quietists, origin of, 268 ; alarm of the Jesuits, 
270 ; increase of the sect, 271 ; their founder 
tortured to death, 272. 

Quinta, a primitive martyr, 43. 

Quintin propagates Christianity, and is mar- 
tyred, 59. 

Quirinus, cruelly tortured, 79. 

Quisitus, a Eoman noble, put to death, 42. 

Eadislatjs invades Bohemia, 118 ; defeated 
in single combat by \Vinceslaus, 119. 

Bafaravavy, aMadagash Christian, persecuted, 
1072 ; escape to England and subsequent 
return to her own country, 1073. 

Eafaralahv, another Madagash Christian, put 
to death, 1074. 

Eambant, Daniel, cruelly tortured, 262. 

Easalama speared to death, 1074. 

Bavelson, James, accused of hanging the 
image of St. Francis, 427. 

'Eeal Presence,' disputation concerning. See 
Sacrament. 

Eeason for not praying for a pope, 661. 

Eebellion in Devonshire, 509. 

Eedman, Dr., a favourer of superstition, 822; 
Latimer's answer to, 823. 

Eeformation, progress of, in the reign of 
Henry viii., 296 ; proceedings in parlia- 
ment,' 317 ; the book of homilies compiled, 
495; established, 527; articles of religion 
prepared, 528. 

Biche, racks Anne Askew, 458 ; made lord 
chancellor, 497 ; his talk with Pliilpot, 890. 

Bichelieu, cardinal, prejudices the king against 
the Protestants, 1041. 

Eidley, made bishop of London, 514; his visit- 
ation, 516; talk with the lady Mary, 521 ; 
brought before the convocation at Oxford, 
558 ; disputes concerning the real presence, 
565; condemned by the convocation, 582; 
character of, 793; his kindness to Bonner's 
mother, ib. ; conference with Latimer, 794 ; 
his letter to Bradford, 811 ; examined by 
the commissioners, 842; his oration in an- 
swer to the bishop cf Lincoln, 844 ; oration 
of the bishop of Gloucester, 855 ; his con- 
demnation, 856 ; degraded by the bishop of 
Gloucester, 859 ; conduct at the stak< 
his farewell letter, 866. 

Eochelle besieged by the whole power of 
France, 196. 

Eochford, lady, beheaded, 394. 

Eochus, a carver at St. Lucar, breaks the 
nose of an image, and is burnt, 162. 

Eogers, John, life and story of, 601 ; exami- 
nations, 602 ; denies that 'he was ever out of 
the true Catholic church, 605 ; his talk with 
the sheriff, 608 ; burnt in Sinithfield, 609. 



1082 



INDEX. 



Eogers, — , burnt in Norfolk, 479. 

Roman emperora, Divine judgments upon, 84. 

Romanus, Francis, burnt, 162. 

Romilly, sir Samuel, his efforts in behalf of 
the French Protestants, 1054. 

Romish errors and absurdities, summary of, 10. 

Rood of Dover-court thrown down, 468 ; 
burning of the image, 469. 

Roper, George, martyr, 875. 

Roras, besieged, 265 ; bravely defended, 266 ; 
taken and plundered, 267. 

Rough, John, a minister, his stoiy, 954 ; con- 
demned and degraded by Bonner, and burnt 
in Smithfield, 955 ; remarkable dream, ib. 

Russel, lord, his trial, 1018 ; executed in Lin- 
coln's Inn Fields, 1021. 

Sabat denounces his friend, 1065 ; his subse- 
quent history and conversion, 1066. 
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper : Lambert's 
arguments, 349; to be received spiritually, 
441 ; in remembrance of Christ' s death, 448 ; 
turns mouldy if left long in the pix, 457, 
969 ; to be received in both kinds, 497 ; 
conflicting opinions, 507; heresy of Joan 
of Kent, 508 ; Christ being in heaven, can- 
not be corporally on earth, 545 ; opinion of 
Theodoret, 546 ; Christ being corporally pre- 
sent on instituting the ordinance, could not 
have given his natural body, 552 ; his body 
spiritually present, 559 ; arguments of Cran- 
mer, 561, sq. ; of Ridley, 565, sq. ; of Latimer, 
577, sq. ; opinion of John Rogers, 604 ; of 
Bradford, collected out of the fathers, 717 ; 
of John Bland, 742; of Sheterden, 745; 
Christ's body present in spirit and grace, 
849 ; the dignity of the elements changed, 
not the nature, 852. 

Sacrifice of the mass, derogatory to Christ, 850. 

Saltzburg, cruel persecution of the Protes- 
tants, 1039 ; some account of the refugees, 
1040. 

Samuel, Robert, story of, 774; his letter, 776. 

Sancerre besieged, 212; more than five hun- 
dred of the inhabitants perish by famine, 21 3. 

Saunders, Laurence, life and story, 609; his 
letters, 610 ; examined by Gardiner, 613 ; 
burnt at Coventry, 614. 

Saxon kings who became monks, 122. 

Seaman, William, burnt at Norwich, 957 ; his 
mother driven from her home, and buried 
by a moat's side, 959. 

Sebastian, a primitive martyr, twice exe- 
cuted, 61. 

Seymour, lady Jane, married to Henry viii. 337. 

Sharpe, Richard, burnt at Bristol, 970. 

Sheterden, Nicholas, his examinations, 744 ; 
burnt at Canterbury, 749. 

Shrine of Thomas a Becket in greatrepute,345. 

Sidney, Algernon, his unjust trial, 1024; 
execution, 1027. 

Simon, earl of Montfort, persecutes the Albi- 
gences, 141; killed, 145. 

Simson, John, martyred at Rochford, 678. 

Sin, Romish doctrine of, 11. 

Six Articles, the act set forth, 356 ; debated 
in parliament and passed, 357. 

Sligo,the Protestant garrison massacred, 1006. 

Sondres, massacre at, 996. 



Smith, Robert, examined by Bonner, 763 ; 
burnt at "Oxbridge, 771. 

Smithfield, seven persons burnt hi, 907 ; three 
women martyred in, 929 ; five persons burnt, 
941 ; three other faithful martyrs there con- 
sumed in one fire, 954 ; seven other persons 
martyred in, 961. 

Sole, Joan, condemned and burnt, 914. 

Somerset, duke of, sent to the Tower, 511 ; 
his trial, 522 ; his address to the people at 
his execution, 524; his virtues, 526. 

Snoth, Agnes, burnt at Canterbury, 914. 

Spicer, John, burnt at Salisbury, 927. 

Spurge, Richard and Thomas, martyrs, 927. 

Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow, murdered by the 
king, 126. 

Stephen, St., martyrdom of, 18. 

Stile, — , burnt in Smithfield with a copy of 
the Apocalypse, 478. 

Stokesley, bishop of London, rejoices at liis 
death that he had burnt fifty heretics, 353. 

Storey, Dr., threatens to send Philpot to Lol- 
lards' Tower, 87& 

Stratford-le-Bow, thirteen persons there burnt 
in one fire, 930. 

Suffolk, duke of, father of the lady Jane Grey, 
apprehended, 550 ; executed, 588. 

Suffolk men help queen Mary to the crown, 538 

Supper of the Lord, Romish errors concern- 
ing, 12. See Sacrament. 

' Supplication of the Beggars.' See Fish. 

Swallow, his cruelty to George Eagles, 948. 

Symson, Cutbert, cruelly racked in the Tower, 
956; burnt in Smithfield with others, 957. 

Tankerfield, George, story of, 759 ; mar- 
tyrdom, 761. 

Tartary, persecutions in, 1065. 

Taylor, Dr. Rowland, story of, 634 ; degraded 
by Bonner, 637 ; parting with his wife and 
children, 638 ; his conduct at the stake, 641. 

Teglio, governor of, murdered, 995; general 
massacre, 996. 

Testwood, Robert, account of, 397; examina- 
tion, 413; martyrdom, 417. 

Thackvel, Elizabeth, martyr, 929. 

Theban legion decimated by the Roman em- 
peror, 57. 

Thorlyne, John, prevents Glover's body being 
interred, 787. 

Thornton, bishop of Dover, sudden death of, 
989. 

Thurston, Margaret, burnt at Colchester, 951. 

Tindal, William, his New Testament burnt hi 
Cheapside, 323 ; account of, 480 ; translates 
the Bible, 483 ; burnt at Filford, 488. 

Tomkins, Thomas, hand burnt by Bonner, 644 ; 
martyred in Smithfield, 646. 

Tooley, John, dug up and burnt, 681. 

Tortures inflicted on Irish Protestants, 1007. 

Toulouse, earl of, 137; insolence of the bishop 
of, 141 ; siege of the city, 145. 

Tracy, lord, dug up out of nis grave and burnt, 
for not leaving money for soul-masses, 326. 

Tree, mother, martyr, 935. 

Trelawney, forty persons there forced into 
the river, 1007. 

Trevisam, James, persecuted, 731; summoned 
to appear after death, 732. 



JAN 14 1949 



INDEX. 



1083 



Troia, persecution of the faithful at, 207; 

massacre, 209. 
Trunchfield, Joan, burnt at Ipswich, 927. 
Tudson, John, sentenced by Bonner, 912. 
Turkey, persecutions in, 239. 
Tutty, James, martyr, 779. 
Twenty-four Protestants drowned, 215. 
Tyius, "William, condemned by Bonner, 928. 
Tyrconnel made viceroy of Ireland, which 

"occasions fresh persecution, 1012. 

Urban, pope, his pride and insolence, 287. 
Urbanus and others forced to sea in a vessel 
to be set on fire, 95. 

Valtelixe, a valley in Switzerland, persecu- 
tions and massacres in the, 995. 

Yassey, massacre at, headed by duke of Guise, 
201 ; number of slain and wounded, 204. 

Venice, persecutions in, 252. 

Verities founded upon God's word, 9. 

Victor, a primitive martyr, cruelly tortured, 
and at length crushed in a mill, '63. 

Vienna besieged by the Turks, 241. 

Voes, Henry, his examination, 227. 

Waid, Christopher, apprehended, 749 ; burnt 

at Dartford, 751 ; tormented by a friar, ib. 

Walcot, captain, unjustly tried and executed, 

Waldenses in France, then origin, 128 ; tenets, 
129; persecuted, 130. 

Wallace, Adam, trial of, 438; death, 443. 

Warham, archbishop of Canterbiuy, persecu- 
tion in his diocese, 477 ; extracts from his 
register, ib. 

Wame, John, martyred in Smithfield, 675. 

Warne, Elizabeth, martyred, at Stratford. 758. 



Waste, Joan, a blind woman, her love of the 
Scriptures, 935 ; burnt at Derby, ib. 

Watts, T., account of, 692; martyrdom, 694. 

Webbe, John, martyr, 875. 

Went, John, condemned by Bonner, 912. 

Weston, Dr., appointed prolocutor in the dis- 
putation at London, 542 ; opens the convo- 
cation at Oxford, 559 ; loses favour witn the 
papists, 991 ; taken in adultery, ib. ; appeals 
to Home, ib. ; committed to the Tower, and 
dies on his release, ib. 

White, Bawlins, story of, 657 ; his answer to 
the bishop, 658 ; parting with his wife and 
children, 659 ; burnt at Cardiff, 660. 

Whittle, Thomas, story of, 908. 

Wickliffe, John, account of, 285 ; protected by 
the duke of Lancaster, 287 ; persecuted;.288\ 

Winchester, bishop of. See Gardiner. 

Winceslaus, duke of Bohemia, history of, 117; 
murdered by his brother, 119. 

Wiseman, W., dies in Lollards' Tower, 876. 

Wishart, George, account of, 428 ; defends his 
doctrines, 430 ; martvrdom, 437. 

Wolsey, William, burnt, 788. 

Wolsey, cardinal, his talk with Dr. Barnes, 370. 

Woodroffe, sheriff, stricken with palsy, 989. 

Wriothesley, chancellor, commands Anne 
Askew to be racked, 459. 

Wyatt's rebellion, and his execution, 550. 

Yeoman, Richard, history of, 963 ; persecuted 
by parson Newall, 964; denounces popery, 
965 ; martyred, ib. 

Youne, Elizabeth, apprehended, 973; exa- 
mined by Hussy, 973 ; by Dr. Martin, 974. 

Zachary succeeds to the popedom, 112. 
Zervius, Dionysius, executed, 219. 



KMGUT AND SON, PMNTEHS, UPPEB UOI.r.OW.VY. 





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